Resplash to train up to 40 African women on how to code, start a business

Resplash, a training initiative, has called on African women keen on learning how to code, design and join or found a tech startup, to apply for its Resplash Leadership Programme — a three-month long online course with a coding and startup curriculum.

In a post on Medium last Thursday (4 April) announcing its launch, Resplash said for its first scholarship cycle, it will award up to 40 scholarships to African women older than 18 years who plan to start startups, join a tech startup and those curious about coding.

“The goal is to support, encourage, and empower the next generation of developers, designers, founders, and world leaders who want to create positive change and solve the numerous problems on the continent using technology,” said Resplash.

In future Resplash programms the initiative will look for an even split between male and female applicants 

It is not yet clear when applications for the programme will close. Those selected for the course will be trained on how to code API-driven websites with HMTL, CSS, Javascript and React.js, this while the startup curriculum of the course will follow Y Combinator’s Startup class.

As part of the programme, Resplash will pair each fellow with a technical mentor who can code and with a business mentor with operating experience in tech to support them through the course. Replash’s websites contains a list of the 15 mentors.

The initiative’s founding team includes Microtraction founder and Binance Labs director Yele Bademosi, Microtraction partner Dayo Koleowo, Patricia Ejiofor, Microtraction investment associate Adaobi Abide, Breaking Boundaries founder and CEO Chinny Eze, Felix Oginni and Kitoye Balogun.

In Twitter thread last Thursday (4 April), Bademosi said Resplash — which was put together in three weeks — was started with the premise of creating an “easy on-ramp” for anyone interested in getting started with technology.

He explained in a tweet that the initiative had decided to focus on women in its first cycle as past experiences at Microtraction and Binance Labs had shown that programmes with open applications tend to have more than 90% male-only applicants.

“Future application cycles will maintain a 50:50 gender parity but we wanted to challenge ourselves to make sure we raise awareness for Resplash across diverse channels and communities,” he added.

Resplash, Bademosi revealed, is funded by an evergreen fund, while those interested in sponsoring future batches can do so on the initiative’s website.