An interesting debate took place this past weekend in London at the annual Women of the World Festival on the subject of how tech can address gender equality challenges. One of the key voices at the event was Senegalese techpreneur Marieme Jamme, creator of ImatheCODE, the organization on a mission to teach one million women to code by 2030. She firmly believes that the way to gender equality lies in tech, saying: “It is a global problem, not just an African problem. In fact, Africa is soon going to be leading the way. Africa is resolving its own issues...I see women in Senegal coding e-commerce sites. Our girls are making apps, we can’t keep up with them in science and literacy.” Tom Ilube, founder of the African Science Academy in Ghana for talented young women across Africa and another panelist speaking alongside Marieme Jamme had an interesting take on the challenge to empower young women on the continent, saying: “There are 250 million women under the age of 15 on the African continent. Statistically, this means there’s an estimated 10,000 young women in Africa with Einstein levels of intelligence who are not currently being given the opportunities to showcase their talent. We’re trying to find them. We want to help them on their way to the next stage.” The take-out from this discussion is that Africa has talented young women waiting to fulfill their potential, and with the right access to opportunity, education and training, they can be the next entrepreneurial tech game changers who can change the economic future of the continent.

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