The Federal Government has decried the low rate of Nigerian girl child involvement in ICT innovation, attributing the development as a disservice to the country particularly as it relates to job creation and wealth generation.
Speaking at the just-concluded National ICT Girls Empowerment Competition in Abuja, the Minister of Communication & Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ibrahim Pantami, said the need for the participation of the girl child in digital economy was not the responsibility of the Federal Government alone.
He called on the State and Local government and other corporate entities to harness talents from the girl child in the areas of ICT as a means of producing entrepreneurs that will contribute meaningfully to the economy of the nation.
“Our focus for many years is to produce entrepreneurs through innovations in the ICT that can become a platform for others to be gainfully engaged and become productive to themselves and also to their country.
“I learn that over 1 million Nigerians are seeking to write JAMB this year, imagine the number of graduates coming into the labour market every year, we can’t depend on government or corporate jobs, we have to become innovative in order to create jobs for ourselves.”
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The Minister, however, said: “We are addicted to the certificate, certificates are important but not as much as skills that can propel someone to become self-reliant.
“If you keep producing graduates without skills, they will come out and stay idle waiting for a government job. Our graduate today, all they think about is government job because they don’t have another means of surviving,” he stated.
Pantami laments that “women have to step up their game in the area of the digital economy as currently only 25% participation is recorded while men have over 75% participation.”
The competition which started with about 18 Secondary schools across the six geo-political zones in participation saw only eight schools in the finals.
Government Secondary School, Karu, Abuja created the Robosorter, a Machine for waste collection, Nigerian Navy School, Ogbomoso created an online marketing shop called the Dropship while Dorathy International Secondary School Aba, Abia created an Idea Website for both talent display and investment purpose.
Aishatu Best Academy, Kano created an online phone application for the detection of breast cancer, Federal Science and Technical College, Jalingo created a rescue phone application called Mdumea also known as the DSS Agent, Government Science Technical College, Garki, Abuja created an online sells store for agricultural produce called the Gulf Farm while Government secondary Ragasa, Kano created an online store called D Shop.
Winners of the competition, Jakunde Estate Comprehensive College created an obstacle detector for the visual impair people called the Smart Walker. All the female students exhibited high passion towards their innovations.
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