Ethiopian Coding Initiative Surpasses 100K Students

The ambitious project to equip five million Ethiopians with foundational digital skills is gaining traction, with over 110,000 students taking lessons a month into the initiative. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) kicked off the three-year program developed in partnership with the United Arab Emirates as part of a wider campaign to enhance digital literacy.

Several stakeholders from Ethiopia’s evolving digital ecosystem gathered at the Inter-luxury hotel the past week under the theme “Creating Jobs for the Future: Uncovering the Key Drivers for Growth of Ethiopia’s Outsourcing Industry,” in which the figures regarding the coding initiative were revealed.

Seyoum Mengesha, Head of the Digital Economy Project at the Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MInT), outlined the prospects of the initiative by highlighting the minimum requirements for joining. He mentioned that the project could potentially reach seven million students, even though the original goal was two million less.

“Anyone who has completed 12th grade and wants to advance their digital skills can join,” Seyoum noted.

A national push to increase the number of students who are partaking in the program has been kicked off across all regional states, though most students are still concentrated in urban areas. Inclusivity is central to the initiative, with particular focus being given to equipping young women with the skills to thrive in the digital age.

Nonetheless, there has been limited data available on national digital skill levels, partly due to the absence of a standardized assessment system for inclusion that can be used in comprehensive reports. For instance, Ethiopia is not covered by the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking, the Global Skills Report by Coursera, or the World Bank’s Digital Economy Initiative for Africa (DE4A) country diagnostics.

The Ethio Coders program offers three courses in programming, data science, and Android Kotlin Developer Fundamentals. Prospective students can take the courses through the US-based online learning platform Udacity for free, as long as they have internet access.

Lack of digital skills has often been cited as one of the major obstacles limiting the expansion of digital services in the country. The 2019 Global Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Reform ranked Ethiopia 137th in ICT adoption and 100th in digital skills among 141 countries.

Prime Minister Abiy’s administration has announced plans to incorporate coding courses into the national curriculum, specifically through the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system, as part of efforts to expand national digital competency

While various state agencies are launching campaigns, not everybody is convinced the target will be achieved.

“Five million coders is an unrealistic target. Just look at how many developers there are in other countries,” said one close observer.

The observer believes that the courses’ short duration could help increase admission and completion rates. However, he argues that the courses offered on Udacity could have benefited from localization due to the significant attention the government is giving the initiative.