Two Ugandan firms Zimba Women and Andela Uganda are among the finalists in the Women in Tech Challenge, a global competition that will be held in Paris, France on May 15, 2019.
The Challenge which ends with an awards ceremony is organized to propel the participation of women in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Andela Uganda, a training and placement company for software developers was nominated for its Women in Tech Leadership Program, which was launched in 2018 to enhance female participation in the tech industry.
Zimba Women, which runs a number of programs (mentorship, business training, IT skilling) tailored to female entrepreneurs, was nominated in the Entrepreneurship category and it will face off with Kiteka from the United Kingdom, The Rural Woman and The Women’s Business School Accelerator Program which are based in Australia.
Andela qualified for the Education category where it is competing against Blockchain African Ladies from Nigeria, E-mma (France) and Stem Talent Girl (Spain).
The other categories are Science and Research and Social Inclusion. In total, 16 firms will participate in the final competition and only five are from Africa: Nigeria, Egypt, and Tanzania, implying Uganda sent the highest number.
In a statement to this website, Andela Uganda said: “We are stoked to have made it to the finalists. The Andela Women in Tech Program has helped over 200 women access free software, entrepreneurship, and leadership training by Andela Uganda software engineers and Andela partners.”
It added: “This recognition comes on the International #GirlsInICT Day and reaffirms that we need to keep on doing this to support more women and girls in STEM.”
Zimba Women welcomed the development with a social media post.
On the day of the final competition, the sixteen firms will pitch in front of a panel of judges comprised of executives from multinational organizations, including Dr. Christyl Johnson, deputy director for Technology and Research Investments-NASA, USA; Isabelle Michel-Magyar, executive HeForShe IMPACT Initiative, UN Women, France/USA; and Ana Jakimovska, director of Product Management, The Guardian News & Media, U.K.
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