Catherine Mahugu is a graduate from University of Nairobi with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. She has been involved in various ICT for Development projects including Stanford University’s Nokia Africa Research Center Design Project building mobile applications targeting informal communities. Kate co-founded SasaAfrica, a woman-owned and operated social enterprise that empowers craftswomen to become global entrepreneurs. Sasa is a first-mover connecting offline vendors to online consumers using simple mobile phone technology, facilitating global peer-to-peer trade. SasaAfrica provides a widespread simple mobile-to-web e-commerce platform, connecting micro-manufacturers in emerging economies to the global marketplace, enabling economic growth and bridging the digital divide.
Catherine joined the SasaAfrica team to help develop a scalable and appropriate technological solution, and manage technology integration across mobile and web platforms
What would you say are the most challenging and the most satisfying aspects of your work?
Starting up a company was not one of the easiest tasks to do especially starting a tech company. Most people in my country would rather take the safe route by working for a corporate company to ensure job security. I went against the norm by being a techpreneur.It was a learning curve because having technical skills does not guarantee continuity, sustainability and success of the venture. I had to develop skills required to improve my leadership and entrepreneurial abilities. Joining an accelerator programme, participating in competitions like ITU World Young Innovators competition and receiving invaluable mentorship helped me fine tune the skills I had while simultaneously uncover the key elements of an effective corporate strategy.
Finding the right candidates who would work at SasaAfrica was one of the challenges in starting and growing the company. For a company to be successful in achieving its vision, mission and goals the staff plays a crucial role in defining the company’s foundation as well as defining the blueprint to building the company’s strategic policies that will ensure its success and have a positive impact in the community. It was a challenge getting a woman to join the tech team after sending out the job applications. From all the job applicants resumes that I received none was from a woman for the tech hire. That was a harsh reality that dawned on me that we still need more women in technology and collaboratively need to promote this awareness.
Most satisfying aspect of my job is the work and cultural diversity that is encompassed at the work place, the dedication each team member puts in their individual work while collaborating to achieve a common goal of promoting a more equitable and distributed international trade for artisans in emerging economies and help eradicate economic discrimination against women. SasaAfrica would not be where it is today without its dedicated staff.
What qualifications or certifications did you attain in order to reach your professional goals?
I recently graduated from University of Nairobi where I was studying for my Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. During my four years in University. I was actively involved in most ICT projects and opportunities offered at the University.
While in campus, I got a great opportunity to attend the Design Liberation Technology course offered at Stanford University in the year 2010 and I did a number of researches on behalf of the Nokia Research Centre. Furthermore, I have carried out ICT4Development trainings for on-going projects owned by ICT hubs in Kenya. These trainings are based on a user centred and design approach involving renowned Kenyan computer programmers to use such an approach when creating problem solving applications.
As one of the co-founders of SasaAfrica,I have introduced this same approach in the company resulting to positive feedback from both the consumers and vendors on the Sasa platform. This led to the quick uptake of the technology from the local vendors who have seen the economic value SasaAfrica is offering and how ICT can be used as a tool to end poverty reduction. All this was noted during our Summer of 2011 pilot .The pilot was a proof of concept that our business ,technology and social models that are women driven and women innovated can help close the digital divide.
If there is one message you would like to convey to young women to encourage them to consider a profession in the ICT sector, what would it be?
Being a female entrepreneur in the male-dominated tech industry is challenging, and comes with a distinct set of barriers. When one woman helps another, amazing things can happen. Professional careers leap forward. I believe providing my personal experience and message to like-minded women can be very beneficial.
Women often have a taller mountain to climb to advance their careers in the technology industry as there are few women role models they can strive to emulate. Women face harder choices between professional success and personal fulfilment .There are countless of opportunities for women in tech out there. Devote yourself to an idea, make it happen, struggle on it, overcome your fears and most importantly not forgetting it is your dream. Believing in yourself will fuel your inner drive and consequently turn the idea from a dream to reality.
Even as natural leaders, many women often do not know that they are leaders. One of the great qualities of women leaders is that they often tend to cultivate relationships through collaboration and team-building, with less emphasis on hierarchy and status.
No matter how many times you fall down, always stay strong and gather courage to get back up again. Never give up. Learning from success is important but learning from failure is vital to succeeding.
