Tech4Dev to Empower 5m Girls, Women in Africa, Opens Applications

Emma Okonji

Tech4Dev, a non-profit organisation dedicated to creating access to decent work, entrepreneurship opportunities, and platforms for Africans, has announced plans to empower five million African girls and women by 2030. 

The organisation is therefore calling for applications for its Women Techsters 2023 Fellowship programme.

According to the organisation, 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 technology skills in six months of intensive training, six-month internship, and mentorship. The program designed using globally recognised standardised learning curriculums across the eight learning tracks, will ensure the best learning experience to deliver the right outcomes.

Tech4Dev disclosed that in its first year, the Women Techsters Fellowship received over 4,800 applications from 19 countries, accepted 338 beneficiaries into the program, which is a seven per cent acceptance rate from five countries, which include: Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa.  It added that Women Techsters Fellowship would seek to do even more this year.

Speaking at a press conference in Lagos to announce the 2023 Fellowship, the Women Techsters Initiative Lead, Blessing Ashi, highlighted the objectives of the Program initiative. According to her, “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.” 

She added that the organisation’s desired outcomes by 2030 is to have 70 per cent of its trained women gain access to decent jobs; 25 per cent of them go on to study technology related courses and 5 per cent  of to build and run technology enabled and deep tech startups.

Co-founder and Executive Director, Tech4Dev, Oladiwura Oladepo, said the initiative would expand this year and introduce more learning tracks. “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.” 

The Founder/Director of Development, Joel Ogunsola, reaffirmed the Tech4Dev’s goal in using technology skills and jobs as tool to effectively bridge economic inequality gaps among young Africans and young underserved populations globally, thus improving economic livelihood and equal access to decent work opportunities for girls and women.