By Mustapha Salisu
The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has called for comprehensive institutional reforms across Nigeria’s information and communications technology (ICT) sector, stressing that sustainable progress in women’s leadership requires more than capacity-building programmes.
The organisation made the call in a statement signed by its Gender Coordinator, Fatima Babakura, while reacting to the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) recent initiative to promote women’s leadership in the telecommunications sector.
CITAD said leadership development initiatives should be complemented by deliberate reforms that remove barriers preventing qualified women from advancing into decision-making positions, noting that building individual capacity must go hand in hand with creating enabling systems for women to influence digital policy.
To address what it described as structural challenges, the organisation highlighted recommendations contained in its policy brief, Promoting Women Participation in Digital Policy-Making in Nigeria. These include the development of a national gender digital inclusion agenda, increased representation of women on the boards and management of ICT institutions, leadership development programmes, institutional gender policies, regular gender audits, gender-responsive workplace policies and stronger accountability mechanisms.
The organisation maintained that gender-responsive digital policy making is essential to ensuring Nigeria’s digital transformation agenda benefits all citizens, adding that research has consistently shown that diverse leadership structures produce more inclusive and responsive policies.
According to CITAD, women’s perspectives are critical in shaping policies on digital access, online safety, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data governance, digital rights and other emerging technologies.
It urged the NCC to deepen its initiative by embedding gender inclusion into its institutional policies, recruitment processes, leadership development frameworks and governance structures.
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CITAD also called on other ICT agencies, including the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), Galaxy Backbone, Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), and the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, to implement similar initiatives alongside broader reforms that promote equitable representation.
The organisation stressed that as Nigeria advances its digital economy agenda, women should not only benefit from digital technologies but also play active roles in designing the policies and governance frameworks that shape the country’s digital future.
It further urged policymakers, regulators, development partners and private sector stakeholders to adopt measurable targets for women’s participation in digital governance, backed by regular monitoring, transparent reporting and institutional accountability to ensure lasting progress.
CITAD reaffirmed its commitment to collaborating with government institutions, regulators, civil society organisations, academia, development partners and the private sector to advance evidence-based, gender-responsive digital governance that leaves no one behind.