Group seeks increased representation of Nigeria’s women in Agile

The need for Africa and indeed Nigerian women to bridge the gap and compete favourably with their counterparts in the western world through maximising opportunities and exposure to local markets has been emphasised.

Experts said that women having the right skills and competency, would make them acquire the global competitive edge most international firms look out for.

This was the submission of a group, referred to as ‘Women in Agile’, which seeks to bridge gaps and create platforms for women’s voices, by providing a path to support and amplify a diverse and empowered community.

Explaining more on what the group is about, Digital Strategist, Agile, and Data Enthusiast, Mercy George-Igbafe said Women in Agile is a non-profit and collective effort to recruit, network, promote, and support the work of outstanding women in the agile community through blogging, speaking at events, and building a network surrounded by people of all genders to advance equality and inclusion.

She said the group is focused on supporting local communities of diversity, building more inclusive conference experiences, and providing opportunities to share their craft in a safe, supportive environment with a low barrier to entry.

According to her, “Agile is project management which controls, monitors and manages people. It gives power to the people to self organise, work in an iterative manner and in a very fast approach. The future of work is agile. It helps remove complexity in organisations.”

George-Igbafe, who is also the founder of Learntor, a consulting company focused on agile digital transformational learning, and the first Nigerian sitting on the board of agile expressed worry over the low representation of women in the agile group in Nigeria.

She said there was the need to create more awareness, by making sure women are educated and by leveraging the three-day women in the agile conference coming up in December.

“Women in agile African conference is targeted at opening up the market to more Africans and locating more Africans in the agile world so that more women can aspire greatly.

“The gap is that most African women are not skilled with the necessary capacity to explore the opportunity. The Asians, Indians, and Chinese are taking up the opportunities and positions because they learnt the skills. They promote a lot of entrepreneurship. The problem is because we are not digitally savvy. More women don’t even know the word agile, so there is a problem.

“There is the need to bridge the gap so that our people can be exposed to the local market and maximise the opportunity available to them.

“The focus of the conference is to create awareness and educate that there are opportunities for African women to compete with the west by getting certified as agile and data analysts.

“We want to inform and let them know they can get international job opportunities while in Nigeria. It is paramount for us and this is what we do in Learntor, focused on breaking the gap for Africans. It is important we learn the right skill so we can have a global competitive edge. The skills and competence most international firms are looking at are agile.

“Benefits of working in an agile way is that you learn fast, transforms your processes and cuts away waste, helps you to have a more productive and efficient working team, it delivers quick iterative and incrementally; and delivers value to the users,” she said.