Empowering Women in STEM and Digital Skills Key to Africa’s Economic Future

The World Bank’s new working paper warns that Sub-Saharan Africa’s fast-growing digital economy risks deepening inequality unless governments adopt gender-responsive policies to equip women and girls with digital and STEM skills. It calls for reforms spanning education, training, financial inclusion, and mentorship to ensure women become active creators and leaders in the region’s digital future.

The World Bank Group, through its Education Operations Support Hub and with backing from the Mastercard Foundation, has issued a new working paper spotlighting Sub-Saharan Africa’s growing gender digital skills gap. Authored by Alberto Muñoz Najar Luque, Priyal Gala, and Maria Rebeca Barron Rodriguez, the report warns that unless swift action is taken, Africa’s booming digital economy could deepen inequality rather than reduce it. The research highlights how structural barriers, gender biases, and limited access to digital resources are leaving women behind, even as demand for digital skills accelerates across industries.

Early Lessons: Teaching Girls to Code from Childhood

The report argues that the gender gap begins in classrooms, where outdated teaching methods and biased curricula discourage girls from envisioning careers in science and technology. Too often, textbooks depict men as engineers and women as nurses or teachers, reinforcing stereotypes. The authors advocate for gender-responsive digital pedagogy, which removes such biases and encourages girls to see themselves as creators in the digital age.

Several successful pilot projects are cited. In Mauritania, a blended offline digital learning initiative helped vulnerable girls boost their French and digital literacy despite challenges like flooding and travel costs. In Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, afterschool clubs introduced digital literacy alongside life skills, improving mathematics scores and graduation rates. These experiences show how relatively modest interventions can create long-lasting impacts if scaled across education systems.

Scholarships, TVET, and the University Push

The next barrier lies in higher education, where women remain underrepresented in STEM fields despite strong academic performance at secondary levels. To counter this, the report emphasizes scholarships and grants that not only ease financial pressures but also encourage girls to pursue science and technology careers. Initiatives like the Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund under the PASET program and the Africa Centers of Excellence project demonstrate how targeted financial support can shift enrollment trends.

Equally vital are reforms in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). By embedding digital skills in vocational curricula, TVET institutions can prepare women for rapidly evolving labor markets. The African Girls Can Code Initiative, launched by the African Union Commission and UN Women, is highlighted as a model program. Through coding camps and ICT training, it has already equipped thousands of young women with technical expertise while simultaneously pushing for national curriculum reforms to mainstream gender inclusivity.

Beyond Education: Breaking into the Workforce

Acquiring skills is only half the battle. Women often struggle to transition into the workforce due to financial, cultural, and institutional barriers. The paper highlights programs that have bridged this gap. India’s Internet Saathi project trained millions of rural women to become digital educators using simple smartphones, dramatically improving digital literacy in underserved regions. In Rwanda, the WeCode Academy provided intensive programming training, preparing women for both local employment and international service contracts in just six months.

In Kenya, the Ajira Digital Program blended digital skills training with mentoring and a job portal, directly connecting youth with employers. Meanwhile, Tanzania’s Structured Engineers Apprenticeship Program offered allowances and mentorship to women in engineering, raising apprenticeship completion rates from 20 percent among self-funded trainees to 86 percent among those supported. These initiatives underscore the value of financial assistance, structured career pathways, and employer partnerships in turning skills into sustainable careers.

Money Matters: The Push for Financial Inclusion

Another cornerstone of empowerment is financial inclusion. Women who gain access to mobile banking, digital payments, and microfinance can launch businesses, save for the future, and invest in growth. The #eSkills4Girls initiative, backed by GIZ, combines coding workshops with financial literacy training, helping women manage money digitally and pursue entrepreneurship. By equipping women with financial tools alongside technical training, such initiatives make them not just participants in the digital economy but active drivers of it.

Mentorship, Networks, and Male Allies

The report also stresses that skills and financing must be complemented with mentorship and professional networks. Women who have mentors or access to structured networking opportunities are more likely to persist in STEM careers and achieve pay parity. Kenya’s Ajira Digital Program, for example, pairs digital skills training with mentorship, teaching young people the soft skills needed to navigate workplaces. Networking interventions in the IT sector have been shown to increase women’s job mobility and career satisfaction.

Interestingly, the authors highlight the importance of men as allies. Male mentors and colleagues, when engaged, can help dismantle stereotypes and normalize women’s participation in traditionally male-dominated fields. By fostering inclusive communities of practice, the digital sector can accelerate not just skills development but cultural change as well.

A Blueprint for Inclusive Growth

The paper’s overarching conclusion is that no single measure can close the gender digital divide. Instead, coordinated action across multiple fronts is required, education reform, scholarships, modernized vocational training, access to finance, mentorship, and partnerships with employers. Governments, the private sector, civil society, and communities all have a role to play in ensuring that women are not left behind.

Closing the gender digital divide is not just about fairness, it is about economic strategy. Women make up half the population, yet their underrepresentation in digital and STEM fields means the continent is sidelining enormous talent at precisely the moment when innovation and technology will determine competitiveness. If Africa can empower women as creators and leaders in its digital transformation, it could unleash unprecedented growth, job creation, and social inclusion. If it fails, inequality will deepen, and opportunities will be lost.