Last year, we set out to find incredible women doing amazing things in the tech space. This year, we expanded our territory some – okay, a whole lot! This year, we are looking at Women In Tech, Africa, and some of the things these women are doing are amazing! To make it into this list, the women had to be.

ARTICLE BY CAROL ODERO

•A leader who directly contributes to the growth and strategic direction of their organisation.

•A woman who had continually driven innovation; the kind that inspires the wider tech community

•A role model who inspires a new generation of women in technology

•A woman who has contributed to the general development of the ICT sector

•A woman who doors have opened for over the past year owing to her overall contribution to the tech community and industry in 2021

Maureen Grosvenor has over 30 years of experience in the IT field specializing in the project management, solution architecture and software development sector. She established her own software company in the late 90s, which she later sold to EOH after a successful decade. Grosvenor’s experience includes having managed numerous Oracle and custom application projects in Africa and Europe, Directorship title at Appsolve and heading up the PMO for EMEA for a global telecommunications and real estate company. Currently, she is the Senior Program Manager at Axon.

Ms. Grosvenor has an array of specialties including but certainly not limited to account management, commodities, telecommunications, program management, project management, software development, consulting, data conversion, database administration, e-business, and ERP. She has been described as a dedicated, extremely dynamic, innovative and highly professional individual who governs both my personal and professional life with enthusiasm, honesty and integrity. Her company runs CSR campaigns; Dishego - provide support to a multitude of children and families in low-settlement areas, the Learnership Programme which is part of the Oracle Partner Campus Programme, and provides financial support to the Wandsworth School.

Donovan is the Co-Founder and Business Director of Yellow Door Collective, a full-service marketing agency based in Cape Town, South Africa. Their services are focused around strategy, content creation and WordPress website development. Emma accredits her career in the tech space to her having studied a Media and Writing Degree at the University of Cape Town. Her advice for anyone who is interested in getting into the tech space is simple “Before you dive into the tech sector (or any industry for that matter) my advice is to network, research and get as much work experience as possible. Job shadowing and short internships will give you a good sense of what you’re in for – and will help you make an informed career choice.” Emma and her Co-Founder run a podcast Life Behind The Yellow Door, breaking down MarTech into bite-sized, edible pieces.

Nivi Sharma is COO of BRCK, a company that specializes in the on ramping for frontier market internet users. Sharma has focused her career on achieving digital access for all, including children, teenagers and adults. Her passion lays in the potential impact the internet could have on the economic and social development for the millions of Africans who are not connected. In July this year, she was appointed as the Non- Executive Director at Standard Chartered Bank. In 2011, she co-founded eLimu (e-Limu.org), which is the first company to digitize the Kenyan Primary School curriculum for revision and literacy. Ms. Sharma is a 2014 East Africa Acumen fellow and a 2016 fellow of the Fast Forward Leadership Programme.

A mentor and advisor to several technology start-ups, Rebecca Enonchong is a Cameroonian-born technology entrepreneur who is best known for her work promoting technology in Africa. Enonchong has been the recipient of numerous awards, as well as being named a Global Leader for Tomorrow (GLT) by the World Economic Forum of Davos, Switzerland. Forbes Africa listed her as one of Africa’s 50 most powerful women in 2020. NewAfrican magazine named her one of the most influential Africans in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2020. She is the Founder and CEO of AppsTech, a leading global provider of enterprise application solutions. She is the co-founder of numerous businesses which include I/O Spaces, an inclusive co-working space in the Washington DC metro area, Cameroon Angels Network and cofounder and Vice-President of African Business Angels Network. She is Board Chair of Afrilabs, a Pan-African network of over 268 innovation centers in 49 African countries supporting over 1 million entrepreneurs in Africa. She chairs ActivSpaces (African Center for Technology Innovation and Ventures) supporting entrepreneurs from three tech hubs in Cameroon. She also sits on the boards of Venture Capital for Africa (VC4Africa), Digital Africa, WHO Foundation, Eneza Education, Suguba, Djibouti Telecom, US Exim SAAC, and the UNECA Center for Digital Excellence.

Makwakwa has led multi-stakeholder engagements across Africa for the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) as the Head of Africa, which focuses on advancing good practices in policy and regulatory frameworks for affordable and meaningful access to broadband. She also convenes the Africa Summit on Women and Girls in Technology. A native of Soweto, South Africa, she is a consumer, civil and digital rights advocate and has managed and pioneered various national and international campaigns and policy change processes for women’s rights, civil rights, consumer rights, media and digital transformation initiatives. As a founding member/ director of a women’s movement and collective, Makwakwa has a unique perspective of the dynamics that affect women and other disadvantage groups. The aim of this women’s movement and collective to advance gender equality and dismantle the patriarchal systems that enable gender-based violence in South Africa. She was a designated speaker at the GITEX Technology Week in October 2021, Dubai, a tech event where industry leaders, startups, and game-changers connect to innovate on technology.

Estelle Akofio- Sowah is a Scottish born, Ghanaian businesswoman who is currently the Country Manager for CSquared, Ghana. Previously, she held the position of Google Country Manager, Ghana, and was the Managing Director of BusyInternet, an internet service provider in Ghana. Akofio-Sowah launched an award winning ISP, implementing the Ghana chapter of the World Bank Incubator Programme and launching and promoting various products and programs aimed at making the internet an integral part of people’s lives. She has greatly contributed to her Ghanaian community. She was selected as a 2008 Fellow of the African Leadership Initiative and ranked among the Top 50 Corporate Women Leaders in Ghana by Woman Rising in 2016. Her current serving board positions are the Board of Databank, Stanbic Bank, Zawadi Africa Educational Fund and the Ministerial Advisory Committee to Ghana’s Minister of Communications. On 1 October, she was appointed the Ghana Domain Name Registry Governing Board (GDNR).

Mdlalose is South African-born with an interest in innovation and the support of tech-enabled and tech-enabling businesses in South Africa. She was nominated as the Top 35 Under 35 in 2020. She is an experienced Charted Accountant (CA) but is drawn to the public sector to be a representation of excellence service in that field. She fiercely worked in a number of male-dominated industries such as mining, automotive and financial services for both SMEs (small to medium enterprises) and JSE-listed companies, providing interventions that require disruptive innovation and strategic thinking.

She trained and mentored CA (SA) trainees at IDC emphasizing the importance of excellence and leadership through servitude. Therefore, her contribution to CA (SA) training resulted in being nominated for the IDC award for mentorship. Mldalose extended her CA (SA) skills to the corporate sphere through her seat on the board of two venture capital companies, one of which is at research phase for nanotechnology.

Eweniyi is making waves in Nigeria as a successful tech start-up specialist. Well known for advocating for the empowerment of girls and women, she has helped raise approximately $1.1 million in support of the #EndSARS movement, a youth-led activism against police brutality in Nigeria. Odunayo Eweniyi has launched two women’s empowerment non-profits, Feminist Coalition and Wine & Whine Nigeria. She is the co-founder of several tech start-ups, such as Piggyvest, FirstCheck Africa and PushCV. As a result of her work, she has been featured in various international publications, including being listed in TIME100NEXT, The Bloomberg 50 and Vogue’s 12 women leaders that changed the world in 2020. Eweniyi and her co-founder designed PushCV as a simple system that pre-scanned hundreds of

CVs, chose the ten best applicants for a job, and refer to employers for interviews. PiggyVest on the other hand is an online savings and investment platform with more than two million customers. In July 2021, PiggyVest acquired Savi.ng, a Nigerian savings and investment company and all its assets. The acquisition created a buzz because bigger start-ups acquiring smaller ones was not common in Nigeria.

Odufuwa is the Head PR and Comms in Africa for Binance, which is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and block chain ecosystem since last year January. She also leads the PR for Binance’s NFT effort. She has gained her experience from working in top companies like MTV, Universal Music Group, National Geographic; and led teams at CNN, Zikoko and Konbini. Damilola Odufuwa is extremely passionate about activism, especially where Black women are concerned. Her aim is to create opportunities for Black women to succeed, generating financial power for women, and achieving equality of women in society. Odufuwa also believes that there is a lot of misinformation about what types of roles are available in tech, and by breaking these down, it will encourage more women to get into the industry. Odufuwa made the 2021 TIME100NEXT list and listed by Vogue magazine in May 11 as one of the six women leading the tech boom in West Africa as well as the Bloomberg50.

Eloho Omame formerly held the position of investment banker and a private equity investor. However, she is also an entrepreneur, angel investor, ecosystem-builder and gender and inclusion advocate for entrepreneurship and technology in Africa. She is the co-founder of FirstCheck Africa, strongly believes that there is a large underleveraged potential of Africa’s next generation of female founders. Along with Mustard Seeds, Omame helps in building an online community for ambitious career-oriented women who live and working in Africa, and who are focused on growing their money, careers and wealth over time. Omame is the founding Managing Director and CEO of Endeavor in Nigeria, which is an entrepreneurship network for highimpact founders leading high-growth technology companies at the scale up stage. In collaboration with the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund, Omame helped conceptualise, built and launched Lagos Innovates, a portfolio of startup support programs in 2017. She founded First-Africa, a female-focused angel fund, in January this year, alongside her partner, PiggyVest Founder Odunayo Eweniyi

Negm formerly worked as a Senior Software Engineer at multiple auto brands in Cairo, Egypt. Samira Negm is the CEO of the company that created Raye7, a culturally sensitive carpool app. Negm found a way to use technology to serve society by creating the app to solve the traffic crisis. The app aims at encouraging carpooling and helping people benefit from their resources efficiently to enjoy safe and affordable transportation. Her idea behind the app took into consideration that Cairo is the second most congested city in the world, with annual losses of $12 billion because of time wasted in traffic. This traffic congestion problem affects people in a number of other ways too affecting health, psychological wellbeing and the environment. Even though public transport use in Egypt is extremely high, it can be a risk for women who are most often sexually harassed on this mode of transport. In December 2020, she took part in The Cartier Women’s Initiative, an annual international entrepreneurship programme that aims to drive change by empowering women impact entrepreneurs.

Dr Catherine Adeya has been in the tech and research industry for over two decades. She was the first CEO of the Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KoTDA), and she led the development of the East Africa Centre for Internet Governance and Policy (CIGAP) at Strathmore University. She was part of the pioneering class of Information Sciences at Moi University in Kenya. In addition, she holds a degree from the Yale School of Management and a Ph.D. in Information and Development from Edinburgh Napier University. Dr Adeya has extensive work experience across the public and private sectors as well as with international organizations internationally. Dr Adeya serves in the board of Standard Chartered Bank Kenya. On 10 December, she was appointed as an independent non-executive director of UAP Holdings Plc.

Caroline Kamaitha is the Vice President for O3b Networks, and is responsible for SES Networks business throughout Africa, as she plays a pivotal role in developing new markets and maintaining customer relationships within Africa. She has over 15 years of experience in sales and marketing, and more than a decade of experience in working in Satellite Communications in Africa. She worked as the Country Manager for iWayAfrica Zambia, the largest VSAT Solutions provider in Africa, and formerly in her career was responsible for Strategy Development and Execution. Kamaitha was feted by World Space Week 2021, celebrated from 4 -10 October and themed Women in Space, is dedicated to the celebration of scientific and technological advancement with Kamaitha being one of the women doing extraordinary work in the space industry. She describes herself as having a unique combination of business development, technical expertise and management skills.

As the Director of Africa Innovation, Mozilla Corporation, Alice Munyua leads Mozilla’s innovation and public policy portfolios in Africa. Munyua is the Founder and Convener of the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet), a multi-stakeholder network of people and institutions interested and involved in ICT Policy and regulation AKA a think tank. Previously, she was a board member for the Kenya Communications Regulatory Authority. She led the African government engagement in the African Union Commission (AAUC) dot Africa initiative and represented the Kenyan government and the AUC at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers Governmental Advisory Committee. Among her numerous achievements and titles, she served as Vice Chair and Founding Chair of the GAC Public Safety and Under-Served Regions Working Groups for two years. KICTANet held their 14th Kenya Internet Governance Forum (KeIGF) 2021 themed Internet United, bringing together hundreds of key decision makers and stakeholders. KICTAnet has brought together brilliant minds from all over Kenya who mean business when it comes to internet usage and safety. And it all started with Alice, even as her team keeps the fire burning.

Ddambya is the Director of Technical Services at The National Information Technology Authority–Uganda (NITA-U), where she provides technical support and guidance on all matters related to ICT infrastructure, systems and services within government. Ddambya is in a position where she manages Uganda’s largest and most stable optical fiber cable network, National Data Transmission Backbone Infrastructure (NBI). It spans over 4,000km across Uganda, where it connects hundreds of government offices. With a decade’s worth of experience in taking government services online, it comes as no surprise that her passion drives her to explore technology as transformative, practical and solution driven. Every day, Ddambya wakes up to manage the NITA-U government Tier III Data Centre with an uptime of 99.98 per cent.

As the Business Transformation Manager at National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U), Turinawe has the responsibility of ensuring that ICT transforms overall public service delivery as well as the lives of Ugandans. Her responsibility includes supervising all ICT Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and the development and use of electronic services across ministries, departments, agencies and local government. She is a skilled ICT professional with national and regional experience (spanning 5 countries) at mid-management and senior management level in the following fields; business transformation, enterprise architecture development, strategic planning and implementation, IT service management, delivery of complex projects, stakeholder management, event monitoring and technical support management, process and policy design as well as service delivery. Her sentiments - “When digital transformation is done right, it’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, but when done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar,” proves she is a true ICT evangelist. In June 2021, NITA-U and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions collaborated in the fight against cybercrime. And in July 2021, NITA-U launched a cybersecurity awareness campaign. While not the face of NITA-U, it is Turinawe and her team of CIOs who will be executing the tech behind these projects.

Fakuade is a CIO at Lonestar, Cell/MTN Liberia. She is a telecommunications executive who aligns commercial and technology strategies to build business value and drive transformative change.

Titi drives transformation strategies to continuously evolve and scale systems, strengthen the security landscape, and deliver a superior customer experience. The efforts of the hardworking Lonestar Cell MTN team have resulted in double-digit growth. During her career, she has learnt how to combine technology with business to create competitive advantages in both established and challenging markets. Her areas of expertise are developing scalable technology strategies and systems to maximize business value, support growth initiatives, and lay the foundation for long-term success, introducing new products and services to outpace the competition and meet market needs and enhance internal learning, development, and knowledge management capabilities. This year, Titi was named CIO/CTO of the Year by the Women in Tech Africa Awards, 2021.

October 2020. She was a 2021 Influential Women in Legal Tech List Honouree in celebration of the US National Women’s History Month. Koech-Kimwatu is passionate about legal tech and devotes her time to building her knowledge in this space. As well as being a seasoned speaker and brilliant moderator, she has led policy initiatives in Kenya, pioneered the development of a public policy platform vellum.co.ke and mentors young women.

Among her numerous titles, Peace Amuge is the Executive Director at Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) and a Communications Specialist, Gender Digital Rights Activist and Writer. She has vast experience in gender responsive project identification, formulation and implementation, policy advocacy and development of communications strategy and policy documents. She has authored a number of online publications on topics related to women’s digital human rights. Amuge is a working group member of the global Internet Governance Forum on Strengthening and Strategy, a Faculty member of the Arusha Women School of Internet Governance, and Board member of the Centre for Multilateral Affairs (CfMA). In August 2020, Peace co-authored a paper; Women Face Internet Access Challenge During The COVID-19 Pandemic In Uganda that was published in the site, African Declaration On Internet Rights And Freedoms. It has since then been endorsed by 44 African countries.

Carolyne Ekyarisiima is a computer scientist and the Founder and Developer of Apps & Girls, an award-winning social enterprise that works to bridge the technology gender gap in Tanzania. Apps & Girls gives girls the skills, tools, confidence and competitive edge to become effective tech-entrepreneurs. As a result of Apps & Girls, more than 2,000 girls with ICT and coding skills across 24 school coding clubs have been empowered and currently 23 of the girls’ tech ideas are being implemented and four of them have received project funding.

It is to no surprise that Carolyne Ekyarisiima’s work is recognized locally and internationally. She is the Aid and International Development Forum’s 2018 Innovator of the Year. Ekyarisiima is a collaborator of the Obama Foundation and a mentor at the First Global Robotics competition and the Africa Entrepreneurship Award. Ekyarisiima is committed to breaking down barriers that limited women from entering ICT, a field with a non-existent support system, lack of role models and prevailing gender stereotypes. Apps & Girls is providing the alternative, a supportive path into the field of ICT and a future in tech. In their 2020/2021 season, they recruited 15 young women. 92 per cent were satisfied with the programme, 13 of them were accredited with Microsoft certification and five of them launched their own businesses. On 4 December 2021, Apps & Girls will host their Girls Entrepreneurship Summit 2021 #GES2021, an event co-hosted by the US EMbassy.

Magreth has over 10 years of leadership and management experience and fifteen years of computer science technical abilities. Prior to her role is a Research Associate, Mushi was a CEO at the Tanzanian Education and Research Network (TERNET) for four years, and taught as a Lecturer at the Open University of Tanzania. In January 2021, the AfricaConnect3 kicked off the Women In Stem campaign with Dr Mushi as one of the two CEOs out of 16 members of the Ubuntu Net Alliance. Speaking on the importance of African women to have a presence in the National Research and Education Network (NREN), she said, “Representation of African women in sciences and engineering is still very low, therefore more role models are necessary. NRENs like any other organization need diverse talents to thrive and increase knowledge. She has a deep interest in neuroscience, leadership and management, business, human relations, and parenting. In September 2021, the good doctor became a Research Associate at the North Caroline State University where she is conducting research in networking of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Josephine Chinake is Founder and CEO of Templelite Technologies, a Simbiso Jumpstart Initiative. She leads a three-pillar business that focuses on waste management services, business consultancy and ICT consumables supply. She is skilled in IoT, techpreneurship and waste management services. As is evidenced by her work and businesses, she is very passionate about the girl child, and giving back as the Country Lead at Project Girls 4 Girls Zimbabwe, an NGO straddling 22 countries. G4G focuses on girls from the age 15+ and women from 25+ to help them take leadership roles, communicate and other crucial skills that women need in their day-to-day activities. The direct impact of G4G is shown in the mentorship and inspiration of over 2,000 girls in Zimbabwe. She is a Women Tech Network Global Ambassador, a platform that seeks to bring 1 million women in tech who can then drive change and this year, she became a YALI Regional Southern Africa 2021 Fellow.

Victoria Ngono is the Founder and Executive Director of Girls in STEM Trust, a non-profit organisation with female future leaders and pioneers in STEM in mind. Girls in STEM Trust empowers and educates young women and girls to pursue STEM related studies, occupations and STEM Business Enterprises using a wide array of programmes and activities. It is on a mission to bring a million girls and young women into STEM while preparing the next generation in the field of STEM. Ngono has over a decade of experience in the women in tech field, where she has served on a variety of tech boards and served in the Bulawayo Chapter Executive Committee of the Computer Society of Zimbabwe, an internationally recognized body for ICT Practitioners. She is the Lead Country Ambassador for Africa Code Week representing and a Women Tech Network Global Ambassador. In May 2021, she was appointed to the Board of Advisers, Camden Education Trust.

Mafunase Malenga was appointed Managing Director at the Southern Africa Institute of Aviation Science and Technology in February 2021. Among her numerous titles include CEO of Shengamo, the Country Director of Women in Tech-Zambia as well as an Airwards Judge. She is also the Co-Founder of LATHA (Lusaka Air Travel & Hospitality Academy). Malenga has extensive experience and expertise in the aviation industry specifically, the airline industry. She is passionate and determined to bring more women into the tech field.

Sokhar Samb has been a Data Scientist at THEOLEX, where the blend technology and law, since September 2021. Samb is the Founder of Women Promoting Science to the Younger Generation (WPSYG) – headquartered in Senegal at the African Institute of Mathematical Science; and is the Co-Organiser at Women+ in Machine Learning & Data Science Org. (WiMLDS) Dakar. WPSYG is an association that is focused on igniting and sustaining the interest of the youth in general and in particular girls, in mathematics and science with the aim of getting them to develop careers in this field to enable them to compete globally and solve the local development challenges in their communities. Sokhar has a master’s degree in applied mathematics and computer science, as well as a master’s degree in big data and computer security. To expand her knowledge, she is completing an advancetraining course in machine intelligence at the African Master of Machine Intelligence.

Basuti Bolo is the Chair of Educational Technologies at the Africa University, Zimbabwe. Among her numerous titles she is an Advisory Council member for Online Learning of Africa University, an International Academy of Space Law Ambassador to Botswana, Africa Space Tourism Society ambassador to Botswana, Space for Women Ambassador to Botswana, Advisor to SpaceconneX. Bolo is determined to get more women and interested in the study the STEM subjects, and to enter the space in order to drive change and manage resources linked with women and girls’ career. She mentors a group of more than 100 both male and females students at Africa university with the aim of empowering women and girls to reduce gender inequality and to promote gender equality. She is a volunteer coordinator at Women Tech Network since March 2021, and in May 2021, she was named as the Managing Director of Mobile Studies Africa.

October 2020. She was a 2021 Influential Women in Legal Tech List Honouree in celebration of the US National Women’s History Month. Koech-Kimwatu is passionate about legal tech and devotes her time to building her knowledge in this space. As well as being a seasoned speaker and brilliant moderator, she has led policy initiatives in Kenya, pioneered the development of a public policy platform vellum. co.ke and mentors young women.

Abbas is the CEO and founder of Lami Insurance Technology, an insurance service platform that digitises the entire insurance process and allows users to create and distribute digital insurance products in record time. The Griffin Motor App is built using the Lami insurance API. Prior to starting Lami, she worked as a sugar trader in London, trading on the New York and London sugar markets. She has an MBA from the University of Oxford and an undergraduate degree in Finance from CASS Business School, London. In 2020, Abbas was nominated to represent Africa at InsureTech Connect 2020, and in 2021, Quartz named her an Africa Innovator. She also raised $1.8 million to scale her insurance platform in early May 2021. The round was led by Accion Venture Lab, who specialise in financial services targeting underserved markets, AAIC, Consonance, P1 Ventures, Acuity Ventures, The Continent Venture Partners and Future Africa.

Jaine Mwai is the lead IT professional, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Standard Chartered, Kenya. Almost a year to the day, Mwai made history as the first-ever woman to win the East African CIO of the Year Award 2020 in the twelve-year history of the the African CIO 100 Symposium and Awards. She has over 22 years of experience working in tech and has worked been in the banking industry two decades across various roles with experience gained through working in and with other countries across Africa. Her expertise lies in project planning and execution, leading multi-functional and multi-cultural teams to exceed objectives. Prior to her appointment as CIO, Jaine was the Country Technology Manager, Kenya and East Africa Head of Programme and Change Management. This year, she made it on the HERoes Top 100 Women Executives 2021. This list showcases 100 women who are leading by example and driving change to increase gender diversity in the workplace. She has also spent hours as a technology thought leader speaking in CIO Africa and other Forums and Summits.

In January 2021, Yolanda Cuba was promoted from Group Chief Digital & Fintech Officer at MTN, to Group Regional Vice President Southern & East Africa. Prior to that, she had been at Vodacom heading strategies, mergers and acquisitions and the CEO of Vodafone Ghana. Cuba is also the founder of Cuba Foundation, focusing on education, The Mentorship Boardroom focusing on economic empowerment, and Brighter Lives Africa focusing on children. Cuba has a master’s in commerce from the University of Pretoria, and a B. Com with Honours, Accounting from University of Kwa Zulu-Natal.

Noureen is a Security Threat Engineer at Cisco Systems. She was awarded the Cisco 2019 Cybersecurity Champion, listed as one of the Top 30 Most Admired Minority Professionals by SeQure World Magazine UK, and was named Cybersecurity Women Support of the Year 2020 and Cybersecurity Women Support of the Year 2021 for the second year in a row. She founded Mentor & Mentee Women In Cybersecurity on LinkedIn, and Global Cybersecurity mentoring programme at Cisco. She is also the President of North Carolina Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) Affiliate chapter.

A CISO with 20+ years of experience in IT, Khedr has led numerous projects in the banking, telecom and industrial sectors in areas of information security management systems implementation, information security strategy design, policy design and implementation , security risk management and standards compliance. She was among the top cybersecurity government leaders in the Middle East in 2019, named as one of Egypt’s Top 30 Inspirational Women, 2020 and Egypt’s Top 50 Women in 2019 for contribution to securing the financial sector in Egypt. She is the Co-Founder, Women in Cyber Security Middle East. As the Head of Security at the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Khedr was appointed Chair of the Cyber Security Committee in August 2021.

Nelly Kiboi is a young Kenyan Software Engineer who named the FDM Everywoman in Technology Awards Software Engineer Award in March 2021. She is passionate about the intersection of emerging technologies and how they can be used to improve equality and accessibility. She moved to the UK in 2016 to join American Express’ new graduate program and currently works as a software engineer. She has championed accessibility initiatives, created and led coding classes, and contributed to the curriculum for Code Girls, educating young women about careers in tech. Professionally, she is focused on Amex’s One App open-source platform, in collaboration with other engineers both within the company and across the wider technical community. She is a mentor at Women in STEM programs and strives to continue being an innovator in her field.

Elizabeth Orembo is the current Communications and Engagement Officer at Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre (GCSCC), University of Oxford and Member, Board of Trustees at KICTANet, and was nominated among the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics, 2021. Being part of the Board of Trustees for the Internet Governance community in Africa, she takes on an organizational role in the East Africa IGF (EAIGF), Kenya IGF (KIGF), the Kenya School of Internet Governance (KeSIG). She is also part of the reporting team at the Africa IGF.

As a Communications and Engagement Officer, she is responsible for the communication and stakeholder relations at the Centre, where she organises and coordinates internal and external meetings and events, ensures continued communication between GCSCC staff, partners and stakeholders. She works closely with the Cybersecurity Capacity Center for Southern Africa (C3SA), which is based at the University of Cape Town

Sylvia Mukasa is an award-winning entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of GlobalX Investments Ltd/GlobalX Innovation Labs, which feeds into the innovation pipeline by closing the skills, funding and organizational or corporate digital transformation gaps. Its core objective is to provide opportunities to children, youth, developers and entrepreneurs/corporates to learn, innovate, and scale up their knowledge in hardware and IoT, AI, Robotics and other emerging technologies. In March 2021, Ms. Mukasa won the Digital Inclusion Champion Award 2020 for the National Diversity and Inclusion Awards and Recognition (DIAR), that celebrates companies, government agencies, county governments, NGOs and individuals who champion diversity, promote inclusion and equality in Kenya. At the end of 2020, she was listed as the 30+ Most Influential Women in Tech by CIO East Africa, and in that same year, she was the 2020 Techpreneur of the Year- Over 30; Founder of the Year Awards (FOYA) East Africa. She is Country Co-Founder/Chapter Lead (Kenya) for Women in Tech Africa (WiTA), the largest female technology focused group in Africa.