By Salmanu Isah Darazo
The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has launched an 18-month intervention aimed at equipping 25,000 women and girls in Bauchi and Kano states with digital and entrepreneurship skills.
The project, tagged “Addressing the Gender Digital Divide and Expanding Business Opportunities for Women and Girls in Northern Nigeria (Agenda-WINNIG),” seeks to improve women’s access to digital opportunities through training in digital literacy, online safety, digital hygiene and entrepreneurship.
Speaking at a stakeholder engagement in Bauchi on Tuesday, CITAD Programme Manager, Fatima Babakura, said the intervention began in February 2026 and is expected to run until July or August 2027.
She said the project has three major components: basic digital literacy and online safety, computer-based testing (CBT) coaching for secondary school students and digital entrepreneurship for women and girls.
Babakura said 15,000 women and girls would receive training in basic digital literacy, online safety and digital hygiene.
She added that another 5,000 final-year secondary school girls, particularly those preparing for JAMB examinations, would receive CBT training to improve their ability to take computer-based examinations.
According to her, the entrepreneurship component would target an additional 5,000 women and girls, with training focused on using digital platforms to promote their products, reach more customers and expand their businesses online.
She said beneficiaries would be selected from Bauchi and Kano states, with particular attention to women and girls in rural and underserved communities.
Babakura explained that the stakeholder engagement was organised to identify challenges affecting women’s participation in the digital space and gather recommendations that could improve the implementation of the intervention.
She said recommendations from stakeholder engagements at the state and federal levels would also contribute to a policy brief aimed at addressing the gender digital divide and expanding access to digital opportunities for women and girls.
Also speaking, CITAD Programme Officer and Head of the Bauchi Team, Mujahid Ibrahim, said the organisation was working with community-based organisations and other local networks to identify and mobilise beneficiaries, particularly those in hard-to-reach areas.
“We use the network of community-based organisations and partners in the communities to mobilise beneficiaries, after which we go to the communities to conduct the training,” Ibrahim said.
He said the project covers all 20 local government areas of Bauchi State, with community mobilisers supporting the identification and mobilisation of beneficiaries for the various training programmes.
According to Ibrahim, the project has already reached its targeted number of beneficiaries in Bauchi, while training under the different components continues.
He described the stakeholder engagement as productive, saying participants offered recommendations on how to strengthen the implementation of the project.
Ibrahim said stakeholders had been consulted before the commencement of the intervention, while the latest meeting was held at the end of the second quarter to review progress and obtain further input.
“We captured their advice on how to go about the project before we started, and now, at the end of the second quarter, we have called them again and they have responded and are contributing.
“Their contributions are very important because we are receiving their insights on how to improve the implementation of the project,” he said.
The engagement brought together representatives of government institutions, community leaders, information technology organisations, civil society groups, community-based organisations, traditional and religious leaders, lecturers, financial institutions, private-sector organisations and development partners.
Ibrahim said their involvement was important because of their roles in education, capacity building, financing, knowledge acquisition and community development.
He added that the project seeks to strengthen women’s digital inclusion and entrepreneurship by equipping beneficiaries with practical skills and improving their access to opportunities in the digital economy.
The stakeholder engagement is part of CITAD’s wider activities under Agenda-WINNIG, which focuses on digital inclusion, online safety, CBT preparedness and entrepreneurship among women and girls in Bauchi and Kano states.
