We are pleased to announce that Aspilos Foundation has been awarded a grant funding from World Connect US under the AboCoders Project to empower young women in underserved communities in Kaduna with 21st century digital skills for access to sustainable means of livelihood.
In Nigeria, women are the most marginalized especially in many northern parts of the country. For many reasons – culture and religion for example – women are not allowed full access to good income generating jobs, to education, healthcare, etc. This marginalization is also prevalent in the technology ecosystem. Although digital inclusion is seeing rapid improvement in many African countries including Nigeria, women are still not part of this rapid improvement. In Northern Nigeria, around 60% of the female population is not able to access the internet and according to a research by the Centre for Information Technology and Development, 55% of men in Northern Nigeria do not want their wives access to technology, and 61% of fathers discourage their daughters’ use of technology. These studies prove the deeply entrenched social, religious and cultural significant barriers to women’s’ access and use of technology.
AboCoders improves the lives of its beneficiaries by helping them establish secure and sustainable livelihoods using technology. With the AboCoders project, we do this by training them in tech, and more importantly, showing them how to lift themselves out of poverty through sustainable tech careers. This project is plugging the ICT skills gap that exists among the target beneficiary group so they can leverage on the skills.
This funding from World Connect will support the implementation of the project in our Kaduna academy, and will increase our capacity to recruit and train more women as we strive to closing the digital gender divide in the state and by extension, the country.
About Aspilos Foundation
Aspilos Foundation is a youth-led not-for-profit organization using technology and digital inclusion to drive economic growth and good governance in Nigeria. We do this by providing innovative and sustainable pathways to economic empowerment for women and young people, and increasing citizen participation in governance so they can demand accountability and good governance from public office holders.
About World Connect
World Connect invests directly in the ideas of local leaders in the Global South who are best positioned to drive self-sustaining development in their communities. Our support leads to improvements in health, education, economic opportunity, and the environment, impacting women and girls in particular, and builds social capital, grows leadership, and sustainably shifts power.
Good evening, sir/ma. I am Bello Sheriff Adekunle, a Teach For Nigeria Fellow, Lagos Chapter. I am currently serving in an under serve community in Badagry, Lagos State. The aim of the organisation is to ensure that every child has excellent education irrespective of social economic background or status. We try to bridge the inequality in the Nigerian educational system by introducing new techniques of teaching, coaching and mentoring young people on leadership, entrepreneurship,etc.
Also, community immersion is included in our activities where we engage the members of the host communities to discuss the challenges facing and strategize to work with organisations that fund programmes to address some of the challenges facing people
I would be very happy if I can work with your organisation to organise empower programme for women or any digital/ computer related programme that could be a mind blowing for students/youth in this community which be an eye opener for them to pursue their education up to the higher institution and take advantage of technology in the 21st century.