Breaking the Bias: Accelerating gender equity in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem and across Africa

Despite the fast growth of Africa’s tech ecosystem, gender equity still lags far behind. Nigeria, the continent’s largest tech hub, mirrors this gap: women make up less than 20% of the tech workforce. In a sector that’s shaping the future, it’s clear that half the population is being left behind. While there are bright spots of brilliant women building startups, leading product teams, and running developer communities, these are still exceptions. So far, the rule remains a male-dominated industry.

The Gap is real and Costly

The gender disparity in tech isn’t just about optics. It’s a structural problem with deep consequences. From limited access to digital education to bias in hiring, promotion, and funding, women face barriers at every stage of the tech pipeline. Early exposure to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) is limited.

In Nigeria, only a small fraction of startups are founded or co-founded by women. Female founders receive significantly less venture funding. A 2023 report from Disrupt Africa found that of all funding raised by African startups, less than 7% went to female-led ventures. This is despite studies showing that women-led startups often outperform their male counterparts in revenue per dollar raised.

Why It Matters

Technology is reshaping industries, governments, and daily life across Africa. From fintech to agri-tech, e-commerce to the solutions of tomorrow are being built today. Excluding women from this transformation doesn’t just hold them back, it holds the continent back. A diverse tech workforce is better at solving diverse problems. When women are absent from the table, their experiences, insights, and innovations are also absent.

Spotlight: Women Breaking Ground

Yet, despite the odds, some women are rising and redefining the space. Odunayo Eweniyi, co-founder of PiggyVest, is a standout. Her fintech platform revolutionized saving for young Nigerians. She’s also co-founder of the Feminist Coalition, showing how tech and advocacy can intersect.

Another example is Ire Aderinokun, Nigeria’s first female Google Developer Expert in Web Technologies. She’s an advocate for open-source development and has made technical education more accessible to aspiring female coders.

In Kenya, Judith Owigar, founder of AkiraChix, is training the next generation of African women in tech, from coding to leadership. Her model proves that when women lead, they lift others.

These women aren’t just succeeding, they’re opening doors for others. But their stories are still too rare. To shift the system, we need more than inspiring examples. We need infrastructure, policy, and cultural change.

Mr. Daniel Ishola

Strategies to Accelerate Progress

Start Early: Invest in STEM Education for Girls Tech interest begins in childhood. We need to build more programs that encourage girls to explore coding, robotics, and digital tools from an early age. Government and private sector players should partner to support STEM clubs, provide scholarships, and train teachers to remove gender bias in classrooms.

Build Pathways, Not Just Events: Bootcamps and hackathons are good but they’re not enough. Women need structured pathways: mentorship, internships, entry-level roles, and career progression plans. Tech companies should create gender-focused pipelines and track retention metrics, not just hiring statistics.

Close the Funding Gap: Investors must confront their own biases. More female representation in VC firms can shift how funding decisions are made. Initiatives like FirstCheck Africa, which funds women-led startups from the earliest stage, need to be scaled and backed by institutional capital.

Normalize Women in Leadership: Representation matters. Companies must move beyond tokenism and put women in real decision-making roles from CTOs to board seats. This includes offering leadership training, flexible work policies, and combating the quiet biases that keep women from rising.

Leverage Policy: Government has a role. Tech policy should include gender mandates in grants, procurement, and national innovation programs. Public sector tech projects should demand gender-diverse teams. And digital literacy programs must specifically target underserved female populations.

The Road Ahead

The future of work in Africa is digital. If we don’t fix the gender gap in tech now, we risk entrenching new inequalities even deeper than the old ones. But this is also an opportunity to build an industry from the ground up that doesn’t repeat the mistakes of others.

Women across Nigeria and the continent are already proving that they can lead, innovate, and transform. What they need isn’t more encouragement, it’s access, opportunity, and support. Equity won’t happen by accident. It has to be engineered.

Africa’s tech ecosystem is young enough to change course. And if we do it right, the next decade won’t just be about a tech boom, it’ll be about a truly inclusive one.

…Ishola is a software developer with about a decade of experience in the fintech industry, specializing in building innovative financial solutions. He can be reached via

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Danielishola20@gmail.com

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linkedin.com/in/isholadaniel

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danielishola.vercel.app/