The managing director, Future Software Resources Nigeria Ltd, Nkemdilim Begho has said the girl-child needs to stand out in areas of digital literacy through the adoption of technological learning tools for career advancement in the workplace.
Begho who made this known as a keynote speaker at the girl child summit organised by HACEY with support from Access Cooperation in commemoration of the International Girls Child day in Lagos added that if this policy is not well implemented, they stand the risk of losing out in workplace where they can’t possibly break the barriers.
The seasoned information technology professional, while dwelling on the theme: Empowering girls for a digital world, ‘her future, her technology’ reiterated the need for the girl child to embrace technology.
According to her, a lot of the jobs we see today will no longer exist in the future anymore, hence the need for the girl child to be educated in technology.
“Digital skills will be the 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, etc.”
While addressing the students at the 2023 Summit, she urged them at the summit to always make sure there is technology on any chosen course of study.
As a girl child there are lots of opportunities in technology. Like coding, data science, artificial intelligence amongst others,’’ she said.
Harping on the challenges faced by the girl child, she said the biggest one starts at home, adding that parents actually do not understand technology themselves.
‘’ In their minds, it’s for boys and a lot of times they enroll their boys in coding clubs than the girls while they ask their girls to go and do home chores, management skills, 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,” she said
Also speaking, Co-founder, HACEY, 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 potential,”he said.
