We write to congratulate all our members for our participation at the official signing of MOU for media partnership with WFM91.7, the station for women and their family.
The project also seek to create more awareness about wikipedia through a weekly radio broadcast.
Wikimedia Nigeria ( WUGN) an affiliate of Wikimedia Foundation, san francisco, US and Wfm91.7 the radio station for women and their family are partnering to give visibility to Nigerian women. The signing of the memorandum of understanding took place at the radio official Headquarter on the 23rd of August 2017 . The partnership is the first of its kind in Africa.
The signing of the MOU was witnessed by Olaniyan Olushola the President of WUGN and Toun Sonaiya, the CEO of WFM91.7. Also in attendance is Ayokanmi Oyeyemi the director of media and communication, WUGN and some other members of the community. Also from the side of WFM91.7, were: Nike Fabiyi , the manager in charge of sales and other members of the station
As part of the partnership is a project tagged Wiki Loves Women. The project project was conceptualised by Isla haddow and Florence Anthere in the year 2015 to give visibility to African women on wikipedia. Being a pan African initiative the project started In four African country namely Nigeria, Ghana, CIV and Cameroon.
In the word of Mr. Olaniyan Olushola, the project seek to encourage the contribution of quality information on African women to be published on, and made widely available via, Wikipedia.
We also seek wish to use the project to correct gender inequalities on wikipedia, the world largest encylopedia, with statics showing 16.% of women biography profiled on the platform in contrast to their male counterpart. We plan to engage female students from our various tertiary institutions across the country on how they can create content on wikipedia so as to increase our local contents on the platform and also to create awareness for Wikipedia in Nigeria.
Toun said, WFM91.7 as an organizarion is excited to see the birth of this partnership because it is a confirmation of the station unalloyed commitment to promote Nigerian women.
As part of the agreement, Iyalode Alaba Lawson. the first female President of Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and indurstry was unanimously selected to be the face of the project in Nigeria. This is to recognise her doggedness as a unique force in the promotion of numerous women projects in Nigeria.
The project is poised to create awareness for Wikipedia in Nigeria. The launching of this project will address the outcome of global outreach survey conducted in 7 countries where internet is widely used across the globe. Nigeria was selected in Africa as a sample country. Result shows that only 27% Nigerians are aware of Wikipedia. And among this population 47% are students. Hence the need to focus on this group.