Rachel Sibande

Rachel Chimwemwe Sibande (born January 9, 1986, in Lilongwe, Malawi) is a Malawian computer scientist, digital development specialist, and social entrepreneur with over 20 years' experience spanning academia, international development, technology, and social enterprise. She is the Founder of mHub, Malawi's first technology hub and incubator for innovators and emerging entrepreneurs..

She has led and managed technology-for-development projects in over twenty-two (22) low- and middle-income countries, working at the intersection of digital transformation, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and sectors such as health, agriculture, education, financial services, elections monitoring, and disaster management. She is a Google Scholar, having received the Google Anita Borg Scholarship in 2015 for outstanding computer science scholars. In 2016, she was named one of Africa's 30 most promising entrepreneurs under the age of 30 by Forbes.

Early life and education At age 15, Sibande enrolled at the University of Malawi's Chancellor College, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree (with Credit) in computer science in 2006.

She attained a Master of Science (with Distinction) in Information Theory, Coding, and Cryptography from Mzuzu University in 2009.

She earned a PhD in Computer Science from Rhodes University, South Africa, in 2021 as a Google Scholar. Her doctoral research led to the development of technology solutions for elections monitoring, which have since been deployed in general elections across multiple African countries

She attained an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom ( 2025).

Additional Certifications: Certificate in Entrepreneurship for Scientists and Engineers, International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Italy, 2016 Certificate in Wireless Networking, ICTP, Italy, 2008 Certificate in Financial Accounting, Public Accountants Examinations Council of Malawi (PAEC), 2006

Career

Gates Foundation (2023–Present) Sibande currently serves as Senior Officer for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Africa at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She leads the AI Scaling Hub initiative, which identifies and scales high-impact AI use cases across health, education, agriculture, and gender domains. She manages a 120-member global community of practice of Generative AI grantees and leads partnerships with African governments, private sector, academia, regulatory authorities, and NGOs on digital, data, and AI. She has led the investment in establishing Rwanda's first National Health Intelligence Centre and has made over $30 million in investments across the East Africa region in primary health care, development policy, agriculture, and women's economic empowerment.

United Nations Foundation (2017–2023) As Senior Director for Country Outreach–Africa and Data for Development at the United Nations Foundation / Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL), Sibande led a team supporting 13 countries (Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Ghana, DRC, Nepal, Haiti, and Colombia) to accelerate digital transformation through digital public infrastructure and government services. She led the solution architecture of supervised machine learning models and managed a team of data scientists, AI experts, software engineers, and project managers across 11 deployments. She represented UNF/DIAL at global forums including the World Data Forum, World Summit on the Information Society, and the Global Digital Development Forum.

Palladium Group (2016–2017) As Deputy Chief of Party for the USAID-funded Feed the Future Agriculture Diversification Project ($47 million), Sibande led the programmatic implementation of financial services, nutrition, gender, and youth portfolios across three agricultural value chains. Under her oversight, the project facilitated the injection of over $760,000 in capital into informal women-led savings groups, supported over 2,200 poor households with agricultural kits, and disbursed over 1 million post-harvest hermetically sealed storage bags.

mHub Malawi – Founder and Director (2014–2016) Sibande established Malawi's first technology hub and incubator. Under her leadership, mHub developed over 35 technology solutions deployed across 12 countries, including digital solutions for elections monitoring used in Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Lesotho, and Senegal—for organizations such as the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), the Open Society Foundation, and civil society organizations. She also led encryption and cybersecurity solutions, conducted security audits and vulnerability assessments, and trained Malawi Defence Forces staff on digital forensics. mHub injected over $2.2 million into startups, created more than 23,000 jobs, and trained over 153,000 youths with digital skills in web and mobile app development, robotics, big data, AI, machine learning, IoT, and 3D printing.

Agribusiness Systems International (2013–2015) As Country Director for the Technology for Extension to Smallholders (TEXTS) Project, Sibande led the deployment of Malawi's first digital agricultural extension platform in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture. She led a team of over 23 staff to institutionalize the e-Soko platform across 10 agricultural value chains, impacting over 400,000 smallholders in 18 months.

ACDI/VOCA and CARANA Corporation (2009–2013) As Chief of Party / Deputy Chief of Party for the Market Linkages Initiative Project ($35 million, USAID-funded), Sibande led a team of 29 staff and consultants across 7 countries (Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, South Sudan, DRC, and Malawi). The program expanded grain bulking storage by 6 times in tonnage, established market enumeration systems across 28 markets integrating over 700,000 smallholders, and supported the warehouse receipt system at the Agricultural Commodity Exchange.

Earlier Career

Statistics Lecturer, Mzuzu University, Department of Mathematics (2007–2009) — taught statistics to Bachelor of Science in Renewable Energy students. ICT Teacher, Kamuzu Academy (2005–2007) — taught ICT to Forms 1 through Lower 6.

Honors and awards

Board and Volunatary Service

Director of the Board & Chairperson, Technology, Engineering and Innovation Committee — Standard Bank Malawi Plc (2020–Present) Board Member — PATH Global, Seattle, USA (2019–2022) Board Member — GiveDirectly, Malawi (2019–2023) Board Chairperson — Girl Effect, Malawi (2016–2020) Director — mHub (2014–Present) Board Member — ACDI/VOCA, Malawi (2013–2016) Board Member — Esoko (2012–2015)

Selected Publications

Sibande, R. and Chipeta, G. "Developing a Machine Learning Predictive Model for Mobile Network Traffic Forecasting in Malawi." IST-Africa, 2025. Digital Impact Alliance and Data Pop Alliance. "MD4D Handbook: An Interactive Resource to Gain Knowledge and Skills for Designing and Implementing Mobile Data for Development Projects." DIAL Resource Portal, 2021. Sibande, R. "The Role of ICT in Electoral Processes: The Case of the 2019 General Elections in Malawi." In Democracy Tested: The Case of Malawi's 2019 Tripartite Elections, pp. 103–141, 2021. Lilongwe: NICE. Green, D., Sibande, R., Moszczynski, M., Asbah, S., et al. "Using Mobile Phone Data for Epidemic Response in Low Resource Settings—A Case Study of COVID-19 in Malawi." Cambridge University Press, Data and Policy, 3(e19), 2021. Kanengoni, A.D., Fungurani, T., Nyanungo, H.N., and Chavula-Sibande, R., et al. "Buwa! Youth in Africa: Dominant & Counter Narratives." Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, 8, 2017. Knippenberg, E., Sibande, R., Chirwa, E., and Smith, T., et al. "Using Mobile Phone Data to Make Policy Decisions: A Study in How New Data Sources Optimized Health Facility Placement in Malawi." Digital Impact Alliance. Sibande, R., Sang, D., and Natt, T.S., et al. "Using MNO Data for COVID-19 Response." Digital Impact Alliance, 2020. Sibande, R. "Using Mobile Network Operator Data for COVID-19 Response." Digital Impact Alliance, 2020. Sibande, R. and Thinyane, H. "A Mobile Based Technology Platform for Citizen Engagement in Malawi." IST-Africa Week Conference, 2016, 1–10. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. "Malawi Rapid eTrade Readiness Assessment." United Nations, 2019.