The Plateau Government, through its Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, said it had trained 300 girls on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to bridge the gender gap in the communication sector in the state.
The government also gave them computers to achieve the objective.
The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Rebecca Sambo, disclosed this on Monday in Jos when the ministry marked the International Women’s Day.
Sambo said the government had in August 2019 picked vulnerable young girls and trained them on ICT.
She said apart from bridging the gap in the ICT, the initiative would also enable the girls to have the required hands-on training to write the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board computer-based tests.
She further revealed that the State Government, through the ministry, had trained over 279 widows in various skills and gave them start-up packs to enable them to be self-reliant and financially empowered to look after their families.
The commissioner said that the blueprint of the ministry for 2020 was to scale up advocacy and sensitization of key stakeholders and to acquire a Rescue Center for survivors of violence for the purpose of rehabilitation, empowerment, and reintegration into the society.
She, however, lamented that the cases of child trafficking in the state were on the increase and that it was worrisome that the parents were the ones who were giving out their children to the traffickers.
She disclosed that the state government would be going to get 10 girls trafficked to Enugu back to the state.
Sambo said the ministry had held various sensitization programs for parents and stakeholders in the 17 local government areas of the state to educate them on the ills of trafficking their children.
She said the state government had identified poverty as the factor responsible for parents giving out their children in return for stipends, and had, therefore, gave them some money to enable them to start-up businesses.
She said gender inequality in Nigeria had to do largely with cultural, structural and religious practices and not the woman’s intellectual capacity.
The commissioner called on stakeholders to support efforts to bridge the gap between women and men.
She commended the plateau government for striving to bridge the gender gap by increasing the role of women in the administration of the state through numerous key appointments.
She said that Plateau was the first state in the North to gazette the Child Rights Law. (NAN)
