The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and Technology for Social Change and Development Initiative (Tech4Dev) have sealed a partnership to train 15,000 Nigerian women through the Women Techsters Initiative (WTI).
The WTI’s mandate is to advance women and girls in Nigeria and throughout the African continent, closing the gender gap in digital and technological literacy. It is also committed to paving a way where everyone has equal access to respectable employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in the field. In addition to ensuring equitable access to opportunities, the Women Techsters program seeks to increase women’s participation and inclusion in the technology ecosystem.
IsDB will contribute $126,000 to the WTI as part of the agreement, which will last for a year, in order to assist the initiative’s female beneficiaries in acquiring digital skills across certain learning tracks within its sub-programmes.
The women will receive training in blockchain, mixed reality, 3D, mobile development, software development, product design, product management, cybersecurity, and data science/artificial intelligence engineering. Participants in the Women Techsters Fellowship, Open Day, Boot Camp, and Masterclass activities for the 2022–2023 program year are anticipated to benefit from this cooperation.
Speaking on the partnership, Executive Director, Tech4Dev Oladiwura Oladepo, said is glad about ISDB’s commitment to bridging the technology gap between men and women across Nigeria, also including countries across the Middle East and Africa.
“Our dream is to partner with organisations that seek to help women in underserved communities across Nigeria and Africa gain access to varying degrees of digital, deep tech and soft skills required within the technology ecosystem, and we are delighted to have the Islamic Development Bank join us on our journey to making our gender parity in technology dream a reality,” she said.
