{"id":255749,"date":"2023-03-30T13:53:37","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T11:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/afdb.africa-newsroom.com\/press\/gender-in-focus-african-development-banks-digital-ambassadors-program-training-boosts-senegalese-entrepreneur-business-performance-service-to-community?lang=en"},"modified":"2023-03-30T13:53:37","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T11:53:37","slug":"gender-in-focus-african-development-banks-digital-ambassadors-program-training-boosts-senegalese-entrepreneur-business-performance-service-to-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/gender-in-focus-african-development-banks-digital-ambassadors-program-training-boosts-senegalese-entrepreneur-business-performance-service-to-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender in Focus: African Development Bank\u2019s Digital Ambassadors Program training boosts Senegalese entrepreneur business performance, service to community"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"African<\/a>
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Senegalese entrepreneur <\/em>Fatou Diouf is one of 1,000 youth selected from 21,000<\/em> applicants for the African Development Bank’s (www.AfDB.org<\/a>) Digital Ambassadors program<\/em> (https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3G3kuTu<\/a>). The program, which aims to achieve a 50\/50 gender balance, is expanding digital skills to African youth – especially in rural communities – through a peer-to-peer training model. For this first edition, 45% of the selected candidates were female.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

We asked the 32-year-old entrepreneur, who works as a commercial tailor, real estate agent and farmer, about her program training experience and how she plans to use her acquired knowledge and skills.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How did you hear about the program and how did it feel like to be selected?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was surfing the internet with my phone when I came across the call for applications for the Digital Ambassadors program. Since it was a training for youth, I told myself to try my luck, hoping that I could get valuable skills that I can use in my business. I was pleasantly surprised when I received the e-mail that I was selected as an ambassador among the 21,000 candidates who had applied. I am very happy that I took a chance and got the opportunity!<\/p>\n

What motivated you to apply for the program?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I always run towards any opportunity to develop additional skills because I strongly believe that we never stop learning. When I read the call for application, the digital skills part of the program sounded familiar but the freelancing and soft skills were entirely foreign. I saw the training as an opportunity to improve my (information and communications technology) (ICT) knowledge and also learn new skills.<\/p>\n

I also wanted to grow as an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is a passion and I consider it a personal challenge. I have never liked to work for someone else because I want to be financially independent and be in charge of my own time. <\/p>\n

How do you plan to use the knowledge and skills you gained during the training?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I consider it a privilege to have taken part in the Digital Ambassadors program. I know there are many barriers for young people in Senegal to access digital skills including not having access to devices or the means to purchase internet access.<\/p>\n

I plan to use my acquired skills to impact the communities and associations I’m already a part of, like the Federation of Tailors in Senegal that has 9,000 members. Despite having only been to Koranic school, these tailors have an entrepreneurial spirit and I believe digital literacy will improve the way they run their businesses.<\/p>\n

Which part of the digital ambassador’s <\/strong>program<\/strong> was your favourite<\/strong>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I loved the freelancing module; I realized that I was already a freelancer without knowing and now I have gained more business organizational skills – especially things like budgeting. I also appreciated the soft skills part of the training, I think these skills will be valuable during the training of other tailors. I now know how to communicate better, understand others, and manage conflicts.<\/p>\n

H<\/strong>as the training changed your <\/strong>career <\/strong>perspective<\/strong>? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks to the program, I now manage the Federation of Tailors in Senegal’s YouTube, Instagram and Facebook accounts.<\/p>\n

Through the program I met like-minded ambassadors from Côte d’Ivoire, and I have now gotten business orders from clients in Côte d’Ivoire. So, I got to experience the meaning and value of networking first-hand.<\/p>\n

 The training taught me to effectively use (Microsoft Office suite software applications like) Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. In my real estate business, I am now using PowerPoint to make presentation of the houses on sale.<\/p>\n

In my tailoring business, I recently won a tender to supply 2,000 school uniforms in Sedhiou (region in southwest Senegal). Digital skills were invaluable in this process because I used my Microsoft Excel and Word skills to prepare my bid – and I did it all on my own, while other tailors had to hire consultants to help them prepare bids.<\/p>\n

The Digital Ambassadors program has also made me realise that digital literacy is not only for the highly educated. I would like to say to all the young people who wish to join the digital ambassadors program – you don't need a diploma or a CV to join the training, the program will meet your at your level of education. Whatever your level of education – you can do it!<\/p>\n

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: Africa Newsroom – APO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Download logo Senegalese entrepreneur Fatou Diouf is one of 1,000 youth selected from 21,000 applicants for the African Development Bank’s (www.AfDB.org) Digital Ambassadors program (https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3G3kuTu). The program, which aims to achieve a 50\/50 gender balance, is expanding digital skills to African youth – especially in rural communities – through a peer-to-peer training model. For this first edition, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":255750,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4585],"class_list":{"0":"post-255749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-apo","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/gender-in-focus-african-development-banks-digital-ambassadors-program-training-boosts-senegalese-entrepreneur-business-performance-service-to-community.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}