By Juliet Umeh

Sterling Bank has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a non-profit organization, Technology for Social Change and Development Initiative, Tech4Dev, to provide employment for women who are operating in technology sector.

By the MoU, the bank becomes an experiential learning partner for Tech4Dev’s Women Techsters initiative.

The Women Techsters is aimed at bridging the digital divide between men and women in the technology ecosystem by empowering five million women across Africa with digital and deep tech skills by 2030.

The organization is currently in partnership with Microsoft to empower 10,000 women in 2021 across five African countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt.

Tech4Dev’s Co-Founder and Executive Director, Oladiwura Oladepo said: “Gender equality is at the heart of what we do at Tech4Dev and is a huge part of our Women Techsters initiative. 

“We are delighted to have forward-thinking organizations like Sterling Bank, who are concerned with what workforce will look like the next two and five years and the importance of gender balance within the ecosystem. At the end of the internship period, we want Sterling Bank to be able to say they got value from the interns,” Oladepo said.

Also, Chief Digital Officer at Sterling Bank, Olayinka Oni, said: “We are interested in any project that grows the ecosystem like the Women Techsters initiative.”

Some of the Women Techster-Fellows across the five countries are presently in the final week of their training and will be direct beneficiaries of the partnership with Sterling Bank on a six-month internship period.