Be bold, take up ICT related roles, experts charge Nigerian women

Nigerian women have been charged to equip themselves and take up roles and responsibilities in the country’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) both in government and in the private sector.

The experts, who gave the charge late last week at the maiden edition of the Women Entrepreneurs & Executives in Tech Summit’ with the Theme: ‘Future Tech Trends, Challenges and Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs’, also argued that women can only take up roles by participating in ICT skill training and retraining.

First to give the charge was the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Garba Danbatta. According to him, women should 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 a leadership position in other to play active roles in the evolving Digital Economy,” Danbatta, who was represented by Mr Olatokunbo Oyeleye, Director, New Media and Information Security at NCC said.

He noted that for women to get the empowerment needed to compete favourably among their global peers, they must invest in digital skills, stressing that digital literacy improves family incomes, trade and creates job opportunities for mothers.

“Investing and supporting the younger generations through digital development is critical, especially since females face disproportionate social impediment,” he added.

Also speaking at the Summit, Google’s Nigeria Country Manager, Juliet Ehimuan, charged women to be inspired, think big and spot the opportunity, insisting that no sympathy and sentiments – Women should create value for them to be recognised.

“The point is becoming an entrepreneur is all about problem-solving. Women should not go into entrepreneurship if they are not ready to solve societal challenges,” she argued.

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 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 organised by TechLife Media and Communications Limited and powered by TechLife with, 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 times, while expanding new ideas in ICT and telecoms.

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