One of the challenges encountered in programming courses offered at first year level is high failure rate, which is a serious concern to lecturers and university management. To address the issue of high failure rate, it is important to have a clear understanding of the factors that may affect performance. This study investigates the effect of gender and prior academic experience on performance in an introductory programming course. These factors have special significance related to the societal and educational context in which the study is conducted. Moreover, prior academic experience is commonly used as an admission criterion and hence its validity needs to be assessed. Data were collected from 146 first year computing students who took an introductory programming course during semester 1 of the 2016/2017 academic year. The study found a statistically significant correlation between high school performance in mathematics and physics (albeit moderate and weak correlations respectively) and performance in an introductory programming course. Surprisingly, the study found no statistically significant correlation between performance in high school computer studies (where programming is taught) and performance in the introductory programming course. A discussion of the potential reasons for this discrepancy and its implications is provided.