(Ecofin Agency) - The International Finance Corporation (IFC) announces a $500,000 investment in Gebeya, a software engineering school in Ethiopia.

Thanks to this investment, 250 women will be trained and about twenty will also be provided an undisclosed volume of seed funding.

IFC and Gebeya will also provide consulting and coaching services to these twenty women.

“African women constitute 50 percent of Africa’s population but only contribute 39 percent of its Gross Domestic Product…We have to do our part to close the gender gap in technology where females are highly underrepresented,” Amadou Daffe, managing director of Gebeya indicated.

The financial resources of the project will be provided in the framework of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), initiated by the IFC and eight international financial institutions, aimed at supporting women entrepreneurs.

Since its launch in 2016, Gebeya has trained 400 software developers, 140 of which have received placements.

Chamberline Moko