German Agency Empowers 97 Edo Women to Bridge Digital Gender Gap

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has empowered no fewer that 97 female entrepreneurs in Edo State on how they can leverage information and communications technology and e-commerce tools to create wealth and employment opportunities.

This was revealed in a two-day workshop organised by GIZ in Benin City, the Edo State capital under the theme, “Promoting Gender Inclusivity in E-commerce/ICT Value Chain”

GIZ, German development agency with strong presence in over 120 countries globally, trained the female entrepreneurs under its Pro-Poor Growth and Promotion of Employment Programme (SEDIN) and Digital Transformation Centre Nigeria (DTC) aimed at deepening gender inclusivity in Edo and states of the federation.

Although GIZ is the implementation agency, both SEDIN and DTC are co-funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and European Union (EU)

Speaking at the workshop, Team Leader, GIZ Local Economic Development, Sina Uti-Waziri said while SEDIN focused on improving the income situations of MSMEs in Nigeria with e-commerce as an identified value chain, DTC’s primary focus was digitalisation and entrepreneurship

With the workshop, Uti-Waziri said SEDIN and DTC aimed at facilitating local economic development; strengthening selected value chains; fostering economic literacy, entrepreneurship and MSME development and contributing to the improvement of the capacity of the Nigerian economy to implement digital innovations for growth, through supporting the digital transformation of the economy and society respectively.

The team leader said it became imperative to use this medium to amplify their voice because the girl-child, more specifically women, “always feels important in the technological ecosystem”

Uti-Waziri said: “According to a McKinsey Global Institute study, increasing women’s equality could boost the global economy by $12 trillion by 2025. One of the six significant gender gaps that need to be closed, according to the report, is the one relating to technology.

“ICT’s gap analysis study also reveals that women are more likely to have lower pay and hold unskilled positions in technopreneurship, and they occupy the lowest position in the ICT field.

“Value chain governance only involves a small percentage of people in training and skill development. Most of their contributions to the value chain at the micro level are limited to office support and sales services, which are indicative of unskilled labour or auxiliary services. This thus portends not only exploitation, but also potential abuse, along with inequality in financial control and livelihoods.

“The workshop targets female chief executives officers of tech-based MSMEs, ICT/E-commerce clusters, small businesses owners within the state and aimed at implementing a strategy for narrowing the digital gender gap through capacity-building training for women-led tech companies for increasing income and employment.”

Also at the workshop, Permanent Secretary, Edo State Ministry of Digital Economy, Science and Technology, Evelyn Nekpan-Imode said the objectives of the workshop is to provide leadership and capacity-building skill for growing and maintaining a business organisation.

Nekpan-Imode, also, disclosed that the workshop would improve employment perspective for young women within the scope of digital transformation; develop a female mentorship network with female executives and role models as well as provide some level of awareness and required technical support for improving business environment for MSMEs, cooperatives/BMO, and entrepreneurship to increase income and employment.

She said: “The expected results of the workshop include enhanced women’s participation in all spheres of ICT-based activities and mainstreaming gender inclusiveness in future programmes and policies;

“To improved capacities and skills of participants through expanding access to digital learning, reskilling and upskilling across all gender, improved individual’s and MSMEs income and reduced unemployment with an improved local business environment,” Nekpan-Imode explained.