Women in Tech Africa honoured for roles in Africa’s ICT ecosystem

Women in Tech Africa, a Ghanaian group that focuses on entrepreneurship and career leadership to increase the number of women in technology, received the 2018 Leadership Award at the EQUALS in Tech Awards, held recently at the Yale Club in New York City, USA.

The annual EQUALS in Tech Awards recognise the innovation and creativity of global initiatives promoting the inclusion of women and girls in the tech sector and in internet access.

Women in Tech Africa’s methods include encouraging women to pursue technology careers; pushing for more tech leadership positions for women; creating a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) career pipeline for women; and encouraging women to explore entrepreneurial opportunities in STEM.

“Women in Tech Africa was founded over 5 years ago with the ambition of providing a platform for women of African descent in the technology space where they can support, peer learn and share experiences.” Said, Ethel Cofie, founder of Women in Tech Africa.

Award ceremony

Andrew Sullivan (CEO of the Internet Society) and Arancha González (Executive Director of ITC) co-presented the award to Women in Tech Africa, who were among four other winners.

This year’s 22 EQUALS in Tech Award finalists stood out particularly from among 357 nominations from 80 countries. They were chosen by an advisory group of former winners and experts from the EQUALS Steering Committee, comprising leads of the three Equals Coalitions–Access, Skills and Leadership–co-founders and financial contributors.

The 2018 EQUALS in Tech Awards were supported by the Internet Society, Verizon, the Swiss Federal Office of Communications and Germany (BMZ/GIZ)

“The EQUALS in Tech Awards are really driving the recognition of diversity in tech and I’m so pleased to be part of it! The winners this year are hugely inspiring…. The level of connectedness that these platforms provide is exactly what we need in this current world of segregation.” said 2018 awards host, Jayde Lovell.

Source: AllAfrica.com