Nigerian women have been charged to equip themselves and take up roles and responsibilities in the country’s Information and Communications Technology space both in the public and private sectors.
The charge was made last week by ICT experts at the maiden edition of the ‘Women Entrepreneurs & Executives in Tech Summit’ which was held in Lagos.
Themed: ‘Future Tech Trends, Challenges and Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs,’ the experts also argued that women can only take up roles by participating in ICT skill training and retraining.
Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Umar Danbatta charged women to upskill themselves as it is critical to removing social and economic barriers.
“Women should be bold enough to take on entrepreneurship opportunities as well as leadership positions in other to play active roles in the evolving Digital Economy,” Danbatta said.
Represented by Olatokunbo Oyeleye, Director, New Media and Information Security at NCC, Danbatta noted that for women to get the empowerment needed to compete favourably among their global peers, they must invest in digital skills.
He stressed that digital literacy improves family incomes, trade and creates job opportunities for mothers, saying that “Investing and supporting the younger generations digital development is critical, especially since females face disproportionate social impediment.”
Google Nigeria Country Manager, Ms. Juliet Ehimuan, charged women to be inspired, think big and spot the opportunity, insisting that there’s no sympathy and sentiments, as a result, women should create value for them to be recognized.
“The point is that becoming an entrepreneur is all about problem-solving. Women should not go into entrepreneurship if they are not ready to solve societal challenges,” she posited.
While charging established women entrepreneurs to take up mentorship roles and mentor at least 10 other women entrepreneurs in order to build a pool of tech entrepreneurs in Nigeria, the Google Nigeria boss urged women to show up and be known, stressing that it is the only way they can contribute to policies that can grow and change society.
She gave examples of several women in Nigeria and indeed across the world who are leveraging ICT skills to build businesses that are in turn making a lot of money and ultimately, contributing to the economy of their homes and countries.
The ‘Women Entrepreneurs & Executives in Tech Summit,’ which was organized by TechLife Media and Communications Limited and powered by TechLife with Ugo, was well-attended by several stakeholders from both the government and the private sector.
The Summit, according to the organiser was put together to brainstorm on the place of Nigerian women in the emerging world of technology and how they have fared in the recent time while expanding new ideas in ICT and Telecoms.
