Lady Marième Jamme an award-winning technologist and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, has paid a courtesy call on the Mayor of Accra, Hon Elizabeth Kwatsoe Tawiah Sackey to discuss ways to train girls and boys in Accra with coding and relevant IT skills for free. 

Lady Marième Jamme who is the founder of iamtheCODE.org was accompanied by representatives of the UN-Habitat.

In her introductory remarks Lady Marième said her goal was to train one (1) million women and girls as coders by 2030 adding that her organisation, iamtheCODE.org was the first African-led initiative to advance girls’ education in the STEAMD (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics, and design) subjects through collaboration with governments and the public and private sectors.

Lady Mariéme, a Senegalese born told the first female Mayor of Accra that she went to the UK as a young woman and learned to code seven programming languages from her local library in Surrey and is now a powerful global advocate for girls and women’s educational rights through the STEAMD framework, and as a Goalkeeper for the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

She admonished that coding should be made compulsory stressing that "coding is the future." 

"I travel across the world to find girls who are struggling and give them skills in technology and coding is one of them. I advise the government to make coding compulsory...Coding was recently made compulsory in Kenya, and I am very happy about that... My mission and my goal are to get 1 million, women and girls to learn how to code by the year 2030," she said.  

Chief Executive of AMA, Hon Elizabeth Kwatsoe Tawiah Sackey lauded the initiative and was hopeful the initiative would help bridge the digital gender gap and encourage the training and education of girls to expand the opportunities available to them in the sector. 

She emphasised the need for conscious and deliberate effort to encourage more girls and women to take up leadership roles in the ICT industry, by equipping them with the skill to enable the country to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (1, 5, and 10), which were intended to reduce poverty, achieve gender equality, and reduce inequalities.

She also mentioned the free Senior High School(SHS) policy, Assembly's school infrastructure expansion project, and the ” MY FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL" initiative as programmes being undertaken to enhance quality education in the city.

The Mayor of Accra expressed gratitude to Lady Marième Jamme and her outfit for embarking on such a project and used the opportunity to call for partnership from other stakeholders to help better the lives of the needy and less privileged ones in Accra.

Executive Director of Ga Mashie Development Agency (GAMADA), Mr. Nii Teiko Tagoe in a remark expressed appreciation to Madam Jamme for embarking on such a humanitarian outreach towards enhancing quality education, especially in ICT skills.

He also added that it was a privilege for the GAMADA community to be chosen for such a project as he believes this would positively have an impact on the community and the youth at large.

Lady Mariéme Jamme is a French-British businesswoman with more than two decades of business experience in technology and system change. 

As a pioneer in System Change and Technology who supports Global Businesses with their DEI and sustainability policies, she is best renowned for her motivational & inspirational speeches about girls' education through Coding and STEAMD (Science, technology, engineering, mathematics, arts, and design) and empowerment of youth living in marginalized and deprived communities. She experienced considerable hardship during her childhood.

In September 2017, she won the Innovation Award at the Global Goals Award by Bill and Melinda Gates and UNICEF as a Goalkeeper to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by supporting girls and young women globally- businesses and governments.