Nigeria Will Continue to Support Gender Empowerment in ICT, Says Minister
The Minister of Communications Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson has reiterated government’s commitment to empower Nigerian girls with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) education.
Johnson, who made this known at the Girls in ICT Day celebration, organised by eBusinessLife magazine in Lagos recently, said Nigeria in recognition of the potential of ICT for development, had placed gender inclusion and empowerment on the front burner especially in the area of ICT utilisation.
“In Nigeria, women and girls makeup approximately 50 per cent of Nigeria’s population and it is the belief of government that embracing ICTs will help Nigerian women and girls actualize their potentials and contribute to the economic development of the country.
“Removing the barriers that stop women and girls from embracing ICTs and
getting more women and girls to adopt and appropriate ICTs for their own benefit is a task that government is committed to especially in the light of damming global statistics that place women behind in the adoption and utilization of ICTs. Men dominate the field of ICTs more than women, and this must change,” Johnson said.
Citing a report on ICT and gender balance, the Minister said the Broadband Commission Working Group on Broadband and Gender in a report in 2013 entitled ‘Doubling Digital Opportunities: Enhancing the inclusion of women and girls in the information society’, lamented the pervasive gap in access to ICTs globally.
According to the report, there are currently 200 million fewer women online than men, and this yawning gap could grow to 350 million in three years. The report also reveals that globally women are coming online later and more slowly than men. Out of the world’s 2.8 billion Internet users, only 1.3 billion are women. The report also stated that women account for fewer than 20 per cent of ICT specialists in developing economies and estimates that, by 2015, 90 per cent of formal employment across all sectors will require ICT skills. The report additionally stated that 21 per cent of women are less likely than their male counterparts to own a mobile phone – representing a mobile gender gap of 300 million.
The Ministry of Communications Technology, a key partner in the Federal Government’s Growing Girls and Women in Nigeria (GWIN) initiative, under the leadership of Johnson, is empowering women and girls in Nigeria via ICTs with three specific technology initiatives aimed at enabling women and girls to realise their potentials. The initiatives are the Smart Woman Nigeria project (SHE APP), the 1000 Girls ICT training program and the Digital Girls Club program.
Addressing a large participants of female students drawn from various secondary schools and tertiary institutions at the Girls in ICT Day, the CEO of eBusinessLife magazine, Mrs. Ufuoma Emuophedaro, said “Every year on the fourth Thursday in April, the International Telecoms Union (ITU) and the global technology community celebrate ‘Girls in ICT Day’, an awareness-raising initiative designed to promote tech careers and studies to a new generation of girls and young women.”
She said the celebration was replicated in Nigeria to create awareness in female students, on the need to choose a career in ICT. Several lectures were held as part of the ceremony to mark the event in Nigeria.