Ethiopia Vows to Empower Female Technology Developers

Addis Ababa ENA September 4/2019 Ministry of Innovation and Technology affirmed its commitment to empower young female researchers and technology developers to realize the country`s long-term ambition.

The first round of 20 students who have been trained for three months under Entoto Women’s Tech Fellowship Program have graduated from Addis Ababa Institute of Technology on Tuesday.  

Addressing the graduates, Innovation and Technology Minister, Getahun Mekuria said the government of Ethiopia encourages female researchers empower themselves and to come up with ideas, proposals and something deliverable.

“We gladly support this project. What we need from initiators of this project is that with the support they get from various parts, they have to deliver something concrete,” he noted.

It needs some executive decision to go extra mile to shore-up young female researchers and technology developers, according to Getahun.

“So the ministry of innovation and technology is ready to cooperate with the Canadian Embassy as Canada is one of our development partners in terms of even volume and support received. But from technology perspective, we need to scale up to supporting researchers,” he pointed out.

Canadian Ambassador to Ethiopia, Antoine Chevrier said the Entoto project is crucial initiative in creating a space for young graduates. Ethiopia is a big economic and development partner for Canada.

“Focusing on women in tech, for us is a good way, for supporting entrepreneurship and supporting the increase participation of young women in technology connects well the development equation”, he underscored.

Founder of Entoto Project, Wongelawit Teka, said on her part that objective of the program is to give trainers the skills and teaching on how to writes codes and how to be a software developer mainly in the first two months.

Designing the curriculum was crucial as part of the process, she said and adding that basically, it focuses on how the students to be self-sustained after the program.

The Entoto Tech Fellowship is a fully-funded 12-week introduction to software development and entrepreneurship program for young talented women who have demonstrated a passion for computer science and technology but have limited access to the resources.