Former Minister of Communications Technology Dr. Omobola Johnson has urged more action to get more women involved in founding technology companies.
Mrs. Johnson, who is also a senior partner at TLcom Capital, a sub-Saharan Africa focused tech venture capital with offices in Lagos, Nairobi and London, spoke at the inaugural Africa Tech Female Founder Summit in Lagos.
There has been an appreciable level of particpation of women in the tech space, adding, however, that it is still rare to find women at the founders’ club, she noted.
Her words: “While female participation in tech has generally improved, female tech founders are still a rare breed. However, there are a growing number of female trailblazers in African tech and we at TLcom believe this is a critical network to nurture and support.”
Also speaking on the occasion, Andreata Muforo, partner at TLcom, also said: “With our senior team currently 50per cent female, supporting diversity is already part of our DNA and with events such as the Africa Tech Female Founder Summit, our team does and will continue to dedicate resources to mentoring female founders.”
The VC was launched to build a collaborative network of Africa’s female tech founders, over 50 female founders from across Africa including, Odunayo Eweniyi of Piggyvest, Isis Nyong’o of Mum’s Village, Vivien Nwakah of Medsaf and Miishe Addy of Jet Stream, took to the stage to share insights on achieving massive value generation and scale in Africa. Senior female executives from TLcom’s portfolio companies including Twiga Foods, Kobo360, Terragon, Andela, and Ajua were also in attendance.
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The keynote speaker for the Summit was the Chief Executive Officer, MainOne, Funke Opeke, who delivered a talk on her career journey.
She said: “A clear message that should be taken away from the summit is that the glass ceiling on female leadership can and will be broken. For incoming and incumbent women in our sector, today is a powerful display of what is possible throughout Africa’s tech scene.”
We had entrepreneurs from a variety of fields but what we all shared were common experiences and a shared vision for change.
However, it is critical we take our learnings back into our respective networks and share them with the next generation. It’s only then that we will begin to see real transformation.”
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