Tunga’s mission is to unleash Africa’s tech talent. We believe in a world where everyone enjoys the same opportunities to get the most out of their life. That’s why in recent years, we’ve deliberately invested in coding courses for people in disadvantaged position, including aspiring female African coders. We feel there is still a lot of work to be done, but it certainly appears young African females are discovering software development as a career worth pursuing!
Mixed data on the share of female developers
Strangely enough – considering the amount of attention the topic gets in the media – there’s no definitive data on the number of female coders worldwide, let alone in Africa. SlashData estimates that at the start of 2021, there were 24.3 million active software developers worldwide. The developer economy analyst does not indicate how many were female but tells us that 20% of its 19k+ survey respondents were women. That, by the way, is a dramatic increase from the reported 9% just two years earlier.
With regards to Africa, a study by IFC/Google from 2020 stated there are 700,000 coders on the African continent, of which 21% would be women. However, this estimate is generally regarded as highly unreliable by industry insiders.
Research by Tunga revealed that the share of female software developers in Sub-Saharan Africa is 2-3%. For the entire continent, it is substantially higher – more like 7-8% – mainly due to the relatively high number of female coders active in Northern Africa (particularly Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt).
Female coders are catching up.
The good news is that we see an apparent increase in female developers in the Tunga developer pool. It now contains 750+ devs, 7% of which are woman coders. We see this as a sign that females are catching up on global trends.
One of them is Joyce Namuli, who is a remote front-end developer for the digital freight forwarding platform Shypple.
Speaking from Kampala, Uganda, Joyce tells us that she’s had a passion for problem-solving and engineering from an early age. She is fascinated by things that move and dislikes routine matters. Growing up, she was confronted with stereotypes about what girls should and should not do. One persistent idea was that girls should steer clear of technology. However, Joyce’s mother always supported her in pursuing her passion.
While these stereotypes are being torn down and Joyce sees more female devs around her, much remains to be done. Joyce believes that, for starters, many Africans are unaware of the possibilities of online tech work. Girls especially need to be empowered and supported at the grassroots level. Joyce feels that any organized initiative should be executed by genuinely dedicated people who are not just there to collect their money. Established female developers should support newcomers and need networks, support, meetups, and freely accessible platforms.
Female developers are welcome at Tunga.
Joyce got her shot as a dev at Andela in 2017 after completing an Aptech scholarship program. When the company shut the doors of its Kampala branch, she started freelancing. Discouraged by the problems surrounding payment in Africa, she looked at Tunga. She had already been part of the Tunga community before she decided to start coding for the out staffer.
Joyce praises the benefits of working for Tunga: “Tunga sorts you out.” Payment is straightforward and inexpensive. Tunga provides a coder community that offers support. For example, when Joyce reaches out for help with a problem, fellow tech heads on the platform respond within minutes. She also lauds the managers who act as intermediaries between the remote dev and the client. They enable optimal communication and manage mutual expectations.
“Tunga sorts you out.”
Prompted for disadvantages, Joyce is sure to stress that this does not apply to her or their client Shypple (on the contrary!), but she knows that some colleagues working remotely for specific companies are not always accepted as equals. There are clients out there that do not take their remote worker on board as a proper employee.
