Denis Opudo
The number of participants to take part in the Miss Greek Africa competition is expected to increase. The competition is always attended by the African countries that are members of the Smart Africa Secretariat. The competition expanded to accommodate other members. The number which initially used to be 17 in 2017 moved to 22 this year. The application is ongoing, and it will be closed on 31st March 2018. All qualified girls from the qualified countries are asked to apply.
The competition aims to encourage more African girls to take part in more technical courses. The courses include science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The organizers of the program are Girls in ICT Rwanda, a group of women professionalism in the STEM. The organizations target girls from Africa to help them achieve their main goal. It only calls for greatest support from all the 54 countries in Africa.
In 2017, Girls in ICT Rwanda partnered with Smart Africa. The partnership led to the expansion of the competition to all member states. That took place in the annual Transform Africa Summit. The event saw Ruth Njeri from Kenya being crowned the first Ms. Geek Africa. The semi-finalists are in a position to compete and partner with peers as well as take part in the summit. The summit also helps them to interact with industry captains and government leaders. Therefore, it helps them to determine the speed for operating Africa’s transformation using technology. The platform is celebrating its 5th anniversary of Miss Geek Competition in 2018.
The idea to start up the initiative started in Ghana. Currently, it has taken up the whole of Africa. The finals of the summit will take place at the Transform Africa Summit between May 9th and 10th 2018. The 2018 theme will be “Accelerating Africa’s Single Digital Market.” The competition is open to females between the age of 13 and 21 years. They must be citizens of the Smart Africa member states. The member states include Kenya, Gabon Egypt, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, DRC, and Benin. Also, there are Chad, Djibouti, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Rwanda, South Africa and Togo. Uganda, Niger, Mali, Togo Cote d’Ivoire, and Tunisia close up the list of the member states.
