BY: Sandra Ani

As the world celebrate International Women’s Day 2020 today, we bring to you the unsung innovative women in Igbo land who contribute to success stories we share in the society.

In doing this, we hail Clean Technology Hub’s ‘Nwanyi Bu Ife’ campaign aimed at celebrating the unsung innovative and phenomenal Igbo Women in commemoration of International Women’s Day 2020.

Criteria for selection:

Clean Technology Hub narrowed its lenses on these women who are Igbos; making a difference in ‘Alaigbo’ (Igbo Land) and outside South Eastern region of Nigeria.

These women are impacting the society:

– Economically (through Poverty Alleviation)

– Politically (through job provisions)

– Health-wise

– Gender wise (women helping women)

– Educationally

They have been identified as source of inspiration to others through their success story displaying resilience, strength, hardwork, etc., even with some not necessarily educated/professionally certified.

Celebrate these women!

1.Amarachi Attama from Enugu state is the Founder of ỌJA Cultural Development Initiative, the Executive Director of “Nwadioramma Concept and the current Vice Chairperson of Association of Nigerian Authors Enugu state.

She is also a performing poet, a broadcaster and an active promoter of African and Igbo culture; a passion which she willingly gave up her job as a presenter with the Enugu State Broadcasting Service.

Through her initiative, she has been able to reawaken the Igbo culture consciousness especially among the children youths, promote and showcase Igbo cultural heritage as a people to the world through different cultural expressions.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES : Instagram- Amarachi_attamah. Twitter-  @amarachiattamah (Nwadioranma)

2. Amuzie Rose Ihudiya from Abia state is a first class graduate of Sociology from Covenant University, Ota.

She is a SDGs 4 (Quality Education) advocate and the Founder of b2schproject; a project aimed at providing educational opportunities to children in Ajegunle.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram- _Ihudiya. Twitter- _Ihudiya

3. Azuka Okeke from Enugu state  is the Regional Director of Africa Resource Center (ARC) which is an independent strategic advisor promoting collaboration to help countries achieve their health goals.

With over fifteen years of experience working on several international and local development projects, she has successfully supported the institutionalization of sustainable solutions in public health delivery in Nigeria.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: LinkedIn- Azuka Okeke. Twitter- @zukynokeke

4. Christiana Ozioma Ejiofor popularly called ‘IJELE’ from Anambra state is the anchor of “Obaegwu, Kaobanye_Na_Kaopuo” on Thursdays and “Ogeudo” on Fridays 5 – 6 PM, co-anchor of “Ijele” program on Mondays 12:30 – 2 PM and Fridays 8:30 – 9:30 PM, “Ikoro” on Wednesdays and former anchor of Voice to the People –  a community development program all on Solid 100.9 FM Enugu.

She is also an actress, content producer, entertainer, investigative journalist, radio presenter, marketer, reporter, a human rights activist and a custodian of Igbo language, culture and tradition in Nigeria and beyond.

 She has used her influence as an On Air Personality to drive a lot of humanitarian works some of which includes the reconciliation of people in disputes from the Southeast and fringes of Benue state, Delta state, among other states, recorded strides in people’s lives through providing health care for the less privileged, fundraising for citizens in dire need, and great benevolence through charity and more.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram- ijelesolid. Twitter-  @ijelesolid

5. Chioma Agwuegbo from Anambra state is the Founder of TechHer; a Founding partner at CC Consulting Services, a Founding editor at YNaija 2015, a writer, a political and social commentator whose work appears in Foresight for Development, Huffington Post, Premium Times amongst others.

Her work with Tech Her involves empowering thousands of women in becoming digitally educated and to help innovate with running their businesses, building their professional competencies and personal capacities.

Due to her leadership, TechHer has reached over 10,000 women across Africa – particularly in Nigeria and has emerged as one of the driving forces of women in Tech, Women in Digital Media and in advancing tech enabled women businesses.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram- Chiomachuka. Twitter- @ChiomaChuka

6. Dorothy Njemanze from Imo state is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Dorothy Njemanze Foundation.

She is also a filmmaker, actress, humanitarian, feminist, gospel pillar, public speaker and an investigative journalist who works to expose widespread abduction and sexual violence against women and girls in Nigeria.

Through Dorothy Njemanze Foundation, she has helped victims of violence access legal services, medical care, social services, education and increased economic empowerment. Her foundation also creates audiovisual materials in regional dialects to promote human rights awareness at the grassroots level.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram- dorymanze. Twitter- @dorymanze

7. Ebere Ifendu from Abia state is a legal practitioner, chartered mediator and conciliator, Gender and Human Rights Advocate, President of Women in Politics Forum (WIPF) which is a multi-party organization of women in politics who are members of Parliament, Women Executive officeholders, Women in civil society and other organizations that engage and develop strategies to achieve the mission of WIPF.

 She is also the Director Center for Gender Education and Rights, Gregory University, Uturu Abia state and the special assistant to the Seniority Minority Leader on Diaspora Gender and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram- womeninpoliticsng. Twitter-@ifenduEbere

8. Ifeoma Ajumobi popularly known as Ify-Melody from Anambra state is a media personnel, brands promoter, sales & marketing executive, top notch MC, public speaker, an event manager. She owns Mel – Media Entertainment, a media platform where she hosts her online TV shows and events.

She is currently one of the profound radio presenters in the south-eastern part of Nigeria.

She works with Solid 100.9FM where she anchors Business Matters; an outstanding business show on radio that has helped StartUp to grow and stay profitable through information sharing.

Through the show she has helped many youths start and sustain their own businesses.  She is also an ardent promoter of Igbo values and culture especially in the principles of hard work, integrity and collaboration.

Through her numerous outreach programs on radio, she has inspired people, youths and adults to become more patriotic and embrace their originality.

She has organized various empowerment trainings for youths and equipped them with relevant skills such as Digital Marketing Skill in the bid to close the gap that exist in the Southeast.

She is runs a mentorship program for many young aspiring media personnel in Enugu where she resides.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram-  @ifyMelody1.  Twitter- @Melmedia2013 & Ify_melody1

9. Glory Oguegbu from Anambra state is the Founder of Glow Initiative for Economic Empowerment under which their environmental arm – Climate Smart Nigeria – is promoting Climate Change Education in Nigerian institutions and providing capacity building on renewable energy technologies.

She is also the Chief Instructor of Renewable Energy Technology Training Institute (RETTI) an institute she founded in 2018 which focuses on grooming the next generation of efficient installers and entrepreneurs with a focus on women to serve as a competent workforce for the Renewable Energy industry and provide solutions to Nigeria’s energy problems as entrepreneurs.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram- glory_shirley. Twitter-@GloryOguegbu

10. Kate Chinenye Maduekwe from Imo state is currently a staff at the University of Abuja, FCT Nigeria and a board member in Late General Emmanuel Abisoye’s Foundation.

She has been actively involved in many humanitarian activities some of which include “Feed The Widows Campaign” and “Get Her Kids Education.”

Her pet project “Feed The Widows Campaign” is a grassroot association established with the consent of her parish priest, where she solicits for the provision of basic needs for widows and their children.

Following a change of parish, she was still able to establish her pet project through the assistance of family, friends, and some church members. It is in its 3rd year of existence.

Her second project, “Get Her Kids Education” started when her attention was drawn to indigent young girls who work as house helps within her estate and it focuses on mentoring and securing admission at higher education for these house helps and the underprivileged in her environment.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram- katemaduekwe

11. Nkasiobim Nebo from Enugu state is the Founder/Director of PeachAid Medical Initiative.

She is also a skilled community health advocate with experience in maternal and child health issues in rural communities across Africa, a humanitarian worker experienced in Reproductive Health and Family Planning and a Gates Institute Global Health Leadership Accelerator Fellow.

Through her medical initiative “Peach Aid” which is a community based humanitarian organization she has provided menstrual cups, clean delivery kits for prevention/management of infections and Postpartum Hemorrhage at child delivery, antenatal care, family planning services, high-quality contraceptive methods, trainings for Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) and Community Health Extension Workers (CHEW) to enable them advance their knowledge and skills on maternal issues and has afterward set up linkages between the two for improved supervision of TBA’s activities in rural communities across Nigeria.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram- nkasiobim. Twitter- @nkasiobim

12. Nkem Okocha from Delta state is a Nigerian social entrepreneur, an activist and the founder of Mamamoni; a Fintech social enterprise that empowers low-income rural and urban slum women with free vocational skills, financial skills and microloans so as to enable them generate livelihood income to feed and educate their children and also provide loans to help break barriers in accessing finance.

Through Mamamoni’s web platform (www.mamamoni.org) socially-conscious individuals can lend money to low-income women for their small businesses.

Mamamoni has also been able to set up a liquid wash enterprise Levantar where low-income women in the community are trained and few of them get employed in the enterprise as factory workers and trainers.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram- Okocha.nkem. Twitter- @Okochankem

13. Uchenna Onwuamaegbu Ugwu from Anambra state is the Chief Executive Officer of Edufun Technik, a strategic Need-Based Teaching & Learning-facilitating organization, designing and deploying knowledge-based disruptive innovative approaches to STEM with focus on developing children’s potential skill-sets and talents by providing quality hands-on-training on Computer-language Coding/Programming, Design-Thinking, and Robotics, to inspire young kids to become Great Thinkers, Problem-Solvers, Innovators and Tech Leaders while guiding them to make right career decision for positive community impact.

In 2018, she led and mentored a team of young girls from Regina Pacies Secondary Onitsha, Anambra state to the final stage of Technovation 2018 World Pitch Summit in Silicon Valley, California USA; where girls from around the world are exposed to learning and application of the skills they need to solve a community problem using technology.

Her team “Save A soul” won a gold medal putting Nigeria in the world map of Tech and Innovation Gold Medalist.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram- uchenna_golden. Twitter- @ uchesilver

14. Ugoma Adegoke from Abia state is a creative entrepreneur and foremost multi-arts cultural curator, gallerist, community builder, adventurer, the Founder/Chief Curator of BLOOM Art, the festival director of Lights, Camera, Africa Film Festival and the producer of the annual WOMAN RISING Music Concert and Arts Weekender. She is also an avid volunteer lending her voice, network and support to organizations like Enough is Enough Nigeria, United for Kids Foundation, Run for A Cure Africa and Living Fountain Orphanage.

WOMAN RISING Music Concert and Arts Weekender is an annual commemoration of International Women’s Day and a glorious celebration of women in arts and women that enable arts while Lights, Camera, Africa Film Festival is a non-profit initiative, a public film festival which celebrates the best of African independent cinema and is aimed at bringing film-makers and their audiences together.

Through her private gallery and her work as a consultant curator for Constant Capital, where she hosts and curates quarterly exhibitions, she supports and promotes the work of artists and creatives.

In 2019, she provided working opportunities and mentorship to over 50 young people.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram- ugomaadegoke. Twitter-@livingzebra

15. Ujuaku Akukwe from Anambra state is the CEO of Frances-Ashley Media and the co-Founder of Leaps and Bounds Entertainment Limited; a private platform where she sponsors young filmmakers to a film school in Nigeria. She is also an international award-winning documentary filmmaker, entrepreneur, author and mother of three children.  

Her extensive experience and practice cuts across media consultancy, content design and social works.

She is the Director and writer of Afia Attack: Trading Behind Enemy Line Her passion for the African women led her to organize trainings and mentorship programs owing to the fact that they’re being subdued, stereotyped and are not been encouraged to express themselves as they deem fit cause in most cases they are being frowned at when they dare step outside the box which in turn as an effect on the self-esteem of the African women as they get scared of breaking the norm and embracing who they really are or truly desire to be.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram- ujuaku.akukwe. Twitter- @ujuakum

16. Vanessa Nnadi from Enugu state is a Physiotherapist, a young leader, a service-oriented humanitarian and a lady who is very passionate about Emotional and Mental Wholeness.

She is the Convener of Moments with Vanessa, a platform where people embark on the journey of self-discovery, overcoming low self-esteem, overcoming the psychological effects of all forms of abuse, dealing with depression and suicidal thoughts.

This platform has led to the birth of secondary school reach outs and a series titled “LET’S TALK” which provides a safe space for people to share their Emotional and Mental struggles without any feeling of being judged.

She is also the founder of Green Ice Foundation; a Non-Governmental Organization that is committed to women empowerment, girl-child education and women’s health.

She’s a well sought Public Speaker on topics related to women, girls, and emotional/mental wellbeing.

Vanessa Nnadi is a YALI RLC West Africa Alumni and also an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society, awarded to her due to her commitment in promoting the values of Commonwealth and working to improve the lives and prospects of the Commonwealth citizens. 

She is happily married to an amazing man and a huge pillar of support, Barr. Kene Nnadi.

Her vision is to raise extraordinary, impactful and confident people in her generation.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram- Nessa_Nnadi. Twitter- @Nessa_Nnadi

17. Sunshine Chikezie from Abia state is a radio presenter, a red carpet host and the Founder of Boy-Child Movement; an initiative aimed at sensitizing the Boy-Child, giving the Boy-Child an opportunity to be more than a drug addict, a street hooligan, a rapist or a criminal. 

She has previously worked with Radio Nigeria, Pacesetter 103.5 FM, Unity 100.5 FM and Absu 101.9 FM. Although she is not with any radio station at the moment she still is passionate about working. 

Her initiative saw the need to be the voice and strength of the Boy-Child, to educate them that they become better humans and not just growing up to be a better man, that they live above the general demoralizing thought and belief about the Boy-Child being the sole reason for civil unrest and violence in our societies and communities.

Steps taken by the initiative in achieving this case involves: school sensitization, digital skill training and a major conference for the Boy-Child in Ebonyi state.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram- _sunshine_chikezie. Twitter-  _sunshine_chikezie

18. Nguzo Ogbodo from Enugu state is a corporate lawyer, activist, and the founder of Hope and Dreams Initiative; a Non-profit Governmental Organization dedicated to providing books to children in underserved communities in order to change the poor reading culture, transform the educational experience and impact the future leaders.

She has fought to expand access to safe sanitation, clean water, and menstrual products through the creation of WASH reading rooms (libraries) in schools that provide menstrual hygiene education for Nigerian girls to help/encourage them to stay in school.

She is currently working on a menstrual hygiene book that will be culturally and age-appropriate and is also working on the production of a reusable menstrual product that will be sustainable for every menstruating girl in Nigeria and Africa.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram- nguzoogbodo. Twitter- @hopedreams_org

19. Ukamaka Okoye from Enugu state. She is the Managing Director and coordinator of Emco Foundry Works where she oversees the company management business and technical related activities, establishes and implements company policies.

Her company Emco Foundry Works is into the light manufacturing of auto, motorcycle and tricycle spares such as battery head terminal for all vehicles, motorcycle hand clutches and brakes for different kinds of motorcycles, tricycle hands and so on. 

Emco Foundry Works is also into the production of durable and innovative value-added quality range of auto, motorcycle and tricycle spares.

Ukamaka Okoye has ten (10) years’ experience in the business and she was motivated to venture into the business due to her passion and interest for it.

20. Dr. Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia from  state is a leading expert in health law in Nigeria and is the Managing Partner of Health Ethics and Law Consulting which works extensively in the Health and Social Sectors.

She advises on Health Sector reform nationally and internationally, including areas of health financing, universal health care, patient safety, quality, research ethics, etc. She is also an Associate Professor at Babcock University School of Law and Security Studies where she teaches Health Law and Policy.

Her Non-profit Organization, the Center for Health Ethics Law and Development (CHELD), does extensive work and enlightenment on mental health amongst other health issues. Its advocacy for the decriminalization of attempted suicide in Nigeria was recently featured on CNN. 

She is a member of Nigeria’s National Health Research Ethics Committee, the Technical Working Group on Legislation, Policy, and Compliance on E-Health, the International Bar Association Life Science and Health Committee, etc. 

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES: Instagram-  cheluchio. Twitter- @Cheluchi_O