Womenseconomicrights-conference> WomensEconomicRights- Virtual Conference

["Fantsuam" <fantsuamfoundation@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

We want to thank the organisers of this virtual conference for their
foresight and vision. Without any intention to dampen enthusiasm, we would
just like to call attention to the possibility that the voices  and views of
many women in Africa, and in Nigeria, in particular, is bound to be left out
of this important dialogue for no fault of theirs. This is simply because
they have no access to relevant information, which as we all know remains a
core requirement for empowerment.

We work from Kafanchan in Nigeria, but have to travel to Jos or Zaria to
access our emails. As you can imagine, this is a whole day's job or more,
and we cannot afford such trips too frequently. We think we are among the
lucky women's groups to be able to access our emails once every fortnight.
So even if this is our first and only contribution to this discussion,
please be aware of the constraints we work under. We believe we speak for
the 70% of 120 mi.iion Nigerians who live in rural communities where there
is no telephone access.

One of the good things that we hope will come out of this virtual conference
is a networking arrangement that can make it possible for rural-based women
to have access to information through facilities available to urban-based
women's groups. The GSM system that comes on stream this month  in Nigeria
is beyond the budget of most rural communites. Moreover most rural
communities will not be served with the GSM phone signals at the location
where one wishes to connect to the Internet.

It therefore  seems that a piggy-backing strategy that encourages sharing
ICT resources would be more sustainable approach. We will be happy to
collaborate with groups in contiguous states and the rest of Nigeria to
explore these possibilities.

Thank you all for your attention.

Kazanka Comfort
Fantsuam Foundation
Bayanloco
Kafanchan
Nigeria