CEO Wants More Women In ICT

The Chief Executive Officer, Main One Cable Company, Ms Funke Opeke,  says the involvement of more women in Information and Communications Technology will create more innovations in the sector.

Opeke said this last Thursday in Lagos at the maiden celebration of “International Girls in ICT Day 2012” organised by e-Business Life Communications Ltd.

“There will be more innovations because females are persistent and keen in whatever they are interested in.

‘’And as people always say, what a man can do, a woman can do better,’’ Opeke said.

She advised girls to consider careers in ICT, saying that ICT had changed the way people lived their lives.

According to her, there are opportunities in ICT as it creates more jobs and offers high income.

Mrs Ufuoma Emuophedaro, the convener of the event and publisher of e-Business Life magazine, said that there had been ICT divide between the male and the female gender around the world.

“Just as there is a global ICT divide between the developed and developing nations, there is another form of ICT (digital) divide internally between the male and female gender,’’ she said.

Emuophedaro said that the gap should be bridged for further economic development and sustainability.

She said that it was because of this that the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) launched the International Girls’ Day initiative.

According to her, the initiative was to create a global environment that would empower and encourage girls and young women to consider careers in ICT.

She said that one of the reasons female were not taking career in ICT was because of the traditional limitations.

“There seemed to be an unwritten code that said certain activities are reserved for the male folks within the home,” she said.