‘The Girl-Child Must Embrace Technology to Remain Relevant’

Ugo Aliogo

The Managing director, Future Software Resources Nigeria Limited, Nkemdilim Begho, also stated that the girl child stands the risk of losing out in work place if there are not grinded in technology.

Begho made this known as a keynote speaker at the girl child summit organised by HACEY Health Initiative with support from Access Corporation in commemoration of the International Girls Child Day in Lagos.

The seasoned information technology professional, while diving on the topic: empowering girls for a digital world, ‘her future, her technology’ said there is need for the girl child to embrace technology.

According to her, “Alot of the jobs we see today will no longer exist in the future anymore, hence the need for the girl child to be grinded in technology. Digital skills will be a foundation of whatever you do. You need to embrace it and know how to use it to navigate your future. In the world of today, technology is useful in any field or sector, in Art, Agriculture, securities, and.”
She urge the girls at the summit to always ensure that there is technology on any chosen course of study, adding that as a girl-child there are a lots of opportunities in technology, such as coding, data science, and others, “they will be challenges, but passion, impact and possiblity will drive you into breaking barriers,”

Speaking about the challenges faced by the girl child, she said: “The biggest one starts at home. Because their parents actually do not understand technology themselves, in their minds, it is for boys and a lot of times they enrol their boys in coding clubs than the girls while they ask their girls to go and do home economics.

“We need to make sure that as parents we play our roles that both our boys and girls are ready for the future because technology is going to be in every single field and the truth is the jobs that your kids are going to do do not exist yet.”

Co-founder, HACEY Health Initiative, Isaiah Owolabi said, the goal of the summit is to focus on advancing the health and economic inclusion of young girls which helps to focus on the girl child thereby, letting the world know that they are the power of the society and the country, “most importantly, we want to make sure that we keep empowering the girl child with the right knowledge and skills to help them live to their full potentials, “he said.

Also, Project Lead, Girl Child Summit, Mercy Chioma, said she is happy that girls are now exposed to opportunities like this and to know that they can be what they can be and there is no barrier as to where they can be and what they can achieve.

According to her, it is important that to give girls a chance and expose them to this kind of opportunities.

“Nigeria is growing we are now having organization emerged that are particular about empowerment of girls because we need to break the obstacles that limits girls. Let them know that they can be better,” she said.