Vodacom seeks gender equality for women in ICT

To bridge the gender gap in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, Vodacom Nigeria, has organised a one-day field trip for select students of Baptist Girls Academy, Lagos.

The workshop was designed to enable the girls have a clear understanding of the ICT industry and motivate them to make a career in the sector.

Senior Product Manager of the company, Mrs. Funke Atanda in her remark revealed that reports from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that the ratio of Nigerian female workers to men in ICT was 3.3:1 in 2012.

She said it was in the light of this that companies like Vodacom actively engaged in accelerating gender equality in the workplace, expressing hope that the number of Nigerian females in the ICT sector must have grown substantially between 2012 and now.

She said, “Gender equality remains a challenge, particularly in the ICT sector, and so we realised that we should do more to bridge the disparity in this sector. When it comes to gender equality in the workplace, Vodacom leads. Currently, 43 per cent of Vodacom’s workforce is female. Last year, promotion of female employees rose by 9 per cent, while 17 per cent of the executive workforce is female.

“The firm’s working policies also allow women more flexibility around maternity leave and returning to work. However, with the decline in the number of female candidates admitted into Engineering, Technology and ICT faculties between 2014 and 2015, it is important that more companies join in the promotion of females in ICT education in Nigeria.”

While hoping that the exercise will positively influence the girls to making career choice in ICT, she said, “By supporting ICT skill acquisition for girls, and bringing females into our organisations to learn about new technologies and helping them to further develop their ideas, we are able to encourage more girls to choose courses and careers in ICT. This will help increase the number of women in the ICT sector in the near future.”

“Vodacom will continue to support and advocate for gender equality for women in and through ICT; this will strengthen their stance in the sector while continuing to improve lives of girls and everyone around the world”.