Celebrating Girls and ICT: The Great Equalizer in Global Development

"I believe that ICT can be the great equalizer. It can serve as a conduit to give voice to the voiceless; to offer access to information, resources, connections; to train and educate those held back by circumstance or trait; and so much more" — Regina Agyare

A large concrete room, lit solely by a row of windows and decorated only by wires and cables running from ceiling to computers, is the home of one of the Tech Needs Girls programs. Here, in this nondescript building in the center of Nima, a slum in Accra, over two dozen girls anxiously await Regina Agyare’s arrival.

Founder and CEO of Soronko Solutions and a 2014 Vital Voices VVLead Fellow, Regina is a technology pioneer in Ghana and one of the few women leaders in Africa’s growing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector. She uses almost 80 percent of the profits generated by her for-profit web and mobile development company to fund programs that offer girls an opportunity to learn science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills.

Girls in Nima, and across Ghana, lack access to formal education beyond primary school and receive…

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