CITAD seeks Bauchi, Kano support for women, girls digital literacy

The Centre for Information Technology and Development has requested the partnership of stakeholders in Bauchi and Kano states in addressing the gender digital divide and expanding business opportunities for women and girls in Northern Nigeria.

The Programme Manager of the project, Fatima Baba, disclosed this while speaking with journalists on Tuesday, after a stakeholder engagement in Bauchi.

She explained that the 18-month project, which commenced in February 2026, was designed to equip women and girls with digital literacy, digital safety and entrepreneurship skills while promoting access to opportunities in the digital economy.

Baba said the initiative was informed by the persistent digital divide affecting women and girls, particularly those in rural communities.

She said, “We want to see how we can address these issues by creating awareness on basic digital skills and how they can stay safe on the internet, after encouraging them to be in the digital space by tapping into the opportunities that are available.”

According to her, the project will also provide entrepreneurship training for beneficiaries interested in using digital platforms to promote and sell their products.

She said the project was targeting 25,000 women and girls across Bauchi and Kano states.

Baba explained that 15,000 beneficiaries would receive training in basic digital literacy, safety and hygiene, while 5,000 final-year secondary school girls preparing for the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board examination would receive Computer-Based Test training.

She added that another 5,000 women and girls would be trained in digital entrepreneurship.

The programme manager said the stakeholder engagement was organised to obtain contributions and recommendations from relevant actors on how to improve the implementation of the project.

She added that the recommendations from stakeholder engagements at state and federal levels would contribute to a policy brief to be developed at the end of the project.

Also speaking, the Head of CITAD’s Bauchi team, Mujahid Ibrahim, said the organisation was implementing the project through partnerships with community-based organisations and other networks to mobilise beneficiaries.

He said the approach was designed to ensure that women and girls in hard-to-reach communities were included in the intervention.

Ibrahim said, “We use the network of community-based organisations and partners in the communities to mobilise participants, and then we go there to conduct the training.”

He noted further that stakeholders had actively participated in the engagements and provided recommendations that would help improve the implementation of the project.

According to him, the stakeholders include community leaders, information technology organisations, civil society organisations, traditional and religious leaders, lecturers, government institutions and development partners.

He ssid the project had also engaged institutions involved in capacity building and knowledge acquisition.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Network of Nigerian Women Mediators, Bauchi, Jamila Sule, described the project as timely, particularly given the difficulties many women and girls face in using smartphones and accessing digital opportunities.

Sule said the initiative had the potential to change the mindset of women and girls by exposing them to productive uses of digital technology.