Rewriting the Future of ICT: When Girls Take the Lead in Tech

People say the future is digital, but I'd say the future is also female.

Each day, technology redefines how we live, work, learn, and connect. Yet for far too long, half of the world’s population has been underrepresented in shaping that digital future. But the tide is turning. Girls and women aren't just entering STEM, they're transforming it and rewriting the future of ICT.

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

But what then happens when girls are not just dreaming about the future, but building it, rewriting it?

As the digital age surges forward, it’s no longer enough to include girls in the conversation about tech, we must center them. We must not only empower girls to consume technology, rather, girls must also be empowered to create it, code it, shape it, and lead it.

As we commemorate the International Girls in ICT Day on the 25th of April 2025, I'm asking: What would the world look like if girls were at the very heart of the digital revolution? I think it would be a more inclusive, ethical, and innovative future. A future where no girl is left behind, and every idea, no matter how young or different, is given an opportunity to thrive.

Rewriting the future with girls at the heart of tech means challenging centuries of exclusion and unlocking a vast well of untapped potential. It’s about empowering girls to move from passive users to bold creators, innovators, decision-makers, and leaders, harnessing technology not just for profit, but for purpose..

Melinda Gates said “When we invest in girls and women, we are investing in the people who invest in everyone else.”

Imagine a world where a girl in rural Kenya codes a climate solution that saves her community from drought. Where a teenage girl in Bangladesh designs a mobile health app that brings lifesaving care to women in underserved regions.

Where a girl from my village, Uselu, Benin City, Nigeria, establishes a tech hub that trains thousands of girls like her to think critically, code creatively, and also lead fearlessly.

Girls in tech are not just writing lines of code. They are writing new narratives, ones that challenge inequality, dismantle bias, and elevate human dignity.

A tech world built with girls in mind would be more compassionate, more ethical, and more just.

It would mean that artificial intelligence wouldn’t inherit systemic bias, because girls would be there to write its moral compass. It also would mean innovations that don’t just move fast, but move meaningfully too, touching lives and transforming communities.

When girls are at the center of ICT, we shift:

• From inequality to inclusion
• From silence to amplification
• From surviving to thriving

But this future will not build itself. It must be shaped with a form of intentionality, a sense of urgency, and collective efforts of all females out there.

We must break down the barriers:

• The classrooms that tell girls tech is not for them.
• The cultures that silence their ambition.
• The media that rarely shows women behind the code.

We must embark on a mission to raise digital warriors, empowering them with skills, surrounding them with mentors, nurturing their curiosity, and, above all, believing in their brilliance.

Today, I speak to every girl who dreams, questions, creates, and challenges the norm, you have a place in tech, the world is waiting for your spark.

I'm not just a woman in tech, I’m a living proof that girls belong in STEM. I’m on a mission to reshape the future of ICT, and I won’t stop until I become a force to be reckoned with in the tech world.

And to every girl who's still wondering if she has what it takes to thrive in the tech space, I say this:

“The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who’s going to stop me.” Ayn Rand.

This International Girls in ICT Day, I raise my voice for every girl and woman with a question, a dream, a vision, or an idea.

To you I say: You belong in tech. The world needs your spark, go and rewrite it.

“Girls with dreams become women with vision.” Unknown.