Public Affairs Officer Dehab Ghebreab opening the GIST workshop in Lagos on Wednesday. Photo: U.S. Consulate General Lagos.
On May 18th 2016, the U.S. Department of State’s Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST) initiative, in cooperation with the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, kicked off a networking workshop for 25 science and technology entrepreneurs to promote women’s access to entrepreneurship resources.
The workshop in Lagos, being implemented by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), is part of a series of workshops – GIST Women’s Village Workshops – to be held throughout Africa in 2016.
Science and technology entrepreneurs will learn how to network, build successful entrepreneurship ecosystems, and leverage resources to benefit women entrepreneurs. Each entrepreneur is challenged to increase awareness and improve access for women entrepreneurs by teaching what they have learned to 60 people within 6 months of completing the workshop, and to expand the reach.
Public Affairs Officer Dehab Ghebreab, speaking at the opening session of the workshop said,
The entrepreneurship ecosystem in Lagos is developing and we see a great deal of interest from women who are eager to enhance their capacity. In partnership with various organizations, we have recently supported workshops for women in computer coding, business acumen, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. We are delighted to support the GIST Women’s Village Workshop in Lagos.
The GIST Women’s Village Workshop is an important way for the entrepreneurship community in Nigeria to empower its science and technology innovators through networking and skills building, showing support to those who have the confidence to take the risks necessary to make their ideas reality.
Launched in 2011, GIST is led by the U.S. Department of State. GIST focuses on empowering young science and technology innovators through capacity building, mentoring, and networking. This series of GIST Women’s Village Workshops is implemented by AAAS, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals. GIST launched the GIST Network to expand its reach and improve access to financing, mentorship, and provide a strong peer community to the most connected generation of entrepreneurs in history.
Go to gistnetwork.org to sign up and become part of GIST Network.
