In July, we announced the launch of Ingressive For Good (I4G), a nonprofit with the mission to increase the earning power of African youth in the tech ecosystem. Months later, the nonprofit is on track to reach their lofty goals with amazing success stories. Two stories that stood out for us are the stories of Kingsley and Folashade, beneficiaries of I4G’s programs:
“My name is Kingsley David. I wanted to acquire relevant IT skills, so I could pursue jobs related to the tech industry I was interested in. In my search for affordable platforms to learn these skills, I came across Ingressive for Good (I4G) from a Workspace on Slack. A couple of my colleagues posted a link to I4G and I took advantage of the I4G DataCamp opportunity. So far, I have been learning about data Science and it has been exciting. Analysing data with Python has provided the opportunity to learn about Python, whilst still acquiring data science skills. My learning experience has been good, especially on the DataCamp courses. At the end of my data science course, I will have the skills to follow one of the data careers paths – Engineer, Analyst, Scientist, or Machine Learning Scientist. Ingressive for Good has opened a world of opportunities for me.”
The second story was about Folashade Fapohunda, an accountant who worked in a hospital. As COVID19 cases started to increase, she was at risk. The hospital closed down and she lost her job. She casually picked up an interest in Graphic design. That was when she came across the Ingressive For Good (I4G). At this time, I4G had partnered with Coursera, the world’s leading online learning platform to offer scholarships to 5000+ African youths in tech. Folashade enrolled in the Coursera design courses. These courses gave her the confidence she needed to start freelancing and so far, she has had over 3 paying design clients, with payments worth more than her salary as an accountant.
According to a report from the World Bank’s IFC and Google, Africa is on course to add $180 billion or 5.2% of aggregate GDP by 2025 thanks to the rapid growth of its internet economy (iGDP) and the key to growing that internet economy will be the tech talents that build the products on which it runs. In this report by Payscale, a tech employee earns 2x more salary than a peer in a non-tech role. However, access to tech, tech training, and resources are expensive. This series of discoveries led Ingressive For Good (I4G) to commit to training 1,000,000 African youths in need and placing the high flyers in jobs. The non-profit equipping young Africans in need with tech skills to help them impact and contribute to the development of Africa, socially and economically.
In the last 3 months, I4G has aided the training of over 20,000 African youth, built a community of over 17,000 youths, provided tech tools and resources for over 10,000, and placed over 100 in jobs.
“The I4G community collectively has the strategy, the network, and most importantly, the passion to actually change Africa.” Sean Burrowes, the COO and Cofounder of Ingressive for Good said. “The more our community grows, the less I4G feels like a charitable foundation. It feels more like a Pan-African talent development revolution, powered by Africa’s tech-enabled youth.”
With collaboration at the heart of Ingressive For Good, the non-profit is on course to equip young Africans in need with tech skills to help them impact and contribute to the development of Africa, socially and economically. During this pilot phase, I4G partnered with Coursera, Facebook, Datacamp, HNG, Enye, SemiColon, Tekedia, CareerBuddy, FindWorka, Live Your Dreams, Covenant University, Babcock University, StudentBuild, Bankole Williams, and so many amazing organizations to reach the Africans in need and provide trainings, scholarships, job placements.
“Ingressive For Good has not only distributed the most licenses of all of DataCamp’s Giveaway Partners so far, but their learners’ adoption and engagement levels on the platform are some of the highest as well. This exemplifies the enormous impact a nonprofit run by caring and talented people can have on communities big and small, local, and abroad.” Nathaniel Taylor-Leach, Community Partnerships Manager at DataCamp, the leading interactive learning platform for data science and analytics.
“Folashade’s success story is one of many young Africans who have been impacted through one or more of the Ingressive For Good programs. With just a laptop one member transitioned from selling liquid soap to on the side if the road a career in tech in two months. Tips learned from an online course helped another member land their first big client leaving poverty in their rearview. Many have gotten access to courses that were cumulatively worth thousands of dollars for free. Africa has huge problems, but sometimes our youth just need a little help…” Blessing Abeng, Director of Communications at Ingressive for Good
Watch the success stories of the I4G x HNG Internship finalists who received new MacBooks from Ingressive for Good to help them improve their tech skills:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjXkegE4zn91WLLiZlablS8k5dVdgM2pr
Also, in the last 3 months, I4G has surpassed its pilot goals in tremendous ways. This is the impact so far:
View the full report here.
To join I4G on this mission to increase the earning power of African youths and eradicate poverty from Africa, send an email to [email protected] and Follow @ingressive4good on social media to stay updated
About Ingressive For Good
Ingressive For Good (I4G) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and increasing the earning power of African youth through tech training, resources, and community. Visit ingressive.org to find out more about Ingressive For Good or follow them on social media @ingressive4good.
