BUK, CITAD Decry Marginalisation Of Women In Digital Sector

In commemoration of the International Women’s Day (IWD), the Centre for Gender Studies, Bayero University Kano (BUK) in partnership with Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) have called for the inclusion of women in digital policy making and decision making in Nigeria.

The two centres made the call at the presentation of a book “Moving From The Fringes”, which is a compilation of a research conducted in 2023 on ten MDAs across the Northwest and the Northeast, on the inclusion of women in decision making and leadership in the digital sector.

The coordinator of the project from CITAD, Zainab Amin, who addressed newsmen at the end of the presentation said as part of the project 25 women from the two regions were trained on gender digital analysis.

“This is a policy brief presentation, which was as a result of a research carried out in 2023 on gender digital leadership analysis in Nigeria.

“The policy brief was a research that was done from 10 ICT centres in Nigeria including NITDA, HAMSAT, about ten MDAs.

“That research from our findings show that in key leadership positions, there is a need for women inclusion. Because the aim of the project is to promote women participation in digital policy making decisions in Nigeria.

“As part of that project, we trained 25 women from the North West and Northeast of the country on gender digital analysis. As part of their activities was to carry out advocacy, outreaches, sensitization and a lot of things that will promote women’s inclusion in the country.

“The book we are unveiling, which is ‘Moving From The Fringes’ is a perspective of these activities these gender champions carried out in their several states. The book is a compilation of all their findings individually, what they experienced while they were advocating, the articles they were able to come up with and a lot more. That is basically why we are using this opportunity of International Women’s Day in which main theme is inspiring inclusion. We believe that we can’t inspire inclusion without addressing policy issues,” she stated.

Also, at the event, the director, Centre For Gender Studies, Bayero University Kano, Dr Suwaiba Saeed Ahmad, spoke on the need for women sensitisation and conduction of research.

“At the centre we always do sensitization and research on the issue of women inclusion.

As you all know, statistics have placed women at over 50 percent of the population.

“If you have this percentage as women and you don’t invest in them it will become worrisome for the expectations of the future. What will be expected of the future when we have 50 percent of the population not fully equipped,” she said.