Women Techsters Fellowship — Tech4Dev's AI & Data Science Track for African Women and Girls

Across Africa, women remain sharply under-represented in AI and data-science careers, and most formal computer-science and AI training remains concentrated in university programmes that many women, especially those outside major cities, cannot access. Tech4Dev, a Nigerian non-profit founded in 2016 by Diwura Oladepo and Joel Ogunsola, launched the Women Techsters Fellowship in 2017 to close that gap.

The fellowship is a free, 12-month programme — six months of intensive training followed by six months of internship, freelancing or entrepreneurship support — open to women and girls aged 16 to 40. Learners choose one of seven specialisation tracks, including Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Engineering, alongside cybersecurity, product design, product management, mobile development, software development and DevOps. Delivery blends virtual instruction with in-person orientation and mentorship hubs.

Since 2017 the fellowship has expanded from a single Nigerian cohort to a continent-wide programme reported to have reached over 124,000 women and girls across roughly 30 African countries and 263 cities. Admission is competitive: for the cohort reported by Vanguard News, 14,782 women applied, 1,398 were accepted and 847 graduated (about 61% completion). Tech4Dev reports that 73% of graduates secure tech jobs within six months of completing the programme, with beneficiaries collectively earning an estimated $1.2 million per month.

The published figures come from Tech4Dev's own reporting and press coverage rather than an independent third-party evaluation, and outcomes specific to the AI/Data Science track are not broken out separately from the programme's other six tracks — so the strength of evidence for this track specifically is weaker than the headline numbers suggest.

Read the full analysis: https://womentechsters.org/