Betelhem Dessie

2024-2025 Obama Foundation Africa Leader

Headshot of Betelhem Dessie, 2024 Obama Foundation Africa Leader

Chief Executive Officer, iCog

Ethiopia

Betelhem Dessie is the chief executive officer of iCog, a social enterprise dedicated to offering youth digital literacy skills for the 21st century. Faced with financial constraints and the absence of a formal education pathway, she utilized her curiosity for technology to teach herself everything from HTML to robotics and in turn taught her peers computer skills as well. A self-taught technologist, Betelhem nurtured her interest in technology, which blossomed into a movement empowering over 30,000 Ethiopian youth through the world of coding and the democratization of tech. Betelhem is a self-starter who has channeled her curiosity into building a large civil society organization for youth job creation and skill-building in Ethiopia.

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