Moniepoint, a leading digital financial services provider, announced the expansion of its “Women in Tech” program on Tuesday. Now in its fifth year, this initiative aims to bridge the gender gap in the technology sector by increasing internship roles from 10 to 15.
The program aligns with the 2025 International Women’s Day theme, “Accelerate Action,” emphasising the need for urgent steps to achieve gender equality across industries.
The expanded program offers young women hands-on experience in various tech fields, including cloud engineering, backend engineering, technical product management, data engineering, systems administration, technical support, and user experience.
Successful applicants, known as the “Dream 15,” will engage in a six-month internship with direct mentorship, a salary, work tools, branded merchandise, and the opportunity to secure full-time employment based on performance.
Chinaza Nduka-Dike, Vice President of People Operations at Moniepoint, expressed enthusiasm about the expansion, noting, “With the Women in Tech initiative, we are not just inspiring inclusion – we are actively creating sustainable pathways for women to thrive in the tech industry. Diversity fuels innovation, and through programs like this, we are empowering women to take on leadership roles, develop crucial skills, and shape the technology sector”.
Moniepoint’s initiative addresses the underrepresentation of women in Nigeria’s tech workforce. Although women make up nearly half of the population, they only account for about 25 per cent of the tech workforce.
Over the past four years, the program has been instrumental in Moniepoint’s mission to power the dreams of millions while transforming the careers of talented women.
The Women in Tech program has proven transformative for both participants and the broader tech community. It offers access to mentorship, training, and hands-on experience.
Moniepoint’s commitment to this initiative underscores its dedication to fostering gender inclusion and driving innovation in Africa’s tech ecosystem.
The internship is accessible to African women interested in technological careers. Visit the website to learn about open positions and apply.
Women in science, technology, and engineering gathered for the IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Summit, held November 16–17 at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane.
The occasion honored their successes and ignited hope for a time when their influence will extend beyond invention. One common topic that emerged from the summit’s discussions was the ability of technology, entrepreneurship, and gender equality to spur innovation and economic growth.
The summit directed the narrative towards a powerful junction of technology and entrepreneurship under the topic of “Empowering Women in Technology: Fostering Innovation for Sustainable Impact and Entrepreneurship.”
Franziska Laurien, a business and life coach who stressed the value of the event for women, particularly in the fields of technology and entrepreneurship, said that women have a lot to gain from attending.
She praised the university for realizing the significance of producing a workforce that is not just technically talented but also knowledgeable in business practices and welcomed its decision to incorporate both engineering and entrepreneurship into the course curriculum.
Laurien envisioned a world in which graduates who were talented in both engineering and business might head their own enterprises. He emphasized the critical necessity for graduates who possessed both of these sets of skills. Her perspective is that this is consistent with Morocco’s efforts to promote economic growth and women’s rights.
In addition to this, she brought attention to the economic loss that Morocco experiences as a result of the low participation percentage of women, which is approximately 20%.
“Society is both men and women. And if you have a society where you have only men that are participating in the development of the society, this is an unbalanced society,” she said.
In her discussion of the benefits of entrepreneurship for female tech enthusiasts, Laurien cited the fact that it can assist women in striking a better balance between their personal and professional lives as something that struck her as particularly “innovative.”
Meryem Kassou, the Chief Executive Officer of Digitis, spoke about her experiences as an entrepreneur in the field of technology. She highlighted the significance of encouraging women to enter the sector of technology, which is dominated by men.
In this regard, she stressed the “advantageous” position that Morocco has in comparison to other nations with the number of female engineers, which in the country of Morocco stands at 42%. Morocco is located in the North African region.
Kassou addressed the issues that face female entrepreneurs as well as the opportunities that exist for them during the International Summit on Entrepreneurship.
She placed a particular emphasis on the importance of closing the gender gap in the technology industry and encouraging more female tech enthusiasts to pursue careers in this sector. Kassou emphasized how important it is to recognize and seize the multiple chances that are accessible for women to begin their own business paths. She noted that there are a lot of opportunities.
“We have to keep in mind that there are many opportunities for women to start their journey in the entrepreneurship field,” she said.
As for his part, Mehdi Alaoui, CEO of the Los Angeles-based startup Station, took part in a lively discussion as part of the ongoing summit to debate the topic of women’s entrepreneurship.
Alaoui stressed the importance of consistently encouraging women to enter the technology sector, highlighting both the problems and potential that are present in the field.
He underlined that female tech enthusiasts might be their primary obstacle and encouraged them to overcome self-doubt, challenge themselves, and build their own enterprises. He also emphasized that women can be the key barrier to achieving equality.
“The only thing that blocks women from creating their entrepreneurship is themselves,” he said.
In line with the demographic make-up of the world as a whole, Alaoui emphasized the significance of establishing a “50-50” gender balance in the business world of entrepreneurship. According to him, given that we are split evenly down the middle, the entrepreneurial world ought to be the same way.
In the context of the entrepreneurial environment, he encouraged women to be more “persistent” in their pursuit of mentorship and the destruction of any barriers that stood in the way of their success.
He emphasized that, “they need to override that and overcome these barriers and challenge themselves to create their startups.”
WWBA connects and supports African tech women. Today, they invited women founders, investors, and ecosystem partners to attend the first WWBA Assembly in Nairobi on September 13th and 14th.
A diverse group will sponsor 10 founders to attend the Assembly, pitch to top investors, and connect with ecosystem partners in Nairobi.
Founders Factory Africa, Enza Capital, Open Capital, NEXT176, One Day Yes, Untapped Global, A&A Collective, WomHub, Amazon Web Services, and others are partners and donors.
Ten early-stage female founders from across the continent will present their ideas at the WWBA Assembly. There will be insightful panels, workshops, and speeches about women in venture capital. Happy hours and dinners will let individuals network at the end of the day.
“We’re proud and excited to make this event happen,” said Women Who Build Africa co-founder Gwera Kiwana. It will unite women in shaping Africa’s future.” “Thea and I founded WWBA because we noticed a need for additional networking opportunities for underrepresented builders in this field and targeted initiatives and assistance for women in tech at all stages throughout the continent. We appreciate our partners for making this event possible. Founders, financiers, and ecosystem partners who wish to encourage inclusive growth and help women entrepreneurs build enterprises are invited.
A group of investor partners will choose the startups that will take part in the pitch from the list of applicants. The founders who are chosen will also be paired with coaches from the WWBA community to help them get ready for their pitch. Founders, operators, investors, and other members of the WWBA group are welcome to attend the event. Everyone is welcome.
The agenda will include:
Discussions focused on women in venture capital, led by A&A Collective and Dream VC.
10 early-stage startup pitches
A full day of workshops, talks from later-stage founders, panel discussions, and more, led by our partners
Networking happy hours, VIP dinners, and more.
The application period runs from now until August 14, 2023. Startups that want to take part in the pitch must be pre-Series A and have at least one active woman or non-binary founder. More companies and founders in later stages will be asked to come.
Women Who Build Africa (WWBA) is a community for women and non-binary people who work in or around the tech space. They have started having events and running their business.
Thea Sokolowski, the head of marketing at Stitch, and Gwera Kiwana (MFS Africa), who is the crypto founder in residence at MFS Africa, founded WWBA. It was officially launched in May 2022, and it has chapters in different African markets.
The group is made up of more than 600 people from Africa and other places. WWBA has held meetings and events in Nairobi, Cape Town, Accra, and London since it began. It has also started a newsletter and a Slack group that are very busy.
WWBA is an inclusive community that brings together women and non-binary people who work in or around tech and are often underrepresented. The goal of WWBA is to create a space where members can meet, share what they are building, give and get feedback, and find mentors, investors, employees, employers, and more.
Zimbabweans have been advised on the importance of early girl child exposure to computer science and tech to improve creativity. Women Affairs, Community, Small Medium Enterprise Development deputy minister Jennifer Mhlanga made the call on Thursday in commemoration of International Women’s Day.
Mhlanga said parents should prioritise introducing their female children to computer sciences early because it can improve their creative thinking.
According to the Deputy Minister, “Change should start at home with us parents; we must encourage girls to dream big and groom them whilst they are still young so as to develop their natural abilities as they grow.”
Her speech which was a joint statement with UN Women country representative Fatou Aminata Lo, exemplifies the 2023 IWD theme, “DigitaLL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”.
According to the deputy minister, “It is crucial to introduce STEM education for women and girls in their early childhood years and to continue supporting them throughout their education.
“Computer sciences should start at early childhood and this will enable children to have creative thinking. We should educate for equality”.
Mhlanga explained further that the Zimbabwean government is committed to deploying various strategies designed to solve the multiple challenges women face, including access to digital skills.
Speaking on collective actions, the top government functionary stated that society should assist the government in ensuring girls receive the education required for them to thrive in a competitive digital world.
“There is a need to employ a variety of approaches to address the various challenges faced by women, which include enrolment in non-formal education, technical and vocational training, agricultural extension services, workplace training and training in these new technologies,” she highlighted.
On her ministry’s part, she said her team have been implementing a number of programmes to facilitate women’s effective participation in agriculture, mining, tourism, trade and manufacturing sectors.
UN Women Representative On Women Involvement In Tech
UN Women country representative Fatou Aminata Lo acknowledged the government’s women’s empowerment interventions already in place.
“In the midst of setbacks and challenges women face, I acknowledge the work the government of Zimbabwe has done in putting in place policies that allow women to be equally innovative and participate in the technology sector freely.
“The UN in Zimbabwe remains committed to making innovations and technology work for women and girls, UN Women through the Spotlight Initiative have set up in five provinces, mobile knowledge hubs, library and a computer lab, essential integrated one stop repository of information related to violence against women and girls, including sexual gender-based violence, gender equality and women and girls empowerment,” she said.
She however decried the low percentage of women who have access to technology and the internet. She hence called for more commitment to addressing the gender gaps in technology and innovation.
She said: “the gap in access to digital tools and services tends to be greatest for women with low literacy or low income, those living in rural or remote areas, migrants, women with disabilities, and older women.
“Women are rarely viewed as technology creators and decision makers which limit the development of products that respond to their needs and views. Everyone should have equal access to digital skills, training and digital services should be affordable, accessible and add value for all women and girls.
“I call for the removal of all barriers that may prevent women and girls from accessing the digital world. Digital literacy should go beyond learning basic computer skills and focus on a set of competencies that include technical as well as transferable skills,” she said
Women have been told to take on leadership and technology roles in all parts of the economy and to keep improving their skills to better position themselves and close the gap between men and women in the world.
Dr. Odumakin highlighted the need for women’s issues to take centre stage while encouraging women to effect meaningful change.
According to her, “assertive women must be determined because where determination exists, failure can never dismantle the flag of success.” Albert Pine says that “what we do for ourselves dies with us, but what we do for others and the world remains”.
“Women should not only be found in the other room, but they should be somewhere they can meaningfully effect change. Through technology, I seek justice for people. We go to court and seek appearances. We have this tool in order to use it to effect change. I want our women to be the driving force, to get empowered and be skilful.”
“Women should endeavour to assume leadership roles wherever they find themselves. Women must not think that men will always give them a chance,” she added.
The award-winning activist emphasised the need for mentorship between established and budding entrepreneurs, adding that there is a need for women to stay united.
Dr. Odumakin said: “Entrepreneurs should also encourage upcoming ones so that they can have role models in them.” Nobody should diss us as women. Assertive women will always want to remain together, whether they are executives or entrepreneurs.
Speaking on the theme ‘Reskilling women and girls to thrive in the digital economy,’ Dr. Omowunmi Hassan, the WEETS keynote speaker, said women, and the nation in general, need to transcend speaking about issues to doing the work to achieve the desired change, adding that change can be achieved through technology.
“… as women, what skills do we have, what do we know?… We are talking about the digital economy; we are talking about technologies. What do we want to do better? So, what is it that is our passion, what do we want to drive? What problem in Nigeria do we get angry about?
“When we begin to talk, all this grammar and then you have people talking; I’m wondering what exactly is going on.” We need a lot of us to come out and do better… When we talk to all the girls in ICT today, we tell them to let us slay with our brains. Nigerian girls, are we together? Begin slaying, make-up, and doing everything except holding your brain. If you can pass Jamb, you can climb the mast.
“There was a lockdown. Nobody could import things. Another lockdown could happen. ” So, you must reskill now. We need skills, ma’am. I want to challenge all of us. There are different areas of technology that are our solutions.
“Recently, we called the elderly people in the last two days, talking to them in Alausa.” People who have retired and don’t have opportunities again are now looking for ways to reskill. Don’t let it be too late; we can start. “
Dr. Hassan called on women to make ample use of the gadgets in their possession, adding that it was time to build real solutions and champion the advancement of technology in Nigeria.
According to her, “If we want to reskill, everybody must try.” All these cameras are in our hands: can we try to see how they made the parts, or must we continue to import them? Because if we want to really encourage Nigeria’s GDP, let’s use these problems in Nigeria to build real solutions that would solve them, and this is our advocacy. I welcome every girl in Nigeria, every woman, to join the advocacy. “
Women Maximizing the Internet
The General Manager, MTN Broadband Business, Mrs Onyinye Ikenna-Emeka, emphasised the importance of technology in society and how women are already maximising its endless possibilities.
“If 60% of women spend time on the internet trying to understand precisely how to position and drive their businesses, then really and truly, there is an opportunity to discuss how to put front and centre the need for digital skills. Foundationally, as women, we are already inquisitive enough to understand that there is value in the internet.
“You can use the internet productively to better yourself. If there is anything that came out of the COVID period, it’s the understanding that a virtual world exists. That world exists for education, it exists for work, and it exists for entertainment.”
Mrs Ikenna-Emeka, therefore, raised questions about whether women are being supported enough to maximise the digital space.
According to her, “And so there are some of us today who probably have gone ahead to run programmes and get ourselves educated and skilled without having to sit in a classroom.”
“When we look at these, we then ask ourselves –from a private sector perspective– are we doing what we can to ensure women who already have the foundational understanding and leaning towards technology have access to the right level of upskilling and digital skilling that is required to help them sustain their businesses or drive whatever lines of endeavour that they find themselves in?”
Women at WEETS also talked about how excited they were to go to the event. They thanked TECHlife Media for putting on the event, which taught them new things and gave them chances to meet new people.
Women in tech are gaining ground as the technology industry gradually progresses in reducing its gender gap, and women in tech leadership are making the fastest advances.
Deloitte Global has predicted that large global technology firms, on average, will reach nearly 33% overall female representation in their workforces by the end of 2022, up slightly more than 2 percentage points from 2019. The report also showed that despite the shares of women in technical and leadership roles tending to lag the overall proportion of women by 8‒10 percentage points, they are increasing the most rapidly.
In Africa, about 30% of tech professionals are women. Techpoint Africa’s West African Startup Decade Report 2020 estimates that between 2010 and 2019, only 10% of West African startups with a female co-founder raised over $1 million.
This percentage of females in technology is steadily on the rise and is traceable to women techies establishing a path for future generations to walk through like the WEETS is also engaging in.
Tech African Women (TAW), a program headed by BetaCube and backed by UNECA, has announced the commencement of its first Tech African Women program, which aims to develop a strong female-driven tech startup pipeline and ecosystem in Africa.
The program is currently accepting applications from female-led idea-stage startups originating from the countries of Ethiopia, Senegal, Tanzania, and Tunisia.
TAW is a program that has been launched to empower female founders to leverage their skills to build strong tech startups from the ground up, accelerate the transformation of project ideas into validated business models, and develop alliances between different African ecosystems. These are the goals of the program.
During the course of the incubation program, the participants will have free access to a pool of tech developers and designers who will work to support and mentor their respective teams. This access will be provided for the duration of the program.
Along with taking part in personalized webinars offered by international trainers, participants will also have the chance to work closely with top experts in marketing and finance.
“TAW targets female-led & idea-stage tech startups and offers these startup teams an exclusive opportunity to acquire new entrepreneurial skills, establish partnerships with their African peers, increase regional business visibility, and access funds,” reads the announcement of the initiative’s launch.
According to the program’s organiser, the program will run from August to December 2022 with three main phases.
In partnership with key players in the local ecosystem, intensive training boot camps and pitching competitions will be held over the course of three days in Tunisia, Senegal, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. A cash prize in the amount of $2,000 will be awarded to the winning team in each Bootcamp.
An online business incubation course of two months, open to the top two start-ups from each country, to bring them to an investment and market-ready state.
At the program’s conclusion, a ceremony will be held in Ethiopia’s capital city of Addis Ababa at the ECA Conference Center. At this event, eight different startups will compete for the program’s grand prize, which is a cash grant of $7,000 to be awarded to the business that proves to be the most successful. TAW is specifically geared toward female-led and idea-stage tech startups, and it provides teams with an exclusive opportunity to acquire new entrepreneurial skills, establish partnerships with their African peers, increase regional business visibility, and access funding.
It does this by developing the capacity of female entrepreneurs who want to understand how they can play a role in the development of the continent and who also want to deep dive into the process of building impact-driven startups. This helps to support ideas that address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“It supports ideas addressing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by developing the capacity of female entrepreneurs who desire to understand how to play a role in the continent’s development and want to deep dive into building impact-driven startups.”
Tech Africa Women Application
Participation in the program is restricted to women aged 18-35 who are citizens of Tunisia, Tanzania, Senegal, or Ethiopia and who have an idea for a tech startup that addresses at least one of the Sustainable Development Goals. They must also be fluent in French or English.
On the program’s official website, applications are currently being accepted from candidates residing in the four countries until the 10th of August 2022 for Tunisia and until the 17th of August 2022 in Ethiopia, Senegal, and Tanzania respectively.
What to Know About UNECA
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) was established by The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations (UN) in 1958 as one of the UN’s five regional commissions. The ECA’s mission is to advance intra-regional integration, the economic and social development of its member states, and international cooperation for the development of Africa.
ECA is made up of 54 member states and plays a dual role as a regional arm of the UN and a key part of the African institutional landscape. This means that it is in a good position to help solve the development problems on the Continent in a unique way.
ECA’s strength comes from the fact that it is the only UN agency with the power to work at the regional and subregional levels to gather resources and put them to work on Africa’s priorities. ECA puts a lot of effort into collecting up-to-date and original regional statistics so that its policy research and advocacy can be based on clear, objective evidence. It also puts a lot of effort into promoting policy consensus, giving meaningful capacity building, and giving advice in key thematic fields.
About Betacube
Betacube is a Venture Building program that Wevioo and Amel Saidane established. The European Union and Expertise France are providing funding for the program.
Betacube was established in 2019 with the goal of creating an ecosystem for technological innovation in which Tunisian and international talent can connect with the rest of the world, create successful businesses, and lead the digital transformation of particular industries.
They make co-founding with Betacube easy and flexible for people in the Tunisian diaspora and other international talents.
Betacube Circle also has a strong network of advisors, experts, and corporate partners who work with them to develop new ideas.
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.
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.”
