21/06/2020
THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF YOUNG WOMEN IN ENGINEERING AND ICT BUSINESS
By Abubakar Shehu Buwayi, GNSE
The right of the Girl Child/Women in Northern part of Nigeria has long been a major problem of concern and deserves priority attention. It was in that regard our organization chooses to focus attention on creating opportunities in Engineering and ICT Business for Girl Child/Women in the North with Pilot scale in Azare, Bauchi State.
The focus of this project seeks to protect and promote the interest and aspiration of women so as to restore their dignity and motivate them to contribute as equal partners in Nation building.
Before we venture into the details of the project our organization identified the possible challenges and opportunities of the project.
I. The increasingly higher number of early marriages across the North.
II. Access to education among young women far below their male counterpart.
III. Limiting the ICT knowledge to social and cultural relations rather than Economic ventures.
IV. Perceive Engineering courses only for male.
V. Many rural communities in the north are grossly under – resourced and lack access to technology which impact negatively on young women.
VI. The low status of women in Nigeria and particularly in the North is influenced by cultures and traditions which generally regard women’s roles as largely confined to the family, upholding child bearing as the symbol of womanhood.
VII. Girls are often treated as inferior and are socialized to put themselves last, thus undermining their self – esteem accorded greater authority/opportunities and exert control both within the Family and the large society, most especially in decision making.
I. ICT provides better opportunities for productive engagement of young men and women in terms of fueling creativity and enhancing efficiency and productivity, creation of new jobs and enhancement of standard of living and personal fulfillment.
II. ICT has the potential to power business innovation centers and improve the rate of doing Business, improve educational activities and expand opportunities for learning, and generally improve the efficiency and productivity of industries.
III. Develop mentorship programs to mentor up and coming young women startups handled by resources from already established ICT Businesses that were once startups.
IV. Strengthen the local content initiative to encourage ICT startups/companies owned by the youth themselves to find a market for their innovative creations, create new jobs and grow youth prosperity in the region.
V. Make available a platform for `Tech Hubs` to use for carrying out research, development, data and application hosting.
VI. Incorporate soft skills into technical digital economy.
VII. The impact of the ICT/Engineering on our societies today is massive, increasingly playing vital role in the lives of young people of the country.
- Abubakar Shehu Buwayi (Abba)
Lass Innovation Hub
[email protected]
07036134570
