CITAD trains women on ICT in Jos

Women have been advised to make good use of the internet for empowerment and the pursuit of their fundamental rights as human beings.

Mr. Ya’u Yakubu, of Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), made the call during a 1-day step-down training on feminist and gender digital inclusion, to Women in Jos North local government area of Plateau state.

He said, “The key concept of the feminist internet principles is about empowering more women to enjoy their rights as human beings.”

According to him, feminism advocates social, political, economic, and intellectual equality for women and men.

“The principle commits to all women to enjoy access to safe, free, open and affordable internet Use of tech.

“This principle commits to ensuring that women can have the skills and knowledge to use technology for their personal development and enjoyment,” he said.

Mr. Yakubu added that, Women empowerment and gender equality are crucial to national development however, decried the low level of utilization of ICT by women to better their lots.

He said: “ICT is undoubtedly essential and has affected every aspect of the human lives, but regrettably gender digital divide in Nigeria is so obvious.”

“A study carried out by a sister organisation, Paradigm Initiative showed that women are 30-50% less likely to use internet for self-empowerment”.

He said one of the targets in the fifth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG5)  calls on the international community  ‘to enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communication technologies (ICTs), to promote women’s empowerment.’

“The root causes of  digital gender gaps lie in a complex set of interrelated social, economic and cultural barriers,  including  lack of available infrastructure, the cost of  the Internet, devices  and usage,” he stressed.

Leave a Reply