Gender diversity crucial to drive digital innovation in Africa – Vodafone CEO
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Vodafone Ghana, Patricia Obo-Nai, has advised players in the technology industry to be deliberate in creating a work culture that attracts and empowers gender diversity.
She said gender diversity in the technology space will lead to increased ground-breaking innovation and drive digital innovations in Africa.
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Mrs Obo-Nai said this during a virtual fireside chat with Ericsson's Middle East and Africa teams on diversity and inclusion, women's empowerment, and her career journey as a female engineer.
"The tech industry is shaping technology for the future, so how can you allow just one demographic to define that technology?” she quizzed.
“Gender diversity is fundamental to how you thrive in innovation and how you succeed. But the industry must be very deliberate about how we include this culture at all these levels so that we can get it right.
“Otherwise, we provide solutions for people and we think that is what they need, while we do not even understand them,” she said.
Contribution to gender diversity
She explained that the gender diversity agenda should be driven from the topmost level adding that “the industry must own it from the senior level otherwise we are not going to win.
“Diversity within the tech space is no longer a choice; it has become a necessity that we must drive.''
Speaking on Vodafone’s contribution to gender diversity and women's empowerment, she said the organisation engages in rigorous projects aimed at giving young females hands-on skills in the field of technology.
"At Vodafone, we spend a lot of time and money doing advocacy, and we are very deliberate about this.
I have been investing my time and expertise into programmes that will increase gender participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) across Africa,” she said.