Almost 1,000 women in 12 communities in Kaduna State have been empowered by ActionAid Nigeria and Global Peace Development (GPD) on how to use information and communication technology (ICT) to better their lives.
The event was held to commemorate International Women’s Day in the areas where ActionAid’s SARVE III Programme is being conducted.
A GPD resource person from the Narayi community, Malextive Abeekyaa, explained that the goal of the sensitization was to close the digital divide for women and to increase their access to employment and income-generating opportunities.
“Women are consistently lagging behind when it comes to various facets of life, like engineering,” she remarked. There are more men than women in the digital world, however a few more women are slowly making their way there.”
“The United Nations has forecasted that 1.5 trillion dollars will be lost because women are not engaging in the digital world, so we are raising awareness among women at the grassroots that mobile phones are not just for calls but also have a lot of other uses,” she stated.