Africa, Tech and Girls: 60 Women Changing the Narrative

Men have long dominated the ICT industry, however the growing number of women getting into tech and holding leadership positions can’t be ignored. As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Women’s Charter, we also want to acknowledge the many women who are paving the way for future generations.

60. Sinah Legong, General Manager: Geekulcha

Sinah is the general manager at Geekulcha which is an organisation focused  on empowering young geeks through ICT skills development and training while giving them a taste of what awaits them in the big world through industry exposure. She also runs Raeketsetsa which is a movement that empowers girls and young women in the ICT, giving them the confidence to pursue ICT studies, career and their daily lives. Twitter: @CinaWood, @Raeketsetsa

 

59. Baratang Miya, Co-Founder: GirlHype

Baratang is the co-founder of GirlHype; an NGO we started in 2004 that empower girls through STEM, integrating: arts, science, technology, and career skills. She also serves on the executive board of The Silicon Cape Initiative as transformation portfolio head and has contributed to education access and equity in a diversity of settings for close to fifteen years. She is also part of the Steering Committee for Women in Philanthropy in Cape Town .  At the moment she is working on a program for Mozilla and UN Women forming clubs in Cape Town that educate women on how to read, write and participate on the web. Twitter:@BaratangMiya, @GirlHype

 

58. Leigh-Ann Fowle, Founder: Girl Geeks Dinner JHB, ,

Leigh-Ann is the founder of Girl Geek Dinners in Johannesburg and of  The Written Word, a marketing and communications agency. Leigh-Ann decided to start Girl Geeks after finding that there was a lack of networking opportunities for tech-savvy women. Girl Geek Dinners have been extremely successful in Jozi – post the first event in November 2011, the dinners have been sold out. Leigh-Ann is a copywriter, specialising in writing for digital, and marketing consultant. She has put these skills to good use with Girl Geeks. Leigh-Ann is passionate about all things tech and this is why Girl Geeks is the perfect fit. Twitter: @LeighFowle

 

57. Ethel cofie, Founder: womentechAfrica

My   passions are 3 and they are  Technology, Supporting Female Leadership and Entrepreneurship.I am a technology entrepreneur and CEO EDEL Technology Consulting. A  high caliber IT  Professional  with a wealth of technical and commercial skills acquired across a wide range of demanding roles . Ethel has over 15 years’ experience working in the United Kingdom ,Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone on projects for organizations like Bill and Melinda Gates Mobile Technology for Health project, the Ford Foundation’s Election Monitoring project for Nigeriaand as Head of Commercial Solutions for Vodafone conceptualizing, executing and working with teams to align Corporate strategy to IT strategy and to develop and manage creative  technology solutions.

Twitter: @ethelcofie, @womentechAfrica

 

56. Regina Honu, Founder: TechNeedsGirls  

Regina Honu is the Founder and CEO of Soronko Solutions, a software development powerhouse and social enterprise. She was chosen as the 2016 Vlisco Ambassador for Ghana in recognition of the courage she embodied as she fearlessly achieved her dreams despite the obstacles of operating in a male-dominated field. By expressing her individuality and daring to be boldly different, she is truly an inspiration and a fitting Vlisco Ambassador! The nonprofit arm of her business allows her to execute several passion projects she holds close to her heart, as she values above all else her ability to share her skills and use them to build up and give back to her community. These projects include equipping rural Ghanaian children with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skills as well as critical thinking skills and overseeing the award-winning program Tech Needs Girls, a movement that mentors girls to lead and innovate by teaching them to code. Twitter: @Techneedsgirls, @ragyare

55. Pauline M, Director: Innovation Prize for Africa 

Pauline Mujawamariya Koelbl joined the African Innovation Foundation in July 2011 as the IPA Program Director, but is also responsible for managing the innovation and technology programs of the Foundation. Pauline focuses on cultivating market-orientated solutions for African-led development across the continent, building an innovation ecosystem that will invigorate economic growth across Africa.Prior to joining the AIF, she worked for the World Health Organization in Geneva and the Research Corporation for Science Advancement Foundation inUSA. Pauline currently serves as a board member of the Flame Tree Initiative, a US-based NGO that focuses on using ICTs to address the digitaldivide through collaboration with African universities. She is also one of the Bellagio/PopTech Catalysts, a joint initiative between theRockefeller Foundation and PopTech which brings together a global community of innovators and thought leaders from different fields to share insights and work together to create lasting change. Twitter: @PaulineM4

54. Ngwana Matloa, Co-Founder @ABOTTechnology,

Ngwaba is the Co-Founder of ABOTTechnology, a multi-talented software development and graphic design company based in Johannesburg, South Africa. They offer as technology agency bespoke software development, web development, graphic design and consulting services to business of all sizes.  Twitter: @NgwanaM

 

 

53. Rapelang Rabana, Founder Rekindle Learning 

It was while she was studying Computer Science at the University of Cape Town that Rapelang discovered the wide range of possibilities that technology provided in delivering solutions to problems which had plagued her as a young person. Rapelang’s journey started as part of the founding team of Yeigo, an innovative Cape Town based company that developed some of the world’s earliest mobile VoIP applications in 2006. The group of UCT graduates created ground-breaking applications and services that took advantage of the internet, mobile and cloud computing technologies. Yeigo was acquired by the Telfree Group in 2009. This formative entrepreneurial experience manifested her belief that mobile and internet technology will play an instrumental role in addressing major socio-economic issues on the continent.Taking the next step in her entrepreneurial journey in 2013, Rapelang founded learning technology company Rekindle Learning. The company provides digital learning experiences that improve learning efficiencies to deliver stronger performance at school and at work, with a particular focus on mobile devices. Twitter:@rapelangrabana

 

52. Ngwako Ramohlale, Co-Founder Nunnovation

Ngwako Ramohlale is the Co-Founder of the Nunnovation Africa Foundation and heads the Thought Leadership division within the Foundation. Under Ngwako’s leadership, the Foundation continues to inform, empower and inspire Africans to think critically about the solutions needed to better our continent. Focusing on emerging big industries such as ICT, Green Technology, Renewable Energy and more, she is passionate about ensuring Africans are the most skilled industry experts in those industries.She also engages with Public and Private sector leaders on their role in driving a broader and more sustainable socio-economy. She is a qualified Graphic Designer and entrepreneur in the creative industry and is currently pursuing her Master in Business Leadership. Twitter: @deutorn

51.Judith Owigar,Co-founder, JuaKali, 

Judith Owigar is passionate about initiatives involving youth, women and all things technology. She believes that exposure, education and use of technology can increase the quality of life and as such change the world. She is a techpreneur, a blogger and a tech enthusiast.  Judith is a co-founder and the Operations Director of Akirachix; a revolution for African women and technology. Through the Akirachix activities she seeks to increase the number of women who are creators of technological solutions and in effect change the perception of technology by women. Judith is also the founder of JuaKali an online micro-jobs platform that links skilled manual labourers in Kenya’s informal sector (commonly referred to as Jua Kali workers) with employers in the construction industry. Twitter: @owigarj

 

50. Palesa Sibeko, Co-founder: Inquisition 

Palesa is co-founder of design consultancy firm, Inquisition, and creative technology company, SiGNL.Her involvement with Girls Invent Tomorrow is driven by her passion to expose young girls to alternate, lucrative and gratifying careers that exist in the science & technology sectors which are typically overlooked by the schooling system, co-founder of Android podcast Afrodroid and member of NPO Girls Invent Tomorrow.

Twitter: @palesa08, @GirlsInvent

 

 

 

49. Rebecca Enonchong,  Founder & CEO @AppsTech

Rebecca Enonchong is founder and Chief Executive Officer of AppsTech, a leading global provider of enterprise application solutions.Driving @Africatechie is Cameroonian Rebecca Enonchong, whose role in African technology goes well beyond her Twitter moniker. Ms Enonchong is CEO of AppsTech and a regular commentator on the industry in a number of business outlets. She is emerging as a recognised advocate for Silicon Africa, a growing patchwork of entrepreneurs, companies, and innovation hubs coalescing throughout the continent and developing a circular influence with Africa’s economic transformation narrative.

Twitter: @africatechie, @AppsTech

 

 

48.Debby Edelstein, Co-founder: QualityLife, #welead, #wiredwomen 

Debby Edelstein is co-founder and Joint MD of QualityLife Company with her husband Dunne. An entrepreneur, speaker and writer on women’s leadership and new leadership trends, she introduced the Soul of Business conversation to the South African business lexicon, is founder of #welead the annual Women’s Leadership Conference, #WiredWomen the conference for women shaping the digital economy and most recently #The InspiredTeachers Conference. She edits The Women’s Leadership Journal and the QualityLife Leadership Journal and has a book on women’s leadership still simmering on a slow boil.She’s passionate about the digital economy, leadership lessons from gaming, and connecting with action-orientated pioneers, alternative thinkers and visionaries around the world.Twitter: @debbyedelstein

 

47. Honey Ogundeyi, Founder: Fashpa.com

Honey is Passionate about Africa, Fashion, Technology and building great brands. She is the CEO, Founder at Fashpa.com, which is one of Nigeria’s first fashion ecommerce platforms. Before this start up journey, She worked at Mckinsey & Co in Brussels, Headed up Brand Management for Ericsson in Sub Saharan Africa and also worked as a Brand Manager for Ericsson in Sweden and her most recent job before the big jump was at Google, She was the first industry Manager in Nigeria, essentially started Googles commercial business in Nigeria. Then she gave it all up to build Fashpa.com.

These days, she can mostly be found at the forefront of changing the game of Fashion Retail in Africa, tackling Nigeria First, Africa Next and then the world! Twitter: @HoneyOgundeyi

 

 

 

46. Samantha Perry, Co-Founder: @WomeninTechZA, 

Co-founder/human in charge: Samantha Perry worked as a journalist in the tech sector for 17 years’  writing for a range of media, mainly in the ICT sector including Brainstorm magazine, Mail & Guardian, several niche B2B titles and several corporate clients. She also has a Masters degree in ICT Policy & Regulation. She currently works in the strategic communications field. She started an online blog WomeninTechZA, which is WomeninTechZA is an initiative that aims to bridge the gender diversity gap in the Douth African tech sector by featuring women who are successful within the tech space. Twitter: @samanthaperry

 

 

 

45. Thuli Sibeko, Co-founder GirlsInventTomorrow

Founding Member of an Events and Campaign Management Company, Anglo-African Events.She has been planning and designing events for the past 8 years. Blending her passion and love for event design, creative marketing and comprehensive knack for project management, she has designed and produced many successful events for major corporations including HP, Intel, Microsoft SA, Nokia, AMD SA, ABSA Capital, Unisys to mention but a few.Prior to starting the business, she was a member of a Non-Profit Organisation called Community Youth Empowa’ment, an organisation committed to social upliftment through community-based initiatives, the projects ranged from running a Saturday School, hosting Career Days, building Libraries in schools in Soweto. Twitter: @Thulilo

44. Hlulani Baloyi, Girl Rising Ambassador

Hlulani works as a Strategy consultant at IBM, she co-run meetups with girls who are already in the ICT sector(They call ourselves Raeketsetsa )so they can build and share information as they build their portfolios in the industry. Under the Girl Rising umbrella, she also gets to host career expos for high school students, Girl Rising Career Expo is an outreach program targeted young people(from high schools and those who are at home doing nothing)from disadvantaged backgrounds found in South Africa’s townships. Twitter: @HlullyR

 

 

43.Marlise Montcho, Founder: FemTICDev

The telecoms engineer puts her skills to good use by supporting various communities in her home country, Benin.She is the founder and president of FemTICDev, an NGO that seeks to support women and the girl child to become important players in the technology landscape. Her blog seeks to rein in the misconceptions and negative stereotypes surrounding those living with disabilities. She is deputy chair of the Committee on Technology of Africa Youth Movement and regional ambassador for AfricaITWomen and GlobalTechLeaders. The Moremi Initiative has feted her as an Emerging African Women Leaders

 

 

42. Janet Shufor Fofang
Janet Shufor Fofang, who hails from Cameroon, founded a private primary and secondary school in Cameroon in 2009. In addition to teaching, Fofang oversees the daily school operations, manages the faculty and ensures everything is running smoothly. Fofang is extremely passionate about the outcome of her students.According to globaltechwomen.com, Fofang encourages girls at an early age to learn and be excited about the opportunities and applications of technology, and the special spice and expression that females provide in this field.Her Interest is heightened by the recent Power Africa initiative of President Barak Obama for clean, renewable energy and will be building and teaching solar photovoltaics so that children can study and learn more effectively. Fofang participates and leads a number of talks and panels and is a member of several women’s groups including  the Tecwomen Alumni, emphasizing the ground work needed for getting women and girls involved in ICT.

41.Funke Opeke, CEO: Main One Cable Company, Nigeria
Funke was born and raised in Nigeria where she obtained a degree in Electronics & electrical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife in 1981 before she proceeded to New York for a Master’s degree at Columbia University. According to Girls in ICT, following graduation from Columbia, Funke pursued a career in ICT in the United States and successfully ended that phase of her career as an Executive Director with the Wholesale division of Verizon Communications in New York when she decided to return to Nigeria in 2005. Funke joined MTN Nigeria as Chief Technical Officer, and also served as adviser to Transcorp and Chief Operating Officer of NITEL for a brief period before launching Main Street Technologies in 2007. The company went on to build the pioneer private submarine cable system in West Africa – Main One Cable. The 7,000km cable runs from Portugal down to Accra, Ghana and Lagos, Nigeria and is delivering wholesale broadband capacity across several countries in West Africa today.

40.Barbara Mallison, Co-founder, Obami

Barbara Mallinson is the co-founder of Obami, a South African-based social e-learning platform used by schools and organizations in Africa, Europe and America. Obami, which was founded in 2007, connects distinct parties within the education space – teachers, learners, NGOs and government — and enables them share educational resources and also providing an assessment module to improve learners’ participation and performance. Obami is accessible via web and mobile.

 

 

 

 

39. Sam Write, Founder: TechGirlZA

Sam started a blog, Tech Girl, which is all about Gadgets, about Glamour, about the occasional Giggle… but most importantly Tech Girl is  a space on the internet that speaks to women, to girls, to moms. Sam free-lanced for a few tech publications and during her time writing, reviewing and speaking to other women, she  realised that women consume technology differently. We have different demands to our male counterparts when it comes to apps or smartphones and most importantly, we don’t take ourselves nearly as seriously as “tech savvy men”. We caught on a while back that technology is meant to make life easier but also be fun.

 

 

 

 

38.Videsha Proothveerajh, country manager for southern Africa at Intel
Videsha has 17 years of experience working in the IT industry with big name companies such as Microsoft, EDS and, since 2008, Intel. During this time, she has earned a number of accolades, including Most Influential Woman in Business and Government for ICT in 2010. Videsha firmly believes in the power of education and learning to unearth not only her own potential, but that of others, too. She is passionate about female empowerment and education and encourages her employees to get involved in community upliftment projects that bring about valuable change. She is a champion of Intel’s work with the South African government that aims to touch the lives of citizens in emerging markets through technology, and believes that tech is the industry to be in for anyone who is passionate about making a difference.

 

37.Zimkhita buwa, Co-Founder: STEM-IT
Zimkhita is a SiliconCape Exco Member heading up the Students & Careers Portfolio. She is passionate about helping other women and is a founding member of the STEM-IT-Forward non-profit with five amazing women. STEM-IT-forward aims to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths careers to young girls. Twitter: @zimbuwa

 

 

 

 

 

 

36. Titilope Sonuga, She Will Connect ambassador
Titilope is the official spokesperson of Intel’s 2015 She Will Connect Programme in Nigeria, which aims to educate young girls and women on how technology can contribute towards economic and social development across the world.The award-winning poet, writer, actor and civil engineer is using her story to inspire girls to get involved with technology and, as ambassador of She Will Connect, will work with NGOs to train women and girls across Nigeria on how to use technology.

 

 

 

 

35.Shana Kay Derman, Co-Founder: Intellicred

Shana lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she owns and runs her online security start-up business, Intellicred. Young, driven, and battling it out as a female CEO in the tough marketplace of South Africa; Shana is an inspiration for any aspiring young female entrepreneur. So far in her career Shana has been awarded a SAB (South African Breweries) Kick-Start award and has been voted as one of the Mail&Guardian’s 100 Young People to have lunch with.

 

 

 

 

 

34. Pippa Tshabalala, Viacom, media personality and gaming enthusiast
Pippa is passionate about video games and started her career as a 3D artist at a gaming company, moving on to teach 3D Animation at Wits Digital. Her passion for gaming goes far beyond just playing them – she believes video games reflect society and culture in the same way that film and art does, and can teach valuable lessons to children, including strategic thinking, planning and team work.While teaching, Pippa got her first taste of TV when she started presenting a show called PlayR and then The Verge, a locally produced show about video games. She later became a producer at Don’t Look Down Productions before moving to Viacom International Media Networks to become On Air Producer for MTV Base and later Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.She encourages girls who are interested in STEM to go for it. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t. Choose a career that interests you, no matter what it is.” She also urges girls to take charge of their own development and to learn as much as possible about the field that interests them.

33. Emma Kaye, Founder: Bozza Media

Emma Kaye is the founder and CEO of Bozza Media, a digital-distribution platform that enables artists across Africa to connect with their fans, with locally relevant content online. Emma was nominated as the first African to sit on the board of the Mobile Entertainment Forum. She was also the first African to be selected as one of the top 50 global women in mobile entertainment.

 

 

32. Unoma Okorafor, Founder: WAAW

Unoma is the founder of WAAW (Working to Advance African Women), a foundation borne out of her burning desire to see the poverty-stricken African female educated, healthy and inspired in order to play a part in home and community building – all the while educating and supporting them in tech innovation. Currently, WAAW runs thirteen STEM outreach and mentoring programs in eight different African countries, with expansion plans underway to impact on even more girls. Twitter: @unondili

 

 

31. Sarah Utermark, Founder and CEO: AdVine

As Founder and CEO of AdVine, Sarah Utermark heads up Opera Mediaworks in Africa and is one of the thought leaders in the South African tech industry.  She  has been involved with digital-media and mobile-technology solutions for 14 years. AdVine manages the advertising sales on behalf of mobile publishers, while working with media-buying agencies to implement innovative mobile ad campaigns. Sarah is currently the Vice-Chair of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) South Africa.

 

 

30. Jamila Abass, Linda Kwamboka and Susan Oguya, Co-founders, MFarm

Abass, Kwamboka and Oguya are the founders of MFarm, a mobile software solution that connects Kenyan farmers with farm produce consumers in urban and export markets via SMS . MFarm, which was founded in 2010 offers agricultural producers and buyers with the most recent retail price information about products and operates a virtual marketplace whereby consumers can buy their farm products directly from manufacturers while farmers can find buyers for their produce. MFarm also allows consumers to compare prices from different farmers and bid for a small fee.

 

29. Anne Amuzu, Co-founder, Nandimobile

Amuzu, a graduate of Ghana’s Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) is a co-founder of Nandimobile, a company that develops software that enables companies to deliver customer support and information services through SMS. Amuzu co-founded the company in 2010 and it has more than 20 corporate clients in Ghana.Anne Amuzu-Ewoenam was also part of the team that developed a app called Keni; which gives you easy access to varieties of essential services like banks and ATM’s, fuel stations, health services, pharmacies, shops, in Ghana.Miss Amuzu, was part of the #IlooklikeanEngineer campaign on social media; the campaign sought to bring gender disparity and sexism in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to the fore of discussions.Miss Anne, also volunteers to teach young Ghanaians how to write code. Twitter: @Ewoenam

 

 

28. Clarisse Iribagize, Founder, HeHe Ltd 

Iribagize is the founder of HeHe Limited, a Kigali-based mobile technologies company that develops ways for businesses to reach their customers and audiences in a timely and affordable manner. Among other things, HeHe builds custom mobile applications for businesses, provides 24/7 online and offline support and cloud storage services. Iribagize founded the company in 2010 after winning a $50,000 grant from Inspire Africa, a Rwandan TV entrepreneurial contest. HeHe’s clientele now includes African mobile telecoms giant MTN, the Praekelt Foundation and government agencies in Rwanda.

 

 

 

 

27. Felleng Sekha, Non-executive Director: Busisness Connexion

Felleng is a non- executive director of Business Connexion, a South African black owned ICT company. She was also the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board deputy chairperson and has chaired the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and the National Telecommunications Forum. Ms. Sekha holds a BA in Law from the Universities of Lesotho (NUL) and LLB from Universities of Cape Town, and a post graduate diploma in Media Communications and Information Technology law from the University of Melbourne.
Sekha has worked for the Centre for the Development of Information and Telecommunications Policy, Telkom SA as corporate accounts manager, MTN SA as GM for business development and and led the team that successfully set up MTN in Nigeria from 2001 to 2005. She currently owns an NGO, Platinum Ring, whose aim is to create entrepreneurial and career opportunities for young South Africans.

26. Dorothy Gordon, Director-General of Ghana’s Advanced Information Technology Institute

Dorothy K. Gordon is the Director-General of Ghana’s Advanced Information Technology Institute, the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE),Dorothy has achieved worldwide recognition for her expertise in international development, as well as her contribution to the development of Ghana’s ICT sector. In June AITI-KACE, together with partners, hosted Ghana’s annual Innovation Week to showcase local tech talent.In addition to the continuous support of training and research initiatives in India and Africa, she holds several positions of influence, including Chair of the Commission on E-Government for the World IT Forum (WITFOR), as well as President of the IPv6 Forum Ghana and member of the Champions network of the UNGAID – UN Global Alliance for ICT Development.

25. Betty Enyonam Kumahor

Betty has had many successful roles as a Global Advisory Technology Leader, a West Africa IT Advisory Leader, both in Ernst & Young as well as a Managing Director for Thoughtworks in Africa. She currently runs an IT Advisory Firm based in her home country, Ghana, known as The Cobalt Partners. They are currently expanding to Nigeria and Kenya too! ‘It’s an exciting time to be on the African continent”

 

 

 

 

24. Pariksha Chetty Partner & Head of Consulting Khonology

Pariksha has a banking background and began her career within the corporate environment, with over 12 years’ experience in the corporate banking industry; her extensive experience in various departments includes working for one of South Africa’s leading investment banks as well as one of the Top 5 commercial banks in South Africa. She has applied myself within the business from determining strategic direction to embedding daily process and procedures within my departments, she has strong leadership qualities and am excellent in corporate communication. Her experience in Capital Markets, business analysis as well as information systems has developed an in depth understanding of overall business management. She is a member of 30% Club, a gender balance on boards initiative, and also a founder of ‘Women in Technology’ an empowering initiative.

 

 

 

23. Darlene Menzies, founder and CEO of SMEasy, , and Finfind,

Darlene is a technology innovator and serial entrepreneur; she founded her first software company in 2004. Darlene has firsthand experience in what it takes to start and grow a business. She understands the difficulties entrepreneurs encounter in trying to raise finance and the enormous challenges they have to overcome to establish a successful enterprise. Over the past ten years Darlene has used this experience to develop practical, easy-to-use software tools for small businesses. Some of these include the award winning SMEasy, a unique Accounting and Business Management solution for the SMME market that is specifically designed for people who don’t understand accounting and finfind, a one-stop solution for access to finance for small business that is available via the web and mobile.

 

 

 

 

22. Isis Nyong’o Madison

Isis Nyong’o Madison is a Kenyan American media and technology leader in Africa. She is a principal at strategic advisory firm Asphalt & Ink was previously with InMobi, Google and MTV in Africa. She is a Senior Advisor at Albright Stonebridge Group.^[1]Branded as one of “Africa’s Top 20 Youngest Power Women” by Forbes,Isis has made her mark scaling media and digital businesses across the continent over the past decade. As MD of Africa for InMobi, Isis quickly became recognised as a global thought leader on mobile advertising in Africa. Prior to InMobi, Isis specialized in mobile and local content partnerships at Google and led MTV Network’s commercial entry into Africa as a founding member of that team.

 

21. Anne Githuku-Shongwe, Founder: Afroes Transformational Games

Anne Githuku-Shongwe is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Afroes Transformational Games – a company that builds mobile game-based learning platforms out of South Africa and Kenya. Anne’s vision is to revolutionise learning in Africa with a focus on delivering positive Africa-focused mobile phone entertainment to the youth market across the continent.Anne is an acclaimed public speaker on topics related to Social Innovation for the Public Good and Edu-tech.

Afroes learning games have included MORABA – a UNWOMEN supported game-based learning application designed to engage young men and women on Gender-based Violence. HAKI engages young men and women on their choices in selecting and electing future leaders including defining the importance of women leaders. ChampChase designed with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, teaches adolescents how to identify child abuse perpetrators and what tools they have at their disposal. Over 400,000 youth users have been reached through these games with evidence of behaviour change in the areas of the mobile learning content.

 

20. Jayashree Naidoo, Head of Standard Bank Incubator

Jayshree Naidoo is part of the Business and Commercial Team at Standard Bank. She is the Standard Bank Incubator Head. Her previous leadership roles included the head of Strategy Management and Innovation at the Development Bank of Southern Africa, as well as positions at Discovery, ABSA and Internet Solutions.

She was a board member of JASA (Junior Achievement South Africa), as well as the Chairperson of SAINe (The Southern African Innovation Network.) Her knowledge, understanding and experience of entrepreneurship, e-channels, marketing, innovation and strategy, spans over a period of 20 years. She has an MBA qualification with her dissertation focusing in Innovation and Entrepreneurship Capacity Creation. Her other qualifications include Marketing, C A I B (SA), MCSE and an Honors level qualification on e-Commerce. She is also a Certified Trainer on Six Thinking Hats and Lateral Thinking (Edward de Bono).

She is also a professional speaker and has presented at several public and company conferences including the Innovation Summit and the Innovation Festival and has been featured in several magazines including CEO Magazine, SA Innovator, Destiny and has been published in the Innovation Journal. She often guest lectures at universities and gives motivational presentations to students and members of the public.

19. Lilian Makoi: bimaAFYA
Lilian Makoi’s bimaAFYA offers mobile micro-health insurance for the low income and informal sector, enabling healthcare services by drastically reducing costs with its completely mobile, paperless solution. bimaAFYA plans to expand to Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria and Ghana by 2017. According to Makoi, her passion for technology is immense and she has a dream to make lives better through digital inclusion.

 

 

 

18. Audrey Cheng, Founder: Moringa School

Audrey established the Moringa School in Nairobi, Kenya, to enable young people to gain the necessary skills to compete in the digital economy. Founded in April 2014, Moringa School plays a crucial role in developing and nurturing highly potential individuals who are passionate about technology and want to take a lead role in mobile and web development through equipping them with life long skills Two years on, all students who’ve taken a course at the school have been placed in work and are estimated to be earning an average three-times more than before they attended the school.

 

 

17. Uche Pedro

Uche Pedro is a media entrepreneur and owner of the popular web property, BellaNaija.com. As the MD and Founding Editor of the online company, she aspires to make the site Africa’s number one fashion, music, style, movie, TV and beauty website.Uche graduated from the Richard Ivy School of Business, University of Western Ontario, Canada.She relocated back to Nigeria, established Bainstone, the parent company of BellaNaija.com, and in July 2009, quit her full-time job to focus her energies on building BellaNaija.com.Eze was featured on CNN i-List on the 28th of September 2010. During the interview, Uche discussed the genesis and inspiration for the BellaNaija brand, social media and social media activism in Africa and future plans for BellaNaija.com.

 

 

 

16. Ory Okolloh

Ory has been covered extensively by global business, financial and technology press, primarily for co-founding Ushahidi.com (the Swahili word for ‘patriot’), which, as the site explains, is “a non-profit tech company that specialises in developing free and open source software for information collection, virtualisation and interactive mapping.” She also the co-founder of Mzalendo, a parliamentary watchdog site. She was ranked in second place on ITNewsAfrica’s Most Influential Women in Science and Technology feature list and has been profiled by Forbes. Okolloh joined Omidyar Network as a director overseeing investments. Prior to this appointment she held the position of Policy Maker for Africa within Google and is strongly associated with the promotion of Internet access for African users, encouraging content creation and is vocal about the representation of women in ICT.

15.Nnenna Nwakanma

Nnenna Nwakanma is an FLOSS activist, community organizer, development adviser and development consultant originally from Nigeria in Africa. She is the co-founder of The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa which she also co-chairs. She was elected as a board member of the Open Source Initiative in April 2007. She also co-founded The Africa Network of Information Society Actors, and the African Civil Society for the Information Society ^[2] which she serves on. She is also a Vice President of the Digital solidarity fund. She is the current Africa Regional Coordinator for the World Wide Web Foundation ^[11] where she supports work on the Alliance for Affordable Internet  and the Web We Want.

 

14.Thoko Mokgosi-Mwantembe

Thoko is the CEO of Kutana Investment Group. She has vast experience in South Africa’s telecommunication industry, (including Managing Executive: Consumer Sales and Marketing at Telkom.Mokgosi-Mwantembe has held several senior positions including divisional MD for Siemens, CEO of Alcatel SA and CEO of Hewlett-Packard South Africa.She serves as an independent non-executive director on the boards of Vodacom, Absa, Paracon Holdings and Knorr-Bremse SA. Thoko holds an MSc in Medicinal Chemistry from LoughboroughUniversity and a BSc from the University of Swaziland. Thoko is a recipient of several awards including the 2007 BWA Businesswoman of the Year Award in the corporate category, ICT Achiever of the Year Award, Top ICT Businesswoman in Africa Award and ICT Personality of the Year.

 

13. Florence Seriki, Founder: Omatek Computers

Florence Seriki is the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Omatek Computers. Omatek Computers Limited was one of the first companies to locally assemble desktops and notebooks in Africa. Florence is a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers, Nigerian Computers Society (NCS) and the Institute of Directors. She holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) and an MBA from the Lagos Business School.

 

 

 

12. Eve Dmochowska, Founder Crowdfunding

Eve Dmochowska is a web strategist, educator and entrepreneur focused on strategy, advice and education for corporate companies. Eve assists these businesses to better understand the potential of the Internet for business success.Eve is a graduate of Boston University, where she studied economics and international relations. She’s the founder of Crowdfunding, a social project that helps to find investors for local start-ups.Crowdfunding won second prize at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s global entrepreneur pitching contest.Eve runs a personal blog, ‘Of Relevance’, and is a regular contributor to various leading online media platforms in Africa.Her portfolio of online projects include New Media Journal, a publication aimed at marketing professionals keen to learn about the power of new media, ThemesandStuff.com, which showcases WordPress Premium Themes.Eve also manages the Internet Guide, an online magazine aimed at keeping readers up to date with Internet news. Twitter: @EveD

 

 

11.Tania Mukwamu, co-founder of Pluritone,and MaxiCash

Tania Mukwamu is the Co-Founder of Pluritone (PTY) Ltd, a Johannesburg-based software development firm. She holds a B-Tech degree in Logistics and Transportation from the University of Johannesburg and is currently completing a MBA with the University of Liverpool.Tania has extensive supply chain, strategy, business development, and mobile technologies experience, having worked in the Mobile phone and Tech industries for Nokia and Microsoft for over 8 years.Tania entered the software development industry in 2010 when She launched Pluritone (PTY) Ltd with the goal to empower African businesses by providing quality IT services and business solution, alongside her partner Ruddy. Her latest venture MaxiCash helps African expats globally to send money home by providing a mobile based solution which allows users to transfer & transact with African service providers.

 

 

10. Catherine Mahugu, C0-Founder: SasaAfrica

Catherine Mahugu is a graduate from University of Nairobi with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. She has been involved in various ICT for Development projects including Stanford University’s Nokia Africa Research Center Design Project building mobile applications targeting informal communities. Catherine co-founded SasaAfrica, a woman-owned and operated social enterprise that empowers craftswomen to become global entrepreneurs. Sasa is a first-mover connecting offline vendors to online consumers using simple mobile phone technology, facilitating global peer-to-peer trade. SasaAfrica provides a widespread simple mobile-to-web e-commerce platform, connecting micro-manufacturers in emerging economies to the global marketplace, enabling economic growth and bridging the digital divide.Catherine joined the SasaAfrica team to help develop a scalable and appropriate technological solution, and manage technology integration across mobile and web platform.

 

9. Njideka Harry, President and CEO: Youth for Technology Foundation

Njideka is the President and CEO of Youth for Technology Foundation (YFT) in Nigeria back in 2001. In this role, she is responsible for setting the organization’s strategy, overseeing its programs, and managing its relationships with YTF’s public and private partnerships. In addition, Njideka works with the YTF senior leadership team to review and evaluate the results of program activities, and organizational and administrative policies for program objectives. Mrs. Harry earned her BBA in Finance and Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She completed her post-graduate studies at Stanford University where she was a Reuters Digital Vision Fellow. Mrs. Harry is an Ashoka Fellow and in 2013 was awarded ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year’ by the Schwab Foundation and the World Economic Forum.

8.Afua Osei, Co-founder: She Leads Africa

Is the co-founders of She Leads Africa [SLA], a Nigeria-based social enterprise that equips female entrepreneurs in Africa with the knowledge, network, and financing needed to build and scale strong businesses. Afua is also a Management Consultant who previously served as a Fulbright Scholar in Malaysia and is a graduate of the University of Chicago with Master’s degrees in Business Administration and Public Policy. Twitter: @SheLeadsAfrica,

 

 

 

 

7.Yasmin Belo-Osagie, Co-founder: She Leads Africa

From the kitchen to the boardroom, Nigerian-Ghanaian Yasmin Belo-Osagie is a graduate of Princeton University with degrees in History and Finance, and a trained sous chef who worked in the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong. She traded her apron for a suit while working in Mckinsey and Partners in Nigeria, where she met her would-be co-founder. Yasmin and Afua started working on the idea after realising the need for leading women in Nigeria and the rest of the continent.

 

 

 

 

6. Varaidzo Audrey Mureriwa, Co-Founder: P-STEM

Varaidzo is the Co-founder of P-STEM. She holds a BBus. Information Systems from Edith Cowan University and was born in Harare. Varaidzo is a keen STEM education evangelist and has been involved in a number of community programs including Siyathuthuka and Twenty30. She has taken time out of her professional career to run P-STEM full time, and supports herself through her private tech consultancy practice. She lends her visionary, operational and administrative expertise to P-STEM.

 

 

 

5. Annette Muller, Founder, DotNxt

Annette Muller is the founder and CEO of DOTNXT, a strategic innovation management firm with offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg.  DOTNXT empowers businesses to embrace the real-time digital dynamic cultures of today and new technologies, propelling them forward to the forefront of success. Annette holds a Business Science degree (Honours Cum Laude) from Cape Town, SA, and has attended the renowned Hyper Island Digital Master Class in New York. As a sought-after international speaker and digital change agent, her work continues to expand her global network of specialists and industry leaders, building on her skill and her firm’s offering as a connector for start-ups, investors, agencies and enterprises alike. Recognised by Forbes as one of the ‘10 female tech founders to watch In Africa’ (2014)’, Annette is widely regarded as one of the great young strategic minds of today. This impassioned socialentrepreneur’s drive to make things happen is further strengthened by her dedication to creating work that drives pan-African social change and transformation. Committed to staying on the cutting edge of technology, surrounded by people that can make things happen, Annette lives her mantra that “if you are the smartest person in the room you are in the wrong room!”

4.Chioma Agwuegbo, Founder: TechHerNG

Chioma is the founder of #TechHer was born out of a need to see women in Abuja come together to work, support each, and learn together. We realized there was no platform for women working in and around digital (especially in Abuja) to share ideas, experiences, challenges etc. for a number of reasons including the perception that technology is the exclusive preserve of male folk.Where others saw a deficiency, we saw an opportunity and the product of that idea shared with friends, family, and partners, is this website, the inaugural event holding in Abuja on the 28^th of August 2015, and hopefully, the birth of a true support group for young girls currently hoping to get into technology or STEM. Twitter: @ChiomaChuka

 

 

 

 

3. Aisha Pandor, Co-Founder: SweepSouth

Aisha is the co-founder of SweepSouth, an online platform for ordering and paying for home cleaning services within a few minutes.At SweepSouth, we connect professional, experienced and insured cleaners with homeowners, and in doing so bring technology to an industry that has remained unchanged for decades. She is also passionate about helping to address unemployment in South Africa by connecting domestic work professionals with work opportunites. SweepSouth has been featured in IDG Connect, the Saturday Star Newspaper, Nunnovation and TechMoranand has done interviews with Radio 702 and Ballz Visual Radio. She studied at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa, where she completed a PhD degree in Human Genetics and a Business Management certificate at the UCT Graduate School of Business. She also worked as a management consultant with Accenture before embarking on my startup journey. Twitter: @aishapandor

 

 

2. Lebogang Modise, Founder: Fruitymo 

Lebo started off with developing apps targeting devices that run on the Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 platform where she acquired knowledge and skills that can be used in executing any software development project. Her primary role at the moment is that of a Facilitator and representative of mLab SA in the Western Cape region. In that role her goal is to provide entrepreneurs and mobile developers with the support they need to develop innovative mobile applications and services; furthermore, she is mostly involved in the co-creation of new innovative solutions working with talent from academic institutions and partners in Industry through the Demola Network program. In 2015 she founded her own company and named it after her popular developer name, Fruitymo. FRUITYMO is an Edu-Tech company whose main focus areas are: Learn, Develop and Consult. The Learn division is where her passion lies the most: Teaching people how to code. To date, she has been fortunate to have taught over 500 learners how to code from as young as 7 right through to university level. The Develop division of the company focuses on software development projects for SMEs and lastly the Consult division is where free-lance developers and SMEs seek project management advice. Twitter: @LeboMadise

 

1. Zandile Keebine,  Co-founder @GirlCode_za

In the past 3 years working in the ICT sector, she’s worked on delivering various projects that required her to identify appropriate and innovative solutions and designing software solutions for various clients in the public sector. It is in this role that she realized the vast gender inequality that exists within the ICT sector. In 2014,Started GirlCode  as a hackathon to get more girls excited about tech and after hosting it for two years, she joined forces with her 2 friends Jeanette Theu and Tinyiko Simbine to register GirlCode as a non-profit organization.Even though it is still in its infancy stages, Zandile with her team aims to grow  GirlCode to become Africa’s leading Digital Hub for young girls and women who want to get into tech by providing them with various opportunities such as the hackathon to gain skills and be recruited by companies and the women in IT seminars, where they give their beneficiaries direct access to women working in the various ICT companies. Twitter: @zandy_keebine,

 

 

 

*Information and images for this blog was sources from various sites. GirlCode does not claim to have written any of the information above. We only wish to highlight the many achievements and successes women in tech have accomplished.