Centre Decries Low Participation of Northern Women on Internet
A group, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) on Monday in Kano has expressed worries over low participation of Northern Nigerian women on the internet.
Addressing news men during a press conference on Gender-Based Violence, the centre said, access to the internet is very important for women to be able to gain information which may not be available to them otherwise.
But unfortunately, Nigerian women’s participation on the internet is very low especially in the North, so their participation and representation in the IGF.
The Programme Assistant, Gender and Internet Advocacy, Maryam Ado Haruna said the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), is a multi-stakeholder forum for policy dialogue on issues of internet governance that brings together stakeholders to debate on equal basis and through an open inclusive process.
According to her, “ The centre has been in the forefront in bridging gender digital divide in Nigeria, promoting women digital inclusion, and providing digital skills to women, especially in the Northern part of Nigeria were the gap is wider
If we want to make decisions to address gender-base Internet challenges, women need to be adequately represented and their voices need to be heard in order for their problems to be properly understood and tailored”
Maryam, further said, the centre aimed at promoting women’s participation in the IGF inna way to ensure gender digital inclusion as this would increase the number and representation of women and provide an avenue in which policies around around gender and the Internet would be formalized.
Research in Kano shows that less than 5 percent of the public girls’ secondary schools have access to Internet, this, she described as a major impediment to their educational development and a set back to their participation in governance.
