CITAD Trains Jigawa Women on Digital Entreprenuership

As the world is moving and changing every day, the need to empower women and equip them with ICT knowledge becomes necessary, especially in a backward region where women are relegated to second citizens and mere house wives. It is in view of this that Centre for Information Technology and Development embarks on the Digital Livelihood Programs for Young Women in Northern states of Kano, Bauchi and Jigawa. The first set of the beneficiaries of the program in Jigawa who were selected from hundreds of applicants that applied for the program were trained in different ICT empowerment programs.

In his opening remarks at the beginning of the program, the Training Coordinator of the Centre, Malam Ahmad Yakasai who was represented by the Program Officer of the Centre in Jigawa state, Ali Sabo stated that “it is part of CITAD cooperate social responsibility and its mission of empowering women that made the organization to initiate this free training to young women in Northern Nigeria in order to groom them so that they can be able to compete with their peers in the other parts of the country. He went further to call on the beneficiaries to pay more attention and dedicate their time so that the objective of the training will be achieved”

The training which was designed for six weeks started on the 16th of September and ended on the 1st of November, 2019. The training aims to empower young women with ICT knowledge and also to expose them to the digital world. It was specifically designed to groom young women in Northern Nigeria to become IT experts, entrepreneurs who will be able to create jobs in their communities and solve societal problems through the use of ICT.

In view of the objectives and aims of the program, the participants were trained on the MS package which comprises MS Word, MS Power Point, MS Excel and MS Publisher. They were also trained on how to use Corel draw, besides, the participants were taught Film and Video editing, how to take a good photography and video recording. Market Strategy, Building your Business Skills and Using ICT to support non ICT Business were also discussed at the training.

While appreciating CITAD, the participants thanked CITAD for giving them the opportunity to be part of this life changing training, stating that the training has widened their thinking, change their perspective about ICT and expose them to the world of entrepreneurship-adding that they will make sure they implement what they have learn. Maryam Khalid, one of the participants stated that before the training she never know how to operate computer, but with this training she can do a lot of things with computer, not only that she further stated that she can even now edit video and photo with different apps using phone. While Aisha Salau commented that “this training has exposed her to the real world of ICT and the ample opportunities one can tap in ICT environment, she added that with the knowledge she acquired during the training she will use it and improve herself and her community”