On April 25, over 200 young women participated in AgriConnect’s webinar titled “EmpowHering Leadership in the Digitalization of the Agriculture Sector” - a Girls in ICT Day 2024 event. These young women participated online via Zoom, while some of AgriConnect’s participating institutions hosted events in their lecture rooms, computer labs to allow their students to join the webinar as a group.
The main objectives of the webinar were to allow young women who are participating in AgriConnect to:
- Gain insights into digital applications, tools and apps being used in Agriculture.
- Learn about the 4th Industrial Revolution - Digitalization and digital transformation in the agriculture sector.
- Learn about opportunities for women in digital agriculture.
- Understand how digital platforms are supporting women to engage and lead in the agriculture sector.
- Network and meet like-minded women with a passion for agriculture.
- Walk away with new ideas and thoughts to support their career goals.
For about 3-hours, these young women had the opportunity to hear from 3 female leaders:
- Maame Serwaa Dzamesi, Innovation Creativity and Entrepreneurship Coordinator, Mastercard Foundation Young Africa Works on “Empowhering” Her Leadership – Why ICT Matters for Women and Girls”.
- Prof. Irene Egyir, Dean (Agriculture), University of Ghana, "Her Story of “Empowherment and Leadership” Women in Agriculture and capitalizing on the 4th Agricultural Revolution with ICTs".
- Mildred Akotsi, CEO Akwaaba Fine Foods, "Her Story of “Empowherment”
Students were also provided with a short lecture on Exploring the Digitalization of the Agriculture Sector, which was led by Elizabeth Emanuel, the Deputy Program Manager, AgriConnect.
Prof Irene Egyir shared with students the importance of ICTs in the agriculture sector, including “to collect data, record data, for knowledge sharing”. She was very passionate about the role of ICTs in improving the prospects of rural agriculture and she stressed that this will be key to addressing many of the rural economy issues that Ghana faces. She extended special thanks to the Mastercard Foundation, theSOFTTribe Team and AgriConnect – that have seen it befitting “to attract young persons, including young women to get into the agriculture field”.
During her talk, Maame Dzamesi, shared with the young women, the many opportunities that come with the digitalization of the agriculture sector, such as access to finance for logistics for example and how technologies such as the use of drones and IOTs were having significant impacts on efficiency, productivity and sustainability in the agriculture sector. She urged the students in attendance “to make good use of the laptops, connectivity and the new supplemental course content provided by AgriConnect to develop their careers so that they can move beyond primary agricultural production” and benefit from the 4th industrial revolution.
Mildred Akotsi, CEO Akwaaba Fine Foods, shared her story of entrepreneurship, providing the women with real life examples of how technology and social media apps such as WhatsApp could be key to advancing their careers and help them succeed in entrepreneurship. She started off by saying that “in this part of the world that we find ourselves, we are not usually considered for leadership because of the limitations that society places on us”. She then articulated that she had a different view, and that ICTs are a blessing to women and have come to really help women to leverage their knowledge and skills in fields such as agriculture which is characteristically a male-dominated field, enhancing their competitiveness, increasing their productivity and efficiency and helping them work smarter, while at the same time allowing them to look after their families and children.
She shared concrete examples of how she was using ICTs, including artificial intelligence (AI) and social media in her own business, allowing her to:
- Address issues, such as, raw materials quality and traceability issues.
- Take and upload videos.
- Manage ordering, accounts, distribution and supply.
- Enhance customer engagement and experiences and support customer reviews.
- Use AI to develop new recipes.
In her closing remarks she left some powerful and profound words with the young women:
In a poll conducted during the webinar, over 70% of the young women who participated in the poll indicated that they were inspired by what they heard during the webinar, with 82% of those participating in the poll indicating that they think that they can either be an entrepreneur or entrepreneurship appeals to them.
Coming out of the webinar and based on the interest of attendees, AgriConnect will set up a WhatsApp group for young women in AgriConnect where they can engage with each other, network, share experiences, and support and encourage each other as they support the modernization of the agriculture sector in Ghana.
At AgriConnect, we firmly believe that developing girls’ and women’s ICT skills are key drivers of gender equality and women’s empowerment. AgriConnect as a programme has a special emphasis on creating gender equality. The provision of laptops and connectivity to support the educational goals of young coupled with their degrees and certification as well as the supplemental courses that are being provided through AgriConnect will benefit women through increased employment and business opportunities as well as give them the confidence to engage in entrepreneurial activities. Women with ICT skills in their respective fields can expect to earn good salaries on par with their male counterparts.
AgriConnect Impact and Footprint
Since registration of students began in January 2024, 9.659 students in the 10 participating organizations have registered and 5,151 devices have been distributed. Learn more about AgriConnect at: https://www.agriconnectghana.com/