Anambra Government agency tasks CSOs to leverage on Wikipedia to promote rich culture, businesses

By Praise Chinecherem

The Anambra State ICT Agency has urged residents of the state to liverage on Wikipedia to promote culture, tourist attractions as well as hidden successful businessmen and women in the state and beyond.

Managing Director, Anambra ICT Agency, Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata gave the charge a digital literacy training for members of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in partnership with Wikimedia Nigeria User Group, tagged ‘Building Tech-Forward Change makers’

He decried under-reportage of activities and events in the State and Southeast, expressing optimism that the Wikipedia would give the region a stronger voice.

He said, “As a journalist, techpreneur and start-up supporter, one of the platforms I discovered that was very powerful was Wikipedia. It was a sweet platform.

“The reason for this training is because I believe the Southeast needs a stronger voice. There are lot of serious things we trivialize in this part of the world.

“I’m happy there’s Anambra network which is quite strong. If we don’t tell our stories, nobody will tell it for us. Leveraging on the platform can do a lot of wonders in promoting brands’ visibility in unimaginable ways.

“We need to talk about our tourist attractions, our culture, our successful businessmen and women not yet known.

“Instead, what thrives in the digital space, are few negative stories that account for less than 20 percent of things that happen in the state. That is why must not allow them tell our stories.

“Tech is not just about Lagos, which is about 25m population which means there’s still more than 175million people outside Lagos yet to be included in this technology revolutionary whose voice needs to be heard.

“One of the good things about Wikipedia is that once your platform is indexed, it puts you on the world map and I thank the Wikimedia group who are here to guide us on how best to put these articles out there.”

While calling on participants to take advantage of the training to acquire knowledge to propagate the works they were doing in the state, Agbata said, “We have it as a duty to jointly support Governor Chukwuma Soludo, to make Anambra a livable and prosperous state.

“So, I encourage the CSOs to work with us, collaborate with us and let’s make a difference.”

On her part, Head, Wikimedia User Group, Anambra Network, Dr. Ngozi Obichukwu
described partnership with the state ICT Agency as rewarding especially in the area of engendering effective uptake of technology in the world.

She explained that the training would provide right visibility capable of creating possibilities for great partnerships that would enhance diverse developments Civil Society Organizations were carrying out in their various communities.

“Civil Society Organizations in Anambra are doing a lot of work in their communities but these works and their impacts are not out there. Hence our decision to partner with the State ICT Agency is to ensure we start telling our stories right like our counterparts in the western part of the country,” she added.

Various topics treated during the training included introduction to Digital Literacy, Contributing to Wikipedia, Mastering Online Research and Empowering Communities with Technology.