Lilian Africah

Pioneering Kenyan tech entrepreneur empowering women through digital innovation

Lilian Africah is a groundbreaking Kenyan technologist and social innovator who has made significant contributions to bridging the gender gap in Africa's tech sector. Born in Nairobi in 1989, she co-founded Tech4Her in 2018, a nonprofit organization that has trained over 15,000 women and girls in digital skills through its coding academies and mobile learning platforms. Her work gained global recognition in 2022 when Tech4Her received the UN Women Innovation Award for creating Africa's first blockchain-based certification system for women's tech qualifications.

Africah's most impactful contribution came through her development of the eShe app (available on Google Play), which connects rural women entrepreneurs with e-commerce opportunities. This platform has enabled over 300,000 small business owners in East Africa to access global markets since its 2020 launch. Her TEDxNairobi talk on 'Reimagining Digital Inclusion' has been viewed over 2 million times, inspiring similar initiatives across the continent.

In 2023, she launched the Africah Innovation Hub, a physical-digital space in Nairobi offering incubation support, cloud infrastructure, and mentorship programs. This hub now hosts 200 startups annually, with 60% led by women. Her recent collaboration with GSMA on a pan-African digital literacy initiative aims to reach 1 million learners by 2025.