GetBundi Education Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of GetBundi Education Technology Limited, has committed to the online training of 500 African women in Coding.

The Coding courses, which will be at no cost to the participants, are to hold from June 1 to August 31, 2023

According to Mrs Juliet Ijei, course coordinator, GetBundi Education Technology and GetBundi Education Foundation, the Coding courses are targeted at bridging the huge gap in digital skills in Africa, particularly among women.

“This programme is particularly important coming at a time when digital skills and tools have become increasingly essential to access services such as health, education, social protection and financial services,” she said.

Tagged ‘TechSis 2023’, a reversal of the male-dominated industry known as ‘Tech Bros’, the initiative aims to bridge the digital skill gender inequality in Africa, she explained.

Ijei said that free registration for the Coding courses will start on April 24 and end on May 23, 2023 or after the first 500 women must have registered.

On the rationale behind TechSis, Ijei said it was in an effort to give women and girls a better deal in the tech industry dominated by men.

“It will also prepare them to assume their rightful place at the heights of the new economy.

“The tech industry is no doubt a male-dominated career area across the world, and Africa is no exception. Research reveals that only 30 percent of African women make up the tech industry, which signifies that they are highly under-represented,” Ijei said.

According to her, despite the overwhelming percentage of women in the African continent, available data reveals that only very few are in the digital and technology space compared to men.

“Women in the tech space make up only about 22 percent of the industry workforce in Nigeria

“Bias and stereotypes have continued to pose obstacles to women being properly represented in the technology industry.

“Women often show reluctance to take up tech-related degrees or any tech-related skills, leaving males to dominate many tech companies.

“This implies that women in sub-Saharan Africa have a high risk of missing out on the jobs of the future, with an estimated 230 million jobs in the region requiring digital skills by 2030.

“This female digital exclusion, a phenomenon where women and girls are disproportionately left behind in accessing and using digital technologies and services, is a pervasive problem hindering the realisation of a fully inclusive digital future,” she said.

“It is in an effort to bridge this digital divide that GetBundi has offered to train 500 African women, who are 18 and above, to learn Coding, a top-demand skill, for free,” Ijei said.

The free Coding training, she said, would enable the women to be well-positioned to take up well-paying jobs, thereby creating a source of income for themselves.

“Through this initiative, women and girls will get to learn programming languages such as JavaScript, Python, Scratch and Ethical Hacking.

“To ensure the effective inclusion of women in the tech sector, the TechSis initiative will be organised yearly by the GetBundi Foundation in different areas of digital skills.

“With GetBundi’s initiative to teach females Coding, it will undoubtedly impact the inclusion of more girls and women in the technology sector in Africa,” she said.

Meanwhile, Mr Osita Oparaugo, Founder of GetBundi Education Technology, has announced that Prof. Florence Emenalo, Director, Centre for Women and Gender Studies, Imo State University, Nigeria, would give the opening speech to kick-start the Coding skills training.

“We oppose education inequality, especially with STEM and Digital Skills, and we won’t stop until millions of African women benefit from GetBundi Education Foundation.

“This time it is Coding; by the last quarter of this year, it will be Digital Marketing targeting 1,000 women.

“The women are here, the hunger to learn is there, just the opportunity, and that is what GetBundi Education Foundation is presenting to women across Africa,” he said.

Report says that GetBundi, a government-approved educational technology platform, has the goal to use technology to make STEM and Digital Skills learning across Africa accessible to all.

Only recently, the educational technology platform partnered the Lagos State Government to commission a STEM laboratory at Wesley Girls Senior Secondary School, Yaba, Lagos.

The laboratory is a pilot phase of an ongoing partnership between the Lagos State Government and GetBundi Education Technology. (NAN)