Govt to launch WIFI to create 30,000 women entrepreneurs

The government is going to launch 'Women ICT Frontier Initiative (WIFI)', a flagship program of the UN Asian and Pacific Training Center for ICT for Development (UN-APCICT) in Bangladesh, to create 30,000 women entrepreneurs through providing IT training.

Speaker of Bangladesh Parliament Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury will inaugurate the national launch of the WIFI to be held on July 5 after 2-day Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop from July 3 to 4 at a local hotel, official sources said.

State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak will chair the launching ceremony which is expected to be attended by State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroze Chumki, UN APCICT Director Dr. Hyeun Suk Rhee and representatives of national and international organizations, officials from relevant ministries, academia, women entrepreneurs association and stakeholders.

The government has been providing support and IT training to create women entrepreneurs across the country aimed at ensuring their role in the country's development, said Director General of the Department of ICT Banamali Bhowmick.

He said in line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) contained women empowerment as one of the major agendas, the government has taken various initiatives, including capacity building of women in using IT which will help empower them.

The master trainers to be created through ToT workshop will provide IT training to the women for ensuring optimum use of ICT for business management, marketing, selling products and making business plan, Banamali added.

Additional Secretary of ICT Division Susanta Kumar Saha said the training to build capacity of women entrepreneurs in using IT will help to make business plan as well as promote and expand their businesses.

The UN-APCICT has a very positive impression about Bangladesh's women entrepreneurs and they could play an important role to motivate and empower the women community, he added.

The workshop is being jointly organized by ICT Division and UN-APCITCT, Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC), Department of ICT (DoICT), Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development (BIID) and Bangladesh Women in Technology, Bangladesh (BWIF).

Source: bss