Determined to encourage women in Nigeria to pursue career paths in the technology industry, a US-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) educational FinTech firm, Coven Works Inc, is partnering with Shecluded to provide easy access to financing options for women who want to commence their career journey in Data Science, Chatbot Engineering and Cloud, as well as in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The limiting factors for women are enormous but not without solutions, hence, the birth of the collaboration, which will afford women across Nigeria, both in urban and rural communities, the opportunity to start their journey of becoming users and creators of technology. This initiative will in turn increase economic opportunities and improve the livelihoods of these women, the companies said in a joint statement.
Shecluded is a fintech company that combines easy access to credit with wealth advisory, growth loans and capacity building to provide female entrepreneurs in Africa the necessary tools they need to run a successful enterprise.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of Shecluded, Ifeoma Uddoh, “We want to see more women participate in the careers of the future and enabling them to develop a technology or technical skill is a way to make that happen. Through this partnership, we’re giving women the opportunity to upskill, compete in the global workforce, and increase their earning potential towards attaining and enjoying financial freedom.”
In the recent World Economic Forum, Global Gender Report 2021, gender gaps are wider in sectors that require disruptive technical skills. For example, in Cloud Computing, women make up 14 per cent of the workforce; in Engineering, 20 per cent; and in Data and A.I., 32 per cent. “While the eight job clusters typically experience a high influx of new talent, at current rates, those inflows do not re-balance occupational segregation and transitioning to fields where women are currently underrepresented,” Uddoh said, adding that the current share of women in Cloud Computing has only improved by 0.2 percentage points, while the share of women in Data and AI roles has seen a mild decline of 0.1 percentage points since February 2018.
The Coven Works’ Data Chicks, is an intervention plan created to deliberately bridge the gender gap in technology.
The Country Director of Coven Works, Dunsin Fatuase said: “The goal of this collaboration is to reach 1000’s women who had aspirations of starting a career in high growth pathways over the next couple of months and through this partnership, we would enable more women to train with Coven Works through the financial options from Shecluded in Data Science, Chatbot Engineering and Cloud and AI, at an affordable rate.”
He further reiterated that “It is clear that both Coven Works and Shecluded have identified a common ground to empower women to become tech-enabled professionals.”
This is a call for women who want to take advantage of the payments option provided by Shecluded to jump start their career pathway in a high-growth tech profession, Uddoh said.
