By Adedapo Adesanya
Leading Nigerian digital payment and commerce solutions company, Interswitch Group continued to show its support for women in tech as it commemorated this year’s International Girls in ICT Day by encouraging young girls to challenge the norm and tap into the many potentials of the sector.
In a chat through Instagram Live to celebrate this year’s event themed Girls in ICT: Inspiring the Next Generation, Interswitch reached out to hopefuls by inspiring them through two women making strides in tech who shared their stories.
Miss Eddidiong Asikpo and Ifeanyichukwu Onwurah, pioneers in changing the norm shared stories of their career trajectories from young girls in science to now full-blown women in ICT during the chat, regalling viewers on how they are changing the narrative in a field that is regarded as male-dominated.
Using their stories filled with good and bad, they encouraged girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), painting the many profitable and fulfilling future that the sector had to offer.
Miss Edidiong Asikpo, Software Engineer at Interswitch, and anchor of the live session began the session by reiterating that the ICT Day was created to encourage girls to consider careers in ICT.
She shared her experience on how transitioning from Medicine to Tech.
“I never wanted to become anything technical. I applied to study Medicine and Surgery in the university. When that did not work out, I started at Innovation Hub at Akwa Ibom to learn Application Development. Tech started to become cool because I thought I would start doing what the big boys at Facebook do.
“Indeed, tech has afforded me access to greater opportunities and contributes to making life better,” she said.
She further added that for the next generation to be brought into tech universe, they would need to be intentional about it, by searching for opportunities and being open to mentorship.
This is one of the many roles Interswitch currently plays, and is willing to continue to play, in raising the next generation of tech girls and women who’ll make disruptive impact in the tech space.
On her part, Miss Ifeanyichukwu Onwurah, Senior IT Service Management Analyst atInterswitch, talked about her journey into tech as a rough one and described it as “Failing forward”.
“At some point in the university, I lost enthusiasm. I failed a lot, struggled through school and didn’t quite understand my purpose. All I wanted to do was look pretty in a pretty job”, she said.
This soon started to change – “After training school, I was deployed to the Tech Department where I struggled in my mind again, for nine months. However, Tech has turned out to be the best decision that I ever made.
“I was inspired by my Group Head, who answered all my questions and helped me through a mind switch. So, I made up my mind not to be defined by my school grades and this drove me to be better at my work. Seven years later, I’m no longer where I used to be and it has been an exciting journey so far.”
Both ladies concluded by encouraging young girls to pursue their tech dreams with grit and deliberateness. They also admonished parents to support their girls by providing useful learning resources especially in their formative years.
Interswitch through this initiative and many more is challenging gender bias and pushing for gender inclusion in the tech space. To bring in more women into the tech space, the service through InterswitchSPAK and STEMLIKEAGIRL Initiatives is pioneering the change.
The InterswitchSPAK Annual Science Competition is one of the ways through which Interswitch creates an equal opportunity environment for more girls to chart a career path in ICT. Since the start of the competition in 2018, there has been an impressive Increase In the participation of girls.
International Girls in ICT Day is an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) initiative and global movement, to encourage girls and young women to consider studies and careers in ICT. It is annually celebrated on the Fourth Thursday of April.
