Nigerian women have been charged to equip themselves and take up roles and responsibilities in the country’s Information and Communications Technology both in government and private sector.
The experts, who gave the charge 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.
Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, who gave the keynote, 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 so as to play active roles in the evolving Digital Economy,” Danbatta, who was represented by Director, New Media and Information Security at NCC, Olatokunbo Oyeleye, said.
He noted that for women to get the empowerment needed to compete favorably 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 digital development is critical, especially since females face disproportionate social impediment,” he added.
Also speaking at the Summit, the Google Nigeria Country Director, Ms. Juliet Ehimuan, charged women to be inspired, think big and spot the opportunity, insisting that there will be no sympathy and sentiments, rather women should create value for them to be recognized.
“The point in 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 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.