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Farai Dauramanzi Herald Reporter

OVER 20 000 young women are set to graduate under phase 2 of the Concord Young Women in Business Global ICT programme.

The programme is aimed at empowering young women with skills on how they can utilise information communication technology (ICT) to enhance their businesses.

Government has intensified the drive to create a digital economy through improved access to ICTs in the quest to engender socio-economic transformation. Improving access to ICTs is one of the key pillars of the National Development Strategy (NDS1), and a step towards the attainment of an upper-middle-income by 2030.

President Mnangagwa has implored women to fully take advantage of the information technology value chain, to eliminate inequalities in labour force participation and provide economic opportunities, as well as enhance ICT access for young women.

This is in line with the Second Republic’s thrust of empowering everyone and leaving no one and no place behind. It also fits well in the country’s NDS1 programme which aims to increase the use of ICT.

The programme also caters for participants from members of Johanne Marange Apostolic Church and Zion Christian Church (ZCC), an indication that indeed Government is leaving no one and no place behind in terms of development.

Concord Young Women in Business Global ICT president Ms Apphia Nyasha Musavengana said she was humbled that the programme was a success.

“We are currently running phase two of the ICT and goat-rearing training programme and we are now on our eighth province and we are now left with Manicaland and Mashonaland West.

“Our provincial PCCs are now making consultations and considerations on which province to host the graduation ceremony which we intend to host next month,” said Musavengana.

She said that they expect 20 000 young women to graduate after successfully undergoing training in ICT and goat rearing.

“We have managed to train 12 351 in seven provinces and we are now in Mashonaland Central where we have 400 young women receiving training in ICT phase two and 700 that are training in goat rearing.”

Ms Musavengana noted that they are receiving a good response to the goat-rearing programme due to its many advantages to the farming communities.

“Women are ready to be empowered through the goat rearing programme and we are going to empower them, in every province, by giving them the goats to keep at their farms and also for business,” she said.

“We have made consultations with the Ministry of ICT and we hope to give all students laptops under phase two of our training programme.”

The ICT training programme is proving to be helpful to young women as many who graduated under phase one of the programme have managed to get employment with others now running their own businesses.

The training programme has also helped in reducing the number of young women who are now engaging in social ills such as drugs and substance abuse as well as those engaging in commercial sex work.

According to the International Data Corporation, global investment in digital transformation will reach US$2,8 trillion in 2025, which is more than half of all the spending on information and communication technology.