Internet operators empower women in ICT

A five-day international ICT workshop to empower women in the explicit handling and management of the Internet and other ICT systems opened in Accra on Monday.

Dubbed the AfNOG Chix, the workshop would provide hands-on training where trainees would in turn become trainers in their respective countries.

In his remarks, Prof. Nii Narku Quaynor, Convener of the African Network Operators Group (AfNOG) in Ghana, organisers of the workshop, said the group hoped to empower African network engineers to professionally expand their territories.

About 26 women from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger, Togo, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Cameroon and Guinea are participating in the workshop.

According to Prof. Quaynor, AfNOG collaborated closely with the Association of African Universities, the Internet Numbers Registry IP Addresses, as well as the African Research and Education Networks forum to provide specific training and technical sessions to strengthen and support management networks.

He said through AfNOG's annual training programmes, many African instructors had become leaders and teachers of network deployment in Africa.

He noted that internet was gaining a stronger foothold in Africa and this had increased the demand for AfNOG educational services.

Prof. Quaynor said it was the hope of the Group to build a strong community of engineers to help each other in operating Internet Infrastructure in Africa, and on the global internet and also promote discussion of issues relating to implementation of new networks and communities that required community cooperation.