The African IT Revolution—with a Feminine Touch

...AkiraChix has emerged at breathtaking speed. In the year and half since it was first established by a small group of 12 females meeting regularly to network, it has coalesced into a tightly run organization providing training, mentoring, and internship opportunities for high school girls in the field of information technology.

AkiraChix targets bright girls from poor families who can’t afford university. In the first months of the NGO’s creation, so limited were AkiraChix’s funds that the founding members dug into their own pockets for bus money to enable girls to get to class. Initially, classes were held in a bus until a donation from a nongovernmental organization enabled the company to rent a room.

In the past few years, the use of mobile telephones has risen dramatically in Kenya, alongside growing access to the Internet. The IMF expects the country’s economy to grow by 5 percent this year. Much of that growth will be powered by the boom in the IT industry. Many young Kenyans are flocking to this promising sector to take advantage of emerging job and business opportunities, but the field is still very much dominated by men...