Category: The Women Series

I met Mrs Busayo Obisakin at the Murtala International Airport in October 2016 while we were on our way to participate at the first ever Africa Summit for Women and Girls in Technology (#techWomenAfrica) organized by the Web Foundation. Her work with helping women discover themselves, giving them skills training and developing them to be financially dependent is very inspiring.

We met again at the second edition of the #TechWomenAfrica summit in Accra in October 2018 where she gisted me about the tremendous progress so far and the funding challenges the Centre was experiencing.

She invited me to visit the Ile-Ife-based Centre to interview some of the beneficiaries and to tell the Centre’s story. `Hence my visit to Ile-Ife in December 2018 to curate these beautiful moments. I interviewed some of the beneficiaries and had a one-on-one with Mrs Obisakin. Please visit bit.ly/widcgive to support the Women Inspiration Development Centre’s work and help them reach more women.

BUSAYO OBISAKIN is the founder and CEO of Women Inspiration Development Center (WIDC), established in the year 2010, an NGO that champions the initiative to work with women and girls. It is also a safe haven for Nigerian women and girls facing challenging life circumstances. WIDC envisions and creates new possibilities for them, their families and community within Ile-Ife, in Osun, Nigeria. At the Centre, women are empowered to discover themselves, learn a skill, make a living and be financially independent. The workshop is 100% free!

In this interview, Mrs Obisakin shares what inspired her to pursue her childhood dream of empowering women towards financial independence and not subjected to abuse of any form. She also walks me through her life’s journey — challenges faced and how discovering the internet in 2009 has changed her life forever.

Mrs Obisakin spoke about how she got a scholarship to travel to the  United States to be part of an agency-based empowerment workshop and how it equipped her to create a formidable vision and to live her dreams.

She also sheds light on how her conviction and determination paved way for her in the development and growth of the Centre. 

Mrs Oluwayomi Akintade graduated 2007 and didn't find fulfilment in her work, she heard about @BObisakin's Women Inspiration Development Centre from a friend and she is now very happy to be a tailor #TheWomenSeries pic.twitter.com/ZFHLMXbpja

— Olamide! (@olamideyelo) June 17, 2019

Highlights from our conversation:

• Getting women to key into this empowerment program even when it wasn’t common, didn’t come easy => Listen to how she accomplishes this.
• Women are trained to discover themselves – They work with the theme “I am and I can”, knowing they can achieve just anything in life, developing their dreams and visions.
• Progress – According to Mrs Obisakin, women are able to progress in their various fields of interest through the workshop and networking. From 2010 till now, WIDC has empowered more than 4,500 women across the country.
• Her vision is to reach the disenfranchised women.

They are now all financially independent & can now fend for themselves and support their husbands too #TheWomenSeries pic.twitter.com/LoqWBbB6cU

— Olamide! (@olamideyelo) June 17, 2019

Another beneficiary, Mrs Omolola Ojeyinka talked about how the being part of the Women Inspiration Development Centre group in her village has helped her cater for her children @BObisakin #TheWomenSeries pic.twitter.com/1goM0gnvD9

— Olamide! (@olamideyelo) June 17, 2019

If you’ll like to support and reach out to more women through WIDC, visit http://bit.ly/widcgive

The Women Tech Makers is a Google program that provides resources and community for women in technology to thrive and network. Google’s core goal is to inspire passionate, creative women through discussions with thought leaders, technical workshops, design sprints and networking opportunities.

Every year, Google organizes the Women Techmakers’ summit to celebrate International Women’s Day across different cities to hear and share inspiring stories, learn hands-on technology skills and celebrate women in technology all over the world.

I was excited when I got the mail informing me I made the list to attend the Lagos summit on Saturday 16 March 2019, I did not know what to expect but I knew it would be impactful, learning from experiences of women doing exploits in the tech space.

The summit started about 30 minutes behind schedule giving enough time for participants to network and have as much food as they can. The ambience was beautiful, trust Google to make every experience a great one.

HELLO GOOGLE, WELCOME TECHMAKERS — TOLULOPE AKINYELE

Google’s Tolulope Akinyemi gave the opening remark and explained the #IamRemarakable campaign strives to empower women and under-represented groups. The most striking quote from her opening remark was “IT IS NOT BRAGGING IF IT BASED ON FACTS”. It is important for women to speak about their accomplishment to the right people, self-promotion is a muscle.

FINDING YOUR VALIDATING — KEYNOTE BY TITI AKINSANMI

The opening remark lasted for about 10 minutes and Tolu introduced the keynote speaker of the day, Titi Akinsanmi, to the stage. Titi Akinsanmi is Policy and Government Relations Lead at Google. In her keynote, she told the inspiring story of her journey to tech breaking stereotypes and having the courage to challenge the status quo. 2019 makes it exactly 19 years since she has been working in the tech space.

My top takeaways from her keynote address are

•  Finding your validity: don’t let anybody make you think you can’t create/make an impact in this sector based on the skill set that you have.
• Be malleable and flexible enough: Have the ability to be able to adjust, reframe and reshape such that you shape yourself to the move that you need at every point in time
• Your ability to be the best version of your self is not in isolation, it is dependent on the right support system around you
•  Don’t stay stagnant, keep upscaling yourself and learn new skills
• You need to be able to shape your narrative as consistently as possible

Did I also mention she is my mentor? Remember it is not bragging if it is based on facts?

Connect with her on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Here

THE VIRTUAL REALITY JOURNEY WITH BLESSING ORAZULUME

I loved the tech talk session with Blessing where she shared her journey into Virtual Reality after winning a scholarship for a course on Udacity, her work with Andela and the strides she has achieved so far.

Connect with Blessing: @Blessingoraz

We went on a short lunch break, of course, there was a lot to eat and drink and it was a wonderful time to network and meet new people too.

I AM REMARKABLE, ARE YOU?

The #IamRemarakable workshop was very remarkable. The facilitators talked self-promotion and how important it is to motivate ourselves at all times as women. We were given a short task to write out why we think we are remarkable. As simple as this sound, it took a lot of thinking time and process to document the things that make me remarkable.

We need to remind ourselves to just go for it. If you do not know your narrative, no one will speak it for you.

“When someone offers you an amazing opportunity and you cannot do it, just say YES and learn to do it later” — Richard Branson

We broke out into groups for about 45 minutes to discuss self-promotion and the #IamRemarkable further. So just before you continue reading this, ask yourself, WHY AM I REMARKABLE?

Also Read: #TechWomenAfrica 2.0: Women And Girls In Technology + My Takeaways

KNOW YOUR WORTH, THEN ADD TAX, SAYS TOYIN OSHINOWO, Ph.D

Toyin Oshinowo’s lightning talk on “Know Your Worth — And Then Add Tax!” was amazing. She walked us through her journey to tech and bagging a PhD. She encouraged us to have the courage to question the status quo and more importantly learn to take time to love yourself, take time off work and give yourself a break.

Toyin also emphasized the need to have mentors and sponsors and she explained the difference. She ended by recommending the book SLAY IN YOUR LANE; THE BLACK GIRL BIBLE. Women in tech are in the minority, so know your worth and then add TAX!

Connect with Toyin: Twitter, Website

GOT PERFORMANCE AND VISIBILITY CURRENCY? — FIRESIDE CHAT WITH NJIDEKA HARRY

I totally enjoyed the fireside session with Njideka Harry, the founder of Youth For Tech Foundation. She emphasized on mentorship and sponsorship and spoke on the need for women to identify other women they can bring up as they climb up on their journey. Mentors talk to you, sponsors talk about you. Here are a few of my key takeaways from her session:

• Competence matters but confidence goes a long way and it is really, what is needed to get out work forward.
• Performance and visibility currencies are very key to getting the right sponsors
• Performance currency — do you have performance currency? How good is the work you do?
• Visibility currency = if no one knows about your work, does it really matter?
• Life doesn’t get easy, women put on a façade a lot in the workplace share your challenges at work
• The road is windy and tough, but worth it at the end
• Allow yourself to make mistakes, don’t be too hard on yourself
• Fall with grace, fall and get up quickly

Connect with Njideka: @njidekaharry

THE COURAGE TO DECIDE — JULIET EHIMUAN

Google West Africa Director, Juliet Ehimuan gave the closing remark. She talked about choices and the need to have the courage to make the right decisions.

• You get to decide whether you are going to be visible or not, you get to decide whether your life is going to matter or not, You get to decide your dreams are valid or not, whether you deserve a seat at the table or not.
•  Making these decisions require courage, we all need that courage to question and be the drivers of our lives
•  Have the courage and confidence to be at the driver’s seat and be the captain of the ship that is called your life

• Have the courage the question: she told the story about how having courage helped her influence a policy change for a multinational (Shell) she worked with
• Anything is possible, so you need to always take the first steps
• Join communities of like-minded people on social media, you should also contribute to them

Connect with Juliet: @Jehimuan

There were inspiring questions and contributions from the participants too, it was well worth of my time, want to be part of the Women Techmakers community? You do not have to wait for the next summit to join the Women Techmakers community, visit womenstechmakers.com now!

Dr Omobola Johnson is Honorary Chair of the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) and a Senior Partner at TLcom Capital LLP. An engineer and experienced ICT professional, Dr Johnson previously served as Nigeria’s Minister of Communications Technology, where she focused on the launch and execution of Nigeria’s National Broadband Plan, and supported the development of the Nigerian technology industry, including the pioneering involvement of the government in a local venture capital fund and a network of start-up incubators.

I met Dr Omobola Johnson at the Africa Summit For Women and Girls in Technology organized by Web Foundation in October 2018. It was a great honour and privilege to chat with her about her role as Nigeria’s Minister, her work in the private and development sectors, mentoring and the technology space on this episode of the #WomenSeries.

She has a Bachelor’s in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Manchester; a Master’s in Digital Electronics from King’s College London, and a Doctorate in Business Administration from the School of Management of Cranfield University.

Be the first to know when there is a new video up by clicking the SUBSCRIBE button on my YouTube channel here 

Here are a few highlights from our conversation

• On what inspired her acceptance to be on the board of Web Foundation following your role and service to Nigeria as Minister:  Dr Omobola said her journey to Web Foundation  started from her role as the honourable chairperson for the Alliance For Affordable Internet (A4AI) and that came about when I met Sonia (Executive Director of A4AI) as Nigeria’s ICT Minister
• Nigeria’sA4Ai membership: Under her leadership as  ICT Minister, Nigeria was the first country to join the Alliance for Affordable Internet
• For her, joining the board of Web Foundation was an opportunity to extend the impact of the influence that needed to happen around providing affordable connectivity for all. She was also the first African to be on the board. She sees it as a tremendous opportunity to work with giants in the connectivity across the globe
• Being a role model and mentoring: She spends quite a lot of her time mentoring women, she gets to connect with young women and understand what their issues are
• Message to young women: You can DO IT too and do it better. As a woman in tech, you will come against brick walls and hearing people say you can’t do it too and that its a man’s world, but you CAN
• Star-struck moment:  One of her biggest and star-struck moments was meeting the founder of the web Tim Berners-Lee
• On her passion for Women and affordable access: Many women who are not allowed to go to school or access to basic needs of life have the internet to rely on for inclusion.
• On The Power of technology:  There is so much power in technology that you can actually use to progress the gender divide agenda

Also Read: #TechWomenAfrica 2.0: Women And Girls In Technology + My Takeaways

• On valuable career lessons learnt in her years of experience in the private, public and development sectors to women: She acknowledges her privilege of being fortunate enough and doesn’t take any of it for granted.
• She advised young women to follow their own path and not follow anyone else’s path, she didn’t deliberately plan to be Minister or all that she has she achieved
• She made up her mind on being the best at whatever she was going to be and prepared well for the work ahead, even as Minister
• Leaving government: She prepared for what she wanted to do when she left government, she decided to work with a ventures capital firm

I first met Mary Job last October when I attended my first ever WordPress meet-up organized by the Lagos WordPress community in October 2017. What drew my attention to her was that she was the only woman coordinator in the midst of about 10 men and she was the lead coordinator (this gave me joy), I love to see women win and in charge, I am a sucker for this. There was another woman in the hall, which made the women in attendance at that particular meet up 3.

At the end of the meet-up, I approached Mary and told her we need to get more women in this ecosystem and more importantly, get more women to attend the WordPress meet-ups, she agreed and then, we made that happen all thanks to her and the WordPress Lagos team (Watch the Women WordPress meet up here).

Mary is the founder of HowDoYouTech, a web consulting agency that connects businesses on online and digital business solutions and Uwani Foundation, a non-profit organization that trains youth and nonprofits on how to build IT solutions using WordPress and other platforms.

Also Read: The Wordcamp Lagos Conference From My Lenses

Sometimes in July, I interviewed the self-acclaimed digital nomad and convener of WordPress Nigeria, Mary Job at the Do-Action hackathon she organized for nonprofits in conjunction with the WordPress Lagos team. We talked about her journey and love for technology, how she would spend a lot of time and her pocket money researching the web in the early 2000s. We also talked about how she discovered WordPress while studying for her Master’s Degree Program in Ghana and how she has not looked back since then.

Mary lives and works from her village in Ijebu-Musin, located in Ogun state Nigeria. She refers to her ‘small office’ as a hub where she trains young people on ICT tools and connects them to internship opportunities. Mary also leads the Nigerian WordPress community from Ijebu-Musin and travels down to Lagos as often as possible.

Want to join the WordPress Community in Nigeria? Tweet at the @WPLagos account on Twitter.

I hope you enjoy watching and reading this. Don’t also forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel here so you won’t miss updates on my latest videos.

I look forward to your comments and feedback.