The Women in Leadership Advancement Network (WILAN) has unveiled an Artificial Intelligence-powered chatbot designed to help women and girls prevent, identify and respond to technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV).
The digital safety tool, named Nana, was launched yesterday in Lagos amid growing concerns over the use of technology and Artificial Intelligence to perpetrate crime against women and girls.
Nana, developed by WILAN Global with support from the Ford Foundation, is available through WhatsApp and the web, providing users with round-the-clock information on digital safety, early warning signs of technology-facilitated gender-based violence and prevention resources.
Speaking at the workshop where the chatbot was unveiled, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Adebayo Haroun, described the initiative as timely, citing the growing scale of online harassment against women.
Haroun said an alarming 70 per cent of Nigerian women surveyed had either experienced or witnessed online harassment.
He described TFGBV as ‘one of the most insidious challenges confronting the justice system today,’ saying Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA) had recorded 41 specific cases of technology-facilitated sexual and gender-based violence between September 2021 and July 2026.
According to him, the cases formed part of more than 33,000 sexual and gender-based violence reports tracked by the agency within the period.
The DPP called for deliberate collaboration among civil society organisations, private-sector players and government institutions to tackle the growing threat.
He said: ‘TFGBV is one of the most insidious challenges confronting the justice system today.’
Haroun urged stakeholders to move beyond isolated interventions and develop coordinated mechanisms capable of protecting women and girls from technology-enabled abuse.
WILAN Founder, Abosede George Ogan, said the chatbot was conceived as a practical response to the increasing weaponisation of digital platforms against women.
She noted that although digital platforms had expanded opportunities for women to work, conduct businesses, participate in public discourse and organise communities, they had simultaneously created new avenues for gender-based violence.
George Ogan identified cyberstalking, sextortion, doxing, impersonation, non-consensual sharing of personal images, coordinated online attacks and gendered disinformation as some forms of TFGBV.
She said Nana would enable women and girls to access timely information that could help them recognise potential threats and take preventive measures.
The Head of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Response Unit, Federal Ministry of Justice, Yewande Gbola-Awopetu, said technology-facilitated gender-based violence could no longer be treated as an emerging or isolated threat.
‘TFGBV is no longer an emergency threat. It is present, pervasive and escalating reality,’ she said.
According to her, women and girls across Nigeria face online harassment, cyberstalking, non-consensual sharing of images and online grooming, among other forms of abuse.
She noted that although the Cybercrime Act 2015 criminalised many of such acts, legislation alone could not adequately protect women who were unaware of their rights or lacked access to appropriate support.
Gbola-Awopetu said Nana’s ability to connect survivors with existing government and civil society response structures made it particularly significant.
‘A chatbot that can direct a survivor to the nearest sexual assault referral centre, provide guidance on evidence preservation. That is a public safety tool and public safety tools deserve institutional partnership,’ she said.
She pledged the readiness of the SGBV Response Unit to collaborate with WILAN Global on integrating Nana into existing legal and health referral pathways, as well as community awareness programmes.
The collaboration, she said, would strengthen efforts to ensure that women and girls affected by technology-facilitated violence could access information, support and appropriate intervention.