In the past couple of years, many companies have sprang up, leveraging technology in the day to day running of their businesses.
I, recently, had a chat with Ugochi Nwokeji, Founder, DBTclean, an outfit designed to solve mild to heavy dirty management problems, on Tech Trends show on Channels Television, where she gave an insight into women in technology, why she is leveraging technology in her business and lots more.
CFA: Ogochi, glad to have you on the show today.
Ugochi: I’m happy to be here. Thanks you CFA.
CFA: Tell me. What is your take on the numbers of girls and women in technology today?
Ugochi: Very poor, actually, if you ask me. Technology as well as business in general. Very poor.
CFA: As a woman in technology, why do you think that is the case?
Ugochi: The environment. The environment does not encourage women and I do not blame the environment.
It’s something that has been passed on from ages. Women are believed to be the weaker sex and you do not blame them because, women are technology themselves.
The way the woman’s body is created, we are technology itself. There’s so much happening with the woman. That is why it is difficult to have a woman President because, what would you say, when there is an emergency and this woman is in labour?
It becomes difficult. They call them the weaker sex because, there are some things about the woman that makes her disadvantaged from taking up some positions. Not just in technology but in business in general.
CFA: Now, the world of technology is clamouring for diversity. How do you think we can encourage some of the trends you have mentioned to now change?
Ugochi: First of all, we need to first begin to change our mindset. The guys need to give us some credit and understand that, because I’m a woman, doesn’t mean that I can’t do these things. There needs to be a reset of our mindset. I went for a program at Founder Institute recently. There were so many of us that started that program and 23 people graduated. Guess, 5 out of 23 were just women!
I felt very uncomfortable, really. How can we have 23 people and just 5 women? What’s happening? Why is it not 10 women, at least and we have 13 men?
5 women? That felt very strange to me. Where are all the ladies? And a couple of ladies I know, dropped out because, it was difficult managing home. Being a wife, being a mother, being a daughter, being a tech person as well, so, it’s difficult. Some men cannot stand it, especially, with the married women, it’s quite tough for them.
Some men can’t stand it when the woman has to come back late, when she has to go for brainstorming meetings, instead of making ‘eba’ and ‘moinmoin’, (food), at home, instead of thinking of how they can make more babies, you’re looking for how to go for this or that. We need to change this mindset and the women need to get up and own up to their responsibilities as women as well.
CFA: Why did you decide to leverage technology to grow your business?
Ugochi: If I don’t use technology, I don’t know what I’m doing in business, except I don’t want to grow. My mum did business for so long and it was that small because, she never thought of technology. This is where we are today. You can’t do anything without technology. Mind you, technology is not the business. Business exists.
We only use technology to make it easier and scalable, so, yes, if I have to grow, I’ve tested the business and it’s viable, how do we grow, how do we scale? Without technology, you’re not moving. I think this is part of the problems we have in the society. People build a big name into technology and scare people away.
Technology is just a means to solve an existing problem. The problem is not technology. The problem exists, so, you just use technology to solve it. There’s no other way around it.
You can watch the full interview here
