By Abu Bakarr Kargbo
Freetown Terminal Limited, a subsidiary of Bollore Group celebrated International Women’s Day at their head office on 7th March 2023 on the theme: “Digital Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality”.
It is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women’s rights movement, bringing attention to gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.
Country manager for Bollore Group in Sierra Leone, Bertrand Kerguelen said his company is very Gender sensitive, noting that they consider all as equal. “It is good for women to fight to navigate to the top. To be a woman is not a disease but an opportunity,” he said and thanked all for the opportunity provided at the event.
Madam Claurinda Morgan, Human Resource Manager, underscored the importance of the event to the company, which is why it has been celebrated as a vital day annually. She called on all to speak with one voice marking the day.
John Monrovia, Sea Freight Supervisor who chaired the event, thanked the company for organizing such an important event. Women, he said are wonderful people who when they want to do it, will do it, and when they want to push, they will push. He admonished women to work together for a higher height.
Bintu Jonah, Chief Information Security Officer, Sierra Leone Commercial Bank, said gender equality is providing resources to everyone without discrimination regardless of gender. She pointed out that the digital space has been seen as a space for men for a long time but has been changing in recent days. “It will continue to change if we all make more effort.
The world is going digital, which makes life safe and easy. So many transactions are now done online, and there are so many women entrepreneurs than before. Women should not keep back on the digital space,” she said and continued that by 2050, 70% of jobs will be on digital technology. “If you cannot navigate the digital space, you’ll miss out. The future is digital and cannot be reversed,” Madam Jonah said and added that another technology in the world is artificial intelligence, which alone is influencing education a lot.
“Women should try to build their digital technology capacity through the use of the Internet and social media platforms. Digital literacy can boost productivity, and so Bollore should help develop women to meet the digital benefits,” she advised.
Assistant Inspector General of Police, Memunatu B. Konte Jalloh shared her experience in the police force, where women were not strategic in the top cadre until recently after the reform by the British they are now having most women as senior officers.
“Before now, it is difficult for women to get pregnant in the police force until after spending over three years. Now, after one year, you can get pregnant,” AIG Memuna Jalloh said and went further to say that they can now use the digital space for modern-day policing. “We have the Interpol, cyber unit, and we trying to digitalize the personnel data to make it right with NASSIT, NCRA, and for our own records. We are also tracking our vehicles to stop personnel from doing criminal activities and we have gone to paperless reporting as we now have our emails to share information,” she revealed and stated that they have the female staff association as women in the force. “We have some amount of money deducted from our salaries, which we used to build a center at the Police Training School for computer training and even train female drivers,” the Senior Police Officer said and advised that women should take up the challenge by partnering with men to excel.
A Gender Activist, Entrepreneur, and an Author, Nasu Fofana, disclosed that by 2028 women are ready to come forward in politics to be the next president to address their own policies. “The next leader should consider a woman as an Inspector General of Police,” she recommended and furthered that there is the need to remove the taboo of bringing down women and to make them become socioeconomic importance actors. “Women want a fair and equitable space.
I’m hoping to see women at the helm of companies like Freetown Terminal Limited,” she said and asked that qualified women should be found everywhere. “Women are not scared of digital technology space. It is good to embrace digital innovation to take you to places,” madam Fofana said. She shared her experience on how she is producing five flavored coconut oil for domestic consumption and for export. “We need to create the structures to make policies right for women,” she recommended.
Rev. Arnold Archer Campbell, it’s good that the Proportional Representation System will have more women coming front of politics. “More men have more access to mobile phone financial transactions than women. We should try to let women in rural areas have access to digital innovation. Girls in deprived communities should be encouraged to have access to education to enable them to enter the digital space,” he said and continued that women are marginalized, and they are sometimes limited to domestic activities. “Men should not discourage women from reaching the digital space. Let us sport the women to work side by side with men,” Rev. Campbell said.
Trudy Morgan, President of Sierra Leone Institute of Engineers in sharing her experience on her journey as an engineer disclosed that they have the Sierra Leone Women Engineers supporting women who want to be Engineers and supporting their career development. “We are taking engineering to the rural areas. It is important that women own their own money. They need the freedom to do things by themselves.
In spite of the challenges in the country, women are moving to higher heights. We should start to think about how to get to technology. We have technologies, but how we use it for advancement is very important. Let us make sure that innovation and technology work for us,” she said.
