Fintech company, Chippercash, has partnered with Ghana’s Developers in Vogue to provide the next generation of female developers with more advanced skills through education and training.
Developers in Vogue (DiV) is a registered non-profit organization in Ghana that seeks to solve the problem of the underrepresentation of African women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). They do this by providing project-oriented training in Software Development, Data Analysis, Mobile App Development, Graphic Design, and Digital Marketing.
DiV has successfully trained and placed women in technical roles at local and global tech companies such as Microsoft, Vodafone, Ecobank, mPharma, and many others. Members of the community have also joined competitive business incubator programs to enable them to start tech companies.
However, African female engineers face similar challenges (gender discrimination, access to career growth opportunities, and work-life balance conflict, to name a few) to their global counterparts.
Janet Boakye, Partnership Manager, DiV, explains: “The underrepresentation of women in the tech industry is a known fact. And women are generally discouraged to take up technical roles which are seen to be for men within the tech industry. UNESCO statistics show that women in the tech industry constitute only 28% of professionals in the sector worldwide, and just 30% Sub-Saharan Africa, throwing light into the huge gap between women and men in exploring careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres at a 2020 high-level meeting on gender equality and women empowerment in Africa remarked, “Poverty in Africa, as in the rest of the world, still has a woman’s face. For every 100 men aged between 25 and 34 living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, there are 127 women. Women are often concentrated in precarious jobs and they carry a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work.”
The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t helped. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of women and girls living in impoverished households is expected to increase from 249 million to 283 million between 2021 and 2030.
Developers in Vogue are focused on bridging the gap by providing project-oriented training, career development workshops, mentorship programs with renowned industry experts, and job opportunities for African women who want to build a career in STEM. They also partner with companies to develop gender-inclusive job placement opportunities for female developers.
As part of the partnership, Chippercash will help the women who graduate from the program with career opportunities.
The company said, “In the short term, we are committed to bringing on some of the women who graduate from the program and helping the rest find places in other technology companies. We expanded the second cohort of DiV’s flagship Tech Accelerator Program to twelve female engineers.
“And this is just the beginning. We’ll look to scale it across five African countries shortly.”
Those looking forward to joining the Div programme can click here to proceed.
