When Amanda Obidike kickstarted her first job as a business graduate in 2012, she was excited and optimistic. Based in Lagos, Nigeria, she had secured a role in the fast-moving consumer-goods sector at an organisation owned by her uncle. But it wasn’t long before the reality of her new career failed to live up to both her expectations and ambitions.
“One year went by, two years went by, and I soon realised that there must be more for me than just writing out invoices and doing house receipts,” says Obidike. “I was depressed, demoralised and needed something that could challenge my reasoning and true purpose.”
She Googled her options – a deep-dive that had her reading about the future of robotics and technology. Obidike landed on data science as a pathway that offered the innovative career she dreamed of, and which required no prior experience in engineering or computer science.
Obidike’s launchpad came in 2017, when she started a data-science course offered through IBM Digital Nation Africa – a cloud-based learning platform aimed at improving digital competency and innovation in Africa. She completed the course after an “intense” six months, but it wasn’t the new knowledge or skills that galvanised her next step – it was the broader perspective that she had gained about the potential of STEM study and careers.
“The typical thing would have been using these skills to get a better job, but I knew that other people like me were not aware of these opportunities,” says Obidike. “I thought, ‘Why don’t I also train younger people, mentor them, and give them some level of orientation in all of these future-focussed skills?’”
Obidike was invited by the University of Lagos to speak with girls about STEM and technical skills. This evolved into volunteering in her local community and teaching young people about robotics and technology, including working with them on projects at her home in Lagos.
She also launched her own private data-analysis business called Calal Global using both her data-science skills and IBM cloud services to help women-led small businesses better harness their own data to improve their operations and profitability. She initially worked pro bono to help the most in-need businesses.
Dreaming big
Obidike was full of energy and optimism, running her own budding business and supporting other young Nigerians in their studies and career paths. When she heard about a US$10,000 grant opportunity through the US Consulate in Nigeria, she jumped at the opportunity to ramp up her efforts.
“I was like, ‘Okay, this is my big shot,’” says Obidike, who started brainstorming pitch ideas that were focussed on addressing what she saw as Nigeria’s “leaky unemployment pipeline” – graduates enter the workforce without the right skills or qualifications to meet industry demand.
Based on feedback she was receiving from students, Obidike decided to focus her pitch on teacher education – specifically, she would train educators to better apply STEM resources and project-based learning in their classrooms.
Obidike won the grant, but for a reduced US$7000 – which she accepted based on an agreement that she could also bring in cost- and resource-sharing partners. She was quickly able to secure that for what became her new not-for-profit organisation, STEMi Makers Africa.
The focus of the organisation is on educator training – pedagogy workshops, meetups and webinars, and the provision of tools and resources to help teachers better integrate STEM learning into their classrooms. Other activities include hosting STEM clubs, hackathons and bootcamps for students, as well as innovation hubs and incubators for young entrepreneurs.
After 12 months, the US consulate was so impressed with what Obidike had achieved and the support she’d garnered from partners and stakeholders – including the likes of Google and Microsoft – that she didn’t even have to apply for another grant the following year. “They reached out to us and said, ‘How about you do this project on a bigger scale?’” Obidike recalls.
In 2019, the consulate further supported STEMi Makers Africa with US$40,000, an investment that Obidike has used to run several initiatives, including Project Kuongoza, which is a STEM mentoring programme for women and girls, and “Train-the-Trainer” workshops for educators, which are focussed on project-based STEM education. Held in Nigeria, these workshops include professional-development webinars and in-person meetups, as well as classroom tools and resources.
Home-grown impact
At the time of publishing, STEMi Makers has trained 1,808 educators, supported 132 STEM entrepreneurs and has impacted thousands of Nigerians who have taken part in the programme. The organisation has won several awards, including African Changemakers Technology Organisation of the Year 2023. Obidike herself has received more than 20 awards and fellowships, including being named on the Women4Africa Gold List – which celebrates African women “doing extraordinary things” to support Africa – and a Gold Stevie Award for Female Innovator of the Year.
While her wins are impressive, they’ve been made in spite of some particularly tough challenges. Only 22% of primary schools in sub-Saharan Africa have access to electricity, for example, which makes delivering some of her programmes very difficult. In some parts of Africa, the traditional cultural norms distrust western education, especially for girls. Obidike has also mentioned instances where very talented educators – trained and supported by STEMi Makers – have secured invites to relocate and teach in the United States. It’s an exciting prospect for the teachers, but the fact that they have access to better opportunities overseas risks creating a brain drain for Nigeria’s education system, says Obidike.
“Training educators for other countries is heart-breaking,” says Obidike. “What I’m really desiring is to drive education reforms a few years from now.” This would include linking education reforms to digital policy, addressing gender divides and increasing teacher salaries, which average around 100,000 Naira per year (less than US$150).
In 2022, Obidike spent time in the United States to complete several fellowships, including the TechWomen fellowship for emerging leaders, an initiative of the US government. She is always keen to travel for any opportunities that might garner support and recognition for STEMi Makers, but the passionate Nigerian in her has always returned home. She is currently based in Enugu, a developing city in south-eastern Nigeria, which is in greater need of STEM education support.
AI futures
Obidike’s next big goal for STEMi Makers is to open a “hardware space” in Enugu. This would offer school students and entrepreneurs access to hardware, such as computers and 3D printers, as well as expert technical support.
“We’ve engaged educators, we’ve engaged students, and they have amazing ideas,” says Obidike. “But then we find out that they don’t have STEM or ICT labs, so we want to build this space that gives them access to sophisticated machines.”
She also hopes to secure more funding and partnerships with tech organisations, governments and international non-profit organisations. “To tell you the truth, there is a limit to what we can do,” says Obidike. “I can make recommendations for policy reforms in education, but I’m not a legislator. That can happen, however, when we enhance this collaboration across private and public organisations.”
Obidike has also continued her own career and studies in STEM – she still runs Calal Global part-time, which now employs 15 people, and is part-way through a PhD, which she is completing remotely through the City University of New York. Her research is focussed on using artificial intelligence (AI) to drive education reforms, with practical applications in mind – naturally tied to the goals of STEMi Makers.
“I chose AI to see how to connect it to policy,” she says. “It’s one thing to want to run with an initiative or a programme, but it’s another thing, especially in this part of the world, to lay a blueprint for sustainability long-term. So, I started a PhD because I needed to show the Nigerian government how it can actually refine our education policy using AI.”
In less than a decade, Obidike’s journey has taken her from an optimistic but under-equipped graduate to an award-winning entrepreneur, passionate STEM advocate and influential voice in education policy and reform. She believes this is only the beginning for the impact that she can achieve in Nigeria.
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Story by Gemma Chilton
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