‘Just five percent of Nigerian engineers are women’

May 5, 2024

Prof. Rose-Margaret Ekeng-Itua is a multi-award-winning Professor of Engineering with over 20 years of experience in Engineering and STEM Education cutting across the USA, Europe and Africa, leading the creation of innovative programmes in STEM. Prof. Rose-Margaret is the first Black Woman to have earned a Doctorate degree (Ph.D) in Cybernetics in the world from the University of Reading in the UK under the supervision her first Ph.D supervisor Prof. Kevin Warwick who happens to be the first human Cyborg in the world. In this interview with Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf, the topflight scholar who earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering with Honours in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Federal University of Technology Owerri, Nigeria, shares interesting insights about her greatest motivation, aspirations for the girl-child giving back to the society, etal. Excerpts:

By your sheer accomplishments you have not only shattered the glass ceiling but proven many right that a woman can indeed become great in her own terms. How does it feel like to be one of globally recognised figures and accomplished academic in the world?

I feel honoured, humbled, and grateful with a deeper sense of responsibility to make greater impacts in our communities. It is a blessing to be recognised as a global thought leader for work that I enjoy and am passionate about. For me, it’s always been about adding value to communities and being part of “the solution”, so I am grateful for the opportunities and trust. The journey was definitely not without challenges, but now in retrospect, it is always in those challenging moments that the greatest innovations were birthed.  If the story of my career journey had soundbites, one of the soundbites would be – “adversity accelerates impactful innovations”. It is interesting to note that these innovations created in times of adversity somehow resulted in recognitions.

The recognitions, are really not about me, they are there to inspire and encourage anyone who needs a little ignition of inspiration to not give up on their dreams. They are there to ignite the spark of courage, confidence, connectedness and compassion.  They are there to inspire every African Woman and Youth to passionately pursue their purpose and their chosen careers in STEM believing that they will thrive in the field of STEM.

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You are a woman of many firsts in your career and the latest being the first black female to gain a Doctorate in Cybernetics. Did you dream of becoming this great?

I am a Dreamer-Doer-Thinker, so I always had dreams, but my dreams were not necessarily focused on being “great”, but more on how I could be a positive change agent, and how to create initiatives, programs and technologies that will impact the world positively. I am humancentric in my approach to making positive change hence, the field of Cybernetics gave me that opportunity as Cybernetics is centered on purposeful design of technologies for society and humans. This has always been my passion, and pursuing my passion and the dream to disrupt some societal misnomers propelled me to being the first black woman to earn a doctorate degree in Cybernetics. Being the first in anything is always retrospective, for me, the initial focus is always creating positively transformative impact.

From your days at the Federal University of Technology Owerri, Nigeria, where you earned your bachelor’s degree in engineering with Honours in Electrical Engineering, and the several academic laurels you have attained, you have left no one in doubt that your chosen career path is not by accident. What informed your choice of career?

I would say my love for Mathematics and Physics at an early age informed my choice of career. Also, I wanted to pursue a career that would give me the opportunity for creativity, innovation, collaboration, and positive impact in communities. It was also born from my wish at the age of nine to create platforms that connected the world to foster global unity for progress and appreciative understanding of global cultures. At that young age, I noticed a huge disconnect in what the Global North thought they knew about Africa which I call the Global South. There was a need to tell our real stories and that was what informed my decision to found African Technology & Innovation Institute (ATII) and Sabi Africa Network (SAN).

There are not many women in the engineering profession, especially in Nigeria. But your resounding success in this field otherwise dominated by men is a testament to your sheer determination and grit. Without prejudice to some of the initiatives you have put in place to boost the enrollment of women in engineering pursuit, what other measures or steps would you take to ignite the passion of women to make a career switch to engineering and STEM education?

Eliminating the gender disparity in Engineering in Nigeria needs to be a National Imperative. Data shows that Nigeria is trailing the rest of the world with just 5% of Engineers identifying as Women, while the global average is 26%.  Mentorship and Role modelling are key to ensuring that we bridge the gender divide in STEM and engineering. I am currently focusing on initiatives to support mentorships, coaching, sponsorship, skills development, entrepreneurship. At ATII and SAN we have programs tailored to support women into STEM especially engineering and emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Climate Justice, Agri-tech, Agrovoltaic, and Smart Manufacturing to mention a few. We have initiatives like the African Women Artificial Intelligence Forum, A Tech-preneur fellowship program for Women called She-Innovates-Africa. ATII has a Center for Women and Youth Empowerment dedicated to Policy Change and Advocacy for Women in STEM.  ATII’s Center for Women and Youth Empowerment is currently leading convenings of various relevant stakeholders in Nigeria and the continent to ensure African Women gender mainstreaming in STEM curriculum and text books. We must continue to create inclusive environments in the educational institutions and industry to ensure that women have a sense of belonging in Engineering.

It goes without saying that choosing the career path otherwise dominated by men, you didn’t have it smooth sailing. What challenges did you encounter along the way and how were you able to overcome them?

I would like to preface my response here by saying a big thank you to all the men allies that have supported me and other women in male dominated fields. The challenges range from the proverbial imposter syndrome, to facing micro/macro aggressions. It has been important for me to have my Support Village which includes my family, friends, mentors, coaches and sponsors. Most importantly my Faith has given me the intrinsic strength to stay the course and not quit on a career I enjoy.

What was your greatest source of motivation during your academic pursuit?

Societal Impact has always been my motivation. I also believe in having fun, so I pursued a path that I had a passion for and also gave me an opportunity to have fun while making an impact. My mother would always say that at the end make sure that you made your life count through making an impact in the lives of people and be happy.

Nigeria stands to benefit immensely from your wealth of experience especially around engineering and STEM education which are clearly your forte. For instance, your experience in Big Data is one area that is still new in Nigeria. Are you thinking of building any synergy of cooperation with the federal government or state government to see how to develop her capabilities and capacities in Big Data?

I am a firm believer that intentional collaboration is essential for scaling up of intergovernmental and interagency initiatives.   Our Ancestors were collaborators, so it is in our African societal DNA to collaborate. Africa can only lead through collaboration. Big Data sets the stage for another technology leap-frogging opportunity for Nigeria and the continent. To walk the talk, ATII is currently working with the Common Report Standard (CRS) Government Ministry for Youth and Skill Development on our Skill-Up program tailored to bridge the youth Big-Data skills gap in the State. We are also implementing our Digitize the Gap program which is a program designed to teach the youth especially girls about digitization and data. ATII also played a significant role in the establishment of the Women in Big Data chapter in Nigeria a few years ago. This group provides mentorship to Women interested in careers in the Big Data realm. ATII is leading in the emerging field of Big Data for Climate Justice. Climate Justice and Environmental resiliency present a one-of-a-kind opportunity for Nigeria to lean into Big Data. We at ATII believe in a sustainable model of train the trainer, so in partnership with Intel Foundation Nigeria, we rolled out the ICT and Digitisation training of secondary school teachers in CRS, we plan to do same this year with a goal of 1000 teachers trained on Big Data and Digitisation each year.

Many say that Data is the new crude oil, I think that that’s not a very apt analogy because data has more longevity and as such more ROI than even crude oil. Nigeria and the continent must position itself to be global leaders in the Big Data space. ATII is positioned to lead in creating a needed Big Data capacity development ecosystem on the continent.

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