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.
Kehinde Oni is a world class full stacker developer and computer programmer with exceptional skill in JavaScript and Ruby on Rails. Her resume includes work with some of the biggest tech companies in the world, including Microsoft and Atlas.
She is a graduate of the University of Ilorin with a degree in Mathematics.
In 2010, Kehinde was an Exchange Programme Intern at AIESEC Ghana where she volunteered for a period of 1 month. She was part of a team that organized a workshop themed, "Project YES (Young Entrepreneurs)" was aimed at empowering undergraduates in tertiary institutions.
In April 2015, she worked with other team members to develop a Civic Graph, an open source, crowdsourced knowledge base and data visualization project. It aims to map the civic tech community players and connections -- their types, locations and levels of influence in an interactive, intuitive, and modern way.
In July 2015, she worked on a project called Executer. Executer is a mobile App that uses scheduled information from your Google Calendar to figure out where you are and where you need to be at any point in time. It then helps you to schedule an Uber pick up with enough time for you to make it to your next appointment just in time.
From August 2015-Dec 2016, Kehinde served as the Vice President for SheLovesCode. SheLovesCode is an initiative of the female developers working at Andela. It was born out of the apparent gender gap in Andela and the tech world generally.
She is a member of AIESEC. Kehinde eagerly desires to launch her start up with the intent to empower Nigerian children to follow career paths of their own choosing.
She currently works as a Software Developer at Andela.
Why TechHer Loves Her:
Kehinde is smart, intelligent and self- motivated. Thriving in technology can sometimes be a bit difficult for women in Africa but she has made a name for herself in the tech space.
Aisha Bello is a systems engineer, tech enthusiast and acclaimed ‘Pythonista’ with a passion to help other girls utilize the immense, unexploited opportunities in Technology.
She is a member of Pyladies, an international mentorship group which focuses on helping more women become active participants in the Python open-source community. She is also an organizer for DjangoGirls in Africa. Django Girl is a non-profit organization that empowers and helps women by organizing free, one-day programming workshops by providing tools, resources and support. She has helped co-organize and support a number of Django Girls workshops in Namibia and Nigeria.
She also serves as vice-chair for the Python Nigeria community. She is enthusiastic about the Python community and has a strong desire for social change, women’s tech education and empowerment in Africa.
She is a graduate of Bells University of Technology, after which she furthered her education in Information Technology from Cardiff Metropolitan University. She is a certified Cisco Networking Associate.
Miss Bello worked as a Software Development Intern from February 2012 - August 2012 at CBC EMEA. While working with them, she validated data to ensure the quality, validity and accuracy of content and worked extensively with development teams, investigating and correcting software bugs and deficiencies based on the testing results.
Between June 2014 and Jan 2015, she worked as a Technical sales representative at Complete Digital Limited in Lagos where she proffered recovery solutions and enterprise wireless networks solutions to partners and vendors. She also designed, supervised, monitored and gathered technical content for the company’s e-Commerce Website.
In 2015, she volunteered with Djangogirls and organized Django Girls Windhoek and Django Girls Lagos in 2016.
Aisha has received several honors and awards including the 2016 Malcolm Tredinnick Memorial Prize from Django Software Foundation.
Aisha currently works with Cisco as an Associate System Engineer with the responsibilities of covering routing and switching. She also provides pre-sales technical support for Cisco Sales teams and partners.
Why TechHerLoves Her:
Aisha’s vibrancy and enthusiasm are highly contagious! She has contributed greatly to the tech community by giving back to other women who are trying to get a foot in the Tech space. Well done Aisha!
Damilola Solesi is the founder, CEO and creative director of SMIDS, Nigeria’s foremost animation studio.
She has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Bowen University, Nigeria. She studied business and entrepreneurship at Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta and holds a certificate in entrepreneurial management from the Enterprise Development Centre of the Pan-Atlantic University.
Following her lifelong dream to create animations and cartoons, Damilola started SMIDS animation studios in 2010, a company that focuses on developing creative content for kids and family entertainment meant for audiences around the world. At SMIDS, she leads a team of artists and animators who create 3D computer animation, 3D content production, motion graphics and visual effects. The company has been ranked as one of the top two animation companies in Nigeria by the PWC (Price Water Coopers) industry report.
Damilola is the recipient of many awards and grants. She is a Goldman Sachs Scholar, a mentee on the IBM Women Enterprise Challenge, a recipient of the Empowering Women series award and one of the 1,200 exceptional women who won the federal government Youth enterprise with Innovation (YouWin) grants for young entrepreneurs in the second run of the program.
In 2015, she was accepted as one of the Mandela Washington fellow under the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), the flagship program of President Barack Obama.
Damilola strongly supports and promotes women’s interest in technology. She is the co-founder of Women R.I.S.E, a platform where women are inspired to expand their interests in technology through collaboration, networking, training, mentorship, and funding to help them play a stronger role in growing the technology startup scene in Nigeria and Africa.
In 2017, her company released an animated comedy, sketch-based, short form, web series called BOXED in response to the lack of animated children’s content in Nigeria.
Why TechHer Loves Her:
Damilola is a great example of what is possible when one follows their dreams and passion. She stayed true to a dream she had as a child and not only did she create a profitble business out of it, she has made a name for herself!
Ethel Delali Cofie has been named as one of the Top 5 women impacting IT in Africa for very good reason. A high caliber IT professional, technology expert and entrepreneur with a wealth of knowledge and a work portfolio that spans 3 continents, Ethel is one of the most accomplished people in technology and innovation in Africa.
She is CEO and founder of Edel Technology Consulting, an IT consulting and digital products company based in Ghana with presence in West Africa and Europe and which was recently named IT Consulting Firm of the year by the Telecoms and IT Industry.
She has a B.Sc. in Computer Science from Valley View University Ghana and a Master’s Degree in Distributed Systems from the University of Brighton. She also holds a certificate in Executive Leadership, Business and Entrepreneurship from the Yale School of Management (Yale University).
Ethel has a wealth of technical and commercial skills acquired across a wide range of demanding roles. She has worked as a systems developer/analyst at the International Institute for Information Technology and had a brief stint at Telegenuk, Brighton as a developer and junior database administrator. She worked as a web application developer at Click with Technology also in Brighton where she worked with a team to develop usable and accessible web applications. She was the business/systems analyst at RDF Group where she prepared functional design specifications. From February 2010-August 2010, Ethel worked as technology analyst at Grameen Foundation and from September 2010-December 2010, she assumed the role of technical lead with the Ford Foundation Nigeria; an electoral reporting platform. Ethel was responsible for analyzing and documenting requirements for the platform. She was the country programs manager contract of Aksa Management (Ghana County Office) and she has also worked as the IT business analyst and development consultant of DreamPerfect Solutions, Sierra-Leone. Ethel was also the CRM business delivery manager at Vodafone Ghana where she later became the Head of Commercial IT Solutions.
Ethel is one of the foremost voices in empowering women in tech and through tech in Africa. She is the founder of Women in Tech Africa, currently Africa’s largest women in tech group with members in over 30 Africa countries and in the diaspora and growing. She is also the initiator of the 1st Pan African woman in tech meet up and was shortlisted for the UN GEM Tech Award for work supporting women in ICT. She is also the creator of women in tech week, a global event first held in 2016 to bring together women in technology. The first events brought together over 10,000 women virtually with physical events in Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Canada, Germany, Belgium and China.
She is Mandela Fellow for President Obama's Young African Leaders initiative (YALI) and has consulted for the World Bank. She was shortlisted for the UN GEMTech Awards in 2014 alongside her numerous awards and recognition, including the Africa Woman of Influence in Business: ICT Category and Africa's Leading Women in IT.
Her thoughts and opinions on innovation and technology in emerging markets have been featured in prestigious publications like Wired UK, New Africa Woman, European Business Review and Business Africa amongst others and she has been featured on BBC and has had her opinion pieces published on CNN on the topics of technology in emerging markets and women leadership.
Ethel regularly serves in advisory and consulting roles on technology growth in emerging markets and on bringing more women into technology careers across Africa.
She currently sits on the Advisory Board for Ghana’s Vice President, helping to design Digital Strategy for Ghana as well as the Tech Advisory board for the Graca Machel Trust.
Why TechHer Loves Her:
Ethel is a pacesetter for African women. Her vast experience in technology consultancy and entrepreneurial management spurs us to aim higher in our different disciplines. It also teaches us that no ambition is too much for the African woman to achieve.
Ethel once said, “Stop second-guessing and just jump. Remember, the mistakes you make are all part of learning. Therefore instead of over thinking things, just do it; You will figure it out in your own way.”
We at TechHer totally agree!
You cannot talk about influential women in tech in East Africa, or Africa for that matter, without talking about Evelyn Namara. The technologist, social entrepreneur and computer scientist has led multiple technologies for development projects in her native Uganda and has worked in the telecommunications industry, renewable energy sector, mobile payments, as well as tech start-ups.
Evelyn is exceptionally brilliant in strategic planning, project management, ICT4D (Information and Communications Technology for Development), online communication and business development. She is also remarkably knowledgeable in designing human-centered frameworks.
She is the founder and CEO of Vouch Digital, a technology start-up that works with partners to develop technology innovations for national development as well as champions the development of digital solutions in the distribution sector in Africa.
Evelyn holds a Bsc. in Computer Science from Makerere University, a Diploma in Information Technology (Science) from the Uganda Institute of ICT as well as additional trainings in Scalable Internet Services, Scalable Network Infrastructure from the Africa Network Operators Group (AfNOG). She is also a Cisco certified network associate from the Ugandan Institute of Information and Communications Technology.
Under her leadership, Vouch Digital launched its flagship product, The M-Voucher (Mobile Voucher) system, a digital voucher system that is changing the way government and aid organization cash transfers are distributed. The M-Voucher helps eliminate fraud and corruption in the distribution of aid for both government and international aid agencies and organizations, especially with cash based programs. It also simplifies the distribution of aid and has been used by different large development agencies such as MercyCorps, GOAL, among others, to manage the distribution of agricultural products, including seed crops, post-harvest and farming equipment, across Uganda. In 2016, the M-voucher won the World Summit Award in the category of fighting poverty, hunger and disease. The product also won at the 2017 Uganda Communications Commission’s ACIA awards in the ICT for development category.
Evelyn has been widely recognized for her role as a champion for women in tech; she’s been involved with various platforms that make use of technology to empower women. Namara is a founding member of Girl Geek Kampala; a group whose goal is to motivate girls who code to aim higher. In 2006, Evelyn was part of a women’s network that formed the core of LinuxChix Africa. LinuxChix Africa (now defunct) was a network of women in computing across Africa that carried out trainings and programs to empower young girls to take up science courses in school. In 2010, Evelyn joined the Instructor team of AfNOGChix (Africa Network Operators Group) a forum that seeks to increase the participation of women in IT and system administration by providing them with a women – only training environment. Evelyn has also worked as Program Coordinator for Solar Sister, a social enterprise that empowers women with economic opportunity. During her time at Solar Sister, she taught women the technology of solar and helped them start and maintain businesses. She increased Solar Sister’s network of women from 10 to 400. The group was recognized by the Clinton Global Initiative and Newsweek’s Women in the World Summit as an innovative social enterprise. It was also chosen as one of the 40 premier organizations that empower women via the use technology.
Evelyn is passionate about technology and its impact on development, education and social innovation. In October 2012, Evelyn received the Anita Borg Change Agent. The award celebrates 3 women from outside the United States of America who have distinctly used technology to change their environment. Evelyn is the first Ugandan to win this award. She was also honored at the Grace Hopper Conference in Baltimore, Maryland USA. Evelyn is an IDEX Fellow and also an Acumen Fellow since 2013.
Evelyn is currently the Manager, Global SIG & Community Engagement at the Internet Society.
Why TechHer Loves Her: She is an achiever and a resilient woman. Her passion lies in using technology for grassroots development. Her work is testament to the fact that technology can be used to effect much needed change in our different communities.
Evelyn is quoted to have said in an interview, “I was never afraid to do things. I did a lot of things my brothers did and choosing tech was a no brainer. I felt it was an open field; if boys can do it, I too can. I see tech as an enabler.”
We certainly agree!
Moyinoluwa Adeyemi is an app developer, tech enthusiast and blogger from Ogun State, Nigeria. Moyin’s love for technology and her passion to use it to solve problems has led her to create more than 7 mobile apps that provide innovative solutions to a myriad of problems. Her apps have tackled everything from tourism to education to social interactions. She has also worked as a software engineer.
She has a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer science from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife alongside certificates in Oracle and apps development from Udacity.
In 2016, she created an app that tells the time in Yoruba which is available on android platforms. She is currently an android developer at Off.Grid:Electric where she is part of a team working on an app that enables people in Sub-Saharan Africa to have access to clean energy.
Some of the apps she has worked on include Tour9ja, created in 2012. It is an android app that allows tourists/natives in Nigeria to know more about the states in Nigeria. Moyinoluwa was part of the team that created the application. In October 2013, she developed a web application/android mobile app called ‘Efficacy’ at the National Software Competition, where she emerged as the 1st runner up. Efficacy was designed to detect counterfeit drugs in Nigeria. She was also part of the team that developed an educational app called “Kawe” (which means read in Yoruba language). Kawe came in 2nd place at Google ILO.
In November 2013, Moyinoluwa and two of her colleagues, Adeyemi Olaoye and Adegoke Obasa created another app called “Molebi” (meaning family). The app was created with the intent to connect families. The application allows you to add your family members from all social networks and then create a family tree.
Moyin is also very passionate about increasing the visibility of girls and women in technology. She started the first Women Techmakers group in Nigeria at her university in 2013 and she regularly organizes and hosts conferences for the Google Developers Group in Lagos.
She loves learning and sharing her knowledge about technology; she helps young girls get started with programming and she has a blog where she talks about a variety of tech related issues and the latest in tech news.
Moyin is currently a senior andriod developer at ZOLA Electric, a company working on the frontlines to make clean, reliable and affordable energy available to all.
#TechHer loves her because Moyinoluwa is an inspiration to young women thinking about a career in technology. As she always says, “We want more women with laptop bags”. She craves to see more women in technology inventing great and brilliant ideas. She is also proof that hard work pays.
To say that Judith Owigar’s work is revolutionary would be massively understating it. As one of Kenya’s foremost social entrepreneurs, Judith is working on the frontlines to ensure that there is a significant increase in the number of women and girls working and thriving in the tech ecosystem in Africa.
Judith is the co-founder and president of AkiraChix, a social enterprise radically changing the lives of women in East Africa by providing training, mentorship, and outreach programs for women in technology. She and her friends started AkiraChix in response to the challenges and outright bias they faced as women working in the tech space in Africa. They created AkiraChix as a way to provide a space where women could come together and learn from each other. Judith’s work with AkiraChix has been a significant boost for women innovators in Africa. AkiraChix’s vision to ‘nurture generations of women who use technology to develop innovations and solutions for Africa’ has contributed immensely to empowering women in Africa both technologically and financially and has enabled women serve and lead their communities.
Judith Owigar is Kenyan by birth. She attended the University of Nairobi where she graduated with a degree and a master’s degree both in Computer Science.
Judith started her career as a tech support specialist at Turnkey Africa, a Kenya based company that provides solution to insurance and banks in Africa. In April 2008, she moved to Ibid Labs where she worked as a developer. Miss Owigar has also worked with the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention. In 2010, she attended iHUB’S maiden launch (iHUB is an innovation hub for the technology community in Nairobi) and noticed they were only a few ladies in attendance. This prompted her and her friends to co-found AKIRACHIX as a way to increase the ratio of women to men in technology. Programs at the organization are developed to reach young women at different levels including but not restricted to Primary Schools, High Schools and Universities; there are also programs for those working in the technology field and those who wish to have a career in technology.
In 2012, Judith founded Juakali, (which means GET IT DONE in Swahili) an online platform that creates opportunities for low income earners to have a better livelihood. The platform serves as a link between skilled manual workers from Kenya’s informal sector and jobs in construction companies. Through JuaKali, Judith is pioneering an original model to increase employment in Kenya through building the capacities of the informal economy.
Judith has received a number of recognitions and honors for her work, notable among them are the Anita Borg Change Agent award in 2012, the top 40 women under 40 award for women who have made a significant impact on Kenya, economically and socially. She is an East Africa Acumen Fellow and an International Focus Fellow. She was listed as one of 10 African voices to follow on Twitter by CNN. She was a speaker at the renowned Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in 2015 where she shared the stage with Former US President Barack Obama and President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya.
Judith currently serves in Africa WeTech (Women Enhancing Technology) Leadership Council and the St. George’s Primary School Alumni Association.
#TechHer loves Judith Owigar because she is passionate about technology and believes there should be no stereotype in the tech industry. Judith’s work provides an entry point for many women and girls who may want to enter the IT/Tech industry but feel discouraged because of the prevalent male dominance in the industry. We see her as a role model/ mentor to women and girls who want to identify their potential in the tech field. Also, her support for other young women in the field by creating training sessions to empower them with skills like coding, web development and technical skills truly excites us here at TechHer!
With over a decade of experience working in digital technology across multiple industries, Ebi Awatodi, at just 33 years, has had a career many only dream of.
Her areas of expertise include marketing communications, brand strategy, digital /new media, product activation, brand amplification and corporate sponsorships, in addition to working as an engineer, software developer and interactive designer.
Ebi was born in Lagos, Nigeria but spent most of her childhood living in different countries around the world because of her father’s career as a Nigerian Airforce officer.
She studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom and holds a master’s degree in computing around artificial intelligence and visualisation of information from Imperial College, London.
She began her career as what she calls an ‘advent technologist’, working as a software developer for the first five years of her career. She co-founded a business start-up called Connect2Car where her team built a mobile application that allowed people to interface with their cars. After her time with Connect2Car, she worked with a number of agencies which focused on enterprise, website development and mobile platforms. She quickly moved from creating software to leading the teams that made the software. After a series of high profile jobs, Ebi started a job as Head of Corporate Communications as well as Head of Events and Sponsorships for Etisalat, Nigeria. During her time there, she created and executed the idea for the Etisalat Prize for Literature, which rose to become Africa’s most prestigious literary prize. She also created the Etisalat Music platform.
In 2014, Ebi started out with Uber as General Manager for Lagos and grew to become Uber’s General Manager for West Africa. During her time as General Manager of Uber, Lagos, Ebi introduced the inclusion of cash payments for riders in Lagos, a move that was crucial to Uber’s penetration in Nigeria. Under her leadership, Uber Lagos recorded a 10-times growth in the company’s supply within six months, as well as a hundred-fold growth in demand. While she was the General Manager for Uber West Africa, Uber’s business grew from 15 cars on day one to become a top 20 market in the EMEA region, served as a pilot market for various product launches and passed the first ever motion on ridesharing in Africa. She was also the Product Manager, Global Payments Growth for Uber worldwide.
She is currently the Senior Product Manager at Uber worldwide where she leads the Amsterdam Money Product team, ‘a multi-disciplinary team of over 100 product managers, engineers, designers, data scientists and UX researchers making payments more magical for Uber customers globally’.
#TechHer loves her because she is a shining example of the value of passion, ambition and hard work.
Farida Bedwei is a software developer, software engineer and computer scientist. In her over 15 years of working in the development and implementation of mobile and enterprise software, Farida has made her name as one of Africa’s brightest and most successful technological minds. She has developed multiple mobility platforms and content management systems. Farida has also worked in the telecom software industry, developing mobile gateways and services for mobile networks and content providers and is known particularly for her expertise in software architecture.
Farida was born in Lagos, Nigeria to Ghanaian parents and spent her early childhood living between Dominica, Grenada and the U.K until her family moved to Ghana when she was 9 years old. When she was 10, Farida was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, an incurable neurological disorder that affects body movement and muscle coordination.
As a child, Farida developed an interest in computers, an interest her parents noticed and encouraged by enrolling her in a one-year computer course at the St. Michael Information Technology Center when she was only 15, making her one of the youngest students in the class. She holds an IMIS Diploma and a Diploma in E-Technology. She also has a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Hertfordshire, UK and a Project Management Professional Certificate from GIMPA. She is a member of the Ghana Institute of Management.
Throughout her life, Farida has not her disability stand in her way or even slow her down. In 2011, she co-founded Logiciel, a Ghana-based Fintech company that develops banking systems for the microfinance industry and provides technology solutions which promote financial inclusion for the unbanked. She serves as the Chief Technological Officer of Logiciel, where one of her many roles includes evaluating the banking industry and coming up with practical solutions which are easy for people with no formal banking training to use. In 2015, she led the creation and successful implementation of gKudi, a web-based banking software suite for the micro-finance industry which is currently used by 130 micro-finance institutions in Ghana.
Farida is also an author and a disability-rights advocate, and has been featured on many media platforms; notable amongst them is CNN’s African Voices in February 2015. She has also won a number of local and international awards, most recently at the World Youth Forum in 2018 where she was awarded for her remarkable achievements in technology in Africa. Her book, The Definition of a Miracle, is a fictional account of experiences she had as a child growing up with cerebral palsy in Ghana.”
She is also creator Karmzah, the world’s first superheroine with a disability. Farida explained that she created the heroine because "Persons with disabilities are usually portrayed as being feeble and asking for handouts, in the media. I want to change that perception. We have weaknesses and strengths like everybody else and it’s about time the focus moved from what we can’t do to what we CAN do.”
She has been named the most influential woman in business and governance for her work in computerizing the microfinance industry. She currently serves on the Board of the National Communication Authority and Sharecare Ghana (an NGO which raises awareness for persons with autoimmune and neurological conditions).
#TechHer loves her because she is a role model to everyone- male or female, disabled or not. Farida promotes platforms that encourage more women to study technology related courses. She is a member of the Girls in ICT Committee – a group established to encourage more women to pursue IT careers.
Farida is living proof that disability doesn’t mean disadvantage!
