Lagos-based Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre has expressed its preparedness to train girls in public schools on the use of social media and the internet.
In a statement signed by the Executive Director of the centre, Mrs Oreoluwa Lesi, in Lagos, the center said the after-school initiative will give the benefiting girls a leverage to compete favourably in the ICT field, with their male counterparts.
“The W-TEC Academy is an after-School Computer Club initiative, targeted at girls in public secondary schools, aimed at introducing them to the basics of Information and Communications Technology. It is to give them a leverage to compete favourably in the ICT field, with their male counterparts,” the center stated.
Furthermore, the training will enable the girls to be up to date with the latest in the ICT world. It stated that the W.TEC Academy would be expanded this month in view of the successes recorded.
In a related development, Vodacom Business Nigeria has expressed concerns on the existing wide gender gap in ICT in Nigeria.
This development, Vodacom said, can be attributed not only to the relative lack of females studying science and technology at secondary and tertiary institutions but, also the number of females given access to formal education.
“The intention is to increase the number of females in the ICT sector of Nigeria which is currently dominated by men,” Vodacom stated.