Analysis: In Nairobi, Female Coders Are Flipping the Silicon Valley Trope on Its Head
In the popular history of Kenya’s technology industry, women are at the center. It was a woman, Ory Okolloh Mwangi, who first put out a call on her blog, kenyanpundit, inviting coders to build a platform that would track violence and other emergencies following the 2007–2008 elections, resulting in the now global platform known as Ushahidi. It was market women, shunned by formal banks well into the 1990s, who arguably have been driving the use of mobile money, making Kenya the world leader in such technology. Advocacy through organizations like the Lawyers Hub, a leading digital law group, is driven by women, and the most prominent tech training platforms in the country, like AkiraChix and Akili Dada, were founded and are run by women.
Source: Vogue Magazine (link opens in a new window)
- Categories
- Technology
- Tags
- fintech
