Concerned women executives in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) field are advocating involvement of more Nigerian women in the sector.
Leading the crusade at a forum in Onikan-Lagos on "Mobilizing Nigerian Women for the Millennium Development Goal" last weekend were several high-level women executives: Omatek Computers Group Chief Executive Florence Seriki; Federal Ministry of Information and Communications IT Director Ibukun Odusote; and Mary Hassan Omowunmi, a research specialist at the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) in Ile-Ife, western Nigeria.
The U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals include promotion of gender equality and international development agreements.
It would be particularly apt for Nigerian women to look at participating in small and medium-scale enterprises, especially by going into small-scale production of raw materials, according to Omatek's Seriki. This would be a step toward establishing a presence in technology-related fields, she noted.
In China, citizens started to become entrepreneurs by producing specialized products that gained international recognition, Seriki said. Seriki also counselled Nigerian women on the need to form local clubs and cooperatives to help access funds from banks, and cautioned potential women entrepreneurs to shun the desire to make quick money by compromising on standards of whatever product they choose to produce.
"Resist doing so because these products cannot meet global standards," she warned, noting that ICT is not gender-biased.
"Women should take the opportunity of the emerging IT revolution and announce themselves," she declared.
In order to mobilize Nigerian women in the IT age, gender stereotypes should be wiped out before school age for young girls, according to the Information Ministry's Odusote.
Gender-based role perceptions about the differences between men and women, she said, are formed in early childhood. To avoid typecasting, it is important to begin early, Odusote said. She encouraged Nigerian women to act as mentors to younger ICT workers "so they could benefit from direct experience and guidance of those who have made it."
The number of women in technology is still abysmal, and this is the main reason why the majority of the world's population still lives in poverty and remains untouched by the benefits of ICT, said NACETEM research specialist Hassan Omowunmi.
"The great majority of women have no buying power, no access to modern means of communications, and are further excluded from the mainstream of ICT development and integration into the information society," Hassan Omowunmi lamented.
Hassan Omowunmi encouraged Nigerian women to come together in groups and form coalitions using new technologies to mobilize other women in the country to achieve the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals.
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