Ethel Cofie is a leading tech entrepreneur from Ghana and the founder and CEO of Edel Technology Consulting, a company that provides IT and software services as an enabler and catalyst for businesses to achieve their goals. Ethel is the founder of Women in Tech Africa, initiator of the 1st Pan African woman in tech meetup and was shortlisted for the UN GEM Tech Award for work supporting women in ICT. She has been featured by the BBC and CNN for her work in technology and promoting women's leadership. Ethel sits on numerous boards and is also a President Obama Washington Fellow for Leadership (YALI).
About Edel Technology Consulting
Edel IT is an organization that understands the bottom line of business to be more efficient, effective and increase profit. The company is positioned to provide IT and software services that is an enabler and catalyst for businesses to achieve their goals. They are passionate about solving their clients’ problems, and bring a fierce focus to getting the job done right, every time. By sharing their knowledge and understanding with their clients’, they are able to deliver the right results for them. The company’s reputation is built upon solving complex business problems to provide reliable and scalable business solutions.
About Women in Tech Africa
Ethel is the founder of Women in Tech Africa an organisation that has membership of women in over 30 countries in Africa and will be launching offices in South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia in addition to Ghana by December 2015
In the past few years there has been a flourishing number of self-organisations amongst African women in technology. Many focus on encouraging women entering the field as coders, IT managers and to establish enterprises that increase women’s socio-economic well-being. Projects have also focused on improving self-reliance and livelihoods in rural areas.
In order to identify and learn from other Women in Technology organisations in Africa, Women in Technology Ghana spear-headed and ran the first Pan-African women in tech virtual meet-up which brought together over 150 women in technology roles across Africa and was featured by CNN.
The success of this process resulted in the establishment of a formal Pan-African Network of Women in Technology to organise regular activities to provide effective support to women in technology across the African continent.
Women in Tech Africa’s Vision is three fold:
Creating today’s female leaders and role-models for tomorrow’s Women in Tech
Showing the world what a strong African woman in capable of achieving key goals
Support African growth through technology
“I have 3 passions: Technology, Female Leadership and Empowerment, and Entrepreneurship”
Honours and recognition
In 2014, Ethel was selected as a Mandela Fellow for President Obama’s Young African Leaders initiative (YALI), a new flagship program of the US government in Africa. Ethel has been a speaker at numerous conferences including the Global Entrepreneurship Summit hosted in Morrocco and Mobile West Africa. She was also recently included on IT News Africa's list of Africa’s Leading Women in Tech for 2015
About the 100 Lionesses Project
100 Lionesses is an ongoing project to identify and celebrate 100 extraordinary African women whose example serves to motivate and inspire a belief in all of us that we can pursue our personal entrepreneurial dreams and make them a reality. These are the women entrepreneurs fundamentally changing the business landscape of Africa. Women who are building companies and brands that are leaders in their fields. Women who are breaking the mould and turning key industry sectors on their heads with fresh approaches to doing business. Women who are leading new innovations in technology fields. Women who are creating highly desirable products the world wants to own. And, women who are making the world a better place through their change-making social enterprises. Even more impressive is the fact that these women, at the top of their own games, have never lost sight of the need to send the elevator down to the next generation of women entrepreneurs who aspire to follow in their footsteps. Each of our '100 Lionesses' has demonstrated that in the world of women's entrepreneurship in Africa, everything is possible if you have a dream, are prepared to work hard to achieve it, and have a never-give-up attitude to life and business. We are honoured to tell the stories of these women and celebrate their achievements in the 100 Lionesses Project. --- Melanie Hawken, founder and editor-in-chief of Lionesses of Africa