 So ladies and gentlemen as I'm the last speaker before lunch I'm going to ask you to please stand up and stretch your legs for a moment. Everyone if you could stand up Thank you, and I'm going to ask you to also stretch your arms and make this gesture This gesture is a sign for equals Okay equals is the global partnership to bridge the digital gender gap and we make this sign Because we all need to work together to bridge the digital gender gap Okay, you can put your arms down and sit back down. I thank you Excellencies ambassadors distinguished guests Ladies and gentlemen and most importantly the girls a Very warm welcome to all of you And we'd like to thank you so much for joining today's girls in ICT celebration This is my first girls in ICT Celebration since I took office as director of the telecommunications Development Bureau of the ITU in January It's also the first time that I have personally celebrated girls in ICT day here in Africa On the UN official calendar girls in ICT day always falls on the fourth Thursday in April And I can't imagine a better place to be on this fourth Thursday in April than here in Africa here at the African Union Commission and here in Ethiopia What energy what? enthusiasm and what entrepreneurial spirits This continent stands poise on the brink of a new wave of social and economic development and information and communication technologies ICTs are going to be the engine of that growth Thanks to ICTs for the first time ever we truly have new ways to tackle old problems ICTs have the power to overcome the tyranny of distance and bring services to communities That have been for far too long marginalized Marginalized from higher education Marginalized from routine health care From access to libraries and other sources of information From financial services from commercial opportunities Marginalized from the basic foundations for economic growth that other parts of the world have long enjoyed and Have taken for granted for far too long I believe that we have reached one of those inflection points One that will overturn our old ideas of what might be possible of what might be achievable the internet of things artificial intelligence big data and Innovative new online platforms have changed the game and What we've seen to date is just the tip of the iceberg Africa's digital transformation will open up vast new opportunities for a continent with so many untapped assets and Africa's young people They will be the ones that will be the major beneficiary and here in Ethiopia As you know 60 percent of the population is aged under 25 50 percent under 18 and That huge youth Demographic is something that African nations can harness Because we all know that young people are natural users of technology My 17 year old daughter is here in this room Anna Now myself as an ICT professional for over 25 years, I think I'm sort of tech savvy But Anna can do things much more quickly Five times faster than I can when it comes to technology She hasn't had any special ICT training Although I forced her To do some coding weekends But it just comes naturally to young people They understand technology and they get it in ways That older folks like myself just don't and That's why girls and ICT day is so important To the 250 girls here in the audience today. I would like to say this Technology will give you the chance to realize your dreams as our commissioner said your dreams Technology will give you that chance ICTs are a tool that you can use to just about go anywhere that you want Girls and ICT day isn't about convincing you to become a computer programmer. It's about showing you that studying technology Will be a huge asset to you regardless of what field you choose to pursue In these days, it's hard to think of an area where ICTs don't play a role Journalists use ICTs to instantly amass global news to write their stories Art historians are using ICTs to analyze lost painting techniques to identify unknown artists and to date ancient works of art Lawyers use ICTs to help them go through decades of legal precedents Archaeologists use ICTs to find new treasures Doctors use ICTs for diagnosis and care of previously untreatable conditions Physicists are even pushing the boundaries of human knowledge by using ICTs to photograph unexplored phenomena. I don't know how many of you saw This photo which made very big news in the scientific community just three weeks ago It's the first ever image of a black hole in outer space Until now Nobody had ever seen a black hole. It existed only as a scientific theory This photo has made history as one of the great astronomical breakthroughs of the 21st century and Here's the scientist who wrote the algorithm that enabled this photo to be taken Are you surprised? Yes, well, perhaps you shouldn't be Because women have actually been instrumental in many of the great scientific breakthroughs of our day Women were actually the first programmers of the first IBM computer Margaret Hamilton wrote the code that helped guide the Apollo 11 moon rocket Nicola Pello wrote the code That helped to turn the internet into the worldwide web as we know it Today's girls girls and ICT day program is about showing you that tech can be fun It's about showing you that tech can be incredibly creative It can pretty much be Anything that you want it to be because you understand it much better than we do And that means you can use your imaginations to harness tech to do whatever you want it to do Technology can help solve some of the most chronic Greatest challenges that we have on the development front and later today You're gonna be hearing from some Ethiopian graduates who are gonna tell us about how they are harnessing Technology to help accelerate the achievement of the United Nations 17 sustainable development goals Ladies and gentlemen girls distinguished guests and friends I'd like to leave you with this thought Right now in Africa only 18 percent I repeat 18 percent of women have access to the internet Just imagine Imagine the development potential if those millions of unconnected women were online just Imagine the transformational impact on the education of Africa's youth on Family health care and on the economic opportunities that a new generation of female digital entrepreneurs could tap into We don't have to imagine it we can make it happen you can make it happen I Believe that technology is at the very heart of the African Renaissance So I encourage all of you girls here today all of you to play your part To play your part in building the networks and services that will transform Africa The future is really yours. I thank you