Page 42 - Forbes - Africa (March 2020)

REBECCA ENONCHONG,

CAMEROON

FOUNDER & CEO, APPSTECH
On a blue-skied day, during the FORBES AFRICA photoshoot,
self-proclaimed tech-geek, Rebecca Enonchong dazzled with
a youthful bubbly spirit that even the intimidation of flashing
lights and staring eyes could not dim. Born to a chief in Cam-
eroon, Enonchong is endorsing Africa’s role in the new age of
tech. She is motivated by creating a better, more supportive en-
vironment to which Africans can flourish and she has no doubt
that technology is one of the exponential enablers.
In 1999, she founded her software and information solutions
company, AppsTech, which has grown to have customers in over
50 countries.
“I was working for Oracle [at the time], doing what I love and
MAMOKGETHI (KGETHI) I decided to do it on my own,” she says. For the last couple of

PHAKENG, SOUTH AFRICA years, her company has been building their own technology and
business systems using artificial intelligence that is licensed to

VICE-CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN (UCT) organizations under the intellectual property of AppsTech Lab.
DAILY MANTRA: "Be who you are, don't take nonsense, work In 2011, she founded Afrilabs, a pan-African network of over
hard, don't apologize for being fabulous and stay the course." 174 innovation centers across 45 countries supporting a commu-
nity of one million African technology entrepreneurs. Through
amokgethi Phakeng is the academic leading Africa's high- the network of labs, she seeks to improve the availability of sup-
est-ranked university. She assumed the office of vice-chan- port services for African entrepreneurs to thrive and scale geo-
cellor of the University of Cape Town (UCT) in July 2018, and graphically. Enonchong has raised $3.9 million in 2019 to sup-
Mis highly regarded with over 80 research papers and five ed- port these networks.
ited volumes published. Empowering more women to become tech creators is ex-
Phakeng is motivated to change lives through higher education. She tremely critical to her pursuit. She asserts that half of the pop-
firmly believes that as young people follow and create opportunities ulation cannot be left outside of building and creating techno-
for their future, it directly generates a positive ripple effect on the stu- logical systems that people use every single day. “Technology is
dent's or academic's family, clan and community. She is a leader who omnipresent and when designed by people that aren’t using it, it
puts her money where her mouth is. won’t have the full impact as a vehicle and instrument for devel-
Phakeng famously declined to have a formal inauguration ceremony opment,” she says. As part of her efforts, she sits on the board of
to allocate the money budgeted instead to bail out indebted students iamtheCODE which plans to close the digital inequality by en-
who had completed their studies but could not graduate because they abling one million women and girl coders by 2030.
owed the university. She further pledged 10% of her salary to fund fe- Enonchong divides her time on several boards including the
male postgraduate students through the Mamokgethi Phakeng Schol- advisory board of the United Nations Economic Commission for
arship fund. Moreover, her Adopt-a-Learner Foundation supports 15 Africa’s Digital ID.
students to get into university degrees, mainly in mathematics, science
and information technology. She is a living testimony of the Ghanaian
proverb: "if you educate a woman, you educate a nation."
As vice-chancellor, she introduced a "futures" think-tank to get UCT to
lead higher education in the changes that universities are experiencing
as a result of the fourth industrial revolution. She has plans to turn UCT
into a "green" campus and a living laboratory for research on environ-
mental sustainability.
She is a member of the board of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Acad-
emy for Girls; and a trustee of the FirstRand Foundation, the South Af-
rican Student Solidarity Foundation for Education and the Pearson Ma-
rang Education Trust to name a few. She spoke to FORBES AFRICA:

What does it mean to be a powerful woman in 2020?
Power means something different to the millennial generation, who are
somewhat suspicious of traditional power in government and business.
I believe power is about influencing young people, so I make myself ac-
cessible to students wherever they are – on campus, in residence, and
especially on social media. My own story is an inspiration for young Af-
ricans from marginalist communities, especially women. They need to
know that they are ideally placed to change those communities.

What do enjoy most about being a woman?
I love jewelry, hairstyles, makeup and colorful fashion. I especially love
wearing colorful fashion in places where the traditional dark suit has
held power in the past. Just by being who I am, I disrupt the patriarchal
patterns in society and change how people think of leadership.

38 | FORBES AFRICA MARCH 2020 FORBESAFRICA.COM