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.
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.
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.
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.
Janet Shufor Fofang is from Cameroon. She is a social entrepreneur, educator, technologist and speaker. Janet has been teaching electrical engineering for over 15 years at the College D’enseignement Technique Industriel et Commercial. Janet is a certified mentor with mentoring standards and coach supporting the ground work to increase more women and girls in STEM.
She adopts a mission to create and sustain social value. She aims to pursue suitable solutions to social problems and draw upon appropriate thinking in both the business and nonprofit world. She has recipient of notable awards and also sit on the advisory board member and member of :
The leadership council for Women Enhancing Technology Africa (WETECH Africa)
Managing director Girls in Technology Cameroon
Member of Techwomen
She participates in numerous talks and panels emphasizing the ground-work needed for getting women and girls involved in Information Communication Technology for Development (ICTD)
She won the A. Richard Newton Educator ABIE Award that recognizes educators who develop innovative teaching practices and approaches that attract girls and women in STEM.
Her Work:
She established a private K-12 school in Yaoundé; the capital City of Cameroon. K-12 School is an educational model that provides quality education through the use of technology. She actively demonstrates her dedication to youth education and strong support for girls. She has 60 percent of females enrolled in her school. She is extremely passionate about the outcome of her students.
She builds and teaches solar photovoltaics so children can learn about the benefits of clean energy to the environment.
In 2007, she Co-founded Tassah academy, which birthed Girls in Tech (GIT). GIT is a global non-profit organisation focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of girls and women who are passionate about technology. Their aim is to accelerate the growth of innovative women who are getting into the high-tech industry and building successful startups.
In 2014, she started “STEM box” and “STEM Your School” projects to increase the numbers of women in technology in Cameroon. This vision is to give them more decision-making power in STEM.
Why TechHer Loves Her:
She is extremely passionate about the outcome of her students and envisions developing schools that are affordable for all students. These schools are to set high standards of academic achievement as model for education development in West Africa.
Information gleaned from the Internet.
Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, was born on the 22nd of March 1975. She is a social entrepreneur with experience spanned over 20 years in International development and business management. In 2002, she founded LEAP Africa on the premises that Africa desperately needs a new generation of visionary, ethical, creative, and disciplined servants. These small group of people who share the same vision could work together to change the world. She is also the co-founder of ACCE food processing and distribution company founded in Nigeria.
In May 1995, at the age of 20, Nwuneli graduated from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with an Honors in Multinational and Strategic Management. She also bagged her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1997 at 24.
Mrs. Nwuneli has been recognized with several academic such as:
A recipient of the Albert A. Berg Scholarship.
A member of the Friars and the Onyx Senior Societies for her outstanding leadership efforts.
Recipient of both the Harvey Fellowship and the National Black MBA Association Graduate Scholarship.
Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
National Honor – Member of the Federal Republic from the Nigerian Government.
Listed as one of the 20 Youngest Power African Women by Forbes.
She serves on numerous local and international boards including the Board of Nestle Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Cornerstone Insurance Plc, AACE Foods, LEAP Africa and Royal DSM's Sustainability Board.
Her Work:
Nwuneli's career began in the summer of her junior year at The University of Pennsylvania when she held a Summer Business Analyst position with Mckinsey and Company in New York.
In 1995, she was offered a full-time position at McKinsey as a Business Analyst working out of Chicago, Illinois. She also worked for McKinsey office in Johannesburg, South Africa .
Notably, her work with McKinsey in 1997 led to the management and training of police officers across 25 South African Police Service Stations. There was also an increase in criminal convictions and a reduction in crime rates.
In the summer of 1998, she accepted a position as the Lead Consultant with a non-profit called The Center for Middle East Competitive Strategy. She consulted with Palestinian and Israeli businesses and made recommendations for decreasing transaction costs and increasing trade across the region.
In the summer of 1999, Nwuneli worked as the Lead Consultant for The Ford Foundation on a project focusing on Nigeria's largest micro credit institutions; COWAN and FADU.
In 2000, less than a year after graduating from HBS, she resigned from her position at McKinsey and returned to Nigeria to serve as the pioneer Executive Director for the FATE Foundation. FATE Foundation is a nonprofit organization that strives to promote wealth creation and encourage entrepreneurship in Nigeria. With a specific enthusiasm for engaging female entrepreneurs, she explains to the HBS African America Alumni Association in an interview: "Nigeria has some of the most entrepreneurial people in the world but access to financing, networks, and growth remain a challenge. She believes that empowering women to start and grow their businesses is critical to Nigeria's development, but educating women is the real silver bullet."
In 2002, Nwuneli founded two nonprofits, LEAP (Leadership, Effectiveness, Accountability, Professionalism) Africa and Ndu Ike Akunuba (NIA), Igbo words which translate in English to Life, Strength, and Wealth. NIA's focus is on female empowerment—inspiring university students in Southeastern Nigeria to live full and meaningful lives.
As a representative of LEAP, Ndidi has been invited to speak at the United Nation’s Commission for Social Development, the World Economic Forum and the Clinton Global Initiative.
Since it was founded LEAP has worked in partnership with the Ford Foundation, Citi Foundation, World Bank, United States Government, United Kingdom Foreign & Commonwealth Office, ALI (Aspen Institute's Africa Leadership Initiative), Nokia, and the International Youth Foundation.
Why TechHer Loves Her
Mrs. Ndidi is helping the Agriculture sector in Nigeria rethink its way of feeding itself. She is an inspiration to aspiring female entrepreneurs in Nigeria to achieve their highest potential.
Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor is a Nigerian technology expert and entrepreneur who is currently serving as Google's Country Manager in Nigeria. In August 2011, she was listed in Forbes "20 Youngest Power Women in Africa". Mrs. Ehimuan completed her B.Eng. degree in Computer Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State with a first-class honors.
She proceeded to obtain a postgraduate degree in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. Juliet has an MBA in strategy, entrepreneurship and organisational behavior from London Business School. Ehimuan's contributions to technology and entrepreneurship has won her several awards and recognition:
Her Work:
Her career path in technology started in 1995 as a Performance Monitoring and Quality Assurance Supervisor at the Shell Petroleum Development Company until 1997 when she left the firm.
She then joined Microsoft UK as a Program Manager and worked for 6 years overseeing projects for MSN subsidiaries in Europe, Middle East, and Africa. She was also a Business Process Manager for MSN International.
Upon leaving Microsoft in 2005, she started a firm called Strategic Insight Consulting Ltd. Strategic Insight was focused on providing collaborative programmes that connect African Business leaders and Professionals with their global counterparts. She later became the General Manager of Chams Plc's Strategic Business Units.
In April 2011, she was appointed Google’s Country Manager for Nigeria. She is responsible for leading series of innovative products and services aimed at building the online ecosystem in Nigeria through a three-pronged strategy. These include – (1) driving initiatives around Internet access to make the internet more available and affordable to the Nigerian user (2) facilitating local content development and (3) building capacity.
Under Juliet’s leadership, Google Nigeria launched a nationwide program called Get Nigerian Businesses Online. The program provides free and easy tools that any business owner could use to create a website in a couple of hours, and also get listed on Google Maps. Google Nigeria currently runs a Digital Business Manager (DBM) programme. This programme leverages Google’s third-party model to grow the digital ecosystem by supporting businesses in their online journey.
Why TechHer Loves Her
As a woman in technology herself, Mrs. Chiazor believes there is room for women to do more in the Nigerian tech space. She believes women can benefit from more support, knowledge sharing communities and access to resources. Remember, #TechHer is also hinged on learning, support and collaboration.
Hilda Moraa is a Kenyan with a B.Sc. in Business Information Technology from Strathmore University. She obtained a Masters in Entrepreneurship from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Kenya.
By research, Hilda published and wrote numerous research papers and journals on the thematic focus of ICT, development and entrepreneurship. She is also the author of “A Kenyan Startup Journey”. She became a millionaire at 26.
Hilda is a co-founder at WezaTele Limited, a leading provider of innovative and mobile solutions in the supply chain, distribution and financial solutions in Kenya. Miss Moraa has over 5 years’ experience in technology, market research, entrepreneurship, and distribution of FMCGs in emerging markets in Kenya.
These are Moraa's awards:
Her Work
From May 2009-September 2010, she worked as a Master Data Analyst for Coca-Cola; a global beverage and distribution company. She saw the challenges they faced within their distribution systems and decided to develop an ordering solution prototype as her final year project.
In October 2010, she dedicated her time to training and mentoring the Keri Residents. These were students from Strathmore University looking for advice and guidance in IT, programming skills and basic IT management skills to allow them innovate and grow viable businesses.
In January 2012, she founded AfriHive; a content hub and one stop shop for co-working spaces across Africa to access useful resources, services and lesson as to remain sustainable in the long run.
She was the Strategist and Senior ICT Researcher for iHub Nairobi from August 2011-December 2013. At iHub; a local innovation hub for the technology community, the 22-year-old Hilda met Sam Kitonyi and Newton. Hilda, Sam and Newton founded WezaTele Limited.
WezaTele started by building mobility solutions for commerce, supply chain, distribution, and mobile payment integration. Their first product; My order Enterprise solution; is a mobile customized solution that facilitates supply chain, circulation and distribution visibility. Hilda’s team grew from just two people to a full organization of over ten employees.
In 2013, Weza Tele won the IBM global smart camp competition at the Tech4Africa conference. By 2014, Weza Tele had worked with several SME’s in many countries including Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Miss Moraa started sharing her opinions, facts and experiences in the tech entrepreneurship ecosystem through Vc4Africa network.
Hilda founded a Kenya tech entrepreneurship network called Kenya Tech Entrepreneurship Virtual Network in July 2015. The network stemmed from the need of sharing local startup experience, knowledge and lessons to ensuring the young people are building scalable and valuable startups. These of course are to impact positively with return on investments. Since July, the network has grown with more than 100 tech start-ups in Kenya.
In June 2015, she became a consultant at FinTech; she worked with SME’s and startups on challenging opportunities in the Innovation and Fintech sector.
Miss Mora started running a peer mentorship series with iBizAfrica in April 2016. She shared her experiences, lessons and support to incubatees among other young upcoming/early stage entrepreneurs. She did this to encourage, empower and support in growing their ideas and businesses in the right direction from an early stage.
Presently, she works as the Managing Director/Business and Product Development Officer for PesaZatu which means “our money” in Swahilli. PesaZatu is a leading peer to peer/mobile lending market place in Kenya and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Why TechHer Loves Her
She is a problem solver, her entrepreneurial passion and drive is ignited every day due to the failures and successes she has encountered. Miss Moraa is an achiever and an extraordinaire who believes now is an incredible time for us young people to shine and do amazing things to impact our society/community.
Information gleaned from the Internet.
Maureen Agena, she is from Kampala, Uganda in East Africa. She is a News media enthusiast, trainer, youth activist and a trained citizen Journalist. She currently works as a program Manager at Text to Change - a Mobile for Development company. Prior to this, she worked at Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) for 3 years as an Information & Communications Officer. She holds a B.Sc. in Information Technology & M.Sc. in Information Systems. Maureen was recipient of Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship and an ARDYIS 2010 East African award winner. She is passionate about ICT4D, mobile technology and gender issues in technology.
Maureen Agena is an ICT for Agriculture technical consultant in Uganda Agricultural practice. She is working to contribute to the transformation of the agricultural sector and youth engagement in agriculture through a Hack-a-thon program.
Miss Ayena is a board member of AYINET, which was nominated for the 2015 Nobel Peace prize.
She is also a co-founder of GirlGeekKampala.
Her work:
Agena has worked as an independent ICT for Development consultant, trainer and researcher for over 7 years. She has consulted in the thematic areas of Agriculture, Health, education and communication. She has extensive consulting experience with both Government and private sector. Maureen loves hiking, game drives, swimming and travelling. She also runs a blog called Dignityinpoverty.
She has worked in online communications in the World Bank’s Kenya country office. She helped with marketing the social networking tools, blogging, research and conceptualization of content.
In 2009, she actively engaged in citizen journalism for Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) at the annual Digital Citizen Indaba in South Africa. DCI is a platform for citizens trying to empower themselves and their community through the use of new media technologies. It covers a broad spectrum including: blogging, podcasting, vodcasting (delivering video on demand via podcast), mobile journalism, citizen reporting, new media practitioners, online industry experts and civil society representatives.
Apart from her full time work, she is a part time online communications consultant with UNFPA Uganda and she is involved in many Tech innovations in Kampala.
She started getting this passion when she joined women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) in 2008 just right after her first degree. She engaged in several training such as Gender and counseling, citizen journalism and several others. While at WOUGNET, she learnt that women face a lot of challenges when trying to use, access and apply technology in their work. This is usually because of constraints like limited skills, restrictions to their mobility and their inability to afford these ICT tools and service. All these led to her study of ICT.
Why TechHer Loves Her:
Maureen has used ICT actively to empower rural women in the agricultural sector of the northern part of Uganda and impacting positively on so many lives.
