Islamic Development Bank, Tech4Dev partner to train 15,000 women in tech skills

The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and Technology for Social Change and Development Initiative (Tech4Dev) have established a strategic partnership to train 15,000 Nigerian women through the Women Techsters Initiative.

The Women Techsters Initiative is committed to advancing women and girls in Nigeria and throughout the African continent, closing the gender gap in digital and technological literacy, and ensuring that everyone has equal access to respectable employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in the field.

In addition to ensuring equitable access to opportunities, the Women Techsters program seeks to increase women’s participation and inclusion in the technology ecosystem.

The partnership which is for a period of one year will have IsDB commit $126,000 dollars to the Women Techsters Initiative which will help female beneficiaries in the country acquire technology skills across select learning tracks within the initiative’s sub-programs.

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The women will be trained in Mobile Development, Software Development, Product Design, Product Management, Cybersecurity, Data Science/ Artificial Intelligence Engineering, Blockchain and Mixed Reality/3D.

Beneficiaries of this partnership are expected to be part of the Women Techsters Fellowship, Open Day, Boot Camp and Masterclass events for the 2022/23 program year.

Reacting to the partnership, Tech4Dev Executive Director, Oladiwura Oladepo, says she is excited about ISDB’s commitment to bridging the technology gap between men and women across Nigeria also including countries across the Middle East and Africa.

“Our dream is to partner with organizations that seek to help women in underserved communities across Nigeria and Africa gain access to varying degrees of digital, deep tech and soft skills required within the technology ecosystem, and we are delighted to have the Islamic Development Bank join us on our journey to making our gender parity in technology dream a reality,” Oladepo said.

A total of 14,093 women and girls were reached in the 2021 edition of the Women Techsters Initiative.