About Her:
Ruth Kaveke is a graphics designer and the executive director of Pwani Teknowgalz in Mombasa Kenya. Pwani Teknowgalz is a not for profit organization working to bridge the gender parity for women in technology. The 26 year old has a Bachelors Degree in Information Communication Technology from Technical University of Mombasa.
Ruth is also a web developer and passionate about helping girls to take up STEM related courses. Presently, Miss Kaveke is one of the 2017 Techwomen Emerging leaders.
She is proactive in the Mombasa Girls in STEM project featured by the German Federal ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development in their #eskills4girls videos.
Her Work:
From 2015- 2016, Ruth was the front end developer for Infinte Data Solutions. She designed the company’s website and other website development work.
As an Intern at Crablinks Interactive, she worked on web development project assigned to her.
She has a global Challenge called the Technovation Challenge that encourages girls from around the world in solving a community problem by creating a dedicated mobile application towards those issues.
She has also worked with approximately 300 high school girls from 12 schools and about 140 young women in three universities in Mombasa, Kenya, for three years as a director in STEM programs.
In 2017, she co-organized the Django Girls Mombasa and trained over 40 ladies, most of whom had never programmed before.
She was the former director of M-power Ladies between February 2014-2015
Why TechHer Loves Her:
She is focused on engaging women and girls in the global digital revolution.
About Her
Carolyn Seaman is the founder and creative director of Girls Voices Initiative. She recently emerged the winner of the United State of America based World Pulse’s prize to promote and amplify women’s voices. The 35 year old, is also part of the Techwomen 2017 emerging leaders. Carolyn keeps encouraging and training women and the girl child to tell their stories through digital storytelling through her digital action Campaign. Her current focus is on educational technology.
Her Work:
In 2016, Seaman was the only African to have participated in the World Pulse’s signature training program, voice of our future.
She founded Girls Voices Initiative; a non-profit organization in 2013. Her NGO is focused on the girl child voice, providing a safe place to connect, share and learn from each other.
From 2011 till date Carolyn has been the development consultant for Marksmen Consult in Abuja.
Seaman conducts research and has been working tirelessly to develop documentaries and media content around the subject of gender development.
Between August 2014-Dec 2014, she worked as a Girl specialist consultant in Girl Hub Nigeria. Ms Seaman provided technical support to the development of a robust, safe space strategy and training kit for Girl Hub’s.
In 2014, she volunteered with Intel Corporation by engaging with young women towards helping the organization understand how technology can improve their lives, needs, skills, hopes, and passion.
As a World Pulse Global Community member, Carolyn served as a Volunteer Mentor with the Intel She Will Connect Project that engaged young women (18-25 yrs) on digital technology access. She is currently volunteering in the second phase of the project, which engages young women to further introduce them to the World Pulse Community and mentor them in their journey to digital empowerment.
Why TechHer Loves Her
Carolyn's has saddled herself with the responsibility of teaching girls and women how to use the internet to unify their voices. She is forward-thinking in the use of the internet, video technology and digital technology tools for social development and change, whilst promoting women and girls in STEM.
Information Gleaned from the Internet.
TechHer Meets, a monthly networking event for women, held its debut event in Abuja yesterday the 30th of March, 2017 at 3J’s Hotel, Jabi, Abuja. TechHer Meets was designed to demystify technology, provide a safe, fun space for practical learning and foster economic empowerment by encouraging collaborations. The event seeks to provide an offline component for TechHer’s online activities.
The event featured three speakers; Simi Fajemirokun of ESFAJ and Partners, Stella Uzochuwku – Denis of Odyssey Foundation and Judy Melifonwu from IBM who shared of their experiences working as entrepreneurs, employees, and social enterprise owners. The sessions were interactive and an opportunity for knowledge sharing across a variety of topics.
Attendees won TechHer branded items from the networking competition and there was a table laden with drinks and snacks for everyone to feast on.
The two-hour long event also featured a question and answer session themed security which shared information on data privacy day, two-step verification and acceptable passwords.
The event ended with 14 of the attendees signing up for a free digital marketing class TechHer offered the women as a welcome gift.
TechHer Meets holds on the last Friday of every month. It is an initiative of TechHer, a community of learning, support and collaboration for women working with technology either as the core of their function or as an enabler.
TechHer is online as @TechHer NG on Facebook, Twitter,and Instagram is home at techherng.com and can be reached via 09083041940.
Jemila is the Founder of the award-winning website Circumspecte.com; an online platform dedicated to meaningful insights, interaction and creative action related to Africa and Africans. She is skillful and has vast knowledge in creating content and digital strategy.
Jemila is a graduate of Economics and French from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
She secured her Masters in International Economics and International Affairs from Johns Hopkins SAIS in 2013.
She speaks Arabic, French, and has elementary proficiency in Italian, Twi and Wolof; she loves reading food, film, astronomy and travelling.
In June 2016, she received the African Blogger Awards as Top Business, Finance and Entrepreneurship Blog in Africa.
The 2016 African Blogger Awards sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded Wumpini the Africa Blogger Awards on Top Social Issues and Active Citizenship Blog in Africa.
Blogging Ghana recognized Circumspecte as the best citizen journalism and news in Ghana in March 2013.
Tripbase.com recognized Circumspecte as being one of Ghana’s best travel blogs in March 2011.
Her Work:
Between October 2013- October 2015, she was AfCop Operations Assistant at African Development Bank. She designed and implemented communication and outreach strategy for online community of over 4000 members.
From June 2013 – July 2013, she worked as a Research consultant at World Faiths Development Dialogue in Washington D.C. Metro Area.
Jemila consulted on communications for African Center for Economic Transformation, Accra, Ghana between June 2012 - May 2013.
In May 2012, she worked with Ghana Decides: an election project by BloggingGhana. BloggingGhana is an association of bloggers in Ghana.
Jemima produced and moderated an online discussions geared at incorporating key insights from Ghanaians and Africans into the global sphere on issues related. The online discussion was on Google+ Hangouts in June 2012.
In 2011, Jemila was the Assistant Partner Adviser for Esoko, where she produced & translated monthly partner newsletter in English & French for over 100 subscribers. She also designed and implemented communication strategy for regional conference.
She was part of the team that birthed a series of un (conference) across Ghana called Ghana BarCamps geared at fostering collaboration, innovation and networking among Ghana in July 2009.
She founded Circumspecte in October 2007, a digital platform dedicated to capturing meaningful insights, spurring interaction and inspiring creative action on/for/by African.
As the Regional Program Coordinator for African Women’s Millennium Initiative in Dakar, Senegal, Jemila raised over $250,00 in grants from donors like the Ford Foundation for AWOMI’s programming.
Why TechHer Loves Her.
Jemila is passionate about Africa, and has recognized the influence and role of the media (digital) in shaping and molding developmental issues affecting the continent.
Sylvia Mukasa has done a lot of good work around technology. She is from Kenya, Nairobi and a graduate of Economics from Egerton University. She bagged her M.sc in E-Business from University of East Anglia in 2002.
She is a certified chartered accountant by Kaplan FTC Birmingham.
She also has certificates in Strategic Thinking Skills, VSP-SV(Server Virtualization 5.5 , VSP-NV(Network Virtualization 1.0), VSP - BC (Business Continuity 5.8), VSP 2015VSP - MO (Management Operations 6), VOP-CP (Cloud Provider) ,VSP - CP (Cloud Provider), and VSP 5.5.
Sylvia Mukasa has hands-on experience in various fields but to mention a few: Business Development, Balanced Scorecard & Performance Management, Market Research & Analysis,and Tactical Marketing.
She has bagged several awards and honors such as:
Her Work:
In 2015, she was a delegate for UNESCO who strategized the framework for Transform Africa Summit. The workshop was aimed at empowering and offering young African women entrepreneurs a quality training on how to develop, market and promote mobile Apps.
She served as the regional ambassador for Technovation Kenya; a tech entrepreneurship program and competition for young women in developing mobile Apps
From January 2011 – September 2012, she was the strategic planning manager for the Sub-Saharan Africa Region at Ericsson.
In 2012, she founded Globalx Investments Limited out of her passion to use technology in solving business issues as well as provide solutions with a social impact using ICT and Telecomms. The core business of Globalx is to provide high-end consultancy in technology and telecommunication.
In 2008, she joined FSS/Telecloud (FSS deals with the provision of VOIP and business consulting on VOIP/Interactive Voice Response technologies mainly for SMEs ) as their strategy and business development expert, and worked for a period of 2 years and 4 month.
Sylvia worked in United Kingdom at Nestor Healthcare Group Plc, as the finance and business developer between January 2005 to July 2008.
In 2004, she founded Empire Global Services UK; an organization hinged on providing outsourced services on international VoIP calling cards and termination
Between 2001-2002, she worked as an office administrator at Norwich Union International.
Why TechHer Loves Her:
She is passionate about her beliefs: which is engaging more young people to discover their inherent talents, and focus on what they do best.
Anie (Aniefiok) was born in Eket; the second largest city in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. She grew up in Calabar before moving to the United States at age 10.
Anie Akpe holds a bachelors degree and MBA from Dowling College in Long Island, New York. She is a passionate reader, traveler and bike rider. Anie lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Her Work:
Anie Akpe is a business professional and entrepreneur with more than 15 years experience in the banking industry. She is the Vice-President of Mortgages (currently managing a $700 million portfolio) in a banking institution.
Working in the Financial sector, Anie found it very needful to start IBOM LLC when people kept inquiring from her about their small businesses. Hence, she Founded IBOM LLC.
IBOM LLC focuses on educating Africans in the Diaspora, by providing the best consulting services for their small and medium sized businesses. Anie Akpe provides remarkable and output-oriented services to her clients. She achieves this by linking her global experience and culture as a Nigerian with skills from stellar corporate America leadership.
Anie Akpe is also the Founder of Innov8tive, a subsidiary of IBOM LLC. Innov8tiv is a dynamic Web source for technology news, resources and innovation, with a special focus on the entrepreneurial advances of Africans on the continent as well as in the Diaspora.
In addition, Anie is also the Founder of Networq App. Networq App enables users to create & exchange business cards while networking in real-time. NetWorq app was developed with one thing in mind—one-click connectivity. It helps users to master the art of networking and follow-up. It also provides location and event-tracking information, so one can easily remember when and where each card was gotten. In addition, the app tells users who is nearby using the phone’s GPS. How cool is that?
In recognition of her numerous achievements, Anie Akpe was named one of the African women leading in business by “Black Enterprise” magazine New York.
Why We Love Her:
Anie Akpe understands the crucial role technology plays in our everyday life. She is also one of the leading ladies creating tech-enabled platforms, and advocating for more women-centred careers in STEM.
When asked what keeps her going? Anie Akpe says, "Passion! I can’t do what I don’t like doing. If it involves something I am passionate about, the result is boundless. My creativity has no boundaries, if I have passion for what I’m doing".
We totally agree with Anie. We can all achieve so much when we are passionate about our goals and dreams.
Blessing Ebowe graduated in 2013 from the University of Benin with a degree in Electrical engineering. She loves to watch movies, play Mortal Kombat and be photographed.
Blessing was a Mathematics Tutor during her one year of National Service to her country, Nigeria. She taught students at the Junior and Senior Secondary school level on Mathematics.
She also has various certifications in Front-end java script frameworks, HTML, CSS and JavaScript, real time web with Node.js and The shape of JavaScript. These she obtained from Coursera; an e-learning platform and Code school.
Her Work:
Blessing Ebowe is a Software developer at Andela. Her interests is on utilising the creative power of programming to optimize human efforts in everyday life. Blessing has worked with Ruby on Rails to build web applications, APIs, and command-line gems at Andela. Ruby on Rails is a server-side web application framework written in Ruby programming language.
She has created a web application that helps event organizers to manage promotions, ticket sales, email notifications and website sub-domains for their events, more easily.
She has also worked with the PEAN stack to implement new features on a web application used within Andela. The application helps to record, track, and analyse performance assessments of developers conducted by the developers themselves, their peers, and their trainers.
Blessing Ebowe is currently leading a team at Andela that is contributing to Free Code Camp. The Free Code Camp is an open source project that helps users learn how to code, connect with other developers in their local community, and build technology solutions for non-profits. She is also currently part of The Releaf Group team working as Quality Assurance engineers, ensuring software products are standard.
Blessing Ebowe was among the soft ware developers that Facebook Founder, Mark Zukerberg met during his visit to Nigeria in August 2016. Her discussions with Mark include how she got into Andela, how Andela has improved her not just as a developer but also as an individual and most importantly the challenges of being a software developer in Nigeria.
Why We Love Her:
Blessing believes in the power of focus and consistency. She is a goal getter whose eyes are always on the price. Even though her first application to Andela was unsuccessful, Blessing never gave up until she got the YES.
Every woman should aspire to have same zeal in every space they find themselves. You can't tell what you can achieve when you push to make your dreams come true. Be like Blessing Ebowe.
Yasmin Belo-Osagie was born in Boston United States of America but grew up in Nigeria. Yasmin attended a boarding school in England before graduating from Princeton University USA. She also attended Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and London.
Belo-Osagie is also pursuing a joint JD/MBA from Harvard Law School and Stanford Graduate School of Business. She has worked at McKinsey & Co for 2 years as a consultant where she focused on developing multi-year growth strategies for large organizations. McKinsey & Company is the trusted advisor and counselor to many of the world's most influential businesses and institutions.
Her Work:
In 2013, Yasmin Belo-Osagie cofounded She Leads Africa which has helped to nurture hundreds of aspiring, ambitious female entrepreneurs, with support from companies including Intel, Guaranty Trust Bank, Huawei, and Etisalat. She leads the events and offline programming team. She Leads Africa (SLA) is a women’s social enterprise based in Nigeria that seeks to address challenges women on the continent face in creating, growing, and sustaining their businesses and professional services. SLA provides online platform, offering articles and materials on business advice, which is specifically tailored to entrepreneurship on the continent.
Her vision to see African women excel in their businesses did not just end with cofounding SLA. In 2015, Belo-Osagie took five female entrepreneurs to China to meet with successful women entrepreneurs and China-based investors interested in Africa.
She has also hosted versions of her professional boot camp, the SheHive , in Lagos, Nigeria; Johannesburg, South Africa, and other cities.
In 2016, Yasmin was nominated as one of the Fast Company’s most creative people in business, along with 99 other people. She was chosen because of her role in developing female entrepreneurs.
Why TechHer loves her:
Belo-Osagie's vision is to turn Africa into a digital destination full of career-driven “Motherland Moguls". This is in line with She Leads Africa's vision which is to become the #1 digital destination for smart and ambitious young African women.
Her three key advice which are ensuring that one's to-do lists have deadlines, delegating tasks and having someone who keeps you accountable are major headers in building successful businesses. As tech savy people, we also believe that if these are applied to tech ideas; growth will be inevitable.
Belo-Osagie’s dreams are continent-sized, but with thousands of women in her sphere, we have no doubt she’s going to help women entrepreneurs not just in Africa but globally. We truly support her, why shouldn't we?
TechHer, a community of learning, support, and collaboration for women in technology extended a hand of fellowship to Abuja Technology Village (ATV) via a courtesy call paid to its MD Ms. Hauwa Yabani on Thursday the 8th of December 2016.
Received by the MD and ATV's Business Development Manager Ibrahim Bashir, the delegation from TechHer told the story of the growing community, its vision, and goals, highlighting successes recorded and plans for the coming year. Specifically, TechHer's Continuous Learning and Development Programme (CLDP), several research strands, and the Mothers and Daughters Outreach were presented as potential projects for co-ownership. MD Hauwa Yabani said of the proposed partnership, "TechHer and ATV perfectly align on the creation of a viable platform to encourage women and girls into STEM and then attract them to the ATV."
Mr. Bashir took the team on an extended presentation of the vision for the Abuja Technology Village, changes that have been made to the original development plans, and the sheer enormity of the project designed to be Africa's leading technology and innovation district. The eco-friendly village designed to function without any generating sets will house about 40,000 people and see another 100,000 use the various facilities on-site. Construction is on schedule and will see the first set of structures completed in 2019.
Hauwa Yabani, MD of ATV shared her passion and excitement at the responsibility of leading the team, and about Women Innovation Hub (Winnohub); a specialist conducive atmosphere for women (single, married, employed or not) to congregate and innovate.
Speaking of Enspire Incubator which housed TechHer in its first few months of existence, the MD said, "Enspire was born out of the thought that the heartbeat of any science park is a functional incubator, and fits into our goals of attracting foreign Direct Investment, building local capacity, and encouraging STEM education".
The meeting ended with an agreement to sign a draft MOU containing short and long term goals forthwith, and the presentation of branded TechHer items to management.
Chioma Agwuegbo led TechHer's delegation which also had Programme Officer Onyejekwulum Adii and Researcher Lara Raji.
Abang Mercy was born in Ogoja in 1984, in a neighbouring town to Boki located in Cross river state. She studied at Holy Child Primary School and later proceeded to Holy Child Secondary School, both in Igoli- Ogoja.
Abang Mercy relocated to Abuja with her parents where she continued her secondary school education at Gwarinpa Secondary School, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. She also attended the International Institute of Journalism where she studied Journalism. She obtained a Post-Graduate certificate in Advertising and Public Relations.
Mercy studied Digital Story Telling at the Grimme-Institut in Bonn, Germany. She has also studied Media in Peace Keeping Operations and Elections Observation at the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Center in Accra, Ghana
Abang Mercy is a Nigerian journalist, Environmental consultant and Social media expert. She has gone on several election observation missions on the West African sub-continent. She also runs an interview series, "Conversations with Abang Mercy".
She has worked at Independent Television and Radio, Abuja as a Political correspondent. At ITV Abuja, she worked as a non-linear editor, Presentation director and Producer. One of her programs was a breakfast show, This Morning on ITV.
In the course of her work with Heinrich Boll Foundation, she has done articles and presentations on Nigeria's environmental situation and postulations for the future in several Nigerian cities including Lagos, Abuja and also internationally, in Berlin and London.
She has worked with her fellow African youths and civil societies organisations in lobbying and advocacy with organisations like Oxfam GB Nigeria, West African Civil Society Forum, Heinrich Boell Foundation etc.
Mercy worked as a Media assistant to the former Governor of Cross River State, Governor Donald Duke during his presidential campaigns on the platform of the Donald Duke Campaign Organization.
In 2004, she represented Nigeria alongside other influential Africans lobbying against the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with the European Union and the African and Caribbean Countries (ACP) in Senegal and the Gambia.
In 2014, Mary Abang was a participant of African Union's Third Annual High Level Dialogue on Democracy, Human Rights and Governance in Africa; Trends, Challenges and Prospects that held at Nairobi’s Safari Park.
Mercy Abang played a role during preparations for Nigeria's 2015 elections. In September 2014, Mercy anchored a Lagos meeting with young people where she interviewed Nigeria's Former Vice President and a presidential aspirant in the election, Atiku Abubakar.
In March 2015, Mercy hosted a 2-hour live television town hall meeting with the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr. Attahiru Jega. She was in working company of the international journalist, Kadaria Ahmed of the BBC.
She is also a contributor at top media organisations in Nigeria like YNaija and EcoJournalism . YNaija is an internet newspaper for young Nigerians whereas Ecojournalism helps in easy writing of essays.
Why we love her:
In Mercy Abang's words, "Challenge is not forgetting who you are and what you stand for". She explains that switching roles at specific times has been a challenge but she has overcome that by specifically defining her roles at every point in time.
Mercy is not biased in her opinions and this has landed her on great platforms. We really do admire the great works she is doing here in Nigeria. We hope our girls and women will learn from her.
