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The Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has reiterated the agency’s commitment to creating life transforming opportunities for girl-child and women in the country.
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He spoke at the recent National Technical Working Group Meeting on ‘Coordination of Service Providers to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls in States’ organised by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs in Abuja.
“NITDA bears the responsibility of encouraging innovation, and has created several initiatives. The agency is committed to creating life-transforming opportunities for girls and women by taking the necessary steps to maximise their potentials. This is being accomplished through the NITDA Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan 2021 to 2024,” said Abdullahi. He was represented at the event by his Special Assistant, Strategy and Innovation, Mrs Iklima Musa Salihu.
The essence of the one-day meeting was to support a comprehensive and coordinated approach to addressing violence against women, including prevention, protection, care, and support that will contribute to a shared vision and integrated strategy among stakeholders through a survival-centered and right-space approach.
The NITDA boss stated that one of the key achievements of the agency was the issuance of the Code of Practice for Interactive Online Platforms, which set out measures to combat online harm and the interest of Nigerians in the digital space and the ecosystem.
NITDA was collaborating with several bodies such as the World Bank where several trainings were executed on digital innovation, entrepreneurship, digital marketing, and many more.
“We have trained over 560 women and still counting. We have also been running several programmes such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (MIT-REAP), that has helped to inculcate entrepreneurship within the regions. Other programmes that we have are; the ihatch programmes, the Technology Innovation, Entrepreneurship Support, Skill programmes, (TIES), and many others. All these programmes are meant to support young people and women to thrive within the digital sector,” he said.
Adding: “However, we risk losing their invaluable contributions to the threat of unsafe online environment. In light of this, I want to encourage us to take the opportunity to encourage our wholehearted participation at this gathering and to emphasise the act of violence against women and girls, which, if not addressed, can bring issues to our nation.”
Also present at the event were Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Mrs Monilola Udoh; representatives from the World Bank; United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UNWOMEN); United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office (UNRCO); and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) among other stakeholders.
