The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (WTEC) says it is committed to empowering bridging the technology gap and strengthening partnerships in the technology and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) space.

The External Relations Lead WTEC, Mr Adeyemi Odutola, said this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Lagos.

The WTEC is a non-profit organisation that focuses on empowering women and young girls. It has been around for 18 years and so far trained over 60,000 women in the Tech space.

Odutola said that WTEC was working with experts, cooperating with Government and other partners to attain a wider reach and penetrate more segments of the society.

He also said they were in partnership with international tech companies to reach more women in the society.

He also said they were working towards incorporating Artificial Intelligence into their curriculum to reflect the realities of today’s society.

“Our upcoming camps for this year, the focus is on AI. We will teach girls all about AI, job opportunities and also what to look out for,” he said.

An alumnus of the programme and best participant for WTEC in 2024, Miss Favour Edem said that WTEC was very intentional and committed to the training of its students and ensuring that they received adequate knowledge.

In addition the programme also helped her discover what she really wanted to do and discover the career path she was interested in.

Another alumnus of the Centre, Ms Temitope Olagunju, also said were trained by qualified facilitators and mentors.

She further said that participating in the training had helped to perform tasks quicker than she would have done ordinarily,

Olagunju said that it had enhanced her research work and made her more productive in her field and workplace.

She also said that they were taught how to write business plans, how to pitch their businesses and were also given opportunities to pitch them as well as given tokens to facilitate their business.

She said that women in tech often times experience various challenges because the society did expect much from women in that area.

“I would say I am more confident to pitch or submit my proposal due to the certificates we were given. Whenever I put forward those certificates, it automatically opens doors for me” she said.