Managing director, Future Software Resources Nig Ltd, Nkemdilim Begho has said the girl child stands the risk of losing out in work place if they are not grounded in technology.
Begho made this known as a keynote address at the girl child summit organised by HACEY. The summit had the support of Access Cooperation. It was in commemoration of the International Girls Child day in Lagos.
The seasoned information technology professional, speaking 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 grounded 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, etc.”
She told the girls to always ensure there is technology on any chosen course of study.
“As a girl child there are lots of opportunities in technology. Like coding, data science, etc. They will be challenges, but passion, impact and possiblity will drive you into breaking barriers,”
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’s 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,” she said
Nkemdilim Begho hopes to see Nigeria move from technology consumers to become creator of technology.
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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 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 him, It is important that we 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,”