The UN Women has highlighted a variety of technical innovations made by young men and women in Nigeria that enhance gender equality and women’s empowerment, at an event in Abuja.
UN women Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms Beatrice Ekpong, noted that the occasion was part of celebrations for International Women’s month under the theme of “DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality.”
Eyong observed that women make up only 22 percent of all engineering and technology university graduates annually, highlighting the significant gender disparity in employment and education in Nigeria’s technological sector.
“This is due to gender stereotypes and social norms that still categorize jobs in these sectors as “men’s jobs”, which inhibits women from applying to study and demonstrate interest in such subjects. It also prevents companies from hiring qualified women for these roles,” she said.
Ekpong believes that the showcase will reveal how young people in Nigeria are creating cutting-edge, digital solutions to a range of problems in a variety of societal areas for example, gender-based violence, specialised education and training programmes, health and medical concerns, banking and credit services, market accessibility, and eco friendly products and power solutions.
