Safaricom’s general manager of financial services Betty Mwangi is one of
the three Kenyans named as among Africa’s 20 most influential women in
technology this year by a Johannesburg-based online news firm.
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By Okuttah Mark
Posted Tuesday, August 27 2013 at 18:55
Posted Tuesday, August 27 2013 at 18:55
Three Kenyans have been named among Africa’s 20
most influential women in technology this year by a Johannesburg-based
online news firm
IT News Africa has feted Betty Mwangi-Thuo,
Safaricom’s general manager for financial services, Isis Nyong’o former
vice president for Africa at InMobi, the world’s largest independent
mobile advertising network, and Ory Okolloh, formerly a Google executive
and now director at an investment firm, Omidyar Network.
The Johannesburg-based firm reckons that the three
along other 17 women from Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana for deepening
ICT development in the continent, putting Kenya on the global
technology map.
“Each year South Africa celebrates National
women’s day, a day set aside to pay tribute to women in South Africa and
their role in development in the country. IT News Africa celebrated the
day by listing and paying tribute to twenty women in the continent who
have significantly contributed to the development in Information
Technology,” said the firm in a statement.
Ms Mwangi-Thuo has been in charge of the iconic mobile transfer service M-Pesa since its launch in Kenya in 2007.
She has seen it grow from a product that serves
7.3 million subscribers in 2009 to 15.3 million customers in March 2013,
increasing its revenues from Sh2.93 billion to Sh10.3 billion over the
period.
The mobile money transfer services that started as
a platform to send money from one person to another has evolved and is
now used for paying bills, schools fees and rent settlements.
Since its inception, M-Pesa has won several global
awards such as the Best Mobile Money transfer services in the Global
Mobile Awards.
In same breath as M-pesa, Ushahidi, a company
co-founded by Ms Okolloh, catapulted Kenya to global fame for pioneering
a software that has been used to monitor elections in Kenya, Mexico and
India, track violence in eastern Congo and map post-earthquake crisis
in Haiti.
Before her stint at Ushahidi, Ms Okolloh founded
Mzalendo, a website that helps Kenya’s electorate keep track of the
activities of their representatives in Parliament.
The platform closely monitors and analyses Bills,
speeches, and every MP who passes through Kenya’s Parliament, hence
promoting transparency and accountability.
Ms Okolloh quit Ushahidi in 2011 to join Google as
policy manager for Africa. She left the internet giant in April, moving
to the philanthropic investment firm, Omidyar Network.
Ms Nyong’o has also made a mark in the continent’s
technology scene. She now refers to herself as a tech entrepreneur
after quitting InMobi in January.
The holder of degrees from Stanford and Harvard
and has previously worked in senior management positions at MyJobsEye
(Kenya’s leading Job site), MTV, and most recently, Google.
Source: Daily Business
Source: Daily Business
