Women in Tech Hosts Forum to Close Gender Gap in Tech

Global advocacy group Women in Tech (WIT) is bringing together leading stakeholders in the Nigerian (and international) technology space, in order to explore the opportunities that exist for women in the space.

WIT is an international organization that is currently represented in over 100 countries, with a mission to close the gender gap while helping women gain interest in technology. The group’s objective is to enable five million women to play an important part in tech by 2030, boosting the whole sector.

The Nigerian branch of the non-profit WIT group will host its first virtual conference themed ‘Digitalizing Gender Equality for Brighter Economies’ on Wednesday November 24 2021. The digital conference will signify the official launch of the Nigerian chapter of the global advocacy group.

The conference will include discussions from vital stakeholders and experts in the tech industry which are centered on the actual problems facing the achievement of a tech ecosystem which holds a suitable gender balance. It will also discuss increasing the skill level of women who are currently a part of the tech ecosystem, while delicately offering solutions that will help make the economy better.

The digital conference will be led by the Country Manager, Solape Akinpelu (who is also the Co-founder of HerVest, a fintech platform that focuses on women and is inclusive) and will also launch the WIT Nigeria Makeathon. The Makeathon is the firm’s advancement program that seeks to empower 1,000 women and girls across both rural and urban settlements all over the country.

The programme will take place over a period of four months and will look to increase the skill level of the participants by taking them through degrees of digital skills such as Digital Marketing, Product Design, Software Development, Data Science and Product Management.

Solape Akinplu stated that WIT aims to change the widened gender gap in tech, which now sees only 1 woman out of 5 people working in the tech industry.

The WIT Nigerian launch will be the fourth chapter for the initiative in Africa, after launching in Angola, Zambia and South Africa recently.

The event’s keynote address will be given by the Co-founder of Rising Tide Africa, Mrs Yemi Keri and Professor Olayinka David West, Associate Dean & Professor of Information Systems at Lagos Business Scool, Pan-Atlantic University.