Ghanaian female IT guru gains recognition from world body
In a society perceived to be a male-dominated one where almost every profession, including technology, is recognised as the preserve of men, it takes bold, courageous, determined, intelligent and daring women to brace the storm.
Advertisement
For such women, discrimination cannot be a barrier and an obstacle to how far they want to go in life.
This is the story of 38-year-old Ms Enyonam Betty Kumahor, a nominee for this year’s World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Young Global Leaders (YGL) awards scheduled for June 2015.
For her hard work, perseverance and a mindset to change her society, especially the cause of women, Ms Kumahor will be among 200 other young achievers from around the world to be recognised.
Ms Kumahor is an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) entrepreneur, accountant, auditor and philanthropist, and the only Ghanaian to be nominated for this year’s award.
“There is no point in changing my society if I cannot pull the citizens along to feel the impact of what I’ve benefited over the years.”
“It is the more reason I refused various incentives from multinational companies and came back home to help train a lot of the youth in the technology field and other business sectors,” she said.
She joins Ghanaians such as Mr Franklin Cudjoe of IMANI Ghana, Ms Bernice Dapaah, founder and Executive Director of the Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative, and Bright Simons to be awarded by the world body.
Globally, she also joins alumni such as Google co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg; German Formula One Champion, Michael Schumacher; Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, YouTube Co-founder Steven Chen, and French Cabinet Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet.
Even though Ms Kumahor is grateful for the nomination, she is not surprised “since I’ve always been determined to change my society in my own small way.”
Ms Kumahor’s nominations for the prestigious award did not come as a surprise to her friends and mentors who refer to her as productive and one with a “getting things done attitude.”
“For me, being productive has always been my hallmark. I’m able to perform a total of 170 tasks within a day or two,” she said.
The future is ICT
“I believe that the future is ICT and will soon become like a currency. When we’ve got it right, we’ll no longer be referring to it as an industry. It is for this reason that the girl-child must not be left off the train.”
“I am determined to train a lot of the youth, especially women in ICT, to address the global challenges,” she said.
Ms Kumahor is a leader and consultant who has led a lot of IT teams across the globe to develop a number of softwares and has solved other IT challenges.
She was a Global Advisory Technology Leader, West Africa IT Advisory Leader, Executive Director of Ernst & Young, as well as the Managing Director of ThoughtWorks Pan-Africa, an IT consulting firm, where she played a major role in building and developing softwares like Agile which was sold to companies such as the Standard Chartered Bank.
Exceptional leadership qualities
She also possesses exceptional leadership qualities, having led her former company, ThoughtWorks Pan-Africa, to be nominated as Best African Company of the Year 2013 by the African Business Awards.
At Ernst & Young, Ms Kumahor expanded the IT and Programme Advisory Services practices of the company in West Africa, building a multi-million dollar company through IT audit, IT risk management, IT transformation and outsourcing.
To show her continuous desire to change her society, Ms Kumahor has spoken and continues to speak on technology and telecommunications in Africa and parts of the world.
She spoke at the University of Ghana 2013 Convocation, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), Connecting Rural Communities (CRC), Chatham House, ISACA, Outsourcing Summits, Ernst & Young Global NextGen Kickoff Programme, Zonta Women’s Career Advice Fair for more than 400 secondary school girls, WOWe, among others.
Advertisement
Additionally, she chairs the Woman 2.1 Summit Advisory Board and the Ghana Women in IT Organisations.
She has also become one of the leading African women campaigning for Women in technology in Africa.
Cobalt Partners
Currently, she is the Managing Partner of The Cobalt Partners; a business consulting firm focused on solving business challenges using design thinking, the modern management techniques, problem solving, skills and productivity tools.
The company does these through the higher application of ICT. The company, which started four months ago, has also started training some youth in IT.
Advertisement
As the Managing Partner of The Cobalt Partners, Ms Kumahor brings her passion for Africa through her leadership style, productivity and technology to drive new, successful businesses in Africa and the rest of the world.
“In the next five years, I want to see Cobalt go beyond the boundaries of Africa not only in the technology field but in education, health, agriculture, among others.”