Women’s participation in the Information Communications Technology (ICT) sector is below 24 per cent, even as the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) said, it has become essential to empower and encourage women to consider studies and careers in the sector to bridge the existing technology gender gap.
It equally advocated for more women’s participation which is crucial in the digital economy pursuit.
The director general, NITDA, Mal. Kashifu Inuwa, at the Nigerian Women Entrepreneurship & EXecutives In Tech Summit (WEETS) in Lagos, said women’s participation is crucial in the digital economy pursuit.
Inuwa, who is represented by the head of Servicom Unit at NITDA, Mrs. Tariundu Ndoni, noted that, NITDA is determined to bridge the gap and boost participation through the special training programmes for women and the conventional ICT capacity development activities of which both men and women are given the same opportunities.
He disclosed that, in recent years, NITDA had trained 594, 344 Nigerians in different courses of Digital Literacy (combined for men and women).
“Specifically, NITDA has trained 200 women in ICT Training and Entrepreneurship and each participant is provided with laptops, Internet dongles and various software packages. 50 women trained in capacity building for digital literacy, 60 rural women trained in ICT Techprenuership and tablets distributed to each participant,” Inuwa revealed.
NITDA’s DG said, the 310 women being trained are projected to create 3,100 direct jobs and over 310,000 indirect jobs, emphasising that the key objectives of these programmes include; boosting digital literacy, digital jobs creation, promoting digital inclusion, bridging the digital divide and the use of technology to address the gender imbalance in terms of economic opportunities.
He averred that, there are several other available NITDA’s interventions and initiatives that leverage ICT to enhance access to infrastructure, education, learning and skill development for women through the agency entrepreneurship start-up programmes and capacity training in National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) and Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI).
According to him, NITDA also partnered the public sector, academia, private sector, development partners as well as Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs) on policies and incentives that support ICT entrepreneurship and commercialisation for women.
