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Rabat – For more than two decades, Moroccan women have assumed their choice to turn to technology and have excelled in it despite encountering daunting challenges. From start-up leaders, software developers, or even investors and business angels, women today have dared to venture into grounds that were the preserve of men.
In Morocco, the information technology (ICT) revolution that began in the 2000s has already allowed some women to distinguish themselves in the field. A notable example is Saloua Karkri Belkeziz, CEO of GFI Morocco at that time, who is not only known as one of the most active women entrepreneurs on the African continent, but also as an enthusiastic supporter of the ICT sector whose commitment and innovation are impressive.
People who follow the industry likely remember Pubonline, Proactech, AGIRH, which were all run by women. These women were brilliantly successful, efficient, and competent. Giant steps have been taken to move forward. If many women have been able to prove themselves in fields such as marketing or communication, it is certain that they can do so in digital technology as well.
The positive impact of digital technology on the economic performance of any nation and the advances and development of all economic sectors in Morocco over the past decades reinforce the country’s strategic vision.
These positive impacts enable citizens to improve their quality of life and take Morocco to the level of development it deserves. We all know today that digital transformation is vital to the daily processes of governments, public administrations, companies, as well as the lives of users and citizens. Whether or not we accept it, digital technology, with all its effects, has become embedded in our daily lives.
Read Also: International Digital Women’s Day: Moroccan Women Make a Name for Themselves
For several years, creating gender equality in the digital and innovation professions in Morocco has been the mission of several private and public institutions. The Ministry of Digital Transition, the Digital Development Agency (ADD), as well as institutions and associations have been working for years to integrate Moroccan women into the digital and IT professions by encouraging their training and recruitment.
Associative Network Well-Established
The Association of Information System Users in Morocco (AUSIM) has brought together 108 member organizations (offices, banks, insurance companies, industrial companies). You can imagine the number of top managers involved in the challenge of better arming themselves with digital technology and putting women at the heart of the digital challenge in Morocco. Through its various actions and its digital ADN, AUSIM highlights the achievements of Moroccan women in the digital field. Furthermore, it invests, through its “AUSAiducation” program, in the training of brilliant young Moroccan scholarship holders with the “Jadara Foundation” association. The AUSIM meetings showcase the achievements of Moroccan women in the field of digital transformation and artificial intelligence.
The Moroccan Association of Advertisers (GAM) through its training programme, as well as the African Digital Summit, is considered today as the annual reference meeting of all the actors of the ecosystem: advertisers, marketers, digital professionals, communication agencies and media; a meeting for knowledge sharing and networking and the recognition of the best digital innovations in which there is female participation.
The Private Sector Involved
For instance, Orange Morocco has launched a “Hello Women” program, which aims to open up digital professions to women. Orange Morocco aims to support female talents by training them in coding and data science professions, with an eye to integrate them into its technical teams, an ambition that Orange Morocco wants to achieve through its “Hello Women” program, launched in January 2023. The objective of Orange is to train women in technology and improve the gender mix in these professions, an objective supported by Zakia Hajjaji, HR director at Orange Morocco.
For its part, Huawei Morocco in March offered certified technical training and soft skills training to more than 100 participants. It did so to strengthen women’s skills in the field of ICT, support their empowerment in technology, and promote the digital culture through an inclusive approach in partnership with the Ministry of Digital Transition and Administration Reform.
The training courses are led by certified Huawei experts in Artificial Intelligence and Big Data. They are provided to 100 participants, including 50 women engineers with the possibility of discovering the latest technologies, AI, and the promotion of “Design Thinking.” This initiative was created by the “convergence of the two partners’ visions” and consolidates the training of women in ICT, under the theme “Tech for her, Tech by her, Tech with her.”
Universities Take Action
Several universities have engaged in the field of Digital Technology and Artificial Intelligence.
The Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) has inaugurated the International Center for Artificial Intelligence of Morocco. The AI movement at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University aims to develop research, stimulate innovation, design new applications with high societal impact, and contribute to the deployment of ethical recommendations and international regulations accompanying the advent of this disruptive technology. Its ambition is to play a major role in shaping the future of AI in Morocco and more broadly on the African continent.
In turn, the Mohammed I University (UMP) in Oujda has recently received the prize for the best university in Africa in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), during the World Festival of Artificial Intelligence of Cannes (WAIFC). This distinction has rewarded the efforts made by the UMP of Oujda in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Africa. It is worth noting that in July 2022 UMP inaugurated the first AI House in Africa, thanks to a partnership with the European AI Institute.
Moroccan women have embarked on professions such as cloud computing, DevOps manager, community manager, UX copywriter, content manager, artificial intelligence consultant, big data consultant, and others. Today, they deserve the place they have courageously taken in the digital transition to which our country has committed itself. The future may be feminine in specific professions, even though the journey is still long, and the young Moroccan woman is determined more than ever to contribute to the building of Digital Morocco.
Happy ‘World Digital Women’s Day,’ ladies.
