By Chinenye Anuforo
Tech4Dev has disclosed plans to empower five million girls and women across Africa by 2030 with varying degrees of digital, deep tech and soft skills required within the technology ecosystem thereby aiding Africa’s economic growth.
Tech4Dev, a non-profit organisation dedicated to creating access to decent work, entrepreneurship opportunities, and platforms for Africans through digital skills empowerment and advocacy, officially launched its Women Techsters Initiative for the year 2023 last week while also calling for applications for its Women Techsters Fellowship (a programme within the Women Techsters initiative).
The Women Techsters is an initiative of Tech4Dev aimed at bridging the digital and technology knowledge divide between men and women as well as ensuring equal access to opportunities for all.
The Women Techsters Fellowship, launched in 2021, is a year-long immersive training and experiential learning program for young girls and women across Africa to acquire deep tech skills through 6 months of intensive training, 6-month internship, and mentorship. The program designed using globally recognized standardized learning curriculums across the 8 learning tracks ensure the best learning experience to deliver the right outcomes.
In its first year, the Women Techsters Fellowship received over 4,800 applications from 19 cozuntries, accepted 338 beneficiaries into the program, which is a 7% acceptance rate from 5 countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa. This year, the Women Techsters Fellowship seeks to do even more.
In her speech, Blessing Ashi, the Women Techsters Initiative lead, spoke about the objectives of the Women Techsters Initiative. She said, “The objectives of the Women Techsters Initiative are to empower girls and women interested in careers in technology to access the right learning opportunities, enable them to gain access to decent jobs within the technology ecosystem, and equip them with the right skills needed to thrive through its programs such as the Women Techsters Open Day, Bootcamp, Masterclass, and the Fellowship.”
Oladiwura Oladepo, Co-founder and Executive Director, Tech4Dev also spoke on the initiative’s plan to expand this year and introduce more learning tracks, saying, “This year, we will be empowering 50,000 women within the Women Techsters initiative across eight learning tracks, namely; Software Development, Product Design, Cybersecurity, Data Science, and Artificial Intelligence, Product Management, Mobile Applications Development, Blockchain and Mixed realities and 3D Animation.
We have launched a call for the Women Techsters Fellowship across 15 countries: Ethiopia, DR Congo, Tanzania, Uganda, Algeria, Sudan, Morocco, Angola, Mozambique, Madagascar, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa, and the deadline for applications closes on April 17th. Thus far, we have received over 12,000 applications in the last five weeks across 31 countries of residence, including countries in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia.”
Joel Ogunsola, Founder/Director of Development, brought the event to a close, thanking members of the press from across Africa (both physical and virtual) for attending the launch of the Women Techsters Initiative for the year 2023. He also reaffirmed the Tech4Dev’s goal in using technology skills and jobs as tool to effectively bridge economic inequality gaps amongst young Africans and young underserved populations globally – improving economic livelihood and equal access to decent work opportunities for girls and women.