Africa’s digital transformation is gaining momentum, but the continent’s fast-expanding technology ecosystem faces an escalating safety challenge that disproportionately affects young women.
This concern featured prominently at a major graduation ceremony held in Nairobi, Kenya, where the Power Learn Project Africa (PLP) announced the completion of training for 9,000 software developers across five countries.
The event, held on December 5, 2025, brings PLP’s total number of trained youth to more than 20,000 as the organisation shifts from a “skills-first” model to a broader “talent-first” strategy that prioritises employability, innovation, and youth participation in the digital economy.
Wilaiza Nipuete the Ambassador for the UN Women – African Girls Can Code Initiative (AGCCI), making her remarks at the 2025 Power Learn Project Africa (PLP) Graduation Ceremony in Nairobi Kenya, where she advocated for secure internet access as a right to enhance digital literacy and protect young women online, as a way to encourage their participation in technology while building a safer and more inclusive digital Africa.
The graduation coincided with the conclusion of a regional hackathon featuring teams from Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Mozambique.
The hackathon, organised in partnership with UN Women’s East and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) and the African Girls Can Code Initiative (AGCCI), focused on developing solutions to counter Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Women and Girls (TFVAWG). The initiative formed part of activities marking the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
UN Women ESARO Regional Director, Anna Mutavati, said the prevalence of online harm is pushing women out of digital spaces and threatens inclusive digital growth. She noted that one in every three women globally faces some form of online violence, ranging from cyberbullying and stalking to deepfakes and non-consensual image sharing.
Mutavati said the partnership with PLP underlines the need for African governments and the private sector to prioritise digital safety. She added that while digital access is expanding, legal frameworks and reporting mechanisms are not keeping pace with emerging forms of cybercrime.
Existing studies show high exposure to online attacks among journalists, activists, and women in public life, yet TFVAWG remains underreported with limited continental data.
Salome Mundia a Power Learn Project Africa (PLP), 2025 graduate makes a funding pitch for ‘Safeguard’, an online solution that uses Blockchain and AI to create a tamper-proof digital evidence vault for online harassment, an intelligence engine for repeat offender profiling, and secure geolocation pinning. ‘Safeguard’ that is seeking USD 50,000 for mobile app development and legal compliance was one of the finalist solutions that made the final in a regional hackathon that was hosted by PLP and UN Women as part of the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
PLP Executive Director, Mumbi Ndung’u, said the organisation’s expanding training and employability model aims to address a second challenge: talent drain. She highlighted the growing trend of African engineering talent being recruited by international companies offering significantly higher pay, noting the need for local opportunities that keep young developers engaged in domestic innovation.
Five teams emerged as finalists from the hackathon, showcasing applications designed to support victims of TFVAWG or strengthen reporting and evidence-gathering.
One of the solutions, ImaraZero – User Interface Digital Bodyguard, uses multimodal AI to analyse text, screenshots, and voice notes to identify threats. The platform offers risk alerts and escalation pathways to authorities in seven African countries. The team behind the solution is seeking USD 50,000 to support API licensing and expand deployment.
Another project, Safeguard, integrates blockchain and AI to create a tamper-proof digital evidence repository for online harassment cases. It includes an intelligence engine for profiling repeat offenders and a geolocation feature for incident mapping. The developers are also seeking USD 50,000 for app development and regulatory compliance.
A third solution, EveShield, is a mobile panic-button tool that connects users to emergency contacts, bystanders, and authorities, and integrates mental health and legal-aid support. The team is seeking USD 3,000 to scale the pilot.
PLP’s broader digital-skills programme has allocated 40 percent of its 16-week software development scholarships to young women in an effort to reduce gender gaps in STEM participation.
The commitment was demonstrated at the graduation ceremony through top-performing student, Wendy Otieno, who helped develop DigiSafety, a platform that generates a digital-safety score for users based on online habits. Otieno said young women must be encouraged to enter technology fields to widen representation and strengthen Africa’s innovation output.
PROUD MOMENT: Power Learn Project Africa (PLP) 2025 graduate Wendy Otieno (Right), from Nairobi, Kenya who was among the top five learners selected to attend the physical graduation. Wendy, also helped develop a digital safety platform during a regional hackathon hosted by PLP and UN Women as part of the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. She is flanked by her father, Nicodemus Onyango.
Since its establishment, PLP has trained more than 38,000 youth across the continent, including 3,900 women. Its Talent Hub is currently in negotiations to acquire a credit-scoring application created by a previous cohort, signalling a new emphasis on commercialising student-built innovations.
The Nairobi ceremony concluded with a career fair that connected graduates to employers including Brighter Monday, Gebeya, and Roamtech, several of which conducted interviews on-site. The expanded talent pool, organisers said, is expected to support Africa’s technology ambitions while strengthening the continent’s response to digital safety risks targeting women and girls.
