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African Women in Tech: Empowering the Next Generation of Innovators

July 3, 2025

African Women in Tech: Empowering the Next Generation of Innovators

“African Women in Tech” is not just a slogan; it’s a growing movement that reflects the rising wave of women who are innovating, leading, and breaking barriers in the technology sector.

Despite structural barriers and cultural limitations, African women are creating startups, leading teams, building platforms, and transforming their communities.

This blog celebrates key figures, examines challenges, and offers insight into how we can all support and sustain this critical movement.

Women in Tech

While Africa’s technology sector continues to boom—projected to be worth over $180 billion by 2025—women still occupy a disproportionately small space in this ecosystem. Studies show that women make up less than 30% of the tech workforce in Africa. But that number is growing, thanks to grassroots initiatives, changing mindsets, and increased access to education.

Countries like Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, and Ghana are emerging as tech hubs, and they are producing a new generation of female coders, engineers, product managers, data scientists, and tech entrepreneurs. Initiatives targeting girls in STEM, access to laptops and internet, and coding bootcamps are expanding the talent pipeline.

44 African Women in Tech

1. Odunayo Eweniyi (Nigeria)

Odunayo Eweniyi is the co-founder & Chief Operations Officer, PiggyVest, the largest digital and investment platform in Nigeria. She previously co-founded pushcv.com, one of the largest job sites in Africa with the largest database of pre-screened candidates.

She has 7 years’ experience in Business Analysis and Operations. An award-winning fintech entrepreneur who is working for diversity, equity, and inclusion in fintech and technology as a whole.

As the COO of Piggyvest, she oversees the company’s entire operation which cuts across Finance, Investment Management, People Operations, Investor relations, Fundraising and related subcategories.

In January 2021, Odunayo cofounded First Check Africa, a female-led angel fund that invests “ridiculously early” in women in African tech to make it easier for them to raise venture-backed capital and invest in technology startups.

2. Jihan Abass (Kenya)

Jihan Abass is currently the Founder and CEO of Lami, an insurance-as-a-service platform founded in 2028, that aims to increase insurance penetration across Africa. The Griffin Motor App is Lami’s flagship product and has shortened the purchase process of car insurance to less than 2 minutes.

Prior to starting Lami and Griffin, she worked as a sugar trader in the City of London, trading on the New York and London sugar markets. She has an MBA from the University of Oxford and an undergraduate degree in Finance from CASS Business School, London.

3. Temidayo Salako (Nigeria)

Temidayo Salako is a highly experienced professional with 6+ years of cross-sector experience. She has led teams and managed programs and projects in various sectors, including Not-For-Profit, Business, Alternative Education, Technology, and Social Impact.

Temidayo has proven skills in consulting, leadership, coordination, vision mapping, project initiation, monitoring, execution, and process innovation. Her ability to excel in different sectors is a testament to her adaptability and versatility. Temidayo is driven by her belief that she has a strategic role in Africa’s future growth and strategic development.

She is committed to this vision and is currently empowering and investing in Africans to help them achieve their full potential. Temidayo’s passion for Africa’s growth and development and her experience and expertise make her an invaluable asset to any organization or project.

4. Esther Ninsiima Nyinamwiru (Uganda)

Esther Nyinamwiru is an experienced Product Owner and Tech Talent Manager with a strong track record of success in the internet industry. Esther’s expertise lies in managing software developers, recruitment, problem-solving, negotiation, cost control without compromising quality, and project management.

Before her tech career, Esther worked in the construction industry as a Quantity Surveyor. She developed her skills in managing costs and ensuring projects were completed on time and within budget. Her experience in construction has given her a unique perspective on project management, which she brings to her work in the tech industry.

Esther is a highly skilled professional who is dedicated to delivering quality outcomes. Her ability to manage teams, solve problems, and negotiate effectively makes her a valuable asset to any organization.

5. Ire Aderinokun (Nigeria)

Ire Aderinokun is an Investor, Entrepreneur, and Frontend Software Engineer from Lagos, Nigeria, now living in London, UK. She worked in the technology industry for a decade – she is an invited Google Expert, specialising in the core web technologies, and co-founded Helicarrier (YC S18), a startup building cryptocurrency infrastructure for Africa.

6. Abiola Rasaq (Nigeria)

Abiola Rasaq is a QA Lead and founder of a test community for Software Testers called “The Bug Detective.” She believes that leadership is about influence and impact; she has demonstrated this throughout her career and work with the community. Abiola’s passion for software testing has led her to create a thriving community of over 800 members, where she provides training and guidance to newbies in the field.

Her commitment to helping others succeed is evident in her work with the community, as she has ensured that members land their dream jobs as software testers. In addition to her work with the community, Abiola is an experienced QA Lead with a strong track record of success. She is skilled in software testing, test automation, quality assurance, and project management.

7. Angela Semwogerere (Uganda)

Angela Mirembe Semwogerere is the General manager of Spidd Africa Ltd. She is also the Founder of Coding In Heels, a Social Enterprise that focuses on inspiring Girls and Women to embrace STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) with a focus on technology. She is also a consultant and a member of Uganda’s National Taskforce on emerging technologies, including the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) Alumni.

8. Sheeba Niwensiima (Uganda)

Sheeba Niwensiima is a young innovator with many dreams to achieve, not just for herself but also to help other brilliant young minds reach their goals! So she teams up to change and improve the world for the present and future generations because curious minds can achieve the unimaginable together.

9. Betelhem Dessie (Ethiopia)

Born and raised in Harar, Ethiopia, Betelhem Dessie was interested in computers at age 7. She started coding at 10 and has continued to learn more, mastering the key aspects of computer science and robotics by her mid-teens. After moving to Addis Ababa to be mentored by a government agency called Information Network Security Agency (INSA), she went out independently.

She started doing software projects for her own interest for various clients. All along, Betelhem has also been teaching kids computing and robotics. CNN and BBC named her the young pioneer in the Ethiopian emerging tech scene. Also included in Quartz’s list of African innovators to watch for in 2019.

10. Modupe Durosinmi-Etti (Nigeria)

Modupe Durosinmi-Etti is an accomplished professional in talent and project management, corporate transformation, and operational efficiency, with wide experience in 3 unicorns, startups, and growth state organizations. She has a track record of building initiatives and driving productivity toward attaining organizational goals and objectives by leveraging extensive global and diverse exposure.

11. Ifeoluwa Dare-Johnson (Nigeria)

Ifeoluwa Dare-Johnson is a healthcare enthusiast with a passion for Africa-focused healthcare conversations. Currently, Ifeoluwa is focused on building a solution that decentralizes lab testing, providing easier access to essential medical services. Her dedication to improving healthcare in Africa has driven her work in this field. She is always looking for ways to create innovative solutions that will have a lasting impact on the industry.

12. Atinuke Oluwabamikemi (Nigeria)

Atinuke Oluwabamikemi is a community builder who advocates for tech industry diversity. Bami’s passion for community building has led her to manage and build vibrant communities where she encourages members to learn publicly and give back to the community through technical content and public speaking.

In addition, Bami is incredibly passionate about onboarding more females into the tech space and advocates for #womenintech through her work with SheCodeAfrica. Bami also advocates for beginners to get into the open-source space, regardless of their stack, and contribute to open-source projects.

Her willingness to work with different teams and open-mindedness make her a valuable asset to any project or organization. Bami’s dedication to promoting diversity and inclusion in tech and her commitment to sharing knowledge and empowering others to make her a standout leader in the industry.

13. Roina Ochieng (Kenya)

Roina Ochieng is currently driving impact within product development of the Tap2Eat product at Food For Education. She also co-leads the tech and product teams at Food For Education to scale the feeding program to deliver the tech product that enables the feeding program and allows internal stakeholders to use the platform to make data-driven decisions.

14. Thato Schermer (South Africa)

Thato Schermer is the Founder of Zoie Health Technologies. she grew up in Pretoria, South Africa, and Wisconsin, USA. She set up Zoie Health to make quality women’s healthcare more accessible for millions of women in Africa by leveraging technology. The app offers virtual consultations with various women’s healthcare practitioners and a contraceptive subscription service.

In 2024, Thato co-founded Yola, a healthcare reimagining healthcare access for Africa’s frontline, blue-collar, and gig workforce. They provide a WhatsApp and AI-powered digital health and wellness platform that allows workers to book virtual consultations, access prescriptions, receive sick notes, and get personalized wellness support – all at a fraction of traditional healthcare costs.

15. Velda Kiara (Kenya)

Velda Kiara is a creative software engineer, technical writer, and open-source contributor. She builds web applications using Django and React. She is also a technical writer and a community lead in various communities. When not coding, she writes blogs on different topics, watches movies, swims, or reads books.

16. Dr. Nonhlanhla Sitole (South Africa)

Dr. Nonhlanhla Sitole is a science geek with a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology. But, in her next life, she wants to be an astronaut! She is also the co-founder of the health startup Zoie Health. Zoie is a digital women’s health & wellness clinic that facilitates virtual medical consultations, contraceptive delivery subscriptions, and community chat for women in Africa.

Her goal was to make quality women’s healthcare more accessible for millions of women worldwide by leveraging leading technology, world-class clinical care, and love.

17. Ada Nduka (Nigeria)

Ada Nduka is a Software developer and Open source advocate who leads Developer relations at Interswitch group. She’s also the founder of She Code Africa and Open Source Community Africa, where she’s focused on matters about Women in tech and Open Source, respectively.

Asides from software development and open source advocacy, she runs a podcast show for forLoop Africa, one of the largest developer communities in Africa, where she talks on issues bordered around tech while interviewing several personalities in tech.

18. Oladiwura Oladepo (Nigeria)

Oladiwura Oladepo is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about making a positive impact in people’s lives and society. She enjoys using her skills and expertise to help individuals and organizations create value while making a difference in their communities.

Oladiwura’s work focuses on finding innovative and sustainable solutions to social challenges, and she is always looking for ways to improve the world around her. Through her work as a social entrepreneur, Oladiwura strives to create positive change and inspire others to do the same.

19. Joannah Nanjekye (Uganda)

Joannah Nanjekye, a seasoned software engineer, Python Core Developer, and former director of the Python Software Foundation. With a passion for open-source, Joannah has made significant contributions to the Python community and beyond.

Her expertise spans Python development, with a focus on garbage collection, and she’s currently affiliated with FBM in Canada. Joannah’s commitment to mentoring and empowering women in tech is truly admirable, reflecting her belief in the power of diversity and inclusion.

20. Nneile Nkholise (South Africa)

Nneile Nkholise launched her career in 2011 as a mechanical engineer at the Free State’s Public Works Department before founding iMed Tech in 2015. Her work at iMed Tech in CAD and Additive Manufacturing in breast prostheses earned Nkholise several awards, including Forbes 30 Under 30 and the presidential for Science, Innovation, and Technology at the South African Youth Awards in 2017.

In 2021, she founded Thola, a technology company that provides an automated building health and safety management tool that generates maintenance schedules and tracks building sustainability in real time using system-trained data from individual properties as well as from our sensors installed at buildings.

21. Finali Galaiya (Kenya)

Finali Galaiya is a business leader who is passionate about ideation and bold visions. She is excited about exploring new ideas and supporting businesses to achieve their goals. Her ultimate objective is to empower the next wave of leaders and drive positive change in the global business landscape.

Finali believes in creating a culture of empowerment and growth where her team can thrive and excel in an ever-expanding global setting. She is dedicated to building strong teams and fostering innovation to make a meaningful impact in the business world.

22. Sethebe Manake (Botswana)

Sethebe Manake is an ambitious, self-driven individual passionate about e-commerce, entrepreneurship, and SME development. Coming from a Property Finance and Investment background, she has founded real estate, prop tech, entrepreneurship development, and mentoring businesses.

Before living an entrepreneurship life, she developed her career by specializing in real estate asset management through different investment vehicles. Having a strong and dynamic business orientation and a strong head on her shoulders, she has driven various initiatives in both the start-up and real estate communities.

23. Ruth Ikega (Nigeria)

Ruth Ikega serves as the Community Lead at CHAOSS Africa, working to improve the health of Open Source communities on the continent. She also doubles as a maintainer in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) working group at CHAOSS.

24. Neema Iyer (Uganda)

Neema Iyer is the founder of Pollicy, a Ugandan-based startup. Pollicy is a feminist civic technology collective that uses data and technology to create social change.

The company researches ways and implements projects through which Africans can regain control of their data and reimagine new forms of tech ownership. Pollicy aims to advance how data is conceptualized, used, and reproduced to develop just societies.

In 2024, she co-founded STEMtoto, a game design and research studio based across Boston, Dar es Salaam, and Sydney that explores the impact of play on creative learning and leadership.

25. Tao Laine Boyle (South Africa)

Tao Boyle is the co-founder of FoondaMate. She is an avid reader and occasional hiker when she gets free time. FoondaMate enables access to online learning for students previously unable to study online — through low-data and chat-first applications available in multiple regional languages.

FoondaMate’s flagship products would allow students to access study materials and answers to questions on WhatsApp and Facebook messenger. Educators also use FoondaMate’s resources to set homework and share learning materials with students.

26. Tebogo Mokwena (South Africa)

Tebogo Mokwena is the co-founder and CEO of Akiba Digital. She is an avid traveler and has been to 50 countries (before the age of 30) with plans to visit all African countries in her lifetime. she graduated from the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and the University of California (Los Angeles) with a triple major in computer science, genetics, and biochemistry.

Akiba Digital is building an alternative credit-scoring infrastructure to give small businesses and underbanked consumers better access to financing. She hopes to use technology and innovation to contribute to Africa’s economic growth by unlocking financial access for predominantly excluded people.

27. Blessing Abeng (Nigeria)

Blessing Abeng co-founded Ingressive for Good but left in July 2023 and took a break from her normal 9 to 5 to recharge, travel, explore new projects, and share her learnings.

She builds brand and communication strategies around tech products, services, growth, and sales to help brands share with their team, target audience, partners, and investors.

In January 2025, Blessing founded onbrand to help founders, VCs, and governments define and amplify their narratives/brands to attract funding and boost revenue.

28. Barbra Birungi (Uganda)

Barbra Birungi is a female technologist and the founding manager of HiveColab in Kampala, Uganda. She is the founder of Women in Technology Uganda, an initiative aimed at helping women and girls pursue technology careers. Before Hive, Birungi was a staff member at the African technology firm Appfrica.

Currently, a managing partner with Nsimbi Impact, a data-driven, female-led investment vehicle dedicated to accelerating the growth of women-led businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa. They provide catalytic, unsecured capital and strategic support to early-stage entrepreneurs, empowering them to scale and thrive in a rapidly evolving market.

29. Angela Mukisa (Uganda)

Angela Mukisa is a goal-oriented individual with a pleasant personality and a tenacity that knows no restrictions. A multitasking Computer Scientist, considered highly ambitious, willing to meet or exceed monthly quotas, and capable of maximizing brand awareness. CodeHub is one of the pioneer Organizations aimed at promoting Computer Science Education amongst the youth in Uganda.

CodeHub aims to expose them to different skills required by programmers in the 21st century, such as problem-solving and critical thinking, alongside teaching them some coding fundamentals using programming languages such as Python, JavaScript and scripting languages like HTML and CSS. We aim to empower Youth through Technology.

30. Regina Honu (Ghana)

Regina Honu is a Ghanaian social Entrepreneur, software developer, and founder of Soronko Solutions, a software development company in Ghana. She founded Soronko Academy, the first coding and Human-centered design school for children and young adults in West Africa.

31. Allela Eunice (Kenya)

Eunice Allela, a program and community manager with a Computer Science background, has a deep passion for emerging technologies and the advancement of Africa’s tech ecosystem. She currently holds the position of Developer Relations Community Manager at Google for Sub-Saharan Africa. In this role, she fosters connections between software developers and experts across the region while also spearheading training initiatives for software developers throughout Africa.

As a project manager, Eunice successfully oversaw the Google Africa Developer Scholarship, a program that equipped over 100,000 African developers with Android, Web, and Cloud development skills.

She also played a pivotal role as a regional lead for the Women TechMakers Program in Africa, which promoted the visibility of women in tech through a series of technical workshops, training sessions, and events focused on both technical and soft skills.

32. Tarneem Saeed (Sudan)

Tarneem Saeed built the largest tech startup, Alsoug, in Sudan. Alsoug is a classified platform/marketplace that allows people to check out the price of things and connect with sellers. In October 2021, Alsoug received a $5 million investment to become the first startup to get foreign investment in Sudan since the US economic sanctions were lifted in 2020.

33. Sarah Menker (Ethiopia)

Sara Menker is the founder and CEO of Gro Intelligence. Gro Intelligence uses artificial intelligence to forecast global agricultural trends and battle food insecurity. In addition, Gro clarifies the connections between the ecology of our planet and the economy of humans so that you can see the big picture and take action on the little things.

Sara is a trustee for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS). In addition, Sara is a fellow of the Aspen Institute’s African Leadership Initiative and a World Economic Forum Global Young Leader.

34. Zineb Drissi-Kaitouni (Morocco)

With a goal to digitize the entire healthcare system, Zineb Drissi-Kaitouni and her brother Driss Drissi-Kaitouni co-founded DabaDoc in Morocco in 2014, a time when creating health-tech startups was less common in Africa than it is now. The business began with the fundamental entry point of scheduling doctor appointments, and it quickly gained a lot of traction.

With over 2,000 patients actively scheduling appointments with doctors across 75 different medical specialties on its platform the following year. Since 2014, DabaDoc, an online platform, has been helping patients to book an appointment with a doctor with a few clicks. As a result, more than 3,000 doctors use the platform across Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Nigeria, and South Africa.

35. Eunice Ajim (Cameroon)

Eunice Ajim is the Founding Partner of Ajim Capital, an early-stage fund and angel community, to provide startups in Africa with financing from Pre-seed to Seed with typical check sizes of $100K to $250K. She is a Cameroonian-American entrepreneur and investor with experience ranging from start-up funding and management to leading a $10 million+ revenue tech startup. She is also an angel investor and adviser to African technology startups.

36. Rebecca Enonchong (Cameroon)

Rebecca Enonchong is the CEO and founder of AppsTech. She serves as Chair of the Cameroonian incubator ActivSpaces (African Center for Technology Innovation and Ventures). Forbes magazine named her one of the top female tech founders in Africa. Throughout her career, Rebecca has worked to promote technology in Africa.

The Africa Technology Forum is a nonprofit that supports African technology startups. She founded the African Business Angel Network, too (ABAN). Enonchong also co-founded I/O Spaces, ABAN, and Cameroon Angels Network. She has received various awards, such as 100 Most Influential Africans in Science, Tech & Innovations by the New African, Jeune Afrique’s 50 Most Influential Africans, World Bank, and the World Economic Forum.

37. Viola Nuwaha (Uganda)

Viola Nuwaha is a collaborative and dedicated team player who believes in working closely with cross-functional teams to achieve product success. She is skilled in product strategy, user research, user experience design, product development, and project management.

As a Scrum Master at Onafriq, the leading digital payments hub in Africa, I enable the delivery of high-quality software solutions that connect millions of mobile money users across the continent.

She’s proficient in Scrum, Backlog Management, Agile Coaching, and project management, among other skills. Passionate about leveraging technology to create social impact and foster inclusive and sustainable development.

38. Nelly Chatue-Diop (Cameroon)

Nelly Chatue-Diop is the CEO and co-founder of Ejara, Africa’s first non-custodial wallet and blockchain-based mobile investment platform designed specifically for Francophone Africa and its diaspora. She has spent the last 15 years across Europe and the United States building expertise in emerging technologies, traditional finance, and Web 3.0.

Nellu earned her degree in computer science and MBA from HEC Paris and London Business School. She also oversees the Tezos Africa foundation, which has chapters in several countries.

In addition, Nelly is a well-known data leader and an outspoken supporter of African financial inclusion and blockchain’s potential to transform the continent.

39. Miishe Addy (Ghana)

Miishe Addy, Co-Founder and CEO of Jetstream, has 12 years of experience in strategy, analysis, and business transactions, including time spent as a top-ranked business analyst at Wachtell Lipton and Bain & Company in New York.

After moving to Ghana in 2017, Miishe Addy saw an opportunity to innovate and founded Jetstream Africa with Solomon Torgbo. Jetstream is a technology-enabled logistics company focused on cross-border trade. Jetstream raised $ 3 million in June 2021 in a seed round.

Miishe was a business fellow for MEST Africa in Accra, Ghana, before joining Jetstream, where she worked with aspiring software entrepreneurs and met her co-founder. Miishe graduated from Harvard College with an Honors BA in Philosophy and from Stanford Law School with a JD. She currently resides in Tema, Ghana.

40. Nthabiseng Mosia (South Africa)

Nthabiseng Mosia is an African social entrepreneur. She is the co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Easy Solar, one of Africa’s fastest-growing off-grid solar firms. Easy Solar sells and finances high-quality solar systems and appliances to people with limited grid access.

The company has powered 900,000 people in Sierra Leone and Liberia and employed over 1,000 people. Based in West Africa, Easy Solar is an off-grid solar distribution company.

It supplies electricity to communities with little or no access to the grid. As a result of Mosia’s company, more than 350,000 residents of Sierra Leone’s communities have access to affordable energy.

41. Fara Ashiru Jituboh (Nigeria)

Fara Ashiru Jituboh, co-founder and CEO/CTO of Okra, Inc., a Nigerian fintech startup that allows customers, applications, and banks to exchange real-time financial information. Jituboh is a software engineer who is fluent in over 20 programming languages.

She exited the company just months after the launch of Nebula, its in‑house cloud infrastructure product. According to her LinkedIn profile, Jituboh left Okra in May 2025 to become Head of Engineering at British startup Kernel.

42. Tomilola Majekodunmi (Nigeria)

Tomilola Majekodunmi is a finance expert with more than 10 years of experience in investment banking and portfolio management, and she has overseen investments totaling more than $50 million. She has experience developing savings and microcredit products and holds an MBA in finance from the SP Jain School of Management.

Tomilola founded Bankly in July 2018 with the goal of digitizing cash and providing a safer path to savings for micro-businesses and individuals in the informal sector. In March 2021, Bankly raised $2 million in a seed round.

43. Yanmo Omorogbe (Nigeria)

Yanmo Omorogbe is the co-founder and CEO of Bamboo. She also serves as Bamboo’s COO and oversees operations and growth. Bamboo enables the average Nigerian to become a shareholder in major technology companies such as Google, Twitter, and Amazon. Bamboo enables users to buy, hold, or sell stocks of companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange

44. Sarah Dusek (South Africa)

Sarah Dusek is a venture capitalist and the co-founder of the venture capital fund Enygma Ventures. She invests in women-led businesses in Southern Africa, develops solutions to wealth disparities, and provides women with access to capital. Sarah co-founded Enygma Ventures in 2017 after successfully selling her company, Under Canvas, for more than $100 million.

Enygma Ventures, which she co-founded with her husband, Jacob Dusek, is a one-of-a-kind purpose-driven investment fund that helps woman-founded/led businesses by providing flexible financial solutions, efficient and strategic capital deployment, access to expertise, mentors, local and international markets, and other valuable resources.

Organizations and Initiatives Empowering Women in Tech

Women in Tech Africa (WiTA)

WiTA remains the largest female tech group on the continent. It connects thousands of women through meetups, training, and events like Women in Tech Week.

Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC)

Based in Nigeria, W.TEC provides tech education and mentoring to girls and women. Since 2008, it has impacted over 26,000 girls through camps, clubs, and online learning.

AkiraChix (Kenya)

AkiraChix trains young women from low-income communities in Nairobi. They offer full-time residential training in software engineering, design, and entrepreneurship.

KamiLimu (Kenya)

KamiLimu provides mentorship for university students in tech, especially women. Their programs enhance academic performance, leadership, and career readiness.

African Women in Technology (AWIT)

AWIT organizes conferences and workshops across the continent to connect, educate, and inspire women in the tech ecosystem.

GirlCode (South Africa), iCog Labs (Ethiopia), and WeCyclers (Nigeria)

These organizations offer unique programs in software training, AI, and tech-enabled sustainability that include a strong focus on empowering women.

Programs and Their Impact

Many African women-focused tech programs emphasize three pillars: education, mentorship, and job readiness.

Education: From learning basic computer skills to mastering advanced programming languages, these programs are transforming participants into tech-ready individuals.
Mentorship: Women leaders mentor girls through both in-person and virtual platforms, ensuring knowledge transfer and emotional support.
Job Readiness: Many programs connect graduates to internships, jobs, or seed funding. For example, Soronko Academy has helped over 6,000 young women gain employment.

Corporate collaborations have amplified the reach of these programs. Tech giants like Google, Microsoft, AWS, and Mastercard support coding bootcamps and digital skills training specifically for women.

Challenges Faced by African Women in Tech

Despite the progress, challenges remain:

Cultural barriers: In some communities, girls are discouraged from studying science and tech subjects. Traditional gender roles often prioritize marriage and caregiving over careers.
Access to education: Many young girls lack access to quality education, internet, and digital devices.
Workplace discrimination: Gender biases, unequal pay, and lack of representation in leadership continue to plague women in tech.
Funding gaps: Female-led startups in Africa receive less than 10% of venture capital funding.
Lack of visibility: Despite their impact, many women-led innovations go unnoticed due to limited media coverage and fewer networking opportunities.

Strategies and Solutions

Solving these challenges requires a multi-layered approach:

Early exposure: Encouraging girls to take up STEM subjects from primary school helps normalize tech education.
Role models and mentorship: Seeing women who look like them succeed in tech motivates younger girls to dream big.
Policy support: Governments should create gender-friendly policies in education and employment. Incentives can be given to tech companies that hire and promote women.
Investment in female startups: VCs and angel investors need to prioritize funding women-led innovations.
Safe spaces: Tech hubs and coworking spaces should be inclusive, offering childcare and addressing harassment.

Whether you’re an individual, company, or organization, you can support women in tech Africa:

Mentor: Volunteer your time to guide a young woman in tech.
Fund: Donate to or invest in organizations and startups led by women.
Promote: Share their work, speak about them in your networks, and include them in conferences.
Partner: Collaborate with women-led initiatives to broaden your impact.

Conclusion

African Women in Tech are no longer waiting for permission to lead—they’re doing it. From coding labs in Nairobi to boardrooms in Lagos, these women are transforming the tech space and setting a new standard for innovation and leadership. To sustain this momentum, society must support, celebrate, and invest in this movement. The future of Africa’s tech industry is not just male—it is diverse, inclusive, and female-led. The time to act is now.

Let’s keep the conversation going. Share this post, follow these women and their organizations, and be part of the change you want to see.