In recent years, women have shown interest in tech despite male dominance in the sector. A statistic by PWC in 2017 showed that 3% of women consider a first-choice career in tech and 16% of women have had a career in technology. Women like Funke Opeke, Rebecca Enochongo, Marième Jamme, Judith Owigar, Odunayo Eweniyi, Kate Quartey Papafio and others have shown dominance in tech by impacting the society through their work. We however, still believe that women can do more than they are already doing.
Andela, a programming fellowship has especially shown strong affinity for women empowerment, considering that they have Omowale David-Ashiru [Nigeria], Jackie Ochola [Uganda], and Clément Uwajeneza [Rwanda]— all females as their Country Directors. They have once again followed this precedence as they recently announced Janet Maingi as country Director (Kenya).
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Janet, as a Country Director will be tasked with leading Andela Kenya to a new level in the country’s technology hub. Janet’s last position was the Director of Finance & Administration at BRCK– a Nairobi-based hardware and cloud services technology platform that delivers reliable connectivity solutions in the most demanding environments. Before then, she had been Director of Operations and also, Title Operations and Procurement Manager.
Andela identifies and develops software developers after which they find them placements in reputable organisations that require their services. Headquartered in New York, the company was founded in May 2014. They also launched operations in Nigeria in the same year. The company was founded by Jeremy Johnson, Christina Sass, Iyinioluwa Aboyeji, Nadayar Enegesi, Brice Nkengsa and Ian Carnevale.
Andela currently has over 400 software engineers in the Kenyan office. They have hired and developed over 1,200 Software engineers in Africa, who they have successfully integrated in companies like Safaricom, Github and Mastercard Labs.
According to Janet Maingi, Andela is creating an avenue for software engineers to work with global teams in building software products that will impact businesses and consumers. She said she looks forward to leading the Kenyan business through its next phase.
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