Invest in Digital Technological Innovations, Group Tells FG

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt 

A Port Harcourt-based digital rights campaign organisation, under the aegies of Media Awareness and Justice Initiative (MAJI), has called on governments at all levels to prioritise investment in digital technological innovations. 

The group also urged the government to create and implement policies that support women development, with a view to bridging the inequality ratio gap between males and females in science and technology for sustainable development. 

This was contained in a statement issued by the organisation in commemoration of the 2025 Global Day for Women and Girls in Science with the theme ‘Building a Future for Women’. 

The statement, signed by Onyekachi Okoro, Executive Director of the organisation, noted that although globally, women are recognised to have pivotal roles to play in the development of societies through science, technology, engineering and mathematics, they are continuously excluded from participating fully in the economy, policy formulation, digital evolution, governance and development. 

“In Nigeria, MAJI believes the digital divide is primarily characterised by differences in internet access, digital literacy, and technological infrastructure between urban and rural areas, as well as between socio-economic groups and gender competitiveness,” said the organisation, adding that there is urgent need to bridge the gaps.

It lamented that the digital gender gap has continued to expand in many developing countries, creating a specific need to support digital gender equality. 

The statement noted that globally, in 2022, 62 per cent of men are using the internet, compared with 57 per cent of women. Only 19 per cent of women in least developed countries (LDCs) used the ínternet in 2020, compared to 86 per cent in developed world (in 2019).

MAJI noted that in the course of its interventions in communities through Community Network project (CNs), which seeks to provide cheap and sustainable internet access in rural and urban communities and also help to build the digital literacy capacity of women and girls in the region, it has identified the need for sustained digital literacy trainings for women and girls, as it provides a platform for increased economic opportunities, digital inclusion and participation for this historically marginalised group. 

“The time for scientific change and women and girl inclusion is now,” said the group.