By Khadeeja Idress Ismail

On Thursday, 23rd Thursday, 2015 being the 4th Thursday of April was marked globally as the International Day for Girls in ICT, a day set aside to draw attention to the need to bridge the gender dimensions of the digital divide .as part of this, the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) organized a public lecture for women and young girls with a view to sensitizing them to the relevance of Information Communication Technology (ICT) particularly for young girls and for them explore opportunities that knowledge of ICT would open for them.

The public Lecture which took place at CITAD’s Conference Room, Kano was by over twenty 20 girls. The event started with a welcome address by Khadeeja Idress Ismail, Youth and Gender Officer of CITAD who also explained the purpose of the meeting, she said this was to encourage girls to embrace and consider making a career in the ICT profession. This was she noted in addition to the fact that ICTs are very important tools to our daily lives and activities.

The welcome address was followed by a presentation by Kabiru Saidu Dakata, Senior Programmes Officer on Understanding the Importance of the Girls in ICT Day during which he and gave a brief history of International Telecommunication union (ITU) which recommended the day celebration.

He was followed by Fatima Ibrahim who talked on ICTs as Tools for Personal Empowerment. She argued that ICT skills was now mandatory as no know can hope to make success of whatever she does without using ICT tools. Other speakers were Abdullahi Jido, Hamza Ibrahim, Ado Shehu. Ado Shehu who spoke on Educational uses of ICT said that nowadays even to gain apply for admission to higher education required ICT skills. The event was rounded up by question and answer session