The 4th edition of the monthly Coffee & Circumvention (C & C) meet-ups held at the Aiivon Innovation Hub, Abuja on Thursday, January 23rd in collaboration with Clean Technology Hub Innovation Centre (CTH). To put it simply, it was quite a blast.
Tackling the theme: Defining a Sustained Digital Advocacy for Climate Emergency in Nigeria, TechHer’s Peter Akinnusi and Chidinma Ejike of CTH moderated the sessions, laying down a marker for the rest of the evening’s gripping conversations.
Peter gave a brief overview of TechHer’s passion to see technology put to use for honourable causes and shared the idea behind C&C, before Daramfon Bassey took the responsibility of enlightening the audience about CTH. He further encouraged everyone in attendance to take a moment to make new friends. This call worked magic, with strangers bonding and the stage set for the day’s discourse.
As is always the case at C & C, the crowd warmed up pretty quickly to the conversations, engaging in various ways about how digital platforms can be utilized in addressing emerging and imminent environmental crises in Nigeria.
A screening of the short film, Nowhere to Run, which summed up the emerging environmental time bomb that’s ticking globally, highlighted the dire state of things. As with the rest of the world, Nigeria’s coastline and habitat are in the throes of varying degrees of climate actions. These are sure to result in fatal outcomes if left unchecked. The screening left no doubt that at this rate we’ll all soon have nowhere to run to pretty soon.
Climate emergency experiences
Participants invited to share individual experiences regarding climate change. Folahon Johnson, and Bofamene Joseph respectively narrated how their childhood communities have all been affected by destructive human activities which have contributed to degrading the environment. For Folahon, mining activities in his Jos - Plateau State neighbourhood have resulted in erosion, and deep gullies while Bofamene narrated how the vanishing coastlines of her Bayelsa community are a nightmare come to life. Others recalled the earth tremor incidents around the Mpape area of Abuja as another case of climate emergency staring us in the face.
Ify Malo, CEO/Co-founder Clean Technology Hub, noted that the prevailing aggravated temperature around the country is enough signal that things are going out of hand, wondering why the government is hesitant in tackling this issue. Environmental pollution and improper waste management were also identified as other reasons causing problems to the environment and other health related complications.
The role of digital advocacy in Nigeria’s climate emergency
With the government's lethargic attitude towards environmental challenges flagged, the need for citizens to step in becomes critical using digital technology as a means for advocacy.
Participants debated the best approaches toward realising the ambition. They resolved on building a community of advocates, with the mandate of articulating an action plan for digital advocacy. The advocacy, it was agreed, would be approached on both the online and offline fronts. The former was meant to involve creating hashtags, tweetchats, creating engaging content and co-opting celebrities & influencers to join in amongst other content-oriented approaches. For the offline charge, participants agreed that conventional media, volunteers and religious leaders ought to be involved in the campaign.
Going forward
Before winding up, a comprehensive database of climate and clean energy advocates was suggested as a way to arm stakeholders to track progress and support each other in the cause .
The key take-away from the meet-up was the resolution for attitudinal change from participants who also agreed with the suggestion to create a WhatsApp Group dedicated to the purpose of the advocacy.
CTH’s Kolawole and Peter (again) came up to thank everyone for coming out to have such a great conversation, stressing that the opportunity to collaborate was open to all and sundry. The event then rounded up with some networking and of course further indulgence in the refreshment that was available.
Judging from the passion of the contributors, it is safe to say that a climate change army exists. Equally as important, is the excitement to create a bold new world as we look forward to the next edition of C & C.
On the 31st of October, 2019, TechHer commenced on an ambitious tour to train 700 selected students from 10 schools across 4 of the 6 area councils in Abuja.
The tour is in line with two of TechHer’s main pillars which focus on digital literacy and digital security. The main objectives of the tour are to open the students, all of whom lived in underserved communities around the FCT, to career opportunities within Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) fields. We also want to show the students the safe and acceptable ways they can navigate and use ever-evolving technologies.
Our modules, Basics of Online Security (BOSE) and Career Opportunities in Tech (COT) are delivered in 90-minute fun, interactive sessions with games, and questions and answers.
So far, we have visited 6 of the 10 selected schools; JSS Idu-koro, JSS Karmo-Tsoho, JSS Jiwa, JDSS Jiwa, JSS Yimi and JSS DeiDei. The tour has been a very exciting and eye-opening experience for us at TechHer. It has been quite a thrill to see the children go from knowing almost nothing about technology and online safety and engagement to being able to speak confidently on the fundamentals of these subjects!
At every school, one of the first things we ask the children is what they wanted to be when they grow up. Normal responses range from doctors to lawyers and a few other careers in between. To our surprise, out of over 379 students, only two have indicated interest in careers in STEM fields! Our COT module was designed to show them the opportunities that exist in these fields and we were very happy to see that a majority of them (59%) said they were now interested in studying careers in STEM fields after we had delivered the module!
Another point of interest for us is the children’s access and use of technology and the Internet. There was very little access to technology and even less online access among the students, many did not even know what the term ‘online’ meant! We found this a bit surprising because most of the schools had a computer club or some version of it. Although some of the terms in our BOSE module were completely new to them, we were very excited that the students were equipped with the basics of how to stay safe and protect their information online before the time came.
The school tour resumes next year with 4 more schools left to visit. We are really looking forward to interacting with the children!
You can see more pictures from the tour here.
In partnership with HeirWoman, TechHer hosted a self-defence class for women and girls which held at Jabi Lake Park on the 23rd of November, 2019.
Both organisations thought it pertinent and urgent even, to teach women practical ways to protect themselves, especially considering the rising cases of violence and harassment against women in Nigeria and the world at large.
We had instructors from the acclaimed BodyRox Fitness Studio in Abuja teach us how to thwart attacks and deter would-be attackers.
We had a great time and the women went away with their self-confidence boosted and each participant went away with a free can of pepper spray!
The third edition of Coffee and Circumvention was our liveliest one yet! Maybe it had something to do with the fact that we actually had coffee this time? I dunno, but it was such incredible fun!
TechHer’s Mya Agu kicked things off with brief introductions and a shout out to our co-collaborator Kim’s Coffee, represented at the event by the lovely Sainaan.
Things were off to a great start as the participants gave varying, mostly humorous answers to the question of what they considered trolling to be. We had some people who considered receiving hurtful comments or having an opinion or belief attacked online to be trolling. Mya, who led the conversation, cleared the confusion by giving out one the most popularly accepted definitions of trolling, “Trolling is defined as creating discord on the internet by starting quarrels or upsetting people by posting inflammatory or off topic messages in on online community. Basically, a social media troll is some who purposely says something in order to get a rise out of other uses.”
The conversation only got more interesting from there! There were varying opinions on how to deal with trolls, whether to engage or just ignore them (on this, a lot of people suggested that the block button on Social Media was made specifically for this purpose!)
The discussions got even more animated when Mya posed the question as to whether there was anything as ‘good’ trolling or it was all bad. The room was divided on this front – some people considered all trolling to be bad while others said some people deserved to be trolled for the kind of things they post online. At some point in the discussions, someone suggested that trolls were sometimes necessary online as they kept things interesting.
The most recurrent question of the evening was - how exactly do you deal with trolls? Although they were a LOT of different answers and opinions, everybody agreed that it was important to protect yourself and your space online, whether it meant blocking offensive accounts, ignoring trolls or responding to them graciously. Everybody also agreed that responding with humor, if you can, was one of the best ways to counter trolls!
All in all, this was our best C&C yet and that could not have been possible without the valuable, insightful and humorous contributions of our participants!
Needless to say, we are eagerly looking forward to the next one!
The second edition of Coffee & Circumvention held at the Aiivon Hub, Wuse 2, Abuja and had 22 people in attendance. TechHer hosted the meeting with support from ACSIS Nigeria.
The event was moderated by Techher’s Soniya Dawarga who welcomed the participants, gave brief introductions and stated the objectives of the meet up. Soniya opened up discussions with a question on what the participants thought the purpose of Social Media was. Audience responses ranged from networking to leisure to knowledge building. We had a few people who said ‘stalking people’ was the main purpose of Social Media!
Mr. Samaila Bako, a cyber-security awareness trainer and a member of the Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria, who was the lead speaker, spoke on the dangers and etiquette of using Social Media and some preventive measures we could apply to protect ourselves on Social Media platforms. He also talked about the necessity of protecting your space online which sparked up lively conversations on the ideas of blocking, muting and reporting accounts and handles on Social Media. Samaila emphasized the need for respecting people’s privacy online, the most important of which was receiving consent to post other people’s information online, even if it is just a photo.
There was quite a bit of discussion over the issue of online scams and fraud - why they are so prevalent online in Nigeria and why so many people fall victim to them. On that, Samaila noted that online scams and frauds almost always had insiders from the organizations involved and that because they were no defined laws or penalties to curb online fraud and scams, Nigerian organizations, especially commercial banks, were lax in addressing the issue, which made them culpable. He advised a measure of caution and investigation before conducting transactions online, no matter how legitimate the parties involved seemed.
Soniya rounded up the meet up by thanking the attendees and extending an invitation for collaborations on themes, hosting and speakers for subsequent C&C meetings.
The discussions were brought to a close at 6:50 pm. The participants carried on quite a bit of networking as snacks, drinks and gifts were passed around. The event rounded up at 7:00pm.
You can see more photographs from the event here.
The first edition of Coffee & Circumvention which was held at the Aiivon Hub, Wuse 2, Abuja, had 20 people in attendance.
The event commenced at 5:15 pm and was hosted by Techher’s Myima Agu and Soniya Dawarga. After the welcoming of guests, brief introductions and stating of the objectives of the meet up by the TechHer team, the lead speaker for the event, Mr Boye Adegoke from Paradigm Initiative, came up to give a few insights and answer a few questions on the theme of the meeting, Digital Security. Mr Adegoke spoke succinctly on a number of critical issues around digital security including ways we endanger ourselves online, how we can protect ourselves and what steps the government and citizens need to take to ensure the protection of our online rights, privacy and data.
Mr Adegoke’s session was followed by a lively, enlightening discussion on a range of issues from the balance between convenience, security and regulation when making payments online to the ways negligence and carelessness are the major reasons why people fall victim to online fraud and scams and how to prevent those. We also briefly touched on the role of the government in securing the data of citizens, making reference to the Data and Privacy Bill which Mr President declined assent to last year.
Lara Raji of ClueNG briefly discussed with the participants on the need for safety regulations and settings for minors using the internet.
Chioma Agwuegbo rounded up the meet up with a thank you to participants and an invitation for collaborations on themes, hosting and speakers for subsequent events.
The meet-up ended at 6:20 pm after snacks, drinks and presents for the early comers were passed around.
On the 27th of November 2015, TechHer, a community of women working in an around technology organized its first ever Web Development class.
The class was in response to the needs of its budding community on ways their lives and business processes could be enhanced or further enabled by technology. Thirty-five women registered for the event.
Chioma Agwuegbo, Founder of TechHer talked briefly through blogging guides and sustainability and then the facilitators of the class, Adedamilola Olawale (Sprout Consulting) and Dimgba Kalu (Learn Code), gave an overview of web management and development.
WhoGoHost, Nigeria’s premier hosting and domain reseller, who gave 10 domains and hosting plans for a year as a gift to the women. A raffle was held to determine the winners of the domains and hosting plan, and the women have since registered their sites.
Printivo, ace digital printers supported the event, designing and delivered TechHer’s roll-up banner.
TechHer is also grateful to Enspire Incubator for the arm of fellowship extended in the use of their premises for all our events.
The class continued on Friday the 4th of December 2015 and focused on installing WordPress on sites, web design, and population.
The Nigeria Innovation and Information Technology Expo (NIITEX) was borne out of the desire to celebrate technological advancement and innovation in Nigeria as well as create a platform for Nigerian businesses to market and potentially export Nigerian innovations to other parts of the world.
NIITEX launched its debut edition with a was a 3-day Tech Expo that started on the 11th of April 2016, at Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton Hotel Abuja.
Participants registered were in excess of 150, and there was a keynote address from the H.E the Deputy Governor of Jigawa State.
Mr Bankole Oloruntoba from Enspire Incubator discussed issues related to Tech/start-up Ecosystem, on the role of communication and connectivity in National Development. Alhaji Yusuf Kazaure of Galaxy Backbone Limited also spoke in details about the broadband and accessibility in Nigeria.
Several panels were convened featuring speakers cutting across Agriculture, ICT, E-commerce etc. to share experiences, industry insights, and interact with participants present. Some of them included Ugonna Uwaeze of Nkata.com; Uche Dim, founder of Fill Ya Tank; Jaheil, Founder of Hello Tractor; Dimgba Kalu, Co-founder of Projaro, Dayo Kolewo of Chowhub, Angel Adelaja of Fresh Direct, and a host of others.
TechHer’s participation at the event both as a partner and session facilitator was made possible by the kind support of the Intel She Will Connect programme, and catered to the branded items distributed to participants at the event.
TechHer hosted a Masterclass Session on Digital marketing and Cybersecurity facilitated by Anna Egbagbe and Azeernah Mohammed. At the end of the day one event, TechHer gave out gift packs to all attendees. The gift items included TechHer branded T-shirts, TechHer customized Pens, and a book titled ‘Nameless’.
TechHer’s sessions enabled participants to
