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African Girls Can Code Initiative Phase III — AI, Cybersecurity and Civic Tech Bootcamp at CEMASTEA, Kenya

Kenya · Nairobi · See the Kenya profile

Phase III of the African Girls Can Code Initiative trained 100 young women (14-25) at Kenya's CEMASTEA centre in AI, cybersecurity, civic tech and the digital platform economy; 113 girls have taken part in Kenya since 2022, with some graduates hired by Siemens and Safaricom.

African Girls Can Code Initiative Phase III — AI, Cybersecurity and Civic Tech Bootcamp at CEMASTEA, Kenya

Details

Promoter
UN Women Kenya with CEMASTEA, GoMyCode, Siemens, the African Union Commission and the ITU
Period
2022-2025
Keywords
education, ICT skills, gender equality, youth employment

Description

The African Girls Can Code Initiative (AGCCI) is a joint programme of UN Women, the African Union Commission and the International Telecommunication Union, delivered in Kenya with CEMASTEA (the Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa), the coding school GoMyCode and corporate partner Siemens, with funding also drawn from Belgium, Finland, Germany and Denmark.

Phase III's Kenyan cohort, completed at the CEMASTEA centre in Karen, Nairobi in 2025, gave 100 young women aged 14-25 training in civic technology, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and the digital platform economy. Since the programme launched in Kenya in 2022, a cumulative 113 girls and young women have taken part. UN Women reports that GoMyCode awarded 10 scholarships to graduates, five Kenyan alumnae attended the One Young World Summit in Munich (3-6 November 2025), and three represented Kenya at Germany's Bürgerfest citizens' festival in 2024. Several graduates are reported to have secured jobs at Siemens and Safaricom, though no denominator or verification of the total placement rate is given.

UN Women cites regional gender-gap data to frame the programme's rationale: women hold only 23-30% of tech-sector roles in sub-Saharan Africa and under 12% of leadership positions at African tech companies, women-led startups received about 1% of tech venture funding in 2024, and in Kenya women make up roughly 30% of STEM professionals with university STEM enrolment below 30%.

The programme's own reporting is the main evidence source, and figures such as graduate employment are presented as illustrative success stories rather than a systematic outcome tracking study; there is no independent evaluation, control group or published completion/attrition rate for the AI curriculum component specifically.

Read the full analysis: https://press.siemens.com/global/en/pressrelease/siemens-joins-forces-un-women-upskilling-program-600-african-girls-ict-and-work

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