According to the e-Conomy report 2020, there are 690,000 professional developers across Africa with 50% of this talent saturated in Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa. The report also states that by 2025, the internet economy has the potential to contribute $180 Billion to Africa’s economy. This projection implies that the tech ecosystem is likely to be on an upward growth in the coming years.
Despite this, present-day Africa is facing treacherous economic activities that are threatening the earning power of the African youth. On one hand, with factors like inflation, currency devaluation, and mass unemployment, many young Africans are unable to dole out the hundreds of dollars required to access relevant tech education.
While on the other hand, Founders have also pointed out that there is a shortage of experienced local talent to help grow the African market. What these situations present is a conundrum. If there is a high demand for African tech talent with a clear correlation to economic growth, yet due to economic factors, young Africans are unable to ready themselves for the global opportunity, then clearly there is a need for third parties to step into the situation. Altruistic Individuals have founded non-profit organisations and communities to empower African youth with free learning resources and education in the tech ecosystem.
In this article, we will explore four organisations that are taking up this responsibility.
Tech4dev
Tech4dev is a non-profit using technology to advance sustainable human capital development in Africa. Since its inception, the organisation has recorded over 41,000 direct beneficiaries, and 10 million plus indirect beneficiaries, reached 15 African countries, and facilitated about 10,000 African talent placements.
Women Techsters Program, which is one of its many initiatives, is a program with an ambition to empower 5 million African females with digital and tech skills by 2030.
Ingressive for Good (I4G)
I4G has a range of initiatives and they have shown that they are committed to its fulfilment. The non-profit organisation’s mission is to empower one million African youths with tech skills to increase their earning power. Ingressive runs a micro-scholarship scheme, where it is empowering African talent with micro-scholarships to study in African Ivy-league Universities.
It also provides African youth with multiple scholarships to learn technical tech skills across different tech careers.
I4G alumni is a community of African tech talents who have gone through any of Ingressive for Good’s initiatives, Ingressive shares employment opportunities, and talent placement. In 2022, the non-profit announced that Google had donated 250,000 dollars to drive the organisation’s mission.
SheCodeAfrica
This non-profit community is on a mission to give women more access and resources in the tech ecosystem. Founded by Ada Nduka Oyom, She Code Africa is a community built by women for women, with the mission of empowering women in tech across Africa.
The community runs open source programs, and hackathons, empowering African women with laptops to kickstart their tech career and mentorship programs. She Code Africa is active in African countries like Ghana, Nairobi, Nigeria, and Rwanda.
Devcareer
If you are active in the Twitter tech ecosystem, then you know the phrase ‘techies assemble’ is synonymous with Hacksultan. If not then now you know who coined it. Hacksultan is a developer and founder who founded the non-profit organisation Devcareer.
Devcareer is a community of developers founded to give African developers access to free learning resources, mentorship programs, and learning programs. In 2019, Hacksultan had the desire to empower developers in the African ecosystem with laptops, so he created a go-fund to solicit funds. That singular act of goodwill birthed the vision for the Devcareer community.
