Date: 23 April, 2020.

As the world is celebrating the International Girls Day in ICT, the Centre for Information Technology and
Development (CITAD) as one of the leading organizations working around Information and
Communication in Nigeria joins the rest of the world to celebrate the future women in our society. Over
the years, CITAD has been hosting events, organized lectures, radio programs and online campaigns to
commemorate with young girls and give them hope, mentorship and encourage them to take career in
the area of ICT as it is the future work. All these are being done in order to close the digital gap in the
country

This year, unlike many other years before, as the world is battling with deadly CoronaVirus that confines
people at one place and restricts gathering of large number of people, physical activities will not hold.
Interestingly, as the world has already moved and ICT has taken over most of our works, the CITAD still
celebrates this important day by organizing Twitter Chat with two women who have excelled in the field
of ICT.

The objective of the event is to leverage on the power of ICT to encourage girls to embrace ICT for their
individual development, grab opportunities available in ICT and discuss benefits of having more girls in
ICT, and the steps governments and individuals can take to have more girls who will take up career in
ICT

As ICT is gradually taking our jobs and pushing many to labor market, so, the need to explore ways to
incorporate young girls especially in Northern Nigeria into the ICT world and encourage our girls to be
ICT competent.

As it has been noted by the Untied Nation "With technology playing a role in all kinds of careers, from
art and history to law, primary teaching and graphic design, learning tech skills at a young age will set
girls up for economic independence. And, the ICT sector needs more girls and women" looking at how
technology is pushing so hard into our lives, it is very important to prepare our girls in this area because
"The jobs of the future will be driven by technology and innovation, 65 per cent of children entering
primary school today will have jobs that do not yet exist" emphasized by the United Nations.

It's in this regard that CITAD is calling on the government both at state and national levels to:

1. come up with more empowerment programs for the upcoming young women and girls in the area of ICT.

2. Wealthy individuals in the society to help in building ICT centers in their locality and help young girls
to pursue career in ICT.
3. Parents to encourage their girls to take career in ICT and give them all the necessary support they
require.