The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) in Nigeria trained at least 1,820 women and girls on technology programmes in 2021, the organisation has confirmed.
The training, it was learnt, targeted girls and women from Nasarawa, Bauchi, Kwara, Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
W.TEC’s efforts are in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) number four, which says, ‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), women make up an average of just 22 percent of the total number of engineering and technology university graduates each year in Nigeria.
Also, a 2019 survey of 93 technology firms by ONE Campaign and the Centre for Global Development shows that only 30 percent of those firms were owned by women.
Only six had a woman in a top management position, and more than one-third of the tech firms employed no women at all.
Development Diaries understands that since the launch of the first female-only technology camp in 2008 by W.TEC, 27,161 women and girls have been reached through camps, afterschool clubs, and other programmes.
‘Last year, we successfully launched our in-person ‘MakeHerspace’ training for participants in Nasarawa, Bauchi and Abuja after the passing of the second wave of the pandemic in Nigeria’, The Guardian quoted W.TEC’s Communications Officer, Yemi Odutola, as saying in Lagos.
‘During these classes, a total of 887 girls and women were trained on electronics and renewable energy panel projects at 12 centres across the three states.
‘This successful phase of MakeHerspace was targeted at two groups which were ages ten to 17 and 18 to 25’.
He also said that the nonprofit has organised an afterschool computer programme for girls, called the ‘W.TEC Academy’, in public secondary schools. The programme targeted girls between the ages of 11 and 17.
The organisation also organised ‘She Can with ICT’ programme for aspiring women between the ages of 18 and 35.
‘W.TEC Academy Lagos programme continues this year with an estimated reach of 120 secondary schoolgirls in addition to the 232 last year to wrap up the ongoing cycle by June in 2022’, Odutola said.
Photo source: Marco Verch Professional Photographer