By Emmanuel Elebeke

The Federal Government says there is no going back on its determination to empower Nigerian women and girls through ICT gender empowerment initiatives.

The Minister  of Communication Technology, Dr.  Omobola Johnson stated this at an interactive session with beneficiaries of the advanced ICT training at the Huawei Technology in Abuja.

Johnson noted that  the Ministry is empowering the ladies to enable them  embrace ICT skills that would help them actualize their potentials and contribute to the economic development of Nigeria through various technology initiatives.
She disclosed that 1000 Girls program is part of the federal government’s GWIN programme aimed at bridging the gender divide in  Nigeria.

He said that the Ministry of Communication Technology and four other Ministries coordinated by the Finance Ministry are working together to ensure that women and girls,  especially the disenfranchised class are empowered.

According to her, several programs are being created to ensure the empowerment, employment and inclusion of women in the nation’s development.

“ For us in ICT, this particular program is  important, because when you look at the statistics there is a big gender divide in the world of ICT. And when you look at the way ICT is relevant in all sectors and beginning to take over the way things are done in everything, that gender divide in ICT means that women will be left further behind if we don’t encourage them to embrace ICTs.

So what we have is that the Ministry of Communication Technology has three programmes under the GWIN programme and this is one of them and it is called the 1000 Girls Programme.

Here what we have done is to train 1000 girls from all over the country in ICT skills. We gave them three days of training in basic ICT skills and out of those 1000 girls, we are selecting the best 200 that showed the most promise with the expectation that they will then continue in the field of ICT, working with any of the IT companies so that they can start their careers in ICT.

We hope this will contribute to bridging the gender divide. Statistics show that there are 32 percent fewer women online than men in developing economies and what we hope to do here is that by doing this programmes, we are actually starting to close that divide because if we didn’t do this,  the divide actually begins to get bigger,” she added.

The Ministry is collaborating with Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider in the 1000 training program to empower girls with ICT skills and help improve the employability of the girls as well as increase their interest in pursuing careers in ICT.

The training programme will also empower the 1,000 girls with ICT skills and knowledge in the knowledge economy. The program is expected to help reduce the imbalance in ICT adoption and appropriation among men and women in the country.