BullBell Africa Project the promoter and organizer of this event, took a step further to stage 2nd Edition “NCQ” (Season 2.0) through the promotion of tech – education, among the Nigeria female students.
Nigeria as a nation needs to focus more in driving the greater inclusion of women in the technological space, opening up the vista for gender-balance, feminine friendliness, and advanced technological gains through the inclusion of women. Development in technology are fundamentally altering the way people live, connect, communicate and transact. These developments have had profound effects on economic development in Nigeria and Africa at large. Therefore, to promote tech advancement, developing countries, like Nigeria should invest in quality education for youth, continuous skills training for workers and managers, for all stakeholders to understand the importance of the continuous revolution.
There should be a necessary requirement to develop the skills of women that will enable them participate in creating solutions that will address Nigeria’s diverse economic challenges.
The issues of gender equality in education have been the subject of much debate during the past decades and have become a prominent topic of debate in all countries. In Nigeria, there are large gender disparity between the education that which boys and girls receive. Many girls do not have access to adequate education past a certain age. In 2010 -2019, the female adult literacy rate (ages 15 and above) for Nigeria was 59.4% in comparison to the male adult literacy rate of 74.4%. It is differences in education that have led to this gap in literacy. The gender gap in literacy rates in 2005 at the rural level between boys and girls was 18.3 percent in favour of the boys overall. In the age group 6–9 years (primary school ages) it was 3.9 percent in favour of boys. This indicates that there is a gender dimension to educational attainment and development in Nigeria. According to the Examination Council of Nigeria (1998) there are still other problems, such as high drop-out rates of females students, poor performance, reluctance on the part of female students to enroll in science-based courses and poor classroom participation. Across various geo-political delineations in Nigeria, a greater percentage of school-age girls are needlessly out-of-school, compared with the ratio applicable to boys of same age grouping. Gender disparity is also visible in the education of children with disabilities, a study in the 1990s revealed that only 37% of disabled females are literate compared to 57% for males. A reason for this situation is the cultural notion that the male will carry the family name while the female will marry. Also, the option of street begging by young disabled girls in order to earn income can inhibit their attendance of classes. The completion of the second Millennium Development Goal’s (MDG) target i.e. ‘education for all’ by 2030 is at risk after having missed the initial deadline of 2015. In Nigeria, educational facilities are generally believed to be inadequate and access is limited for many, especially girls and women. According to the United Nations Human Development Report (2005), Nigeria was classified as a low development country in respect of equality in educational accessibility.
Our women have a crucial role to play in Nigeria’s tech industry as we are marking International Day of Women every year and the diversity they bring can only serve as a massive boost to the tech ecosystem, and the digital economy. As the world becomes increasingly dependent on digital technology and computer systems, under-served/unserved communities still lack access to technology. Because there is no access, many people in developing countries cannot experience the transformational impact of digital technology.
Nigeria is Africa’s biggest technology market. In December 2020, the country had 24 per cent or more than 203 million of the continent’s internet users, followed by Egypt with 54.7 million users. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report on the Nigerian GDP shows that the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector recorded the highest growth rate of all the sectors of the Nigerian economy, not only in the last quarter of 2020, but all through the entire year. In fact, the ICT sector grew by 14.70 per cent in the last quarter of 2020 and also posted a 12.90 per cent growth rate in the overall period of assessment. It is currently rated as the only sector to have grown by double digits.
Several tech startups abound in the agricultural, educational, healthcare, banking and finance, e-commerce, and transportation sectors of Nigeria’s economy. They are utilising digital technologies and innovation to deliver creative solutions to different problems in communities. But, the tech ecosystem is mainly dominated by men, and only a very few girls and women are actively involved in the sector. The gender disparity in the technology sector in Nigeria is a reflection of the African and global realities.
Despite the rapid growth in Nigeria’s technology sector, only very few women have the opportunity to participate as founders/owners or employees of tech businesses. As such, bridging the gap between male and female participation in the technology sector remains a huge challenge for the stakeholders. Regardless of the disparity in accessing opportunities, women are creating innovations and spearheading change through technology in their immediate environments. Gradually, things are changing as younger women are showing interest in the sector. While women creators of technology or innovators are increasing, the gender is eager to partner the men folk in shaping the development of technology in Nigeria. Going by recent events, women are announcing their active participation as co-creators of technology and innovation.
Though outnumbered in the tech sector, a host of young and enthusiastic women are working silently to impact the industry with a new wave of creativity, innovation and leadership. They are creating technologies and innovation to help solve problems peculiar to their gender, and the entire society.
In order to encourage more female tech creators/techprenuers in Nigeria and around the world. Thus, BullBell Africa Project the promoter and organizer of this event, took a step further to stage 2nd Edition “NCQ” (Season 2.0) through the promotion of tech – education as a 30 days challenge of a Tv reality show of a campus beauty pageant that comprises of all tertiary insitutions in Nigeria.
