427,000 youths to participate in Africa Code Week

SAP has released the results of this year’s Africa Code Week, announcing 427,000 youth from 30 African countries completed the ICT skills training programme.

Africa Code Week is a continent-wide initiative to spark the interest of African children, teenagers and young adults in software coding; with the aim of equipping five million African youth with basic coding skills by 2025.

Held in October, SAP said the target for Africa Code Week 2016 had been to achieve the participation of 150,000 youth across Africa. With the total participation rates now counted, the company revealed close to 427,000 Africans graduated the programme this October – greatly surpassing the goal figure.

“With Africa contributing more than half of global population growth by 2050, the continent will play a leading role in the future global economy. By learning basic coding skills in an open, supportive environment, Africa’s youth are able to take advantage of the immense opportunities presented by the Digital Revolution and become active players shaping the global economy,” said Claire Gillissen-Duval, global project lead for Africa Code Week.

Morocco won the continent-wide Africa Code Week award, with 165,352 youth trained – an engagement ratio of 0.47 per cent youth per 100,000 population.

Cameroon was second with 0.26 per cent per 100,000 youth engaged – a total of 62,918 introduced to coding -; while Lesotho took third place, with an engagement rate of 0.24 per cent.

“Africa Code Week 2016 exceeded all expectations and has made a significant impact on the skills development of Africa’s youth,” said Brett Parker, managing director of SAP Africa.

“And with total female participation reaching 48.6 per cent, this year’s initiative also made inroads into gender equality in African ICT education.”

Source Disrupt Africa