Did you know that women make up just 22% of the workforce in the Tech industry?
In fact, according to the Financial Institutions Training Centre, only 22% of the total number of engineering and technology university graduates in Nigeria are women. The numbers don’t lie: Nigeria’s tech industry still has a long way to go when it comes to gender inclusion.
But Naomi Williams is done waiting for permission or change. The brilliant technocrat is shifting her focus from just building products to building capacity and equipping the next generation of Nigerian girls to change the technological landscape of Nigeria in the next 50 years.
On May 7th, The Stack Journal sat down with Naomi Williams, Chief Operating Officer of Black Girls in Tech Nigeria (BGIT), to talk about her journey, her vision for Nigerian girls, and why the future of Nigeria might depend on the girls no one is watching yet.
Naomi introduces herself first as a technocrat, but one whose purpose extends past product building. Her true calling lies in building and equipping young women.
For Naomi, it all begins with education, a foundation she believes is non-negotiable for meaningful change.
“It all starts with educating young women. Yes, I know how to build great products,” she says, “but the products do not just exist in isolation or a vacuum. They serve ecosystems, and those systems need people to build and maintain them. If you don’t have people or young populations who can contribute to that ecosystem, then what’s the point?”
It was this belief that led Naomi to take on a leading role at Black Girls in Tech Nigeria (BGIT), a movement born during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She explained that there was already a community of Black girls in tech in Nigeria, and she decided it was time to start serving that community.
“Between October 2022 and early 2023, I had an epiphany that we actually need to be doing more here,” she says. “The need was too great to ignore. We had to do more and scale our efforts across Nigeria.”
Naomi talked about how her experience as a Black Woman in the UK tech space has shaped her leadership and mission.
“I am often the only Black woman on my team, and as a Black woman, you have to work twice as hard for half the recognition, half the pay. You have to constantly prove yourself.”
“We’re often underpaid, underserved—we get the short end of the stick. So, we have to fight for everything we have, we have to prove that we really know our work, and we have to be the most expert to ever exist. I believe it is that work ethic that has allowed me to make progress in my career.”
Building BGIT has not been easy, it has taken consistent effort, advocacy, and outreach. When asked what it took to build a sustainable support system for Black women in tech, Naomi says it takes drive.
“It takes drive. What we’ve built in the past four, five years is no small feat. It means leveraging our relationships with people, reaching out on other people’s behalf, being an advocate, being an example, and just showing up every day. If we didn’t show up, the work would not happen. Because at the end of the day, we’ve taken on this mantle and said, okay, you know what, we’re the voice for Black girls in the tech space or those who want to come into the tech space.”
BGIT has made an impact by building community, relationships, outreach, bootcamps, mentorship and educational programs. At the centre of these efforts is a commitment to inclusion. So, we asked Naomi what inclusion meant for her.
“Inclusion for me means that everyone’s voice is heard. And I guess for me, to be honest, it means that Black women, girls get a fighting chance in the first place. We make it to the seats at the table so that we can have a voice. There is no point in saying you’re inclusive if the people who need to be included aren’t even there. Inclusion means that everyone has a seat at the table, and no one misses out on an opportunity.”
“For BGIT, inclusion means girls have a chance at digital education. That they can sit at a computer, create something, or join the workforce with confidence.”
She was quick to point out that Lagos and Abuja are the major states that are often in Nigeria’s tech headlines.
“They host different tech programs, and have a lot of fintech companies, but if we want real inclusion, the other 34 states should not be left out.”
“There are other cities in the country, and there are people in the north or east that are probably not even digitally included. My aim for BGIT is to bring people who will eventually be the new Nigeria or the tech-enabled Nigeria.”
Looking back, Naomi wishes she had started earlier, but she’s learned that movement beats perfection every time.
“If you keep planning, you’ll never start. I wish I’d known that. Start, build, and figure it out along the way. If you’re not building, there’s nothing to improve, iterate on or make better.”
Naomi leaves no room for doubt when advising younger Black women in tech, especially those who feel they need to shrink themselves to succeed in the tech space.
“You don’t need to shrink yourself. You just need to live out loud and make sure you know your stuff so no one can dispute your reasoning.”
She shares an example of standing firm in her role as a researcher, refusing to let others dictate how she should do her job.
“There was a time when I was working with a designer as a researcher, and the designer was trying to tell me how I should ask the question. And I am like, with all due respect, I am the researcher here. If I am going to ask a question, there is a reason I am doing that. I don’t want to lead the participants. You can’t feed me what you want to hear, I am going to use the method I was trained in to ask the participant important questions. There is a reason why you are the designer and I am the researcher.”
“I don’t say it harshly, but I’m clear, I was trained for this. If you let people overstep, they will. You just have to speak up.”
Finally, we asked her what the next big plan was for her and Black Girls in Tech Nigeria.
“The next big plan is to expand the programs we run in the Southwest to other regions. We want to educate and equip women in the North, East and North West. We don’t want to just focus on Southwest. We still have to break down this traditional, archaic idea of girls not being allowed to go to school in the first place, especially in the north. Then, when they go to school, they can focus on a particular field.”
“We want digital education for every girl, not just access to a phone, but the skills to build, write, create. Whether or not they go into tech, these are skills they need for the modern workforce.”
Naomi is not just preparing girls for today, she is preparing them to lead the Nigeria of tomorrow. She is rewriting the story of what tech in Nigeria can be. Because sometimes, the future depends on the girls no one is watching.