Over the past decade, the number of African women venturing
into the tech scene has been increasing. However, the numbers are not anywhere
near the numbers of African men in tech. In a university in Uganda for
instance, in one mechanical engineering class, there was only one female student
in a class of 35 students. While the numbers in computer science or electrical engineering
may not be as low, the truth is that women are still utterly underrepresented
in the technology and engineering careers. However, this doesn’t have to be so.
Already In Africa, there are women who are breaking the
glass ceiling and trailblazing in the tech sector. For example, we have examples of
African female tech entrepreneurs like Regina Agyare (Soronko Solutions), Anne Amuzu (Nandi Mobile), Rebecca
Enonchong (Apps Tech), who are all
running their own tech enterprises and
succeeding at it. What we need then is to have a network of Pan African women
tech evangelists who will encourage more young African girls to take up careers
in the technology field. This will ensure that more African women enroll in the
tech courses, and crucially, do not drop out of the course in college, or end
up in non-technical roles in companies.
Currently, many women engineers end up in sales and marketing
roles in technology companies, and do not get to take up the truly technical
roles, and in the process, they do not get to use their engineering skills altogether.
With the explosion of mobile apps, and
with a venture capital market that is increasingly looking to Africa for the
next big idea, there is simply no reason why female African tech entrepreneurs should
not thrive in this assumed male dominated field.
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