Rebecca Enonchong: Don't Wait, Act!

[sidebar_widget sidebar_id="sidebar-1" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]

"Entrepreneurship is just a matter of execution; too many big ideas and detailed business plans rest in the lockers".

These are the words of a woman who had dreams and ambitions, and took actions to transform these dreams into concrete solutions. A posture which enabled Rebecca Enonchong to impose her name in the male-dominated sector of information and communication technologies. At 48 years old, Ms. Enonchong is a reference in the tech scenery in Africa and particularly her home country, Cameroon. A celebrity she uses today, to encourage youth to ACT!Nothing predisposed her to become a spearhead in the tech sector worldwide. Owner of a Master of Science in Economics from the Catholic University of America, Rebecca Enonchong moved to the USA at the age of 15 with her father and mother. Prior to that, she had worked as a newspaper distributor for two years, at the end of which she became the manager of the company. Her fortitude earned her positions at famous companies which include Oracle Corp, the InterAmerican Development Bank, Atlantic group, Washington Group and Hyatt.Although very promising, her love for ICT took over when she dropped everything to start her own enterprise: AppsTech. First opened in 1999 in Bethesda Maryland, AppsTech is a global provider of software solutions for enterprises. The first African branch opened in Ghana in 2001, and later in Cameroon in 2002. She led the company with an iron handle. In 2002, she was named Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, together with famous names like Larry Page, Alphabet’s Inc. co-founder. One year later, she won the Benjamin Franklin award in Pennsylvania. In 2014, the company employing 50 workers earned her a position among the Top Ten Women Tech Entrepreneurs by the prestigious magazine Forbes.Beyond being a dauntless business woman, Rebecca Enonchong believes tech is the answer to all our fleas and so every beings MUST have access to that antidote. That is why, she actively engages in countless non-profit organisations. Boldness oblige, she is among the leading heads of all these organisations. From VC4Africa, the largest online community for entrepreneurs and investors in Africa, to Afrilabs, a network of tech innovative centers present in more than 20 African countries, her deeds on the old continent needs not to be proven. She also started ActiveSpaces, an incubator for tech start-ups in Douala, and Cameroon’s Silicone Mountain (Buea).From the height of her 69.8K followers on the micro-blogging platform Twitter, she is a reference for tech news in Africa, a platform she uses mainly for social activism. In 2016, she brought the world to her cause trending the hashtag #BringBackOurInternet against the internet shutdown in the anglophone regions of Cameroon. A great majority of the Cameroonian internet users and famous world figures like Edward Snowden joined the fight to #KeepItOn. One year later, she urged tech giant, Microsoft, to supply computers to a school in Ghana after seeing the effort of a teacher to teach Microsoft Word to students, with just a blackboard, and chalk. A request, which ended on the awaited intervention of the giant.

"You own the present, you don't own the future... Your children own the future... don't wait for the future... you can transform this country." - Rebecca Enonchong

During the #FaceAuxBlogueurs event held at the Institut Francais de Douala, she shared her keys to success; perseverance and self-confidence. Rebecca Enonchong’s spirited and purposefulness nature made her work her way up to the top of the tech sphere in Cameroon. She firmly believes the youth can change the world, only if they believe, and she knows that technology is a catalyst to that change. During the 4IR conference held in Yaounde, a conference that aimed at empowering the youth with new technologies, she made an acclaimed appearance. She closed the event with a final enlightening and vivid speech; "You are not the future, you are the present. Make things happen, NOW!"[/spb_text_block]