The Young Communicators Initiative (YCI) on Tuesday in Abuja sought partnership and media support from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) for its Vision 2035 AI-Athon scheduled for October.
The group’s founder and Executive Director, Mrs Chinenye Anamena, made the appeal when she led her team on a courtesy visit to the Managing Director of NAN, Ali M. Ali.
Anamena said the programme, scheduled for Oct. 8 and 9, would feature a digital leadership workshop and speech contest for female prefects in secondary schools.
She said Ali had been selected to deliver the keynote address at the event.
According to her, the initiative aims to equip young girls with digital and leadership skills while preparing them to contribute meaningfully to national development.
She noted that Nigerian women’s participation at the top leadership level had declined in recent years.
She cited the drop in the number of female national legislators from 27 in the 8th Assembly to 17 in the 10th Assembly as a wake-up call to groom more girls for future leadership roles.
Nigeria’s ranking of 143rd out of 145 countries in the World Economic Forum’s assessment of women’s leadership, she said, highlights the need for greater investment in developing female leaders.
She therefore appealed to NAN to collaborate with the initiative and support the programme through its platforms to ensure wider visibility and impact.
Responding, Ali welcomed the initiative and commended Anamena for her passion and commitment to empowering the girl-child.
He assured the delegation that NAN would deploy its platforms to publicise and cover the programme, adding that the agency would consider other areas of the proposed collaboration.
Ali also expressed optimism that the initiative would help develop the leadership capacity of girls and promote their participation in national development.
