Technology for Social Change and Development Initiative (Tech4Dev) has accepted a total of 1,466 beneficiaries to the class of 2023 of the Women Techsters Fellowship from a pool of 14,509 completed applications and 77,000 attempted applications from 15 African countries.
The total number of admitted beneficiaries equals about 10 per cent of total applications. The Women Techsters Fellowship is a free experiential technology learning and up-skilling programme for young girls and women between the ages of 16 to 40 across 15 African countries.
A total of 1,167 women from Nigeria were admitted into the programme out of 10,912 who applied. Kenya had the second highest number of beneficiaries 68 while 48 Ghanaian women were accepted into the programme.
The women will be trained in Mobile Development, Software Development, Product Design, Product Management, Cybersecurity, Data Science/ Artificial Intelligence Engineering, Blockchain and Mixed Reality/3D.
Speaking at the press conference to announce the applicants, Women Techsters Initiative Lead, Blessing Ashi, revealed that the process of selection was rigorous as the programme requires only the best and most dedicated fellows.
“We started the registration process in March 2022 and we had three stages of assessments for the beneficiaries and I can categorically say that we have selected the best based on the performance of beneficiaries across all the three stages.
“I want to say congratulations to everyone who made it this far and I hope that the skills to be acquired during this learning phase will stand you out amongst your peers. Stay true to the programme and I wish you the best.”
Co-founder and Executive Director at Tech4Dev, Oladiwura Oladepo, encouraged the beneficiaries to give their 100 per cent to the programme. “Congratulations for making it into the fellowship but I must tell you that this is the time to put in work because without putting in the effort, success may not be guaranteed. It takes long hours; sometimes sleepless nights but I can assure you that success is just around the corner if you stay dedicated. Our goal is to train five million across Africa by 2030.”
The Women Techsters Fellowship, launched in 2021, is a yearlong immersive training and experiential learning programme for young girls and women across Africa to acquire deep tech skills through six months of intensive training, six-month internship, and mentorship.
In its first year, the Women Techsters Fellowship received over 4,800 applications from 19 countries and accepted 338 beneficiaries into the programme, which is a seven per cent acceptance rate from five countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa.
