Our #OnePerson for the month is Oladiwura Oladepo, a 33-year-old Executive Director at Technology for Social Change and Development Initiative (Tech4Dev). This Nigerian-based non-profit organization gives access to decent work for Africans.
Oladiwura holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Obafemi Awolowo University; an MBA from the Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University; and a Master of Advanced Management from Yale School of Management.
She is also the Chief Growth Officer at Prunedge, a technology solutions company in Lagos dedicated to crafting innovative solutions tailored to address real-world challenges.
Her road to social entrepreneurship began while she was an MBA student at Pan-Atlantic University’s Lagos Business School. She initially thought she wanted to be a management consultant; hence the need to gain exposure to management training and education outside the country. However, after an internship in consulting at Accenture, her focus changed to using technology to advance sustainable human capital development in Africa.
During the Ebola virus outbreak in 2014, she partnered with her husband, Joel Ogunsola to create a website to share prompt information and updates on the disease. It received over 1 million unique visitors.
In 2016, she co-founded Technology for Social Change and Development (Tech4Dev), with a dream to solve the world’s greatest technology problem by focusing on education, civic engagement, active citizenship and public health. The core of the organisation was remodeled as a non-profit that creates access to decent work and entrepreneurship opportunities and platforms for Africans through digital skills empowerment and advocacy.
In 2021, the organisation partnered with Microsoft and launched the Nigerian Women Techsters. The first edition of the program trained nearly 2,500 Nigerian women and girls between the ages of 16 and 40 in web and mobile development, game development, and the Internet of Things. By the end of the pilot, 70% of participants had started a technology-related career, 25% were enrolled in a STEM-related university course, and 5% were building their technology-related startups.
The program now focuses on software development, cybersecurity, data science and artificial intelligence, product design, and product management.
She is passionate about gender parity and improved economic outcomes and financial independence for women by bridging the digital knowledge divide between men and women through the Women Techsters initiative which has seen over 10,000 women trained in coding and digital skills (Software development, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Product Design and Product Management) across 5 African countries: Nigeria (12 states), Ghana, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa and is looking to empower 5 million women across Africa by 2030.
In this capacity, Oladiwura oversees the organization’s strategy and operations and works to create opportunities for improved economic livelihood for young Africans, especially in underserved communities by empowering them with digital and soft skills.
So far, Tech4Dev has partnered with organisations like Access Bank, Hacey Health Initiative and the US Consulate in Nigeria, directly impacting over 45,000 people (30,000 of whom are Africans). Their beneficiaries span 31 states in Nigeria and 15 African countries.
Awards and Recognitions
Her contributions and goal of ending poverty in Africa and around the world have not gone unnoticed. Her unwavering commitment to ending poverty in Africa and worldwide has earned her numerous prestigious awards and recognitions. Among them are the Waislitz Global Citizen Choice Award and the Waislitz Global Citizen Award in 2022, along with being named a Solution Maker by the United Nations Solution Summit in 2019. She was also recognized as a Female Innovator of the Year by the Africa Tech Festival in 2022 and received the Excellence Trailblazer Award from the Mandela Washington Fellowship Alumni Association of Nigeria in 2024.
Additionally, she was shortlisted among the Ten Outstanding Young People by Junior Chambers International (JCI), Nigeria, and honored with the Seven Wonder Women Award by Guardian Nigeria in 2024.
Well done, Oladiwura! Keep setting the pace!
