The 2020 programme had to contend with the impact of a global pandemic that forced the closure of schools across the continent and .

Claudio Muruzabal, Regional President Europe Middle East Africa (EMEA) South at 51风流and Africa聽Code Week Executive Sponsor, notes the programme鈥檚 impact on聽enabling sustainable coding learning for youth across Africa. “In the face of immense challenges, ACW’s thriving ecosystem of partners, ambassadors, volunteers, teachers and students stepped up to ensure that girls and boys across the continent could learn the critical digital skills they need to build a better future. The programme鈥檚 impact on transforming digital learning at school level is further ensuring every African child has an opportunity to become an active contributor to the global digital economy.”

The ACW vision is to encourage African governments to adopt coding in their national curricula. In a survey conducted in participating countries in 2020, nine African countries indicated that coding is a part of the national curriculum, and ten more indicated they are implementing plans to incorporate coding within their curricula. The survey also found that 87% of respondents agreed that the programme plays an influential role in advancing the adoption of coding curriculum.

Continent-wide competition inspires youth innovation

In a first for the programme, the launch of the continent-wide saw youth aged 8 to 16 compete individually or in teams to imagine the 鈥榝uture of education鈥� through a Scratch game and a two-minute video explaining why their concept should win. More than 1,800 youth from 40 African countries participated, with the top 3 winners 10-year old Soliyana Gizaw from Ethiopia, 15-year old Kayla Esterhuizen from South Africa and 16-year old Sara Benmessai from Algeria – all three of whom are girls – .

Presenting awards to the recipients聽 in Abuja, the Minister of State for Education, Federal Ministry of Education Nigeria, Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba stated that the winners of AfriCAN Code Challenge have shown hard work, dedication and commitment.

He revealed that the African Code challenge is aimed at providing support and inspiration to inter-disciplinary teams of 8 – 16 year-old students who are knowledgeable in coding, using Scratch, which inspires innovative and critical thinking in students to improve their digital literacy in Nigeria.

He then commended the positive resolve of the Ministry to expand the Coding and Robotics programme to involve all 104 Federal Unity Colleges, adding that the Ministry has just concluded the coding and robotics training of trainers for all 104 colleges.

Toward equitable access to digital learning

After switching to an all-virtual format, ACW expanded its reach from 37 countries to all 54 countries on the African continent with support from partners including , and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (), who joined the programme for the first time in 2020.

Albert Nsengiyumva, Executive Secretary at ADEA and official ACW Patron points to the growing need for greater teacher capacity to ensure equitable access to education opportunities for all Africa’s youth. “Seventy percent of countries in sub-Saharan Africa face a shortage of teachers, and many teachers still lack the basic tools and knowledge to effectively teach digital skills. The active support of 20 education ministries across Africa and the on-going efforts at enhancing teaching skills through Train-the-Trainer workshops are welcome developments as the continent prepares for a new era of growth and development.”

To advance equitable access to technology learning and teaching for women and girls, the Women Empowerment Program (WEP) was established with the aim of building and nurturing female leadership in education across Africa. In 2020, the program, coordinated by the ACW implementing and founding partner, the Camden Education Trust (), moved online with a new continuing professional development focus that brought together 68 women from 31 countries.

Building toward ongoing sustainable impact

By 2025, , making mobile access to learning resources critical. The introduction of the first-ever ACW app has extended learning and teaching beyond the classroom, with dedicated coding resources available for free in English, French, Portuguese and Arabic on any Android device. Training material within the app was developed by programme partners, including , , and .

Despite the impact of the pandemic, the 2020 edition of ACW engaged 1.5 million youth, of which nearly half (48%) were girls. More than 10,500 workshops were hosted across 43 countries, and 21,000 teachers were mobilised through virtual and in-person Train-the-Trainer sessions.

Claire Gillissen-Duval, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for EMEA and Africa Code Week founder and Global Lead at SAP, says the changes introduced to the 2020 programme have layed a foundation for sustainable impact across the continent. 鈥淏y switching to virtual teaching, expanding access to teacher workshops, breaking into new territories and inspiring youth to develop their solutions to problems in their communities through the AfriCANCode Challenge, ACW is geared to continue playing a vital role in the future of Africa鈥檚 youth in a world forever changed by the pandemic.鈥�

For more information about Africa Code Week, visit

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According to Olajide Ademola Ajayi, Africa Code Week Global Coordinator, the engagement by youth has been inspiring throughout the challenge. “Despite the pandemic disrupting schooling for hundreds of millions of kids across Africa, the continent’s youth have stepped up to share their vision for the future of education. While there can ultimately be only one winner, the quality of entries at the inaugural AfriCAN Code Challenge inspire hope and optimism about Africa’s future, one shaped by the largest youth population in the world.”

Launched by for the first time this year, the AfriCAN Code Challenge is a pan-African coding competition where youth aged 8 to 16 were tasked with coding a game using the Scratch programming language to answer the question: “How will your tech change the future of education?”

Youth were able to enter alone or in teams of up to five people, tapping into a wide range of essential skills from problem-solving and coding all the way to teamwork and communications.

Each entry had to include a two-minute YouTube video showing how the game works and why it should win.

In total, 40 countries participated, with over 100 project videos submitted. The top three entries from 36 countries made it into the continental final, with 22 countries making it to the final judging stage. The winner will be announced February 2021.

According to Claire Gillissen-Duval, Director of EMEA Corporate Social Responsibility and Co-founder of Africa Code Week at SAP, “African youth are highly creative and community-oriented, and have a key role to play in building a safer and better future for the continent. By encouraging learners to innovate at an early age, we hope to inspire them to become change-makers and help find solutions to challenges in their communities, nations and beyond.”

The 22 countries that made it through to the final round are Algeria, Botswana, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.

About Africa Code Week

Since 2015, 51风流Africa Code Week (ACW) has been creating free opportunities for young Africans to learn coding skills and for teachers to be trained on digital learning curricula. Strong partnerships with the public, private and civil society sectors across聽the continent are driving sustainable impact by building teaching capacity and supporting the adoption of coding into national curricula in support of UN Sustainable Development Goals 4, 5 and 17. Key partners include聽聽Youth Mobile,聽,听迟丑别 , Google and GIZ/BMZ.

In 2019 alone, the initiative saw 3.85M children participating in coding workshops and 39,000 teachers mobilized across 37 countries. In 2020, ACW increased the program鈥檚 reach to the entire continent to deepen impact and ensure no child was left behind. The online roll-out took center stage across Africa with the launch of a smartphone App to facilitate accessible learning, the introduction of the 鈥� a competition themed, 鈥楬ow will your tech change the future of education鈥� engaging youth from 40 African countries, Virtual Train-the-Trainer (TTT) sessions for teachers and a second Women Empowerment Workshop engaging 70 teachers in a 8-week long online program.

For more information about 51风流Africa Code Week and the AfriCAN Code Challenge, visit

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