Betty Mwangi graduated in 1990 with a degree in Electrical and electronic engineering from Victoria University of Manchester, UK. She also obtained a Diploma in Marketing, Chartered Institute of Marketing from International College, London, UK in 1993. She also completed her MBA in 2014 from University of Leicester, UK.
From 2007 to 2016, Betty Mwangi has worked as both Chief Officer – New Products and Services Division and currently as the General Manager for Financial Services at Safaricom. Safaricom provides voice, data, financial services and enterprise solutions for a range of subscribers, small businesses and government, using a variety of platforms. They are also the founders of mobile−money juggernaut; M−PESA service. M-PESA was not conceived as a standardized mobile-money service. Instead, it evolved organically on the streets of Kenyan cities and villages. M-PESA has dramatically changed both the global mobile-money market and daily Kenyan life. It has made the streets safer, empowered women and spurred economic development, from deepening the credit market to making long-distance money transfers cheaper and easier for everyone.
M-PESA was only a micromicrofinance project, funded jointly by Vodafone and the British Government. However, M-PESA subscribers started using the service to transfer money between themselves, filling a newly obvious gap in the Kenyan financial services sector. With a user base of more than 15 million subscribers, M−PESA is both raking in revenue and extending financial services to entirely new sectors of the population.
In August 2011, Betty was recognized as one of the TOP 10 African Women in ICT by the ITNewsAfrica.
In December 2011, she was awarded the Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear by President Mwai Kibaki in recognition of her contribution to Kenya’s information, communication and technology (ICT) sector.
In June 2010, Betty was featured by Mobile Communications International (MCI) as one of the top 10 women in mobile globally.
From 2002-2007, she was Chief Marketing Officer at Afsat Communications Limited. She was responsible for developing and managing the distributor network for the iWay business in 26 African countries.
In 2013, she was named one of Africa’s 20 most influential women in technology.
From 2001–2002, She worked at Medex Marketing as the Managing Director, Nairobi. She also has experience in International, Demand Management and Special Projects when she worked with SmithKline Beecham between 1996 and 2001.
From 1993-1996, she was the Manager at Telephones Division of Wilken.
From records, Betty Mwangi-Thuo has over 16 years of experience in the telecommunication industry.
Why we love her
Betty Mwangi-Thuo has been credited with spearheading Safaricom’s globally recognised mobile money transfer service; M-PESA. M-PESA's revenue doubled under Betty's regime as General Manager. They hit Sh 32.63 Billion in march 2015 when compared to year 2012 when they made Sh 16.87. She is definitely smart, innovative and a goal- getter who delivers smart results at every point in time. This is something we value at TechHer.
Oluwayimika Angel Adelaja was born on August 17, 1983 in London, England. She moved to the United States with her parents at the age of 3. She attended Math and Science charter school. She also attended Temple University where she received her Bachelor’s Degree. She has a PhD in Epidemiology from Michigan State University.
At a young age, Angel Adelaja already knew she was meant to make impact on the world through health services.
In a nut shell, we can say that Angel Adelaja is an innovator, a community and change developer who formulates inclusive growth strategies for governments and organizations. She focuses on women and youth empowerment. Angel utilizes grass roots campaigns, technology, and innovation to assist these groups in solving global issues.
She is one of the founding members of the French Speaking Professional Organization. In school, Angel became the first community service chairperson for the Organization of African Students. Her duty as a community service chairperson include to set up events that would become an outreach to the surrounding Philadelphia community in addition to teaching the diverse African cultures. While still an undergraduate, Angel also served as a Resident advisor to new in-coming students.
Her work:
Angel has handled several roles as follows:
From May 2001 – August 2001, she was a Laboratory Intern at the Department of Molecular Neuropsychiatry, National Insitute on Drug Abuse at National Institutes of Health.
She was a Research Assistant and Pre-doctoral Fellow at Michigan State University from August 2006 – December 2007 and September 2007 – December 2010 respectively.
Between June 2013 – October 2014, she was the Special Assistant to the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Poverty Alleviation and National Coordinator of the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP).
From October 2014 – December 2014, Angel was the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Wealth Creation.
In October 2009, She became the President/Co-founder at UNIHIV. UNIHIV is an organization that promotes HIV/AIDS awareness and garners support in the community. The word UNI, meaning ‘ONE’ and the word HIV simulate the fact that we are ‘ONE’ in this cause as we educate and promote the awareness of this disease which affects all races, ages and gender.
In May 2014, She founded Fresh Direct Produce and Agro-Allied Services; an indigenous agricultural production and processing company. The company brings communities and advanced technology together. This is aimed at providing exquisitely grown organic fruits, vegetables, meats and processed end products. The goal is to create pathways to entice other young people into profitable agricultural ventures, empower them with employment and finally strengthen them to also be successful future employers of labor.
Angel is also the co-founder of “We Farm Africa"; a Not For Profit agricultural organization that focuses on collective action to ensuring a better future for Africa through sustainable agriculture.
She was also a Technical Assistant and Research Consultant to the Director General of the Office of Economic Development and Partnership in the Office of the Governor of the State of Osun.
Why we love her:
With a background in epidemiology, Oluwayimika Angel Adelaja has harnessed her skills to help empower youth and women. She also realises the power of technology in achieving so much at a short period of time. She is interested in youth empowerment and ensuring that they become successful future employers of labor. This is something we are excited about.
Thoko Mokgosi Mwantembe was born in Sophiatown, Johannesburg. Her family relocated to Swaziland when she was still very young. She learnt social skills by living in a large family that was not just strictly biological.
Thoko Mokgosi holds a BS from the University of Swaziland and an MS in medical chemistry from Loughborough University of Technology. She has completed a senior executive program at Harvard and a managing corporate resources program from the Institute of Development Management of Swaziland. She also holds a diploma in teaching.
She started working with pharmacological research and did her masters in the UK. She worked in R&D; in the labs where she researched and worked with atoms and molecules. When she moved back to South Africa, she found the work not as challenging as it had been. Thoko Mokgosi decided to take a leap of faith to handle a more challenging position. She applied for the marketing position at Telkom as an 8 months pregnant woman. She got the job. Her successful career path began at Telkom.
Thoko Mokgosi Mwantembe has handled top positions in her career journey. She is the CEO of Hewlett-Packard South Africa. She was also CEO of Alcatel South Africa, divisional managing director at Siemens, and Sales and Marketing director at Lucent. She also holds Senior Executive positions at Telkom.
She is a director at Knorr Bremse SA (Pty) Limited, Absa Group Limited, and Paracon Holdings Limited. She is currently the CEO of Kutana Investment Group. Kutana is a Pan-African investment company focused on delivering significant shareholder value while contributing to the transformation of the economy and society at large. The group has one of her Investment portfolio in Media, Telecoms & IT. She holds a number of non-executive board positions for leading South African companies which include ABSA Bank, Vodacom group, AVENG group, Royal Bafokeng Platinum, Smollen group & Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.
Thoko has received various awards. In 2005, she won the ICT Achiever of the Year Award, the Top ICT Business woman in Africa Award, and ICT Personality of the Year. She is the recipient of the Businesswomen’s Association Businesswoman of the Year Award in the Corporate Category. She is a Fellow of the fifth class of the Africa Leadership Initiative-South Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. She was also a recepient of South African Business Women of the year award in 2007, IT businesswomen of the year and voted 2nd most influential women in Africa for IT, Media and Telecoms.
Why we love her:
Thoko believes that once you have an opportunity, you need to embrace it and work hard. She believes in continuous learning and development; a keyword at TechHer that led to the commencement of Continuous Learning and Development Programme (CLDP) for women. Thoko emphasizes that to be a successful carrer woman, you have to work twice as hard since most industries are dominated by males. This is something we absolutely love about her.
Thoko says: My mission in life is that I need to make a difference in my environment, whether it's at work, at home – wherever.
Darlene was born on the 26th of October. Darlene is a technology innovator and serial entrepreneur. She founded her first software company in 2004. Darlene has firsthand experience in what it takes to start and grow a business. She understands the difficulties entrepreneurs encounter in trying to raise finance and the enormous challenges they have to overcome to establish a successful enterprise. Over the past ten years Darlene has used this experience to develop practical, easy-to-use software tools for small businesses.
She is the vice-chairperson of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and works across business, government and civil society sectors nationally.
Here are some of her Honors & Awards:
2013 World Summit Country Winner (eCommerce and Business)
2012 Women in IT Award (Black IT Forum)
2011 South Africa ICT Person of the Year - Top 5 Finalist
2011 ICT Person of the Year (KZN)
2011 Technology Women in Business Finalist (South Africa)
2010 Innovation Entrepreneur of the Year (South Africa)
2009 Nokia Global Judges Choice Award (Top 10 from 85 Countries and 1700 Systems)
She has also been recognised by Swiss-based STARS Group as a future Global Leader.
Darlene has been recognised internationally by Microsoft, Voices for Innovation and the Trestle Group as a pioneering business leader and social entrepreneur.
Her work:
After 15 years in the corporate world, Darlene Menzies took time out to pursue her own dreams. Spotting a gap in the market for customised, web-based and mobile solutions, she launched The Development House (TDH) and began working with SMEs, non-profit organisations and government to develop IT systems specifically tailored for their needs.
The Development House created SMEasy; a unique Accounting and Business Management solution for the SMME market. SMEasy is specifically designed for people who don’t understand accounting. SMEasy won the World Summit Awards for Best Business and e-Commerce Product in the 2013 . Darlene was successful in raising significant investment for SMEasy from venture capital funders that include 4Di Capital, a Reinet Group and Oppenheimer Sons subsidiary.
She also created Finfind; a one-stop solution for access to finance for small business. Finfind is available via both on the web and mobile. Finfind brings together the providers and seekers of SMME finance with a focus on readying small businesses to access finance. Finfind is the result of a five year research initiative by USAID aimed at addressing the challenge of small business failure.
Darlene is also a radio spokesperson who comments on the SME sector. She is quoted in the national press on matters of entrepreneurship and small business development.
Why we love Her:
Darlene is described by industry colleagues as a conscientious capitalist who believes that business should play a leading role in the fight against poverty in South Africa. She works alongside Government, Business and Civil Society to address youth unemployment and to develop small businesses. Her life motto is “to live an extraordinary life you must resist an ordinary approach”.
At TechHer, we believe that one can be anything they want to be if you put your mind to it. Darlene has absolutely won our hearts.
Maya Horgan Famodu is a Nigerian - American, who is the founder and Ecosystem Architect of Ingressive which is an investment and mentorship platform for African founders. She attended Pomona College after completing the Cornell University Prelaw Program, and worked within the banking sector of JPMorgan Chase. She also conducted extensive emerging market economic research in the Caribbean, Central American, and Sub-Saharan Africa, and West African before starting Ingressive. In her spare time, Maya loves to exercise, ride her motorcycle, and travel. She also dances, choreographs, and regularly contributes to the Huffington Post. She speaks Yoruba and Spanish.
Her Work:
She founded ingressive which provides legal, auditing, financial services to facilitate loans, equity and fund contributions for start up. Ingressive hosts 10,000 entrepreneurs and 2500 Africa- based investors.
At ingressive, they have a semi-annual Tour of Tech trips to the continent where tech investors and successful founders come to meet, mentor, and learn from local ecosystem leaders. The annual Tour of Tech trip for 2016 will take place in Lagos on the 15 – 20 November.
Ms. Horgan-Famodu regularly organizes Influencers Salons around the world, convening Africa's startup elite to do business with global investors and tech companies looking to expand to the continent. Some Influencers Salons clients include Orange Telecom, Andela, and will feature GitHub and New Relic this fall.
In 2013 - 2015, she worked at the Hufftington post as a blogger and was awarded her own column in 2014 by Arianna Hufftington.
Why TechHer Loves Her:
Miss Maya is hardworking and puts the needs of others before hers. She provides a platform for entrepreneurs to meet investors who provide funds for their businesses.
Dr. Nana A. Y. Twum-Danso is a graduate of Biochemical sciences, a senior program officer in the maternal, Newborn, & Child Health Team of the Family health Division in Ghana.
Dr Nana is a public health and preventive medicine physician, who is zealous about finding systematic solutions to complex problems. She has an M.P.H degree in Health Policy & Management at Emory University School Public Health, Atlanta, and an M.D degree at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
Her experience in public health policy, strategy, program design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and research at local, national and global levels has spanned over a period of 15 years.
Her Works:
Presently she is the founder of an organization (MAZA); a social enterprise which makes available affordable and reliable transportation for health emergencies in the local parts of Ghana.
Early this year it was recorded that she also helped in keeping track and developing of restoration of safe essential health services in various health facilities during the Ebola outbreak waned in Liberia. As a medical doctor, her impact was a great deal. MAZA is used as a medium to help the less privileged in Ghana concerning their health and easy access to transportation.
She also :
. • Conceptualized, designed, developed and managed a grant portfolio across the continuum of care from the community to the hospital to improve MNCH outcomes at scale in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Portfolio > US $100 million.
• Led the development and execution of a strategy to apply CQI approaches to improving intrapartum and immediate postpartum care delivery and outcomes across multiple initiatives in the MNCH department.
• Co-led a cross-departmental initiative to address structural barriers to adolescent reproductive health, nutrition and empowerment through evidence generation, strategy development and grant shaping.
• Advised internal colleagues on context-relevant strategies and project designs to better achieve large-scale behavior change and population-level impact including the development of a demand generation strategy for the Integrated Delivery team
In 2015, She was the main team leader that saw to the design, use and supervision of CQi projects in Ghana, Malawi and south Africa that were focused on MNCH and HIV/Aids.
• She led a large-scale CQI project to reduce child mortality in Ghana through systems and process improvements in service delivery for MNCH in partnership with the National Catholic Health Service (NCHS) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the two largest health service delivery agencies of the Ministry of Health (MOH).
• Nana trained, coached and mentored the project’s technical staff, front-line health care providers and their managers and leaders at district and regional levels in CQI methods on an ongoing basis for improved health system performance.
• She built and nurtured strategic and technical relationships with NCHS, GHS, World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other stakeholders in MNCH and quality improvement in Ghana and other African countries.
She has done projects concerning the well are of children across Africa and even outside Africa and so many others.
• Developed and led a start-up initiative to control soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections in young children in Africa, Asia and Latin America through regular mass de-worming, hygiene education and environmental sanitation.
• Established an advisory committee of technical experts from around the world and collaborated with them to design, execute, monitor and improve the program over time.
• Built collaborative relationships with MOHs, Johnson & Johnson, UNICEF, WHO, World Food Programme (WFP), and NGOs to promote and advocate for a broad-based, multi-sectoral approach to STH control.
Also she has engaged in helping the younger generations in school whom are interested in medical careers by advising and coaching them.
She has assisted undergraduate students to yield a good future in Universities such as Harvard College, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Why TechHer Loves Her :
She has made herself outstanding and district through her works and for this we commend her greatly.She has been a coach, adviser and also a mentor to so many people. She has achieved great works and put herself out there. She is a true leader and a strong influencer on many.
Haweya Mohamed was born and raised in Fontainebleau, France. She used to work in very big and attractive companies but always had the urge to do something with Africa. Her last corporate job was in Casablanca. According to Haweya, “Casablanca is a hub and a door into the African continent”
She is the Head of Communications and co-founder of Afrobytes which is the first hub dedicated to African tech in Europe. Haweya advises top executive Business leaders and Influencers. As co-founder of Afrobytes, she uses her expertise to promote Africa brand.
She knows that in Africa, women are at the frontline of education, agriculture, health etc. She believes that they are also the ones able to create successful “problem solving” companies as long as we offer them the opportunity to embrace tech.
Her Work:
She is the co-founder and head of communications in Afrobytes.
She has spoken on the reason why women and Diaspora matter for innovation.
Haweya is a director of AMREF (Association for Medical Research in Africa, the first African public health NGO) France, ambassador and spokesperson of the campaign, 'Stand Up for African Mothers' and Project manager in communication with the National Investment Company to Casablanca.
Why TechHer Loves Her:
She is a powerful woman both physical and mental. She understands that women should be motivated to venture into technology. She fights for women empowerment and advocates for proper health care for women.
Sheila Birgen holds a BA in Public Relations from Daystar University. In 2014, she obtained a certificate in Executive Education Programme and Investing in early-stage growth companies from Graduate school of Business; University of Cape town.
In 2016, she attended the Arizona state university community partnership for social action research where she was certified in empowerment for peace through leadership in Agribusiness and sustainability.
Sheila has held several positions in different organizations listed as follows:
In 2011, she was a Public Relations Assistant at Square gold PR & marketing firm.
Between March 2012- August 2013, she was the Communication & outreach lead at M: Lead Africa.
Between September 2013- March 2014, she became the community lead at M: Lead Africa where she progressed to become the lead in March 2015.
In April 2016, she became the Head of Community at iHub Nairobi.
Her work:
Sheila Birgen is the CEO and Team lead of M: Lab East Africa. M: Lab East Africa is a consortium of four organizations that aim to become the leaders in identifying, nurturing and helping to build sustainable enterprises in the knowledge economy. These organizations are eMobilis, World Wide Web Foundation, University of Nairobi and iHub.
Sheila became a part of M: Lab team because she is passionate about technology and entrepreneurship. In her words, ‘You can’t get any faster than technology’.
Sheila receives support from Africa’s premier mobile start up pitching competition. The support gives her clients a platform to connect with the entrepreneurs in the sub region.
The M: Lab team also organizes sector-specific forums on how to best utilize technology. These forums offer opportunities for developers to tap into on-the-ground challenges in the markets in which they hope to operate.
She has also partnered with Microsoft and Intel on capacity development for developers. These kind of partnership ensures the growth of game developers. It also helps to bring more developers into the market.
Her work with M: Lab has impacted a great deal to different sectors in Nairobi. Here are a few of them:
In Education, Eneza now has over 50,000 users.
In Finance, Kopo Kopo has created jobs in Kenya and has over 40 employees. Kopo Kopo is a company that helps small businesses to use mobile money for their businesses.
In Health, ToTo Health is helping over 30,000 mothers monitor their maternal health and Childs development. Toto health uses SMS technology to help reduce maternal and child mortality.
In Agric, Mfarm is multiplying sales of farmers and increasing income for their families. Mfarm provides up-to-date market prices via an app or SMS direct to farmers ensuring there is Price transparency.
She also provides a platform for a market driven training on different platforms, business incubation and testing lab for apps.
Why TechHer loves her:
Sheila collaborates with partners such as Akirachix to offer internship opportunities to women training from high school. These internship opportunities will lead to an increase in the number of women who apply to Pivot East. Pivot east is East Africa’s premier mobile start ups pitching competition. It is also an M: Lab East initiative.
She is currently seeking for partnership both in the public and non-profit sector because technology offers solutions for many of the challenges they face.
At TechHer, we appreciate women like Sheila who does not let the circumstances in Africa limit them. She consistently thinks of ways to use technology to make a difference. This alone is worth celebrating.
Larisa Bowen-Dodoo is an engineering graduate from the University of Ghana. She is currently a Teaching Assistant at its Biomedical Engineering Department. She is also a mentor for Tech Needs Girls Ghana; a Ghanaian-based organization for young girls who want to grow in the world of technology.
Larisa is a Student Network Coordinator for the Ghana Biomedical Convention; an active NGO in Ghana in close partnership with the Ghana Biomedical Research Network (GBRN) in North America. The NGO is committed to advancing bio-medicine and promoting health in Ghana, the West Africa sub-region, and the continent at large.
Her work:
In 2010, she worked as an engineering intern with Mediwise international company limited.
Between 2012 and 2015, she worked as a Lab intern, a Teaching & research assistant and a Chiropractic examiner with Columbia University, University of Ghana and Chiropractic & wellness centre respectively.
From 2015-2016, she was a product development analyst with Servled Africa.
Servled Africa is a company whose vision is to become the primary hub for growing sustainable African businesses that are socially responsible, operate with integrity and above reproach.
Across the many Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields, a lack of female representation has been noted around the world. Being one of four women in a male-dominated engineering class at the University of Ghana, Larisa Bowen-Dodoo was inspired to create a platform for African women to have a voice. This inspiration lead to the establishment of Levers in Heels (http://leversinheels.com/), which means “Women, Means of Accomplishment,” on 15th January of 2014.
Originally starting out as a blog for Ghanaian women in STEM during Bowen-Dodoo’s time at her national service, it has now been expanded into a website along with a periodic newsletter and later launching the first annual conference. The blog that ran for two years was a space for young women in Ghana and across of Africa to learn of the different women who are present in the various STEM fields. Having inspiration and role models to look up to was and is seen as a way to contribute to the girls and women striving to succeed in STEM. Levers in Heels has interviewed women with all STEM backgrounds. From the ever-confident and Ghanaian renowned Software Engineer Farida Bedwei to Ghana’s first Amphibian Biologist Sandra Owusu-Gyamfi. Women were able to learn of their journeys, what it took to reach their goals and what lies ahead for them in the future. The diversity in the fields and the backgrounds of the women display Bowen-Dodoo’s understanding in the importance of representation in the many fields as just one story may keep the light of inspiration in a budding STEM student going.
Why TechHer loves Her:
Larisa looks forward to a career which links biotechnology to design and to positively impact human lives in huge ways. She would also like to create more platforms to encourage young women to utilize Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to aid in African development and solve social issues. This is the vision behind TechHer; we can't help but love her.
Nanjira Sambuli is a mathematician, new media strategist and technology enthusiast based in Nairobi, Kenya. She's a keen observer on how technology is impacting governance, media and culture. With iHub Research, Nanjira has developed a framework for assessing the viability, verification, and validity of crowd-sourcing information for her projects. One of them is Umati, an online dangerous speech monitoring project currently running in Kenya and Nigeria. Another is a publication on ICT and Governance (Civic Tech Landscape) in East Africa.
Sambuli has worked with organizations such as UNEP, Africans Act 4 Africa, and Global Power Shift, on their pan-African and international new media based campaigns. On the technology front, Nanjira is the editor of Innovative Africa: The new face of Africa tech essays collection.
Her Work: A Woman of many parts
She is presently on of the Board of Trustees of mySociety in London, United Kingdom. They build online technologies that give people the power to get things changed, and we share these technologies so that they can be used anywhere.
She is a Member of the Board at Media Policy Research Centre and also an advisory board member for SUMOFUS.
From January 2016-April 2016, she was the Research Lead iHub Nairobi, overseeing the mandate, and leading a team of talented researchers towards driving local tech research in East Africa.
Between August 2014- April 2016, she was the Network Co-Coordinator for Open and Collaborative Science in Development Network.
At iHub Nairobi she worked on developing a framework for the viability of election-centered on crowd-sourcing, with the 2013 Kenyan general elections as a case study. The report and framework can be found here.
Nanjira also worked on the Umati project, which seeks to identify and understand the use of dangerous speech in the Kenyan online space in order to find and use non-government ways to reduce its effects of violence in Kenya.
From May 2012-July 2012, she consulted for UNEP, on social media usage for World Environment Day 2012 and the Rio+20 Summit.
In September 2011, she worked on setting up and rejuvenating Sandstorm online customer service, online presence/interaction, and digital marketing.
In November 2010, she handled the online presence and communication for Nairobi Kinanda Arts Festival.
Why TechHer Loves Her:
What isn't there to love? Nanjira is a dynamic young woman. She understands the unfolding impact of ICT adoption in governance, entrepreneurship, innovation and societal culture across the African continent.
