A non-governmental organization and tech hub, Paradigm Initiative popularly known as PIN has organized two-day in-person training tagged as DRIF22 across African countries.
In his opening remark, Gbenga Sesan who is the Executive Director said “Paradigm Initiative’s Digital Inclusion pilot program started in a community in Ajegunle, Lagos State, in the Southwestern region of Nigeria. Currently, our L.I.F.E. program operates from Senegal and 3 regions in Nigeria – the Southwest, Southeast and Northwest regions. While our Dufuna program is targeted towards young people that are tech-driven in Africa.”
“This year’s program will host 500 delegates and participants over the DRIF22 season, attendees will dissect the state of digital rights and inclusion in Africa.” He said.
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Gbenga added that “ their debates will focus on issues plaguing the digital sphere in Africa including Data privacy, Affordable internet, Gender and ICTs, Disability rights and ICT, Health surveillance during COVID-19 times and Internet shutdowns
The DRIF22 in-person program commenced on April 20th in 17 countries which consist of Namibia, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Senegal, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, The Gambia, Nigeria, Somalia, and Ghana.
Through their interventions, PIN was able to network young tech hubs across the six geo-political regions of Nigeria breaking the barriers in different fields.
One of the beneficiaries of their project elaborated that “ PIN helped us build startups and I was able to create a business plan that changed the narrative in my community. Young people are keying into digital spaces without much difficulty.”
The program which is supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Luminate, Ford Foundation and Wikimedia foundation is divided into two; virtual and in-person sessions. The virtual started on the 12th of April and ended on the 14th of May.
The theme of this year’s DRIF22 is “ Towards a digitally inclusive and rights-respecting Africa.”
The DRIF22 is expected to end on 20th May 2022
Earlier this year, the organization Digital Right Academy in Abuja housed legal practitioners, academics, journalists and digital rights advocates who discussed the possible ways of protecting data privacy, freedom of expression and inclusion in Nigeria.
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