Digi-Women Initiative Closes Nigerian Women’s Digital Literacy Gap

“Today, women run less than 5% of the technology business, and less than 10% of the world’s technology workforce is women. We address the big gap in women’s digital literacy and fill the digital divide. Created the Digi-Women Initiative to help women contribute to the digital economy. ” Promane and Promade Limited, Nigeria’s Business Optimization Company Funds Initiative with Matching Grants and Support from Nigeria Retail Giants Academy A social enterprise that aims to train 100,000 unemployed youth by 2030. She learns here Equals Digital Skills Fund managed by NGOs, strengthening women’s digital skills and replacing the Cape Town Science Center GIZ..

Promoting women’s equality in 2015 could add approximately $ 12 trillion to global GDP by 2025. report McKinsey & Company was found. But closing the gender gap requires action in the public, private and social sectors. Ashimi hopes that the Digi-Women Initiative will contribute to this global change by training 300 women by the end of the year. All three stages of the initiative’s Digital Skills Workshop are free and include basic digital literacy, e-commerce store setup, digital marketing including web design, and social media marketing and management.

In late June, 100 Nigerian rural women aged 20-45 graduated from Stage 1-Basic Literacy courses, opened email accounts, and were able to create Facebook pages and WhatsApp. In face-to-face training held at the training center, the Stage 1 workshop was led by Promane and Promade Limited staff and had daily meetings, where they engaged in hands-on hands-on learning with a female cohort because they needed it for the first time. Digital learners. ”Female participants were provided with meals, logistics support for traveling to and from the workshop site, and smartphones, consistent with the community’s digital jobs. Their progress and employment are monitored.

Ashimi hopes to extend the initiative throughout West Africa and Africa, “if our influence justifies the money and time invested.”

Digitally skilled women are the future of Nigeria

“The Digi-Women Initiative focuses on the return on investment per woman, which is expected to be about 308% of the additional revenue generated after a year of training in digital skills in digital enterprises and digital jobs. increase.”

Ashimi explains why the first two-step cohort selection criteria focused on Nigerian semi-literate rural women. It shifts the focus of standard digital literacy programs from young girls to mothers and women, helping digital literacy penetrate children.

Investing and supporting the younger generation of digital development is very important, especially as girls face “disproportionate social obstacles”. Improving women’s digital skills has a direct impact on removing family and social barriers to girls’ digital skills. Digital literacy mothers are strong supporters of girls who create spillover effects. Digital literacy also improves the income, trade and work opportunities of the mother’s family.

The program received such an overwhelming response — 227.3% above the expected number of applicants from rural women in Nigeria who would like to enroll in the initiative.

Approximately 150 women will be trained by the Retail Giants Academy in the initiative’s Stage 2 e-commerce store setup. This will allow rural women with previous transaction history and small businesses to set up e-stores on e-commerce sites and marketplaces. A female-led company with a “history of trading non-perishable products” and no online experience is an ideal candidate.

“E-commerce stores open new markets for entrepreneurs beyond local and physical stores. Digi-Women entrepreneurs go to the e-commerce marketplace to access larger markets beyond the community. Listed for the first time. In the first year after training, we expect annual sales to increase by at least 50%, “said Ashimi, an online market for Digi-Women entrepreneurs who are new to online payment channels. Learn how you used Retail Giants’ own Stocker App, which is a place. Includes online payment.

For Digi-Women who did not have a bank account, Lagos-based First City Monument Bank Ltd (FCMBA banking group working to accelerate SMEs and personal business accounts has allowed rural women to be financially included. Banks also provided entrepreneurs to fund female entrepreneurs and incentives specific to their e-Marketplace.

Up to 50 women will be selected for Stage 3 of the Initiative, a digital marketing workshop supported by the She Learns Here Initiative. It is a UNIDO and HP Life-approved non-profit organization focused on empowering digital skills with over 2,200 workshops and training programs. The cohort requires “some higher education and basic digital literacy skills in advance,” explains Ashimi.

“The Digital Marketing Workshop Cohort prioritized unemployed colleges, technicians, and colleges aged 23-40,” said Ashimi, with two weeks of online training and She in a more intensive workshop. Learn how LearnsHere includes additional mentoring. Initiatives for top-class students.

Stage 1 graduates are matched against local digital jobs and their progress and employment are monitored, while e-commerce stage graduates are the first onboarding support to the FCMB and Retail Giant Stocker App online marketplaces. After the start, it is expected to become independent. .. Digital Marketing Workshop graduates will be matched with at least 10 Digi-Women Entrepreneurs to provide social media and digital marketing support services as part of their action learning course work. Ashimi wants to provide a portfolio of graduates’ client management skills and work. For future work opportunities. Excellent students have the opportunity to work as virtual assistants, social media managers and website designers. It is provided by the She Learns Here Initiative and is taught for three months after graduation to ensure full-time paid employment.

To determine the full impact of the Digi-Women Initiative, Ashimi and her team will track the increase in income levels of all graduates as a key impact measure for the year. The Digi-Women Initiative closely monitors and measures the impact of training to determine how women-led businesses have changed and improved their bottom line and revenue potential.

“We want to expand the Digi-Women Initiative across West Africa and Africa. This includes more funding, diverse trainers (eg French and Portuguese-speaking trainers), and different regions. We need partnerships and more cohorts. Our curriculum focuses on digital skills for women in rural areas of interest and meets the needs of beneficiaries, “says Ashimi. States that the curriculum will evolve to include beginner, intermediate, advanced and advanced classes with a wide range of digital literacy courses. Advanced digital literacy for internet literacy, digital commerce, digital marketing, and business analytics, including data visualization using Microsoft Excel and Power BI.

By building partnerships with organizations that can also provide training tools, marketplaces, digital payments, software solutions and funding, we can accelerate the closing of the gender-based digital divide gap across Nigeria and Africa.