Accra, Ghana//-Members of MTN Ghana’s Women In Technology (WIT) in partnership with Mobile Web Ghana, an ICT company today mentored 80 Girls-in-ICT (GIICT ) as part of this year’s International Day of Girls-in-ICT.
The Girls-in-ICT drawn from Uman Utab Basic School; Neswell Academy, a junior high school; and Kwabenya Senior High School, all the Ga East Municipal District Assembly in the Greater Accra Region had the unique opportunity to be mentored by these great members of WIT who are workers of the MTN Ghana’s ICT and technology department.
They exposed the young girls to opportunities in the ICT sector through the mentorship workshop to prepare them for ICT-related professions in future.
Speaking at the event, the Director of Mobile Web Ghana, Madam Florence Toffa said: “We are collaborating with MTN Ghana to be able to organise this all-important event”.
Why Girls-in-ICT Day
Internet penetration in the country is a bit high. However, there are still not more girls in the West African country’s ICT or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields.
“I just asked the girls how many of them got 50% or above in Mathematics and a huge percentage about 70% of them didn’t get 50% and above in maths”, Madam Toffa said to buttress why the need for this special intervention for the girl-child.
Statistics show that by grade three the confidence of girls in maths dropped significantly.
“So, the reason why that we are organising this event in partnership with MTN Ghana, is to be able to get role models who are in leadership positions in STEM to be able to motivate these girls to either think about career options in STEM, start taking courses in STEM or consider the option of learning STEM even if there are in basic, junior high or senior high schools”.
She noted that STEM has more potential for the girl-child than they ever imagined. “So, we brought a mix of female students from basic, junior high and senior high schools to inspire them to go into the STEM and its related fields”.
In case, some of them are not already in senior high school, they want to inspire such female students to start considering studying science or doing science courses when they go to junior high school.
Even if they are already in junior high school, it is still not too late, and they are not studying science, they still have a huge opportunity to go and study something related to science when they enter the tertiary institution.
Or if they entered the tertiary, and are already studying arts course(s), they can still learn some aspects of science on their own without necessarily taking an official science course at the university level. This is the reason why they brought a mix of students, Madam Toffa further explained.
Breakup sessions
During the breakup sessions, the role models from MTN Ghana’s women in tech who are experienced in the tech industry as well as in leadership positions encouraged the young girls to show more interest in the study of STEM.
This year’s International Day of Girls-in-ICT theme is ‘Leadership’. How can we get more girls into leadership positions in STEM? So, the main aim is to be able to bring role models who are in leadership positions at MTN Ghana to inspire young girls, according to her.
“So, we have breakup sessions where these mentors are taking questions from the young girls on issues bothering them on why they are not doing well in school, why they are doing well and where they can improve. So, the purpose of the breakup sessions is to get inspiration from these women in tech leadership in MTN Ghana”.
Deepen the insight
An Economic Empowerment Adviser at the MTN Ghana Foundation, Mrs. Cynthia Mills who led the team to the Mobile Web Ghana office for the event noted that the mentoring sessions and other activities of the celebration would further deepen the insight of the girls into the nature of the world of STEM and the entire ICT industry.
She believes that this would encourage young female students to the point of knowing that they could also take up careers in this profitable but male-dominated industry.
Appreciation
The students used the occasion to thank MTN Ghana and Mobile Web Ghana for giving them such a wonderful opportunity.
Earlier, in celebrating the day, the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization in partnership with MTN Ghana hosted ICT students from Aburi Girls SHS at the MTN House for a facility visit and interaction with female engineers.
Instructively, the International Day of Girls in ICT is observed on April 25th each year and is an initiative supported by ITU Member States to encourage girls and young women to pursue careers in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT).
