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Women leading the tech revolution in Africa

Rachel Sibande from Malawi and Baratang Miya from South Africa are two entrepreneurs who believe the future of tech is female.

In the past few years, the internet has been spreading rapidly across Africa. The continent has nearly half of the world’s mobile money accounts, and a thriving start-up ecosystem. But in sub-Saharan Africa, women make up a very small percentage of the tech workforce. Kim Chakanetsa talks to two entrepreneurs who believe that teaching women and girls how to code could be a game changer.

Rachel Sibande is a computer scientist and social entrepreneur. She is the founder of mHub, Malawi’s first technology hub. During her career she has developed innovative tech solutions in fields like health, elections monitoring, citizen engagement and agriculture in Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. She also works with the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) at the United Nations Foundation, leading the efforts to facilitate a digital revolution across Africa.

Baratang Miya is the founder of Girlhype Coders Academy, which has taught more than 10,000 women and girls how to code. Baratang has been named among the 50 People Who Made the Internet a Better Place in 2016 and has received a TechWomen scholarship to train in the Silicon Valley. She is also a regular technology writer, judge, advisor in tech competitions and hackathons.

Produced by Alice Gioia and Hetal Bapodra

(Image: (L) Baratang Miya, courtesy Baratang Miya. (R) Rachel Sibande, credit Ulemu Nkhoma.)

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27 minutes

Last on

Sat 11 Feb 2023 08:32GMT

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  • Mon 6 Feb 2023 04:32GMT
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  • Sat 11 Feb 2023 08:32GMT

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