The incoming government of Nigeria’s President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, has been advised to make the Nigeria’s educational system girl-friendly.
The Buhari administration has also been urged to put more effort in the publicity of girl-child education, especially in the area of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
Nigeria’s first female commercial pilot, Captain Chinyere Kalu, who was the guest speaker at a one-day seminar organized for teenage girls by the Youths For Technology Foundation in Owerri the Imo State capital, said a recent European Union statistics shows that out of over 7 million people working in the ICT sector around the world, only 30% are women.
She stressed that the research also concluded that the ICT sector is rapidly growing by the day, thereby creating over 100, 000 new jobs every year.
She further noted that the major way to reverse this trend is to encourage the participation of young girls to take up ICT-related careers, revealing that Nigerian women has one of the lowest participation of women.
Mrs Kalu, however, called on the government to encourage the girl-child through scholarships, free education and good incentives, which would go a long way to motivate the girl-child so as to get more involved in science and technology.
For the Youths for Technology Foundation, investment in the girl child has a multiplier effect on productivity, efficiency and sustained economic growth as it will also provide access to job opportunities and skill development.
