All is now set for the Women in Agile (WiA) Africa Conference 2022, scheduled to hold on 27th-29th January.

L-R: Olawale Bakare, National President, Junior Chamber International, Nigeria, Mercy George-Igbafe, Convener of Women in Agile Africa Conference/Founder of LEARNTOR, Mr Fred Amata, FilmMaker, Actor, Director/ Scrumaster and Bisi Alimi, Business Analyst with LEARNTOR during press conference on Thursday in Lagos.

The 3-day conference Themed: Uniting & Transforming Africa Across Agile will be hosted in French, Portuguese and English Language.

The Conference is dedicated to creating awareness, exploring innovative opportunities for Africans by advancing Agile values and principles, and creating a safe space for networking, developing new skills, sharing ideas, and flourishing together.

Its also hopes to foster equality and inclusion in the agile community as well as create awareness and explore innovative opportunities for Africans by advancing Agile values and principles, and creating a safe space for networking and skills development.

Speaking about the upcoming conference, Mercy George-Igbafe, Convener of Women in Agile Africa Conference/Founder of LEARNTOR said the goal of the conference is to open up the market to Africans so as to enable them plug into the opportunity that is out there.

she added that the WiA conference aims to bridge the digital gap especially for women in Africa.

According to her, “We want to amplify International Finance Corporation (IFC) 2019 reports that 230 million jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa would require digital skills by 2030.

“But there are not people skilled enough for the job. The UK government has opened up their borders. But do you know the kind of jobs that they are recruiting for, are people that have tech skills.

“So if you’re not tech savvy, you already have a challenge before you and that’s why women need agile. I am the convener for the women in Agile Africa conference. I’m on the board of women in Agile, and I’m the founder of Learntor. So it just aligned succinctly into what Learntor is about to bridge the digital skill gap in Africa, for especially women and encouraging young people to be part of it”.

Bisi Alimi, Business Analyst with LEARNTOR, said that the world is now in times where changes in technology around the world has demanded a lots of skills.

“A lot of us are engaging with technologies that we never used four, five years ago but literally now with technology something keeps on changing every year that was not available five years ago.

“Look at Uber, Airbnb who thought about that? It shows that technology is diversifying everyday and it keeps on evolving every day. And as this technology evolves, if we as people do not have the capacity, we do not have the skill we cannot fit in.

“That means we’ll be playing catch up with the world as it is now in Africa. A lot of Africans are still not digitally savvy and That is why, like Mercy said there are rules that are springing up but because it’s massive, we’re not intelligent. It’s not like we’re not smart, or we have not. We are not equipped to the skills that will match the require that will meet the job that has been available” she added.

Also speaking at the press Conference, Mr Fred Amata, FilmMaker, Actor, Director/ Scrumaster, urged Nigerians to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the Women in Agile Africa Conference.

He noted that with the ever evolving technology world, it has become pertinent for Nigerians to upskill their skills in line with current global trends in order to remain relevant and competitive, stressing that one can never be too old for education.

“The world that is emerging now, is a world that continues to go towards digital, which is built towards information technology space and the importance of it began to dawn on me when I enrolled for the training because right now there are over 60 million jobs available even on our phones through technology and you can upskill without minding your age because am close to 60 years and now am a master of scrum.”

Women in Agile Africa, has over 20,000 membership with 70 local groups, but Its still growing in Africa.

The conference is free for all attendees but registration is compulsory.