Microsoft has announced the result for the 2015 Youth Spark Challenge for Change, a contest that asked young people from around the world to submit an idea to address a social issue through technology in their communities.

Periscope, Twitter’s mobile app that allows users to stream live videos from their phones to the internet, recently released an iOS update that makes it easier for users to find videos from around the world. Among other new features, the app now includes an interactive world map that displays the locations of available live feeds.

Experts have proved that in Nigeria, and indeed across the world, Small and Medium scale Enterprises, SMEs, are the lifeblood of any economy. What is even a more obvious fact is that the world today is a global village powered by Information and Communications Technologies, ICTs. In this era of web 2.0, ICT is no longer just an independent phenomenon in itself; it permeates every aspect of human life.

Girls run the world. Even before singer Beyonce’s hit song, this phrase already enjoyed worldwide attention. Across Nigeria, it is synonymous with another popular phrase: “What a man can do, a woman can do better.” As great these might seem for the advancement of the fairer sex, the figures in education, economic empowerment and even access to Information and Communication Technology prove that it would take a lot more effort for women to truly run the world.

With the participation of more women in the Nigerian Information Technology ecosystem, the game is changing, closing the existing gender gap. Although recent report by the Broadband Commission Working Group on Broadband and Gender report has indicated that women account for fewer than 20% of ICT specialists in developing economies, the participation of more women in the 2015 Nigerian Computer Society international conference to elect new leadership will be a game changer.