AFRICA NEWS AGENCY
AFRICA NEWS AGENCY
CHRONIQUE: CHOOSE TO CHALLENGE !
O By Sheilah Birgen
A figure of the PanAfrican women’s tech scene, Kenyan Sheilah BIRGEN has been working for more than ten years to support young entrepreneurs across the continent. Specialist in innovation and strategy, she delivers exclusively solutions to improve the environment of women in Tech
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N March 8th each year we celebrate International’s women’s day. This year, the campaign theme for International Women’s Day 2021 is ‘Choose To Challenge’. A challenged world is an alert world. This theme is quite befitting for the technology industry and for African women in the digital space as it encourages women to take up more ownership in management roles in ensuring that the continent grows in hips and bounds in the digital Technology ecosystem globally. For the longest time, African women in the digital space and technology have gone through several challenges starting with the impostor syndrome in a predominantly male industry. Women in the digital space also lack resources, adequate skills training, lack social capital, funding and career growth opportunities. I believe to choose to challenge means being deliberate about growing yourself, creating awareness of those around you, campaigning for inclusivity for those who will use your product(s) or services and building communities. It is important to note that what we as women entrepreneurs do impact the community hence we need to be deliberate about challenging any norms that won’t challenge these shortcomings. Inclusivity and diversity are essential in product development, customer journey, team dynamics, product usability and impact in entrepreneurship in the digital space in Africa and around the globe. Female entrepreneurs inspire me because they are quite particular in understanding the needs of the users and are more deliberate about the impact that their products or services create on their users. Access to capital has been a major challenge for entrepreneurs in the continent. This is even harder for women historically and certainly now too. Access to capital from banks and other traditional financial institutions has been a challenge for women in Africa. Most institutions have required women to provide collateral and guarantee documents of ownership in a continent where for the longest time women were not allowed to own land or property. These systematic processes often lock out women in accessing finances. Access to equity or investor debt funding is still a challenge for women in the continent, with an estimated $42 bil-
