The 4th edition of the monthly Coffee & Circumvention (C & C) meet-ups held at the Aiivon Innovation Hub, Abuja on Thursday, January 23rd in collaboration with Clean Technology Hub Innovation Centre (CTH). To put it simply, it was quite a blast.
Tackling the theme: Defining a Sustained Digital Advocacy for Climate Emergency in Nigeria, TechHer’s Peter Akinnusi and Chidinma Ejike of CTH moderated the sessions, laying down a marker for the rest of the evening’s gripping conversations.
Peter gave a brief overview of TechHer’s passion to see technology put to use for honourable causes and shared the idea behind C&C, before Daramfon Bassey took the responsibility of enlightening the audience about CTH. He further encouraged everyone in attendance to take a moment to make new friends. This call worked magic, with strangers bonding and the stage set for the day’s discourse.
As is always the case at C & C, the crowd warmed up pretty quickly to the conversations, engaging in various ways about how digital platforms can be utilized in addressing emerging and imminent environmental crises in Nigeria.
A screening of the short film, Nowhere to Run, which summed up the emerging environmental time bomb that’s ticking globally, highlighted the dire state of things. As with the rest of the world, Nigeria’s coastline and habitat are in the throes of varying degrees of climate actions. These are sure to result in fatal outcomes if left unchecked. The screening left no doubt that at this rate we’ll all soon have nowhere to run to pretty soon.
Climate emergency experiences
Participants invited to share individual experiences regarding climate change. Folahon Johnson, and Bofamene Joseph respectively narrated how their childhood communities have all been affected by destructive human activities which have contributed to degrading the environment. For Folahon, mining activities in his Jos - Plateau State neighbourhood have resulted in erosion, and deep gullies while Bofamene narrated how the vanishing coastlines of her Bayelsa community are a nightmare come to life. Others recalled the earth tremor incidents around the Mpape area of Abuja as another case of climate emergency staring us in the face.
Ify Malo, CEO/Co-founder Clean Technology Hub, noted that the prevailing aggravated temperature around the country is enough signal that things are going out of hand, wondering why the government is hesitant in tackling this issue. Environmental pollution and improper waste management were also identified as other reasons causing problems to the environment and other health related complications.
The role of digital advocacy in Nigeria’s climate emergency
With the government's lethargic attitude towards environmental challenges flagged, the need for citizens to step in becomes critical using digital technology as a means for advocacy.
Participants debated the best approaches toward realising the ambition. They resolved on building a community of advocates, with the mandate of articulating an action plan for digital advocacy. The advocacy, it was agreed, would be approached on both the online and offline fronts. The former was meant to involve creating hashtags, tweetchats, creating engaging content and co-opting celebrities & influencers to join in amongst other content-oriented approaches. For the offline charge, participants agreed that conventional media, volunteers and religious leaders ought to be involved in the campaign.
Going forward
Before winding up, a comprehensive database of climate and clean energy advocates was suggested as a way to arm stakeholders to track progress and support each other in the cause .
The key take-away from the meet-up was the resolution for attitudinal change from participants who also agreed with the suggestion to create a WhatsApp Group dedicated to the purpose of the advocacy.
CTH’s Kolawole and Peter (again) came up to thank everyone for coming out to have such a great conversation, stressing that the opportunity to collaborate was open to all and sundry. The event then rounded up with some networking and of course further indulgence in the refreshment that was available.
Judging from the passion of the contributors, it is safe to say that a climate change army exists. Equally as important, is the excitement to create a bold new world as we look forward to the next edition of C & C.
On the 31st of October, 2019, TechHer commenced on an ambitious tour to train 700 selected students from 10 schools across 4 of the 6 area councils in Abuja.
The tour is in line with two of TechHer’s main pillars which focus on digital literacy and digital security. The main objectives of the tour are to open the students, all of whom lived in underserved communities around the FCT, to career opportunities within Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) fields. We also want to show the students the safe and acceptable ways they can navigate and use ever-evolving technologies.
Our modules, Basics of Online Security (BOSE) and Career Opportunities in Tech (COT) are delivered in 90-minute fun, interactive sessions with games, and questions and answers.
So far, we have visited 6 of the 10 selected schools; JSS Idu-koro, JSS Karmo-Tsoho, JSS Jiwa, JDSS Jiwa, JSS Yimi and JSS DeiDei. The tour has been a very exciting and eye-opening experience for us at TechHer. It has been quite a thrill to see the children go from knowing almost nothing about technology and online safety and engagement to being able to speak confidently on the fundamentals of these subjects!
At every school, one of the first things we ask the children is what they wanted to be when they grow up. Normal responses range from doctors to lawyers and a few other careers in between. To our surprise, out of over 379 students, only two have indicated interest in careers in STEM fields! Our COT module was designed to show them the opportunities that exist in these fields and we were very happy to see that a majority of them (59%) said they were now interested in studying careers in STEM fields after we had delivered the module!
Another point of interest for us is the children’s access and use of technology and the Internet. There was very little access to technology and even less online access among the students, many did not even know what the term ‘online’ meant! We found this a bit surprising because most of the schools had a computer club or some version of it. Although some of the terms in our BOSE module were completely new to them, we were very excited that the students were equipped with the basics of how to stay safe and protect their information online before the time came.
The school tour resumes next year with 4 more schools left to visit. We are really looking forward to interacting with the children!
You can see more pictures from the tour here.
Even on an impressive list of women doing ground-breaking work in the areas of science, technology and innovation for development and change in East Africa, Dr. Dorothy Okello’s name and achievements still stand out.
A Ugandan engineer, academic, and activist, Dr. Okello has made it her life’s work to increase the inclusion and participation of women in using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to address development challenges in Uganda.
She is the founder of Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET), a platform with a mission to promote and support the use of information and communication technologies by women and women organizations in Uganda. WOUGNET works to create a society in which women are empowered through the use of ICTs for sustainable development.
Dr. Okello holds a B.Sc. in Engineering (Electrical - First Class Hons.) from Makerere University, the first woman to graduate with a first class in the male-dominated Electrical Engineering department at her university at the time. She also has a M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kansas, United States (Fulbright Scholar), and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from McGill University, Montreal, Canada (Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship Recipient). She is the immediate past president of the Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers (UIPE), the first woman to hold the position and has served on the UIPE Council since 2010. She is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and served on the 2018 IEEE Ad Hoc Committee on Activities in Africa (AHCAA). She has also served as a Commissioner and an Interim Chairperson with Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), where she also served as Chairperson for the Rural Communications Development Fund (RCDF). She is also an Adjunct Member of Faculty at the Institute of Technology in Carlow, Ireland.
From 2008-2009, she was a Member of the Strategy Council for the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development. Dr. Okello worked as an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Makerere University and as a Lecturer in College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT) from 1998-2013, where she taught courses on Information and Communication Technology, Telecommunication Systems and Wireless Propagation. She became a Senior lecturer at Makerere University in May 2013.
She is presently the Dean, School of Engineering, College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT), Makerere University where she is also a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She is a Researcher with netLabs!UG, a research center within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering that seeks to be a leader in collaborative research, development and solutions on innovative telecommunication and networking technologies with a goal to strengthen the innovation ecosystem in Uganda and across East Africa.
In addition, she is the Director of Innovation, ResilientAfrica Network (RAN) hosted by Makerere University. Supported by USAID, RAN is a multi-disciplinary network of 18 Sub-Saharan African universities that seek to identify, develop and scale innovative solutions in science and technology to strengthen the resilience of African communities.
Dr. Okello has been recognized with a number of international and national awards over the years including as a ‘Top ICT Woman – Uganda ICT Excellence Awards 2009’ organized by the Uganda ICT Forum. She has been featured in 12 Top Technology People in East Africa who are technologists with a social twist by Enterprise Technology Magazine, September 2012. She received the Women Achievers Award in 2012 for enhancing women’s empowerment through Science & Technology. In 2013, she became Africa’s first-ever Digital Woman of the Year, an award given to her at the Africa ICT Days gala ceremony for the Digital Woman Award finalists that took place in Yaoundé, Cameroon. In 2014, she was selected as a Vital Voices Fellow for distinguished emerging and established women leaders who promote women and girls’ progress.
Why TechHer Loves Her:
In addition to being activist in the area of getting more women engaged in the information society, science and technology for development, Dr. Okello has and continues to break through the glass ceiling in male dominated spaces. She continually sets the standard for what women working in science and technology in Africa can achieve.
In partnership with HeirWoman, TechHer hosted a self-defence class for women and girls which held at Jabi Lake Park on the 23rd of November, 2019.
Both organisations thought it pertinent and urgent even, to teach women practical ways to protect themselves, especially considering the rising cases of violence and harassment against women in Nigeria and the world at large.
We had instructors from the acclaimed BodyRox Fitness Studio in Abuja teach us how to thwart attacks and deter would-be attackers.
We had a great time and the women went away with their self-confidence boosted and each participant went away with a free can of pepper spray!
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!
The second edition of Coffee & Circumvention held at the Aiivon Hub, Wuse 2, Abuja and had 22 people in attendance. TechHer hosted the meeting with support from ACSIS Nigeria.
The event was moderated by Techher’s Soniya Dawarga who welcomed the participants, gave brief introductions and stated the objectives of the meet up. Soniya opened up discussions with a question on what the participants thought the purpose of Social Media was. Audience responses ranged from networking to leisure to knowledge building. We had a few people who said ‘stalking people’ was the main purpose of Social Media!
Mr. Samaila Bako, a cyber-security awareness trainer and a member of the Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria, who was the lead speaker, spoke on the dangers and etiquette of using Social Media and some preventive measures we could apply to protect ourselves on Social Media platforms. He also talked about the necessity of protecting your space online which sparked up lively conversations on the ideas of blocking, muting and reporting accounts and handles on Social Media. Samaila emphasized the need for respecting people’s privacy online, the most important of which was receiving consent to post other people’s information online, even if it is just a photo.
There was quite a bit of discussion over the issue of online scams and fraud - why they are so prevalent online in Nigeria and why so many people fall victim to them. On that, Samaila noted that online scams and frauds almost always had insiders from the organizations involved and that because they were no defined laws or penalties to curb online fraud and scams, Nigerian organizations, especially commercial banks, were lax in addressing the issue, which made them culpable. He advised a measure of caution and investigation before conducting transactions online, no matter how legitimate the parties involved seemed.
Soniya rounded up the meet up by thanking the attendees and extending an invitation for collaborations on themes, hosting and speakers for subsequent C&C meetings.
The discussions were brought to a close at 6:50 pm. The participants carried on quite a bit of networking as snacks, drinks and gifts were passed around. The event rounded up at 7:00pm.
You can see more photographs from the event here.
Emem Rita Usanga is an accomplished business developer, consultant and mentor with expertise in human-centered experience designs. She describes herself as a developer that sits at the intersection between business and tech and who builds products and services with both users and the bottom line at the forefront of her mind.
She has over 18 years of experience in business development for digital media and advertising technology. She also specializes in business development, product development, UX Design, business process design and marketing strategy.
She is the founder of Bnkability, a tech platform working to solve the challenge of sourcing bankable projects in Africa by automating the African infrastructure project vetting process. Bnkability also helps SMEs become investor ready.
Emem holds a B. Sc in Media in Society from London South Bank University. She also has a number of professional certificates, including one in UI Design Patterns for Successful Software from the Interaction Design
Foundation London, UK.
She is the Co-lead at Tech London Advocates Africa (TLA Africa), a private sector led Tech coalition of over 2,700 expert individuals from the tech sector and broader community who have committed to championing London’s potential as a world-class hub for tech and digital businesses. It strives to support London’s tech start-ups and high-growth businesses in finding new investment, new talent and continued success. She is also an Adas List Strategy Committee Member.
Emem mentors for the Seedcamp and LSBU Enterprise focusing on operations, product development and revenue generation. She previously worked for companies such as WPP’s 24/7 Real Media and Glow Digital Media.
Emem is also currently the Local Leader for Interaction Design Foundation (IDF), an independent non-profit initiative with an objective to increase the level of global design education to an Ivy League standard at a reduced cost. She is also the Strategy Consultant at This Is Nuance, where she focuses on solving business, product and marketing challenges in high growth startups and medium sized businesses.
Why TechHer Loves Her:
Emem's wealth of knowlegde and expertise is truly admirable! She inspires us to always strive for knowledge that impacts the world around us.
The first edition of Coffee & Circumvention which was held at the Aiivon Hub, Wuse 2, Abuja, had 20 people in attendance.
The event commenced at 5:15 pm and was hosted by Techher’s Myima Agu and Soniya Dawarga. After the welcoming of guests, brief introductions and stating of the objectives of the meet up by the TechHer team, the lead speaker for the event, Mr Boye Adegoke from Paradigm Initiative, came up to give a few insights and answer a few questions on the theme of the meeting, Digital Security. Mr Adegoke spoke succinctly on a number of critical issues around digital security including ways we endanger ourselves online, how we can protect ourselves and what steps the government and citizens need to take to ensure the protection of our online rights, privacy and data.
Mr Adegoke’s session was followed by a lively, enlightening discussion on a range of issues from the balance between convenience, security and regulation when making payments online to the ways negligence and carelessness are the major reasons why people fall victim to online fraud and scams and how to prevent those. We also briefly touched on the role of the government in securing the data of citizens, making reference to the Data and Privacy Bill which Mr President declined assent to last year.
Lara Raji of ClueNG briefly discussed with the participants on the need for safety regulations and settings for minors using the internet.
Chioma Agwuegbo rounded up the meet up with a thank you to participants and an invitation for collaborations on themes, hosting and speakers for subsequent events.
The meet-up ended at 6:20 pm after snacks, drinks and presents for the early comers were passed around.
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!
