On Empowering Women in Tech - A Conversation with Anie Akpe

Episode Transcript

Claire  00:15

Hi, everyone and welcome to a new episode of the Narratives of Purpose podcast. My name is Claire Murigande, and I am your host on this show. On this podcast, I bring you inspiring individual stories of ordinary people who are making extraordinary social impact in their communities all around the world. And hopefully, I can inspire you to take action. This week is the final episode of our Tech for Good series. And today we discussed the role of technology in empowering women with my guest, Anie Akpe, who is the founder of African Women in Tech, or in short, AWIT through event series, which connects, educates and empowers women who are determined to advance their tech careers. In our conversation, we talk about the engagement of African women in tech fields, and the challenges brought about by the COVID 19 pandemic for Anie's organisation. Please take a moment to rate and review our show by subscribing to the podcast on your favourite app. But right now, have a listen to Anie's journey in impacting the future of women in tech.

 

Claire  01:41

Good morning, Anie, how are you and welcome to the podcast?

 

Anie  01:44

Good morning. Thank you for having me. I'm good. How are you?

 

Claire  01:48

I'm great. Thank you. It's really a pleasure. And I have to say I am absolutely thrilled to have you on today because it feels like coming full circle for me. And I will explain why. So here is the story about a year ago, right about this time it was early July, I attended the African Women in Tech digital Society Conference. And that was an event that you were organising. So it was basically a two day event. And among the many sessions that would range from finance to communication. There were also a couple of sessions on podcasting. And that was quite an eye opener for me, because I discovered that podcasting is actually an industry. And it was for me the first time I realised that the idea I was developing had the potential to be scalable. So somehow you unknowingly actively participated in my new venture. And so that's the backstory. And that's why I'm happy to have you on the show today.

 

Anie  02:46

Thank you for sharing, I appreciate that. We love to go back and ask questions and email and say, "Hey, we've made an impact, let us know the story!" So this is a great story.

 

Claire  02:58

So before we jump into our conversation today, and for you to talk about African Women in Tech and the many achievements that you've had, can you please introduce yourself with a few words on your background? And what would you like our listeners to know about you?

 

Anie  03:12

So my name is Anie Akpe. I am a serial entrepreneur. My background is actually in banking and finance. And I got into tech through banking and finance, because I had to identify solutions in order for us to achieve the numbers goal. So we could only do it through technology. And with that being said, that's how I was able to get in because I had to identify software, work with developers and make sure that it worked in the sense of being updated or looking for better solutions as the years went on. So that's how I was entered into the tech space and with the technology. That's how I was able to grow the portfolio that we had from 150 million to 1.2 billion. So to me understanding technology and knowing its efficiency, is what will drive your success and corporate anywhere in the world. But specifically for me, it helped me to realise that I had to learn these things as a crash course. And it's better to learn a crash course, when you're in that situation because it makes you innovate. But not only is that good, but then you learn a lot of life lessons. And you could pass those lessons on and that was how I birthed AWIT was through my own experiences, knowing that I had to have business technology in order for me to be truly successful in any venture that I had

 

Claire  04:41

I really see where you're coming from with being able to innovate with your experience and the impact that you've had. And now you really want to pass that knowledge along through your organisation.

 

Anie  04:52

I just think that as women share more experiences, especially when they're in corporate, it makes the next person that much more successful. So that's why I always think it's important when women get into these corporate positions with super success, it's time for them to pass it on.

 

Claire  05:10

A few months ago, I was reading a couple of articles that featured you online articles. One of them was giving your top career advice. And the other one which was titled "Breaking barriers for African women in technology and business". You were basically explaining how you started AWIT. And you mentioned that it was born from the desire to connect, educate and empower African women who are determined to advance their tech careers alongside those who have the need to utilise technological tools for the advancement or their business. Now you are based in the US and you're working with women who are on the African continent. So tell me, how did it all start? And how did you set up your organisation to achieve these goals?

 

Anie  05:57

For me, the way it started was, I was already doing things in New York City for the diaspora. So my focus had always been on just having business technology, whether men or women. So over at this point, it's about 15 years since I started doing events that cater to the diaspora. And having given them an opportunity to work with people that were on the continent. Ultimately, what happens is that when we're here, as people from the diaspora, our focus is always helping those in Africa or doing a business that can take us back to the continent. So as I was hosting those events, that's how I became particularly interested in doing things in Africa, specifically focusing on women. I felt that even though we had great success in New York City, the bigger impact for me would be able to impact women. And the bigger impact would be not just women, but women that were on the continent. So ultimately, the focus shifted, and I said, "Okay, let's go into Africa, specifically Nigeria, first." Well, one of my friends who was from Kenya was like, "I'm tired of you Nigerians always doing things in Nigeria, there's things outside of Nigeria, why don't you come to Kenya?" So I was like, "well, here it is. I don't know anyone in Kenya, and I don't know how to pull it together. If we did it in Kenya"  and she's like, "No, I have it, the topics that you're covering are broad, and it's gonna help a lot of people. But we can definitely use you here in Kenya." So I ended up working with her. And then from that, I had already met some people at the Google conference that I attended the year prior. And they were all men. And I told them what I wanted to do. And what type of programmes and education and they were like, "wow, yeah, we could definitely help you make that happen." The men from Kenya said, we'll introduce you to all the ladies because guess what?'' So it made life easier because I was already in the Google Developer programme when I went to the Google conference. So it wasn't anything for the Google Developers who knew other women to get them involved, once I decided to make it definitive, so between her, she's currently at Cellulite their name is Vivienne. And she was the chief marketing officer there. So between her bringing me to Kenya, and then the gentleman that I met at the Google conference, it was able to be pulled together to where we had over 500/600 women, that first year that we had the event.

 

Anie  08:52

Also with the event, since the focus was on women, we partnered with Safaricom, and Safaricom has a woman in tech. And with that partnership, it allowed us to be able to reach out to the community. And they also wanted some of those topics covered that we were looking into - blockchain, AI, machine learning, those are things that they already had strong interest in. So it wasn't hard for them to push us and get the word out. So Safari came to partner with us in a sense that they not only gave us a free space to host the event, but they also made sure that women in tech supported it by giving us things that we could use as giveaways and also sponsorship type programmes. We also partner with co-working spaces, so that when we would have these pitch competitions, a lot of people needed the office space in which to operate in so the co-working space gave our winner of our pitch competition six months free of co working space. And then you know the second place winner three months and then third place winner one month. So It supported the community by allowing it to have a foundation, whoever won would actually be able to work with other entrepreneurs, would be able to meet other entrepreneurs and investors through those programmes. So that was the other benefit. And then, of course, Google supported the event as well, just because it was specifically focused on women in tech, with all those things coming together, that's usually how it worked. And in most countries, when we work with the ministers, ministers of education, and they know the programme, they will partner with us in order to make it a bigger event. And we work with the government in Mozambique and Uganda, and with Ghana, and Nigeria, and Kenya, we've worked with different people that are in political office. So they've helped support the event as time has moved on. So ultimately, our partnerships consist of co-working spaces, universities, ministers, and that's how we're able to pull these events together.

 

Claire  11:00

So you are basically able to quickly find the right partners and leverage the available structures to build the community. And so you mentioned a few countries there, Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique, Uganda, and Kenya, are you also present in other countries?

 

Anie  11:17

We're not present in other countries yet, because that was the plan for 2020, that we were going to go to different countries, but then COVID hit, and also 2021 COVID hit. So that's knocking two years off of our established programme, ultimately AWIT from 2019 at the end of the year, the goal was that we were going to start travelling to all 54/55 countries throughout Africa. With that being said, the thing that delayed it was COVID. And that's how we ended up hosting the digital conference. Otherwise, it was definitely not in the plan, we would have probably been visiting a country every other month for the next two to five years. So each year, we've had to push it off and push it off. While digital conferences are great, a lot of people don't have access. And not only do they not have access, but some of that access is expensive to those that have it. So they can't stay on for a full eight hours so you'll have some people in and out, for the most part, but you're not going to be able to reach everyone, whereas the in person conferences, allows them to not only hear about it, but make a way to attend.

 

Claire  12:37

I see the point really. And I also see the value in having the in person conferences because you directly meet other people, right. And that's what you want to do also is to grow your network.

 

Anie  12:48

That's key for us, we always believe that growing your network is the way to success. So it's great for you to meet people that are already established in the community. And a lot of the women that are speaking or from the community, because we use 80% of women from the community to do the presentations, men and women. So we will have a combination, but our conference is geared more towards women specifically. So our numbers when it comes to men, maybe anywhere from five, if there are over 50 speakers, five of them would be men. So the whole goal is to focus on the women, but also using women to train from that perspective of what they've encountered. So that's the goal, because ultimately, in tech, when you're losing women, you have to find out why. And part of the reason why is because women don't have that ability to have trust or feel confident in talking to different people. So when we create these events, it gives them the opportunity for them to network and be able to keep in contact with each other and be able to grow from there.

 

Claire  13:51

That actually brings me to another question I heard and something that I'd seen you posted on one of your social media channels, from AWIT and it was a statistic that said that 56% of women in tech leave their jobs at mid level positions. But 22% of these women do so to start their own business. So my question is, is the community you've been able to build in the different countries, is there a majority of women who actually come from this statistic, you know, that started their own business? And they are the ones basically teaching other women?

 

Anie  14:30

Yes, and I have to go back specifically to Kenya, where a lot of millennials still keep their corporate jobs and be able to start their jobs, their entrepreneurship, and then eventually transition over. Nowhere do I see that more so. In other countries women just forget the corporate part. They're just going straight into the business themselves and then from there growing and learning and getting more information. So yes, that's how it's structured, I have seen that a lot of women tend to get experience and then from that experience, open a business, structure what needs to happen, and then from there grow the business. So I've seen that happen with more women, I believe that when they do leave, and they start a business, they already know some of the foundational things that's gonna help to make them be successful. And once you start to gain that experience, you only attract more and more education type pieces that allow you to be solidified in your decision. So a lot of women, you know, when we hold these conferences, that education part of being able to learn the business aspects is priceless for them, because it's free.

 

Claire  15:47

So you were speaking about these conferences that you held in the past, and you also tried an online version last year. So apart from that, do you have other activities or other ways to engage with a community?

 

Anie  16:01

Besides the conferences that we have, we have our newsletters, sometimes we do Instagram live, or stream yard, which allows people to connect through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, where we do various presentations. So these presentations will focus on what we feel the community needs at the time, for a while we were focused on healthcare, just because of COVID, and the fact that we are all locked in. So it's just a matter of your mental state, and making sure that you have someone to talk to so we brought in women from various parts of Africa to speak about the different mental states and what could happen based on being in the house for so long. So we shift the focus depending on what's happening, and what we feel that the community needs to hear more of. We have lots and lots of sponsorships that's happening for those that are creating opportunities for women, we currently have one right now, that's focusing on Any Woman startup. It's a PR company that we've worked with before. And that company focuses on helping women that are already in a profession that are looking to grow their business by understanding public relations. And the fact that why or why not having a PR company may be beneficial to you. And at what stages does it become beneficial. So it's not just press to create programmes, it also helps with partners who are launching programmes that are women focused to come in and say, "Hey, we have this funding available, please put this information out" or anything else that comes through, we use all of our social channels so that people can get the information and stay updated.

 

Claire  17:48

You just mentioned a partner, their PR firm. What other type of partners do you have?

 

Anie  17:54

We have partners with universities, and I mentioned co working spaces. The big tech companies, it just depends on where we're at. It could be Google, it could be over. It's not just them. We have an African Business Angels Network, which is angel investors. And those type of opportunities create our ability to host these conferences, and be able to make sure that we have certain people within it that could talk about topics that the community may not have the latest trending information on.

 

Claire  18:29

And you also just mentioned something interesting there about angel investors. How do you see from your perspective, now that you've been working a few years with people on the African continent, and especially women who are starting their own businesses, how do you see this space evolving in terms of supporting financially, women led businesses?

 

Anie  18:50

The thing is it's changing as we're speaking, because what's happening is more women are actually becoming investors. So we have a lot of investors, Africa Rising. I forgot the other two with two ladies from Nigeria that have a sponsorship, they have an investment firm that focuses on women. There's another one which she's based out of Florida, and her focus is Africa. I don't remember her name off the top of my head. However, these are popping up now. And the key to these popping up is the fact that Oh, I forgot one more Pauline.

 

Claire  19:29

Yeah, she's based in Switzerland. Yeah, she was my first guest on the podcast. ShEquity. Yeah.

 

Anie  19:36

Yeah ShEquity - How could I forget Pauline ShEquity. But with the development of women becoming primary investors and being able to be in the forefront leading. That makes a huge impact, because it brings these things to the attention of the world really. And once you're able to garner that support for women, that's where it becomes kind of priceless and in terms of what women can get, what they can develop, and what businesses they can grow. So all these women have made an impact. And that impact is steadily climbing in terms of what women are able to get funded on that didn't get attention before.

 

Claire  20:16

And for you personally, while you were building up and growing a word, did you have any specific challenges that you faced? And how did you go about those challenges?

 

Anie  20:25

I think the challenge is always the fact that you're trying to handle this, and then also your permanent means of income. So it's the balance of time, the balance of figuring out what you can do? And who do you need to call in for help? I think the first year, I didn't realise how much help I needed, because I burned myself out not realising that. I think the key is to know when you take on something so big that you will always have a plan to bring in someone to do even minor stuff, a lot of us tend to want to do things ourselves just because it's easier, it's cheaper. But in the long run, even if you give out only one aspect of it, that aspect could save you more time and more money. And actually energy. You know, energy is not something that has a price tag attached to it. But it's something that we use on a daily basis in order to accomplish our goals and our tasks. So if you could pay someone and you're having that energy, that is what keeps you going and motivated. But if you burn out on that energy, then nothing gets accomplished.

 

Claire  21:37

In terms of women in tech, do you see more and more women playing a leading role?

 

Anie  21:43

I actually do, I think that more women are being called into positions anyway, as we speak right now, those positions are leading positions. And what some of the entrepreneurs love about women is the stability and the way that they think and the way that they manage. So I believe that you're just going to see a lot more women in a lot more powerful positions as the years go on. Just because it didn't happen for so long. So now everyone's trying to overdue, you know, not so much overdue, as in it's too much, but just trying to make the visibility known that their company supports women. So that's what I mean. And when they do that, it's just turning things automatically to where smaller companies and everyone else pays attention because it's a woman. So I think that women are going to be taking a lot of leading positions as the years come. And that's where the challenge will come into play. Because the men are like, "well, if they start doing that, what happens to us?" Nothing happens to you. But we'll see where it moves to.

 

Claire  22:46

And how about African women on the global stage?

 

Anie  22:50

I think that women on the global stage, I think the same thing, I don't think that anything has changed. I mean, as we noticed, in the US there's a lot more women that are definitely going into more positions. You see them on the news, you see them how they're transitioning women over. So I think that the impact of it being known as a global issue, and not just local to any country, or any specific place, location is global in nature. So anything that happens with women, it's across the board. And I think that women can help this by just helping other women come along. I do believe that these things are not necessarily an island. As I mentioned, in the beginning of my story, there are a lot of men that helped AWIT just to make it to where it is today. So it's not that we are dismissive of men, I think that it's always a co-partnership. And they understand that but sometimes some lessons need to come from a woman's perspective, just so that we can have that like minded compatibility as we deal with issues that come up. And we know how another woman dealt with it and what made them successful with it. Those are experiences that men can't really tell you the full scope of. When we're talking about generalisation, men can definitely help. But at the workplace where women face certain issues, it takes a woman to actually explain what her experience was for other women to feel that direct impact.

 

Claire  24:17

One other question, I don't know if you can speak to that. I recently had a couple of conversations with women who had founded startups in the space ed tech space. And I've also been observing a lot of, you know, ad tech initiatives going on to actually educate girls in terms of, you know, stem, so we speak about science, technology, engineering, mathematics, but also have girls coding. I think that will also have quite a great influence and the fact that you know, we start very early so you can really bring this awareness to younger people, specifically younger girls as well, that there is a future in having a career in tech. So how do you see that?

 

Anie  24:59

I saw a programme that's very effective. What happened with us is that we stopped doing the coding because we felt that there were so many organisations doing coding. So that didn't need to be our primary focus. And also found that certain countries already had well developed coding skills. So Kenya was one of the countries that when we went into a lot of women already had those well developed coding skills. And we went to Mozambique, that wasn't the case at the time, I'm pretty sure it's probably changing now, or changed, Ghana is much the same way. So I feel like the coding programmes are essentially important. And the younger you start, the better off because then the mind thinks differently. Technology makes you actually have to think outside of the box. I think that other positions, other industries do that. But nothing more so than technology. Because there is no limitation to the imagination. And if the mind can conceive it, of anything, that you're able to create a lot of the technology we see nowadays, I don't know, if you're a fan of Star Wars, or even Black Panther, a lot of the movies that we've seen, and some of the technology that's being developed, those are someone else's ideas on what's happening. But those ideas actually come to fruition, because they are first fantasy, and the next you know their reality. So technology has that spread. But that spread can also be developed from a young age, once they're able to learn coding, then their active imagination can come into play of what they can create. So and especially if your solution base and your teach people solutions, one of the things that we switched out coding for was design thinking, design thinking makes you look at what's happening in your community, and then be able to find solutions for what's happening. So that's what we're training the women on. This way, when you're having these design thinking sessions. And you're seeing "Wow, this is something that I can develop." If you have the skill, you code it yourself, when you're younger, your abilities are open, you're not restricted. When you're older, we start putting limitations on ourselves. So it takes us a little while longer to learn certain things. But at a young age, you're right. So if you can get that education in front of people that are younger, that creativity will always keep spurning and growing and growing. So that's why I do believe that it should happen. It should happen at a young age. And companies that do do it. It's a great programme for them, because that's the focus. But for us specifically, since we weren't dealing with that many women that were younger, we decided to start focusing on what they needed to add to their entrepreneurship portfolio. Once you learn these programmes, such as blockchain, cryptocurrency, things like that, then you're able to incorporate it into your business, or see how it could help you grow wherever you may land.

 

Claire  27:58

So you mentioned blockchain, cryptocurrency and right artificial intelligence?

 

Anie  28:04

Yeah, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Those are the top things that are happening within the tech space. So those topics will always stay within a trend. But understanding where it's trending is the key, because that's what is shaping the tech space.

 

Claire  28:20

So speaking about trends and the future, what is next for your organisation? What is the future for AWIT?

 

Anie  28:26

The future for AWIT is definitely looking at the fact that we're still going to still go to different countries to educate, we have to structure these programmes in such a way that it is, of course, beneficial, what's happened in the community, a lot of these communities have been impacted by COVID. So the reality is, most of the times when we go someplace, we try to tap into the people that are there currently and try to get their feedback. What is it that you're interested in learning about? So we may have to tweak some things just because of that two year time span and also have more workshops where it might be honing in on more skill sets, so that it can still make people more digitally ready, in the sense of being able to be hired anywhere. A lot of companies have now started to shift and say "part of our focus will be on remote workforces". So if you're able to have some of these skill sets, then it allows you to work anywhere on the continent and some overseas. But it gives you an opportunity that you would not have had if you didn't have these skill sets or you didn't go into acquiring them. So once you start with a wit you can take them to different places or work or go to get certain certificates just based on where you're at in your career.

 

Claire  29:48

So at the end of my show, what I usually do is I like to get a sneak preview into what my guests listen to in terms of music, or what books they're reading. So I have three quick questions. for you. The first one is, what is the book you're reading right now? Or if you're not so much of a reading person just like me, I prefer listening to music. What music are you listening to very often at the moment,

 

Anie  30:14

Actually I've been listening to quite a few. There's an artist called World. And his Afrobeat is Nigerian. "Nobody wins" That's the name of a song. But I have quite a few that's like to repeat. They helped me with my exercising, with my thinking. And of course, Reema, there's always certain artists that you can listen to over and over again

 

Claire  30:43

The second question is, do you have a specific song, or even an artist, perhaps even a book that was special for you at a certain time in your life, and you're something that you really remember that you were fond of?

 

Anie  30:58

Yeah, the book is called Intuitive Living. And the way that that book is ahead, like so many different types of meditation, it makes you go within, to get some of your answers. So I love that book, because it made me think outside of myself, and not having to look outside to get some of my answers. So the way that book is structured is such a way that it takes you through your childhood, then from your childhood, it takes you into your middle age, and then from to where you're currently at. So that book just helped me to reshift my focus into myself.

 

Claire  31:36

And the third and last question is, do you have a book or even like an album or music that you absolutely recommend? And it's like your all time favourite, and everybody should listen to that?

 

Anie  31:49

I don't think there is one because I've always taken so many chapters out of so many different things that I was doing. So I never had one specific thing that was it. So I don't have one.

 

Claire  32:00

So in closing, really, I'd like to thank you so much for taking the time to have this conversation with me, it has been really amazing and valuable to learn from you as well. And I would like to leave you the final word, what would you wish our listeners to take away from our conversation?

 

Anie  32:16

The wish is that we're constantly learning and constantly educating ourselves and constantly looking for ways to improve. I know that currently for me, I'm focusing on building a blockchain cryptocurrency solution that allows you know, the continent to learn about cryptocurrency in means through their current language. And doing that has taught me again to stay on top of my education track, make sure that you're always getting the best information, make sure you're always researching. And no matter what anyone tells you just keep asking those questions. So whatever it is that you're trying to create, and come alive, and be able to grow and be open to it growing and shifting from whatever initial focus you had, be comfortable with that change. So that's what I feel like is a constant lesson that we should all have. Because that education doesn't mean that you're in school, it could be certificates, it could be because you went to research something, and you had to watch a YouTube video. So long as we're staying focused on that, that's how you're more able to be successful in the long run. And the future allows it to be very bright for you if you're a person that is constantly seeking to learn.

 

Claire  33:33

fantastic advice. Thank you so very much Anie and I really look forward to staying in touch with you and following the amazing work that AWIT is doing. I have to say I also have benefited from that online conference. And I can only approve of what you're aiming at doing and empowering people to really bring the voice out there and realising their dreams or their vision, as you say staying focused.

 

Anie  33:58

Right, exactly. So, the community helps me too. So thank you for giving that feedback.

 

Claire  34:05

Thank you so much. That was episode 17. A Conversation with Anie Akpe and he is truly a visionary leader. She's helping to bridge the gender gap in tech on the African continent. As she said in an interview, ``empowering women, especially in Africa, is a tool for reducing marginalisation and creating equal opportunities. With specific focus on technology and business development I am creating a space through our social enterprise where women will excel and become much more productive, not just for themselves, but also for the society at large." If you wish to learn more about AWIT or are interested in joining their business community, just check their website at africanwomenintech.com. You will also find the link in the show notes. Thank you so much for tuning in today and listening to this new episode. I very much appreciate you taking the time. Make sure you sign up for our newsletter, so you can stay informed about all our activities. We also look forward to continuing engaging with you on our social media platforms, be it on Facebook, at Narratives of Purpose on Instagram, at narrativesofpurpose_podcast or on LinkedIn at Narratives of Purpose Podcast. If you like our show, do share it with your friends, family or colleagues. And leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Join me again in two weeks for the next episode. Next month, we will dive into a new theme namely inclusion. I will speak with several amazing individuals who are advocating for inclusion in the workplace, supporting families of children with special needs and simply empowering lives beyond disability. Once again, mark your calendars because there will be weekly episode releases throughout the month of September. Until then, take care of yourself stay well and as always stay inspired