Rachel Sibande is a Malawian digital and data expert. She is fast rising as one of the technology entrepreneurs in Africa, a sector largely dominated by men. Born in 1986, Sibande is the founder of Malawi’s first technology and innovation hub, mHub.
Highly enthused with science and technology, she had a degree in computer science and statistics. She furthered her academic pursuit to receive her master’s degree in theory, coding, and cryptography at Mzuzu University.
Prior to founding mHub, Sibande has had a five-year stint with the USAID as a market system specialist and other companies like Flanders International Cooperation Agency (FICA) and Deutsche Gesellschaftfür Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
In 2012, she was selected to be part of YALI in a six-week internship program. She volunteered on various projects to gain relevant experience. She worked on a project developing a technology solution for election monitoring.
The technology enthusiast founded mHub in 2013 developing websites and enterprise systems.
mHub has now grown to incubate innovative entrepreneurs from the tech, agriculture, architecture, and construction industries.
The company trains young people, particularly girls, in digital skills. So far, the program has reached over 29,000 young people in Malawi.
In 2017, she was one of the 14 world youth honored by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi at Egypt’s first World Youth Forum (WYF) for her first technological hub in her country, which is considered an incubator for Mawali technological start-ups.
In recognition of her exploits, the 35-year-old techpreneur has been on honor and awards rolls. Notable of her laurels are: ‘Forbes Woman Africa Gen Y Award’ (2019); 100 Most Influential African Women of the year by Avance Media (2020); etc.
