Cameroon: Data Girls’ Frida Eposi Leads Charge in Empowering More Women in Tech

By Boris Esono Nwenfor

Despite the potential technology has to empower societies, women in Africa still lack access to software, hardware and education necessary to pursue tech careers. One lady is, however, fighting against this narrative in building a community where women get to embrace technologies and showcase what they can build using technologies.

Frida Eposi is a multi-talented young lady who thrives in building emerging businesses using innovative tools and techniques. She has worked with close to 350 emerging entrepreneurs, SMEs, and start-ups across Africa and currently mentoring businesses. A co-founder of Data Girl Technologies, they look to train the next generation of female tech talents across Africa. Their goal has been to train up to ten thousand women and so far, they have been able to train about three thousand women.

“The men are more excited about tech and women feel it is challenging and that it is a man's thing. It is that fear that sometimes makes them to be discouraged. We have been able to use the design thinking approach and the learning by doing where we have them identify problems in the society and throughout the session, what they learn in class they can incorporate in their project,” Frida Eposi said.

“Technology is not just coding only; it cuts across a lot of fields and it is important to have young women, young tech entrepreneurs in the ecosystem of Silicon Mountain. I am encouraging more women to be part of the ecosystem; let us build something for women and close the gender divide gap.”

Talk to us about the reason for starting Data Girl Technologies.

Frida Eposi: I studied banking and finance in school and I have always been interested in business and entrepreneurship generally. I started my first business two years after school. While doing that and struggling to make sure that I was building something sustainable, I kept failing in those endeavours.

Seeing women in technology is very scarce and so, trying to get into that space, I understood that there is a gender divide. My goal is not just to encourage, empower and train women tech talents, but also to create tech entrepreneurs. We need more women at the helm of technology companies.

Data Girl Technologies identified that tech is a global language that has been spoken and understood by everyone. The future is tech, everything is moving towards technology, and it will be a beautiful thing if women can accompany this movement by taking advantage of it.

A report from the World Economic Forum says that in 2030, 85 per cent of jobs and opportunities will be developed from tech and we want to see women being part of these opportunities, which is why we decided to continue empowering women.

How does your training curriculum differentiate you from platforms offering the same initiative?

Frida Eposi: At Data Girls Technologies, we understand that everyone is different, but what makes us stand out is that we are gender-focused. Our attention is on the global problem, which is reducing the gender disparity in the tech space.

Our courses are on-site and we realize that besides the challenge of expensive internet in Cameroon, there’s that laxity that comes with online learning. What makes us stand out is that we can follow up with our students intentionally, help them identify their challenges, and support them in meeting up with where they are lagging in the courses.

What also makes us stand out is the way our courses are structured in addition to having a learning-by-doing approach. We work on a project basis and this has helped us train students in coding, and UI/UX irrespective of their mental capacity.

At the end of our 12-week BootCamp, we realize that our students do not only come up with projects of their own, but they have products that they can present even to investors or to the interviewer on what they have done. In the end, our students would have gained knowledge, and experience and getting job-ready.

After the program are there any follow-ups of do you offer mentorship and networking opportunities?

Frida Eposi: Data Girl Technologies has a community of over 3000 women and girls that we empower and impact and we have a one-week session mentoring session on our programs.

We do not just train and let you go, we help you to become ready for the job market, supporting you by designing a career path based on your passion because learning a skill in the tech space is one thing while using the skill to target a career path is another.

Data Girl Technologies’ idea isn’t just to train, but to equally help you through job linking. We look for partners who are ready to employ tech talent, however, we don’t decide for the partners on how and whom to select, but we are confident that they select the very best from our programs.

What does Data Girl Technologies aim to achieve in Cameroon with this program in the years to come?

Frida Eposi: For the next 5 to 10 years, Data Girl Technologies is envisaging not only empowering more than 3000 to even 10,000 women, but now we want to place them into different jobs and help them start their businesses.

We won’t just be training women, we will be placing women in jobs, and placing them in those areas where women need to be present to change the narrative because we believe that changing the status quo will help reduce gender disparity, women need to be in these roles.

We need more women leaders and role models, so our goal is to boost the number of women leaders in the tech ecosystem, and also help women and girls present in only male-dominated teams.

Any final remark

Frida Eposi: Data Girl Technologies is located in Molyko. We are encouraging more women to come and say what their minds are telling them and we can also place you into the right technological field. We have been able to place over 35 per cent of the women we have trained into getting job opportunities, internships and opportunities to learn and practice more of what they have been able to learn. I am encouraging more women to be part of us, be part of the ecosystem; let us build something formidable for women, let us close the gender-divide gap.