Digital skills promotion for Girls in Yobe state Nigeria

In 2023, Life Aid for Community Development Initiative,a non-profit I founded signed an MOU with ZOA and Life Helpers Initiative to promote Digital Skills among women and girls. This is an EU sponsored project were we are expected to train 140 girls/ women per year till 2025.

This was a first for us. It seemed a big task to accomplish especially because we have never done this before. After the assessment analysis, we planned and designed a plan, engaging the community and did a resource mapping. We had to engage community leaders and mobilizers to get the trainees and partnered with another NGO to get their beneficiaries and increase our resources.

In Africa, the digital devide is wide. At least 33% of women and girls do not have access to technology and the internet. 13% girls are less likely to have a phone according to UNICEF. In the North Eastern part of Nigeria where Life Aid works , 9 girls out of ten girls do not have digital skills nor have access to the Internet. This is grossly serious.

The Digital devide will exclude girls from this region from thriving from digital economy, will deny them opportunities which they can gain online, it will further alienate them from the world stage where they can voice their challenges, speak up for their rights and share their lived experiences.

Some of the reasons the divide exists are the fact that gender stereotyping is strongly ingrained in the culture,where people feel it is not feminine to be tech savvy. It is seen as a male role. Less girls will do subjects that are STEM related.

Fear of being descriminated at drives girls away from digital tools and skills.

Hence Girls lack opportunities to access digital tools more than boys.

It is with these background that we started the Digital skills promotion project. The girls are taught basic computer literacy, digital and social media marketing, cyber security skills for now. Graphic design, coding , AI and web design will come up as they progress in the training.

With the global digitalization going on, for girls to be relevant and not excluded, the digital divide must be closed.

One of our success stories is that one of our trainees is writing the JAMB(Joint and matriculation Board exams) in a few days time . The exams used to be a written exam, but made digital recently.She has been trained on how to use the computer in preparation for the exams.

"Closing the digital divide between girls and boys is about more than just having access to the internet and technology. It’s about empowering girls to become innovators, creators, and leaders,” Robert Jenkins, UNICEF director of education, said in a statement.

So Life Aid in it's bid to contribute to closing the divide also teaches girls soft skills like problem solving, critical thinking creativity and innovation, collaboration and teamwork and communication skills.

With soft skills, our girls can create a new wave of innovation and impactful jobs that provide digital solutions, either to monitor systems or optimize energy resources.

The project aims to improve the individual girl with the digital skills and knowledge, improve her employability where she can earn like her counterparts, and expose her to career opportunities in the global stage.

We share online resources, courses and opportunities where they can access especially free courses to better themselves.

During the trainings, there are sessions for group work where girls are asked to identify problems and proffer digital solutions to these problems. This helps them connect their lived experiences to technology, it opens them to see possibilities with these tools instead of seeing technology and digitalization as negative tools.

With digital skills and tools, girls will find their voices, express themselves on issues that affect them and their communities, lead change and gain wider audience. Technology will not pose a barrier but be a bridge for them to reach their potentials.

Without it, our girls will be left behind. This will exacerbate the inequality they face off- line. The girls are the future, and the future is digital,so we train our girls to meet the future ,prepared.