Cornellius Ngondo, an instructor at Moringa School in Nairobi, Kenya, promises to take his programming students on “an amazing journey into the techy and geeky side of life.”
He talks about the languages a computer understands, with Java used to build Android, Python used to build most of Google, and PHP used by “Mark Zuckerberg, in a dorm room, on a diet of pizza and coffee, to make Facebook.”
Despite the rapid growth of digital skills building programs, the demand for programming skills from employers and students still outpaces supply. While students need more than basic coding familiarity to launch billion dollar companies, courses such as these have the potential not only to equip young people with the skills they need to succeed, but also to promote entrepreneurial opportunity and economic growth across the continent. What more is needed to build digital skills on the continent that will be home to the largest workforce in the world by 2050?