In honour of International Women’s Day, Google today announced the launch of 18 new Womenwill chapters across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Womenwill is a Google initiative to create economic opportunity for women everywhere, so that they can grow and succeed. Helping women make the most of technology to build skills, get inspired, and connect with each other through training, events and advocacy, Womenwill aims to drive conversations promoting gender equality to benefit everyone.
Speaking at the event, Google Africa’s Brand & Reputation lead, Mojolaoluwa Aderemi-Makinde said: “The gender gap could be solved if women have the same access to resources and skill acquisition sources as men. This is why we’re expanding the Womenwill chapters in SSA and continuing our focus on diversity and gender equality into 2019 and beyond.”
The 18 new chapters are located across Sub Saharan Africa in cities including Accra, Cape Town, Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, Lekki and Onitsha. This brings the total number of chapters in Africa to 25, with more to launch in the coming weeks.
Today’s chapters are being launched simultaneously at events in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nairobi Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria following a week in which Digital Skills Masterclasses were held at various locations in these countries, involving some 5000 women.
“Since 2016, we have worked to upskill young people and SMEs living in Africa via our Digital Skills for Africa program to help them find jobs and grow their businesses,” Akinremi-Makinde said. “Our digital skills training has been offered in 29 countries across Africa with over a million people recording business growth, starting new businesses, finding jobs or growing in their current jobs. We have trained more than 3 million people in total, of which 48% are women.
“This year, we are playing our part in the contribution to women empowerment and we will be expanding the reach of our Grow with Google programs in SSA to focus on women empowerment as a key pillar. We aim to empower women with the right skills, coaching, mentorship and community support to access opportunities,” she commented.