In todays booming entrepreneurial world, so many see prominent entrepreneurs excelling and are motivated become entrepreneurs which is a really good thing to be. But it is always important to know how these entrepreneurial role models have managed to be where they are today, what obstacles and challenges they have faced and why they never gave up.
There are billions of entrepreneurs in the world at the moment but some started their journey a very long time ago and have converted their challenges to opportunities and are now living their dreams.
Of such, we take the case of a prominent Cameroonian-American tech entrepreneur who has stood out and has been a voice in the noise. We will take a look at how an African woman became the pinnacle of African technology, impacting lives and influencing her generation by leading the way for many generations to come.
Meet Rebecca Enonchong, Founder and CEO of Appstech and co-founder of Active Spaces.
ABOUT REBECCA ENONCHONG
Born in Cameroon in July 14, 1967, Rebecca Enonchong migrated to the United States with her family when she was just a teen in the early 1970s. As a child back then, she needed to further her education.At just 15, she was already an aspiring entrepreneur, as she would pick up a job as a newspaperseller to earn some cash.
Her hard work would earn her a position as manager for the same company at just of 17. This says a lot about an African child in a foreign land who was rising against all odds. Rebecca was already outstanding as a kid and while working as manager, the young brilliant Enonchong would then go on to graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree and also a Master in Science degree in Economics at the Catholic University of America. How impressive is this? That was young Enonchong who was full of possibilities.
After wrapping up her education, Enonchong had to gain more entrepreneurial experience, by working for a number of organizations including Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and Oracle Corporation all in the United States.
With the experience got and the quest not to be limited by what she could do as a daring woman, Enonchong took a bold step to establish her own company in 1999. She founded the company AppsTech, a Maryland-based company that provides global enterprise application solutions
After establishing her own company as a foreigner, the journey would be challenging, and knowing tough it would be, Enonchong being smart has to play the role of an employee to her own company, representing the company in big conferences.
After settling in the game with the experience she had amassed, she and her newly but limit breaking company would begin to reap the fruits of her labor in the early years of their creation.
With the anxiety to contribute to her community where she originated from, Appstech, then decided to expand her horizons to Africa, establishing up to seven offices in Cameroon, and as difficult as the country’s economic system was, the breeze of challenges would hit her so bad and majority of her offices would shutdown.
She didn’t give up back then and only turned her challenges into new opportunities where she to establish new venture called Active Spaces. The Cameroonian-based incubator was founded in 2001 at the Africa Technology Forum hosted by the World Bank and it finally launched in 2010.She saw the new incubator that nurtures startups as an easy means to build the economy.
“It’s one of the easiest and simplest ways to build our economy through digital innovation. I really believe that it’s one of the areas that can have the most impact that requires the least investment.”
Since its official launch in 2010, the initiative has gone a long way to help young Africans establish themselves in the tech era and continue to do so.
PHILANTHROPIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
Not just business for self gain alone, she has spent a huge part of her career promoting technology especially in Africa. She has carried out the work in both the U.S. and in Africa. She was the founder and Chairperson of the Africa Technology Forum, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping technology startups in Africa.She is also a member of the board of directors for the Salesforce.com Foundation. She is on the board of VC4Africa, which is one of the largest online communities in Africa that is dedicated to entrepreneurs and investors.
She is a member of the UK Department for International Development’s Digital Advisory Panel,and was has been involved with the UN’s Women Global Advisory Committee and the United Nations ICT Task Force.
She has dedicated and spent much of her career,promoting technology in Africa. She has carried out the work in both the U.S. and in Africa. She is the founder and Chairperson of the Africa Technology Forum, a non-profit dedicated to helping technology startups in Africa, no wonder she has been named severally amongst other influential women in Africa
ACHIEVEMENTS
it is not an exaggeration that Enonchong is called a serial tech woman. The 52-year-old has been instrumental in providing tech solutions to over 50 countries in over four continents. She can boast of an outstanding career, and her works without doubts is evident.
In 2002, The World Economic Forum of Davos, Switzerland named Enonchong a Global Leader for Tomorrow (GLT) along with other tech entrepreneurs such as Google co-founder Larry Page and Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff.
In 2013, Enonchong was recognized as a finalist for the African digital woman award. In March 2014, Forbes listed her as one of the ‘10 Female Tech Founders to Watch in Africa, she changed the status from just being watched to being referenced and looked up to as ones of the most influential African woman.
She was named in the list of 100 Most Influential Africans in SCIENCE, TECH & INNOVATION by the New African Magazine and Jeune Afrique’s 50 Most Influential Africans.
Is it not encouraging seeing African women take centre stage in technology? Enonchong like any other tech woman doing things for the African continent and the world at large, are pace setters and a success story like hers is an encouragement to women that they can only be limited by their mind.The entrepreneurial journey won’t be easy, but it is very possible.
