TECHDIGEST – Cybersafe Foundation said it has achieved its four-months set target to digitally equip vulnerable girls across Nigeria as the non-governmental organization (NGO) rounded up its training, codenamed ‘DigiGirls Cohort 1.’

The initiative was funded by the UKaid and UK Government through its Prosperity Fund Digital Access Programme.

ALSO READ : Cybersecurity Woman Of The Year: Staveley Emerges First Nigerian Finalist

Cybersafe Foundation hosted the graduation of several girls from across Nigeria after an intensive four mouths digital exposure on the International Women’s Day.

The training was designed by the NGO as part of efforts to improve digital literacy for girls in Nigeria and across Africa.

During the training, participants were exposed to computing and cybersecurity fundamentals, and digital entrepreneurship skills. Upon choosing a desired career path, participants were taken through an appropriate learning path to get hands-on skills, mentorship, and get internship/job shadowing opportunities.

A beneficiary of DigiGIrls 1.0 Cohort, Miss Adeoye Oluwadamilola explained how the programme helped her to become a boss of her own. She said “I got a website job to design and I was paid N110,000. Yet, before this programme, I couldn’t even operate a computer.”

Adeoye, who studied User Interface and User Experience, UIUE, revealed she was a teacher in a private school where she was earned N15,000 monthly before the programme.

Chioma Okere, another beneficiary of the training told IT Edge News that the experience was a life changer as it helped her to improve her digital skills.

Speaking on the project, the Founder and Executive Director, Cybersafe Foundation, Confidence Staveley, thanked UKAID and trainers for aligning with the Foundation to empower the participants, adding that through the ‘DigiGIrls cohort 1’, several people were educated on digital skills.

Staveley who was visibly elated by the growing testimonials from participants, said, “the impact has been massive and we are prepared to sustain the tempo till the end of the year.

Commenting on the project, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, said young girls must be encouraged to have interest in STEM, and other strategic areas of life because women in Nigeria and globally still face huge challenges and denied their rightful place in politics, governance, business, arts and others.

“The problem number one is women not having enough role models in senior positions, particularly in politics, Sadly, we saw in the constitution amendment, some very good proposals to include women in some strategic positions in politics being rejected by men. Until we break this barrier and enable women to take leadership positions in politics, there won’t be enough role models for girls to aspire and see that they too can break barriers.

“UK government is supporting women in politics, which is one strand of our work and the DigiGirls we are funding is another form of support. It is UK Aid backed and the Prime Minister today, launched International Women’s Day programme for Africa and other developing countries. It is a £20 million investment to partner with business to give young girls the skills they need so that they can take up leadership role in business, politics, climate change and the rest,” Laing stated.

The DigiGirls cohort 2 application is on and will close by 27th March 2022.

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TECH DIGEST – Founder of a non-governmental organisation, Cybersafe Foundation, Confidence Staveley, has been announced one of the finalists at the Cybersecurity Woman of the Year Award 2021.

Staveley is not just the first Nigerian to become a finalist but also the first African to be a finalist in her category, Cybersecurity People’s Choice.

The Cybersecurity Woman of the Year Award is an annual event celebrating female cybersecurity leaders changing the world, hosted by Intelgenca.

Winners of each category will be revealed at the Cybersecurity Woman of the Year 2021 Awards GALA, scheduled to hold in Las Vegas on August 3rd, 2021.

Staveley’s global industry recognition comes on the heels of the outstanding contribution she is making through her organization, Cybersafe Foundation.

The Cybersafe Foundation is a Non-Governmental Organization on a mission to facilitate pockets of human behavioral and capacity changes to ensure a safer internet for everyone with digital access and resident in Africa.

Speaking on the nomination, a member of the advisory board at Cybersafe Foundation, Iretioluwa Akerele called on Nigerians to support her to finally win the medals.

She said, “Confidence needs your vote to win in her category and bring this award home from Las Vegas and also urged Nigerians to visit the website and vote for her.

She explained that through her various interventions on a safer internet, Confidence recently launched CyberGirls, a free 1-year fellowship designed to equip girls with globally sought-after cybersecurity skills, positioning them to start a career in cybersecurity. Through the CyberGirls fellowship, she is training more than100 girls in Calabar, Enugu, Lokoja, Yola, Kaduna and Ibadan.

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TECH DIGEST – Experts have kicked against the Nigerian Communications Commission’s plan to a Device Management System which will serve as a repository for all registered mobile phones’ International Mobile Equipment Identity and owners of the devices.

Some experts interviewed by our correspondents said the DMS would give too much power to a government that has shown a propensity to abuse such powers.

Senior Programme Manager, Paradigm Initiative, Adeboye Adegoke, said, “Citizens should be worried about this. It is a very dangerous trajectory. There is no strong provision or framework or legal guaranty where people can seek remedy for breaches or violation of their privacy rights.

“Also, the Nigerian government does not have the character to respect data protection rights. In fact, the Nigerian government is probably the number one violator of such rights.

“What it is doing through the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, is that it is trying to be the regulator for digital protection in Nigeria.”

Executive Director, Cyber-safe Foundation, Confidence Staveley, said the plan was fraught with a lot risks.

She said, “On the dark side, collecting this amount of data presents a plethora of risks and concerns which will leave the commission with the heavy responsibility of ensuring that the data collected is securely stored and managed in adherence to local and global data protection standards and best practices.

“We cannot afford for this database containing such sensitive information to be obtained by cybercriminals.”

The NCC had said that one of the purposes of implementing the DMS was to ensure that when phones were stolen, they could be shut down remotely even when other SIM cards were inserted into them.

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