Category: Tech Careers

African Leadership Group Acquires Coding School, Holberton

Coding school Holberton has revealed that it has been acquired by the African Leadership Group.

African Leadership group which was launched in 2015 has physical learning centres across the globe alongside its online learning platform but the acquisition of Holberton will make drastic changes to the dynamics of the company as both the physical and online learning platforms will now function independently, The 34 Physical locations scattered throughout the globe will now be joined by Holberton’s technology platform as one of its ALX online learning platform and will now be run by Holberton COO Florian Bucher.

Before the pandemic, Holberton coding school had its two founders still working for the good of the company but as the COVID-19 Pandemic started, the Co-founder Sylvain Kalache quickly left leaving Julien Barbier to be the lone financer of the company’s operations which was hard for him due to lack of finances.

Reason Behind The Acquisition of Holberton By African Leadership Group

Julian Barbier noted that the pandemic prompted the company to close down all its physical centres hence cancelling in-person tutoring and moving its curriculum online and the company narrowed its wide scope of teaching to only focusing on SaaS.

He also clarified that he had several potential acquirers but he didn’t think they were in a proper position to manage such a startup and with some cash still in the bank he was under no pressure to sell but when asked why he sold the startup to ALG, he said that they were the right fit and he was happy about the numbers and over 80% of Holbert’s staff will still be retained alongside himself.

According to Barbier, ALG started as a customer to Holbert and he noticed that their mission and goals were very similar so the talk of the acquisition came about naturally and when he noticed how much they had made with ALG when they both collaborated he reasoned that it will be for the betterment of all if they merge both companies; he mentioned that discussions started as a joke before it started getting serious till Holbert was sold.

Read Also : Nigerian StartUp, Aceplora To Equip Young People with Tech skills

African Leadership group founder, Fred Swaniker started the organization as a leadership academy while focusing on a few students for a start before he worked on adding the African Leadership University to enable them to reach a wider range of audiences while still focusing on entrepreneurship and leadership and with the introduction of ALX, the company can now aim at not only teaching thousands but millions.

In a statement, Fred Swaniker said:“Four years ago, we realized that the world is going through a digital transformation and there will be a need for skills like software engineering, data science, cybersecurity, cloud computing- and so we created ALX.

It is not a high school or a university but it is for those who already have college degrees so we can reskill them for these careers in the 4th industrial revolution”.

He also mentioned that their aim at ALX is to churn out about 200,000 graduates per year and it already has 150,000 students, when ask about this rapid growth, he said:
“The reason is that the young people of Africa have realized that their future is in technology.

The world has a massive shortage of technology talent and the traditional sources of finding talents like China, India and the US are all ageing, so we see a tremendous opportunity to solve this global shortage of technology talent by training millions of software engineers in Africa and then make them available to the world”.

He also lamented that the previous method of teaching students for free and then having a share of their income after their graduation was challenging so they drafted out a two-legged approach which is:

Read Also : Top 10 South African Tech Startups To Pay Attention To in 2022 And Beyond

i) The Room which is an agency for scouting talents and bringing them to the academy;
ii) B2B businesses which are designed for business owners while also providing them with technology talent and training them with the current curriculum of Holberton.
The owner, Swaniker is very optimistic about building a technology services business which will offer technology solution amongst others to various business owners and also raise enough funds for the upkeeps of the ALG&ALX.

Benefits Of Coding Skills For Organizations In Africa

Coding is a computer language which was originally known by only computer scientists but now it is becoming global knowledge as even children are trained in basic programming which expands their scope of knowledge. Here are reasons why staff in your organization should possess basic programming skills:

i) It increases tech literacy:
Improving the tech literacy of your staff, helps them to open up more opportunities in your organization.

ii) Makes them problem solvers:
Anytime there is any problem with any tool or machinery in your organization since your staff already possesses the skills to solve the problems, they can do it which saves costs.

iii) It deepens the knowledge of technology:
Most of your staff members can perform basic functions on electronics and aren’t illiterates to it, as the world is moving digital you must ensure that most of your staff can code as it will help them make better decisions.

iv) Communication:
This may sound awkward but nowadays foreigners now communicate through codes that are written in 1 & 0which makes anyone that has coding skills able to interact with them.

v) Builds way to success:
Most CEO of big companies such as Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Paul Allen and others began with coding before they progresses with business development. Those with coding backgrounds tend to make good decisions about which technologies to use in a business which will lead to the success of that company.

July 16, 2022
Nigerian StartUp, Aceplora To Equip Young People with Tech skills

Aceplora has reiterated its commitment to providing young people and children with skills that will benefit them in the global tech space.

To advance information technology awareness among the populace, the company’s CEO, Mrs. Maureen Ani has confirmed that they will be equipping interns with training with high in-demand skills such as Coding, 3D Printing, Modelling, Robotics, AI, Game development, UI/UX design amongst others.

She explained that as easy as it is to read and write, she hopes that tech skills such as Coding, and UI/UX designs will become simple to the younger generation; she said:

“Acquiring tech skills as well as writing computer programs and codes are popularly known to be difficult, especially in this hemisphere of the globe, however, Aceplora’s curriculum and teaching methods have been skillfully developed by professionals in our partner institutions in the US and UK, to make codes as easy and fun as reading and writing.

More On Aceplora Training Approach

Aceplora employs a simple and personalized approach to learning, leveraging quality lesson plans from the best tutors to amplify each student’s learning ability”.

She also assured parents and guidance to register because this kind of training occurs once in a lifetime and will be wonderful and far-reaching on child education, she said:
“This program will help kids discover the tech genius inside of them, build confidence quickly, and lay a good foundation that will carry the kids through basic school, university, and throughout their life-long learning journey.

Above all, the Aceplora TechCamp will equip your child with today’s in-demand career tech skills.

Read Also : African Leadership Group Acquires Coding School, Holberton

It is therefore imperative that investments are made in education that will help young students be the best they can be, and in learning tech skills that prepare them for future jobs in various disciplines, thus making them citizens for the world of tomorrow who will think global and act locally.

We offer courses for kids and young adults, from ages 5 up to the young graduates. There are different classes for students of different age groups and competency levels. All our staff, our venues, equipment, and facilities are HSE compliant”.

For parents who are worried about which sector their ward should be focused on, the Aceplora TechCamp provides lessons on various fields such as Robotics, UI/UX designs, Coding, and lots more which provides your ward with a variety of skills to be learned.

This July, they will be hosting a summer holiday tech camp for kids both in Nigeria and worldwide and they will be done either online through their site or physically in the city of Port-Harcourt. There will be two batches for this Summer Holiday TechCamp which are:

1) Batch-1= 18th July 2022 to 5th August 2022
2) Batch-2= 8th August 2022 to 26th August 2022.

Both Batches will be having classes from 9 am to 6 pm daily on Mondays- Fridays. The TechCamp provides an array of Google-certified instructors and a record of excellent students who have passed through them.

Aceplora TechCamp can be considered as an investment for your child’s future because even though they are still considered young, you should be expecting a personalized learning experience that will guide your child as their skills grow.

The community also grants your ward the experience to meet and work with top professionals in each field who will be teaching, mentoring, and guiding them on their journey of learning.

In an interview, the CEO said:
“My vision for the Aceplora TechCamp is that it becomes an event which kids and teens can look forward to as the place where they will be getting all the latest innovations in Technology because TechCamp has come to stay”.

Registrations are ongoing for the Summer TechCamp which you can do here. you can also reach them via their Social Media Platforms: @AceploraTech

The Benefits of Children’s Learning Technology

Integrating technology into a child’s life isn’t easy and not always the best combo but if you successfully integrate it into their lives, it has more benefits than you can imagine:

1) Tech Is One Of The Fastest Growing Industries In The World
The 21st century is all about tech and innovation as those who are making it are majorly in this field, this is why the younger ones are to be grounded in this field because they will be a requirement of these skills before you gain employment in the distant future.

IT developers, Programmers, and IT architects are among the world’s highest paying jobs and more slots for these jobs open daily in different organizations which show the need to possess some of these skills.

2) The Peak Of Learning Is In Childhood:
According to the Riggs Institute, the best time to learn is during their childhood as the brain is still fresh to absorb a lot of information and digest it. It is also the best time to learn a second language, you may consider French and German but why don’t you introduce them to programming languages like Python and JavaScript.

3) It Helps Them To Identify Their Skills At Such An Early Age:
Not all children who attend elementary schools and college eventually end up being professionals in those fields, so bringing your child to tech early can help you to discover where their strengths are either in tech or in school. Since you are introducing them to technology at such an early age, they can still attend you and then further their careers in tech after high school.

4) Having early access to tech can help expand their critical thinking capacity hence providing them have a greater chance of success in their various careers.

July 16, 2022
Vodacom Launches App to Connect SA Youth to Jobs

Inquest to solve the high unemployment rate in South Africa, Vodacom, the South African mobile communications company has launched the App named Get-a-Gig to connect SA Youth to jobs.

Get-a-Gig was launched by Vodacom through NXT LVL with the goal of helping one million young people find employment or gigs within the next three years, which will be accomplished in 2024.

According to Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data, South Africa is populated by 60,793,223 people and also unemployment among young people in South Africa is among the highest in the world.

According to Vodacom, the youth unemployment rate is still shockingly high at 65.5%.

Data from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) shows the country’s economy is in a precarious position. The unemployment rate rose to 35.3% in the first quarter of 2022 from 34.9% in the fourth quarter of 2021. Since the Quarterly Labor Force Survey (QLFS) was launched in 2008, this has been the highest.

Get a Gig

In light of these huge statistics and as part of Vodacom’s ongoing commitment to empower the South African youth, Vodacom’s Get A Gig initiative matches job seekers (youth) with job opportunities or gig opportunities within Vodacom and its partners, allowing them to Grow, Learn, and Earn while at the same time giving them the opportunity to work.

Read Also : Techstars Toronto Program Graduates Seven African Startups

Get-A-Gig was released as an expansion of Vodacom’s recently updated NXT LVL (pronounced next level), which is a platform designed to address the challenges that young people face by providing them with opportunities to connect with one another, learn new skills, and earn money, as well as providing them with access to the appropriate tools that will assist them in reaching their full potential.

What Vodacom is saying

Vodacom speculates that NXT LVL will also give young people the ability to navigate through their lives and into adulthood. This is particularly important at a time when young people are looking for work and unemployment is at an all-time high.

Jorge Mendes, Chief Officer of Consumer Business at Vodacom affirmed that “Our vision is to make sure that we leave no one behind, especially young people who form a critical part of the country’s future.

The launch of Get-A-Gig is yet another way that we at Vodacom strive to fight the rising youth unemployment rate,”

Furthermore, Mendes added that “As we innovate, and bring new propositions to the market, we are mindful of the challenges that are faced by consumers at large. The revamp of the NXT LVL platform and the launch of Get-A-Gig are some of the initiatives we introduced, aiming to make a meaningful difference in the lives of young South Africans”.

How to Get a Gig

Get-A-Gig is accessible for NXT LVL customers via My Vodacom and VodaPay at no cost.

Customers who are new to NXT LVL need to download the My Vodacom or VodaPay app, sign up for NXT LVL, and click on the Get A Gig tile to sign up and create a profile, search for available Gigs in their area, and apply for them.

Existing NXT LVL customers can sign up for Get-A-Gig by logging into the My Vodacom App or VodaPay super app, clicking on the Get-A-Gig tile to register and create a profile, and then searching and applying for available Gigs in their area.

July 8, 2022
AIMS (Ghana) and Google (Africa) have teamed up to conduct cooperative research in Africa.

The African Institute of Mathematical Sciences—Ghana (AIMS Ghana) has signed a Masters Sponsored Research Agreement (MSRA) with Google Research to advance the boundaries of scientific research in areas of speciality such as artificial intelligence. The agreement aims to strengthen collaboration between the two institutions as part of their ongoing efforts to collaborate and improve computing and technology in Africa.

“We are delighted about this cooperation since it will allow our researchers and students to strengthen their work with scientists at Google Research.” AIMS is Africa’s largest network of postgraduate training centres in mathematical sciences and applications.

We are passionate about empowering talented young Africans to be innovative leaders in science and technology. We ensure that our students and graduates are in touch with reality and hungry for greatness in addressing Africa’s significant challenges. — AIMS Chief Executive Officer Lydie Hakizimana

Google’s Support For AIMS

Google supported the institution as one of the founding partners of the African Masters in Machine Intelligence (AMMI) Program in 2018, which has successfully trained over 100 students in AI and data science. Many people think that the AMMI programme is the best way to teach Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Africa. It has been successfully used in three AIMS Centres: Rwanda, Senegal, and Ghana.

Read Also : Major Telcos Join Huawei to Release IntelligentRAN

“Our collaboration with AIMS began in 2018, with the African Master’s in Machine Intelligence launch, which we are pleased to continue financing.” I was reminded of Africa’s great potential during my visit to the Ghana Campus last week, and we’re excited to deepen our collaboration with AIMS by signing the Master Sponsored Research Agreement, which will enable research and leadership sponsored programmes to develop young tech-talent in Africa.

AIM’s AI and Machine Learning

“AI is a magnificent instrument that provides us with the ability to change our world and will assist us in building in Africa, for Africa, and the globe. – Prof. Yossi Matias, Vice President of Engineering and Research at Google

Over the last three years, Google Research’s AI Lab in Accra has hosted various AIMS researchers, including some AMMI programme alumni, shaping the usage of machine learning technology in Africa.

Among these alumni is Abigail Annkah, who joined Google Research in Accra as a Research Software Engineer after graduating from our AMMI Program. Because of what she did to help improve GoogleMaps, millions of buildings and square kilometres of roads that had not been mapped before are.

June 10, 2022
Huawei’s Leap Programme to Upskill 100,000 Youths in Africa

Chinese tech giant Huawei has announced the launch of its LEAP digital skills development programme at the recent Huawei’s ICT Competition Awards Ceremony held on the 9th of April 2022. Leap, an acronym for — Leadership, Employability, Advancement and Possibilities — is set to impact more than 100,000 youths in Sub-Saharan Africa with advanced ICT skills within the next three years.

The Leap programme fosters strong digital leadership and a skilled ICT workforce, builds a digital talent pool, and promotes digital literacy among African youths. The programme will include various activities spanning from ICT training and certification courses to government digital capacity building and ICT skills competitions.

Read Also : Amazon Set to Launch AWS Local Zone Cloud Infrastructure in Kenya

Leo Chen, Huawei Southern Africa President, stressed the importance of ICT skills transfer and talent development and underlined Huawei’s consistent emphasis on it. He said —

“Digitisation is deeply rooted in people. Because we digitise for people and by people. When roots are deep, there is no need to fear the wind. Through the programme, we strive to cultivate more youth leaders in ICT, who can explore more possibilities for themselves, their families, community and ultimately their nations.”

Huawei Digital Skills Advancement in Sub-Saharan Africa

A study by World Bank on Digital Skills says over 230-million jobs in sub-Saharan Africa will require digital skills by 2030. According to Huawei, the pandemic has spurred digital adoption across Africa. This increases the demand for more digital skills and talent.

The Huawei ICT Competition, 2021-2022, drew over 15 000 students from over 200 institutions and colleges across Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigerian and Kenyan teams took first place in the regional final out of 48 competing teams. The second place was won by teams from Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania.

“Huawei’s ICT Competition has provided students like me with a network of industry trainers, instructors, and learning tools, allowing us to obtain a competitive advantage and engage with other students on a global stage,” said Ashtone Onyango a member of the winning Kenyan team. “This is crucial for students as it not only helps them enhance their abilities but also increases their job market competitiveness.”

Read Also : Elon Musk has made a bid to acquire Twitter for $43 billion dollars

Over the past two decades, Huawei has invested in advancing ICT skills for more than 80,000 youths across sub-Saharan Africa. According to the company, it has helped increase youth employability and bridge the gender gap in the ICT industry in the region. Huawei is a sought-after employer in the region. In 2021, it was awarded the Top Employer seal by its subsidiaries in nine Sub-Saharan African nations.

Speaking at the ceremony, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, South African Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies said, “COVID-19 took us into the digital era, but we should not need a pandemic to do this for us in the future; we need to be deliberate and intentional to leapfrog our countries. We need innovation, we need to support local innovators, and we need to promote our own platforms throughout the continent to reach scale and develop our economies. We are only bigger when our market is bigger, and we must walk together.”

Also present at the ceremony was Prof. Eliamani Sadoyeka, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education Science and Technology, Tanzania, stressing the importance of ICT.

“ICT has given us almost equal access to knowledge. Once a young mind is connected, a girl from the village in Africa will have the same access to knowledge as a boy in Copenhagen,” he said.

He also mentioned that Africa’s future is in the hands of its youth, urging students to take advantage of every learning opportunity available to them. He praised Huawei’s ICT Academy for providing young people with a platform and skills in cutting-edge technology and the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Empowering African Youths to Solve Africa’s Problems

According to Huawei, the Huawei ICT competition has developed into the largest of its type in Africa and around the world. It provides students with a global platform to demonstrate and practise their ICT knowledge and abilities. Over 80,000 African university students have registered for the competition in the last five years, with more than 20 teams competing in the global finals.

A Top Performance Prize was awarded to the South African team that placed in the top ten of the Huawei Global Tech4Good Competition in 2021 for inventing an intrusion detection system that leverages wireless and cloud technology to combat rhino poaching.

Siyabonga Shandu, who was part of the South Africa intrusion detection system team, remarked that — “My proudest moment was learning that out of the 117 teams from around the world who participated in the Tech4Good challenge, we were part of the top 10 and the only team from the African continent. This shows we have the capacity and capabilities to create, innovate and build real African solutions to African problems.”

The LEAP programme, which will see more than 1,200 trainers facilitating 3,000 ICT courses, will be implemented due to the company’s investment to empower youths in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.

It will also fund training centres, hardware installation bases, innovation hubs, mirror labs, and ICT academies, among other things. More than 300 universities and colleges in the region now have Huawei ICT academies.

At the ceremony, Leo Chen urged for strong collaboration between government, industry, and academics at the ceremony to build an ecosystem from which everyone can contribute and benefit.

April 14, 2022
Connecting African Creatives with Remote Jobs in the US; Meaningful Gigs Raises $6M Seed

The demand for African creatives is on the rise. More so, the gig economy is on an upward projection since the pandemic that makes the industry experienced tremendous growth. By 2023, the growth rate is expected to reach $455 billion, which doubles the value in 2018. With the increasing demand for creatives and the growth rate of the gig industry, we’ve seen more freelance platforms resurrect.

Meaningful Gigs is one of such platform. The startup has raised $6M seed funding led by Stage 2 Capital with participation from Rethink Education, Authentic Ventures, Reach Capital, Marla Blow, Zvi Band, and Michele Perry.

With this precede, the startup plans to accelerate its growth — onboard more creatives on its platform and launch an aggressive marketing campaign to get about 100 corporates on board over the next year, from the present 40 enterprises currently using its platform.

The co-founder and CEO of Meaningful Gigs, Ronnie Kwesi Coleman, told our source that —

“We are thinking about how we can let more dimensional traders all over the continent know that we exist to help them make five to seven times more what they are making locally. We are creating more referral programs to help scale throughout the continent through our platform.”

Read Also: Egypt’s Credit Fintech Lucky is Set to Increase Market Leadership with $25M funding

“The other side of it is just letting more brands like the top-tier ones know that we exist because there’s a need for creatives in every company and every company right now is struggling to hire talent, and they just don’t even know that there’s a world full of talent waiting,” Coleman revealed.

What You Should Know About Meaningful Gigs

Meaningful Gigs poises itself as a tech-enabled one-stop marketplace for African freelance creatives looking to earn a living by taking remote jobs from multinationals companies in the U.S. The Washington D.C.-based startup helps African digital creatives upskill and connect them with enterprise companies looking for highly-skilled, diverse designers. It has worked with multinationals in the U.S. like Coca-Cola, Audi, Vans, and IDEO.

The startup was founded in 2018 by Ronnie Kwesi Coleman with Stephanie Nachemja-Bunton (COO) and Max Farago (CTO), from the need to create a platform that would offer more gigs that pay well for creatives looking for nontraditional work opportunities and new labour market entrants in Africa. This can be termed as helping companies source talent outside the usual pools.

Coleman narrated, “The three of us have been friends for the last 10 years, and we are part of the same creative community. One day, we came across this startling statistic that said by 2050, the number of young people entering the workforce in Africa would be more than all the young people entering the workforce in the rest of the world. And we thought this was crazy. It hit us that we could build a business around this. And personally, it resonated with me because I grew up in Ghana.”

Read Also : Apollo, Kenya-based Agritech bags $40M to scale Farming across East and West Africa

Before founding Meaningful Gigs, Coleman, who has been in the creative and tech industry for a decade, established another entity with Nachemja-Bunton that helped designers earn a “sustainable living”. More so, he was the former Director of Business Development at StayNTouch, a hotel management platform.

On the other hand, Nachemja-Buntonhas had a long career in education, where he previously held several positions, including One World Education as the Director of Teaching and Learning. While Farago, the third co-founder, is an experienced data engineer and the former VP of engineering at Deep Root Analytics. He had a background in law before transitioning into tech a few years back.

Building the Number One Remote Jobs Marketplace for Creatives

Designers go through a vetting process that includes test projects to sign up on the platform. Meaningful Gigs has matched “thousands” of its creatives from “over a dozen” countries in Africa with clients.

While matching the right gig workers with the right company is the startup’s main business, Meaningful Gigs also plans to offer continuous training to designers signed up on its platform to ensure that they are up to speed with the latest knowledge, trends and technologies in the fast-evolving digital world.

“What we have seen is that for anybody to succeed in this ever-evolving digital landscape, going into a job is not enough — you need to be able to learn skills on the job. And so, we want to build the number one remote jobs and skills marketplace for creatives, where we will be teaching people new skills as they go. We are blending jobs with education,” said Nachemja-Bunton.

Commenting on the investment, Stage 2 Capital partner Mandy Cole mention that — “We’ve been impressed with the Meaningful Gigs team’s focus in providing the best design experience for their clients while providing amazing tools for their creatives; we’re excited to support their journey to become the destination for diverse design talent.”

“With the shortage of highly skilled talent and the increasing need for diverse thinking, especially in creative, marketing and product, Meaningful Gigs is solving a huge problem by connecting talented African creatives with companies to deliver best-in-class design,” Mandy said.

In conclusion, Coleman revealed that they want Meaning Gigs to become the number one remote jobs marketplace globally. “We want to create 100,000 jobs by 2028. We are focusing on customer empathy and understanding what they need. A lot of investment will be spent creating the best experience for them. We want to make working with African creatives 10 times better than working with anybody else.”

March 23, 2022
Chuuse Partners with SchoolOnAir To Build a Software School in Africa

Chuuse, a Nigerian Talent-as-a-Service platform, has partnered with SchoolOnAir to launch Software School, which will train 15 million Africans over the next five years.

According to the Africa Developer Ecosystem 2021 report, Africa now has 716,000 skilled developers, according to Google and Accenture. This represents a 3.8 percent increase from the total population of 700,000 in 2020. Africa has the potential to become the world largest talent source, with a population of 2.4 billion people by 2050, nearly half of whom are under the age of 25.

Read Also : Binance Partners with Utiva to Host Blockchain Education Bootcamp For African Women

Daniel Olowokere, the CEO and Co-Founder of Chuuse, believes that now is the greatest time to upskill and scale African IT talent for global prospects.

“We’re witnessing an increase in international interest in African developer skills, which is driving talent shortages in the local ecosystem.” One of our objectives is to close the talent gap by providing the next generation of technical talent with all of the necessary knowledge to get started.”

Chuuse flagship offering, Software School, now offers two major programs: Android Development and Backend Development, each with approximately 350 expert-led lectures. Lesson Teacher, a SchoolOnAir app, hosts the lectures. By the end of the course, students will have progressed from novices to skilled developers.

Chuuse and SchoolOnAir Partnership

Mr Muyiwa Bamgbose, the Founder and CEO of SchoolOnAir, is ecstatic about the cooperation since it will enable more people, particularly SchoolOnAir over 300,000 students, to gain software development skills. “We ecstatic to be working with Chuuse to set the standard for software education for African talent.” “Together, we’ve created a no-borders solution that allows young people all over Africa to gain the skills they need,” he stated.

Daniel Olowokere also stated that they have a five-year goal of assisting 15 million Africans in learning and earning. “Our collaboration with SchoolOnAir to create Software School is critical to our objective of equipping 15 million Africans with tomorrow digital skills,” he said.

Read Also : Zain KSA Announces GeForce NOW Cloud Game, in Partnership with NVIDIA

Software School lectures are only approximately N50 per lecture or N25,000 for the entire program, making it one of the most affordable software training programs available to Africans.

Chuuse says that anyone in Africa, with or without internet access, can learn to code and become a developer in six months through its training program. Chuuse has declared that, in addition to teaching the talent, it plans to the Schoolonair network and infrastructure to connect African digital talent with worldwide possibilities.

March 14, 2022
Binance Partners with Utiva to Host Blockchain Education Bootcamp For African Women
Binance, the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem, and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider, announced last week that the company is hosting — an 8-week Blockchain Education Bootcamp for Women — in collaboration with Utiva.

Binance remains committed to closing the gender gap within the Blockchain industry and is set to equip African women with the knowledge, tools, and skills to commemorate International Women’s Month.

Read Also : Bitmama Launches Physical Crypto Card for In-store Payments

The blockchain industry as a whole is presenting new possibilities for Africans, with many being lifted out of poverty, learning future skills, getting employed, and gaining access to financial systems that were previously unavailable to them. On the other hand, women remain disproportionately underrepresented in the industry, with 95% of crypto users being men, according to the Global Crypto User Index, and women accounting for only 15% in a study by Business Insider. Binance continues to aid in bridging this difference.

Blockchain Bootcamp Details

Registration is now open for the 8-Week Blockchain Bootcamp, a hybrid (physical and online learning) program available to all African women and tech enthusiasts interested in blockchain technology and cryptocurrency for exciting career opportunities in the industry.

Applicants are expected to make a 1-minute video briefly telling the organizers about their interest in blockchain technology/cryptocurrency and why they should be selected for this Bootcamp to complete the registration form.

Application closes: March 16, 2022 (in 3 days)

Bootcamp start date: March 26, 2022

Location: Utiva Hive, 767 Somide Odujinrin Ave, Omole Phase 2 100271, Ikeja, Nigeria. (Online learning available to applicants outside Nigeria)

Click HERE to Register!

What Benefits does the Bootcamp Offer?

With this 8-Week Bootcamp, the organisers aim to show many career options in the crypto and blockchain space. Students will work on real-world projects in which they will be able to put their newly acquired abilities to use. This boot camp will also provide women with the opportunity to earn meaningful employment, allowing them to become self-sufficient and possibly labour employers.

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Binance continues to empower women, keeping with the company’s commitment to Africa and the growth of the blockchain ecosystem by providing them with opportunities to learn, acquire skills, and contribute to the technology industry by creatively solving challenges through innovation.

What to Expect from the Blockchain Bootcamp?
- Learn basics of blockchain
- Discover how others are using crypto in their everyday lives and how to store value with crypto and earn on your crypto balances
- Understand real-world applications of the blockchain
- Understand crypto trading and how it works in simple terms and step-by-step
- Get access to job opportunities.
About The Organizers

The host, Binance, is the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider with a financial product suite that includes the most prominent digital asset exchange by volume. Trusted by millions worldwide, the Binance platform is dedicated to increasing the freedom of money for users and features an unmatched portfolio of crypto products and offerings, including trading and finance, education, data and research, social good, investment and incubation, decentralisation, and infrastructure solutions, and more.

To trade on the go with Binance, download their Android or iOS app or visit their website.

Utiva, the partner, is Africa’s leading tech-ed company that makes it easy for Africans to access technology skills through a collaborative and remote learning model and makes talent and skills visible to employers. Since 2018, the company has helped professionals from over 1000 leading companies learn skills and develop capabilities to thrive in their workplaces and stay relevant for the Future of Work.

To get started learning with Utiva, visit here.
March 14, 2022
Female developers rising as push for STEM courses get attention

The interest of Nigerians, especially the female folks in technology development is on the rise as the push for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses are getting huge attention.

Findings by TechCabal in the Nigerian Women in Tech Report, powered by the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub, which confirmed this, informed that more than 65 percent of the female STEM university students surveyed applied for those courses as a result of their passion and interests as against being pressured by their parents to do so or because it was the only available option.

The report, which examined the distribution and level of involvement of women in Nigeria’s technology and STEM fields, noted that 59 percent of the survey respondents admit to facing challenges in their course of study, however, over 75 percent of the same respondents said that the challenges are not gender-related. However, despite the challenges faced, 54 percent of them are happily studying the course.

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Furthermore, the majority of the founders surveyed, about 55.6 percent said that the challenges they faced were gender-based while many of the developers surveyed didn’t feel this way. 83 percent of the latter felt that their challenges weren’t gender-based.

According to the report, the number and percentage of female developers in the tech companies we surveyed are increasing with each passing year, which shows that there is a growing interest in women’s participation in the tech field.

It also disclosed that less than 50 percent of the female students surveyed see themselves having a STEM-related career in the next five to 10 years. The report, which is available for free download, looks at the gaps that exist in women’s participation, challenges and highlights recommendations for improvement. It also puts the spotlight on 21 women entrepreneurs, c-suite executives, and seven women developers working in the Nigerian technology industry.

According to the Chief Executive Officer at Big Cabal Media, the parent company of TechCabal, Tomiwa Aladekomo, said: “Notwithstanding decades of progress towards workplace equality, women remain underrepresented in Nigeria’s technology workforce. We’ve embarked on this report to showcase the arena where women in technology play across Nigeria, and the contribution to the big picture when we look at it through the lens of STEM.”

February 10, 2022