5 Nigerian Women in Tech
With the proliferation of the Internet, the number of tech businesses in Nigeria has continued to increase, as entrepreneurs take advantage of the opportunity it presents. Among these entrepreneurs are young women who decided to explore the male-dominated tech space, and ended up creating thriving business empires that are enjoying global recognition. Top tech companies in Nigeria are also being headed by women, proving that the tech space is no longer reserved for males.
Here are 6 successful women in tech:
Olatorera Oniru
She is one of the most influential entrepreneurs in Nigeria, and founder of Dressmeoutlet.com, a Lagos based e-commerce startup that retails fashion, health & beauty products and home-goods from around the world. Dressmeoutlet ships worldwide and currently has customers in different states across Nigeria, Uganda and the United States of America.
Funke Opeke
Funke Opeke has become synonymous with the internet revolution in Nigeria. A twenty-year career in the United States as Executive Director at Verizon Communications Wholesale Division gave her a landing ground back in Nigeria as she founded Mainstreet Technologies, developer of MainOne Cable, a leading provider of innovative telecom services and network solutions for businesses in West Africa.
She served as Chief Operating Officer at Nitel. Subsequent to MTN, she advised Transcorp on the acquisition of NITEL and briefly served as the interim Chief Operating Officer. She returned to Nigeria in 2005 as the Chief Technical Officer at MTN Nigeria Communications (MTN) after a twenty-year career in the United States.
Nkem Okocha
Nkem Okocha is the founder of Mamamoni, a social enterprise and FinTech startup that empowers poor rural and urban slum women with free vocational/financial skills and micro-loans.
After 8 years banking experience in operations and marketing, she set up Mamamoni to help empower women. She is passionate about lifting women out of poverty and her company aims to break the cycle of poverty in Nigeria. Since 2013, she has impacted and empowered over 4000 women in several rural/urban slum communities and given out over 100 micro-loans.
Nkem Okocha is a Tony Elumelu foundation Entrepreneurship Programme Alumna, a Young African Leaders Initiative Alumna and LEAP Africa 2016 Social Innovator.
Damilola Teidi
Damilola is the CEO/Co-founder of GoMyWay.com. She holds a bachelors degree in Information Technology and a masters degree in Business Strategy and Innovation Management.
Passionate about building small businesses, innovation and the use of technology to solve problems, she founded GoMyWay in June 2015. The startup is a trusted online ride share platform that connects car owners that have spare seats to share with others that need a ride and are going in the same direction, so they all can share the cost of the journey, whether interstate or intracity. With a growing community of users, GoMyWay is the easiest way for car owners to monetize the extra seats in their cars during rides and for passengers to find affordable and comfortable means of moving from one place to another. At the same time, it helps to reduce traffic congestion, promotes a cleaner environment and helps to build our community spirit.
Elizabeth Kperrun-Eremie
Elizabeth Kperrun is the founder of Lizzie’s Creations, an outfit that develops apps & games aimed at the education and enlightenment of women and children.
The company’s first app, AfroTalez, is an interactive story-telling app that narrates traditional African folk stories to children aged 2-10. The second was Choices, an app aimed at addressing specific issues women face in society particularly in Africa. Players watch the app like a regular story but at certain points they have to take certain decisions that determine where the story goes
According to Elizabeth, women and children in Africa are grossly disadvantaged in comparison to their global peers, the biggest contributing factors to this being poverty and illiteracy. we’ve decided to come up with unique ways of education and entertainment, specifically targeted at Africa to bridge the gap.
