Meet Rachel Sibande, African technology entrepreneur honored by Sisi

CAIRO – 10 November 2017: Malawian Rachel Sibande was one of the 14 world youth who were honored by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi at Egypt’s first World Youth Forum (WYF) on Friday for her first technological hub in her country mHub, which is considered an incubator for Mawali technological start-ups.

About Rachel Sibande

The 31-year-old entrepreneur established mHub in November 2013 to provide several platforms for inspiring entrepreneurs from different ages; she also established the Children's Codec Club, which provides computer science skills for children aged between 7 and 14 years old. The center also provides events and competitions for entrepreneurs. The Google scholar is now a program director at Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) at the United Nations Foundation.

At the WYF’s opening session, Sibande said that she dreams of seeing a generation of young creative minds building technological innovations that serve mankind.

The Malawian Embassy in Cairo praised Sibande in a post; “She was a shining star at the World Youth Forum inauguration which took place from 4th to 10th November, 2017, in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt. She motivated the participants to the conference by sharing her touching story of youth empowerment in Malawi.”

In 2016, Sibande was chosen to be Ambassador of Malawi to the next Einstein Forum, an initiative of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (Aims) in partnership with Robert Bosch Stiftung that promotes science, engineering, technology and mathematics (Steam). In May 2016, Forbes Magazine described Sibande as one of the 30 promising entrepreneurs in Africa under the age of 30.

The mother of three is preparing a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Hodges University; she obtained a Master’s degree in Information Theory, Coding and Cryptography and Grade Distinction in 2008. She also obtained a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Statistics in 2005.