Women in Tech Explores Opportunities for Gender-balanced Tech Industry

Mary Nnah

With a vision to contribute to empowering 5 million women in the technology space by 2030, Women in Tech (WIT), a global advocacy group that seeks to equip women with exceptional, global-standard technological skills, is gathering leading stakeholders in the international and Nigerian technology space to explore the opportunities to actualise increased women participation in the sector.

The Nigerian arm of WIT, a not-for-profit, global advocacy group for a gender-balanced tech ecosystem will hold its digital conference with the theme ‘Digitalising Gender Equality for Brighter Economies’ on Wednesday, November 24, 2021.

The event will also mark the official launch of the Nigerian chapter of the leading global technology advocacy group for gender rights.

The event will feature conversations from experts and key stakeholders from the technology industry where they will broadly discuss pertinent issues surrounding the actualisation of a gender-balanced tech ecosystem, up skilling women who are players in the tech space, attaining optimal participation of women in the industry, and tactfully proffer actionable solutions towards achieving a brighter economy.

Led by the Country Manager, Solape Akinpelu and Co-founder, HerVest, a women-focused and inclusive fintech platform, the digital conference will also kick-off the WIT Nigeria Makeathon, the inaugural advancement program of the firm which aims to empower 1,000 girls and women spread across rural and urban settlements in Nigeria over a period of four months by upskilling them with varying degrees of digital, deep tech, and soft skills such as Product Design, Product Management, Software development, Data Science and Digital Marketing required within the technology ecosystem.

Commenting on the development, Solape Akinpelu said; “For the past four decades, the gender gap in tech has widened with only one woman in five people working in the industry today. With Women in Tech, we are helping to change this narrative as we continue to create newer ways to allow more women to embrace technology and take rewarding careers in the industry.

She added that the event would be an avenue to bring to the limelight, the essentiality of WIT in the life of Nigerian women.

The launch of Women in Tech in Nigeria would be the fourth chapter for the global initiative in Africa having launched across African nations such as Angola, Zambia and South Africa in recent times. This is asides the presence the initiative has in over 100 countries globally.

The keynote address at the event will be delivered by Co-founder, Rising Tide Africa, Mrs Yemi Keri and Associate Dean & Professor of Information Systems at Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University, Professor Olayinka David West.

The digital conference will attract industry professionals, key institutions, a strong delegation of players from the local and international tech community, CEOs of major international tech companies, regulatory authorities, technocrats, policymakers, affiliate industries and sectors, among several others.