Tanzanians leading digital lifestyle company, Tigo, has joined Apps and Girls, a nonprofit organization based in Tanzania dedicated to bridging the technology gender gap in Tanzania and across Sub-Saharan Africa to launch the phase III of the girls and young women project amid the commemoration of the International Girls in ICT Day 2022.
The Tigo-sponsored Girls and Young Women Empowerment project was launched in 2020 with the goal of empowering 120,000 girls and young women aged 12 to 24 with technology through school-based Apps and Girls Coding Clubs, onsite girls’ hubs in Dar es Salaam and Morogoro, and our female digital incubator for tech startup mentorship, where they can access advanced IT (coding, robotics), entrepreneurship trainings, including online and offline mentorship and incubation.
The Tigo Acting Managing Director and CFO, CPA Innocent Rwetabura said that, “Our continued support of the Girls and young women empowerment project further cements our key aim to reduce the barriers that girls and young women face in accessing, using and seizing opportunities in the ICT industry.
The Apps & Girls CEO, Carolyne Ekyarisiima said that “As we commemorate the International Girls in ICT Day 2022, we should look at how far we have come , with the technical and financial help from Tigo and other stakeholders since , over a period of 8 years the project has expanded its programs to 13 regions in Tanzania leading to model replication in Uganda, Kenya and DRC impacting more than 125,800 girls and women and enabling over 22,331 girls and young women to create tech driven project ideas and establish their own tech-ventures and 150+ young women obtained formal employment in ICT. “
Students who participated in their programs not only started tech-driven businesses, but also majored in STEM at university. Receiving highly prestigious scholarships and awards such as the Anzisha Prize Award, the Mastercard Foundation Scholarship, and the Rise Scholarship.
