The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure has vowed to double the number of female engineers in Nigeria within five years.
The Executive Vice Chairman of NASENI, Suleiman Halilu, disclosed this on Friday at the agency’s official launch of “Developing Engineering Leaders Through Her” (DELT-Her), an event which also coincided with the global commemoration of International Women’s Day (IWD).
Delt-Her, according to Mr Halilu, is an initiative, a subset of the Delta-2 programme, floated to close the gender gap in engineering practice in the country, inspire the next generation of female engineers, provide financing support for new ideas and projects, translate them into viable businesses, and ultimately to strengthen the entire engineering ecosystem.
Halilu said, “DELT-Her is what I call an opportunity platform,” through which girls and young women can pitch and present their exciting and groundbreaking engineering ideas for funding by NASENI through our collaboration with the Presidential Implementation Committee on Technology Transfer (PICTT).
Speaking further on the project, he said DELT-Her “seeks to correct the balance in practice and enterprise development by focusing attention and funding on young women, and very importantly, creating and cultivating public awareness around the need to train and mentor more women into the engineering professions.
“The global average for female representation in engineering is 28 per cent. In Nigeria, it is only five per cent; only one in 20 Nigerian engineers is a woman. This awareness component of the work is one that we will take very seriously, working through schools and storytelling campaigns.
“We intend to, through DELT-HER, double the number of female engineers in Nigeria over the next five years. This will mean working extensively at the secondary education level, where young girls make the vital decisions regarding their choice of professional field,” he affirmed.
