Blessing Koleoso

Nigerian tech entrepreneur revolutionizing STEM education access for African girls

Blessing Koleoso is a trailblazing Nigerian tech entrepreneur whose work has fundamentally transformed access to STEM education across West Africa. In 2021, she founded Blessing Koleoso Group, an organization that has trained over 15,000 girls in coding and digital skills through its CodeHerAfrica initiative. Her 2022 partnership with Google's Digital Garage program expanded this reach to include 300 schools across six countries.

In 2023, she launched Africa's first all-girls AI lab in Lagos, which now hosts an annual innovation challenge attracting 2,000 participants. Her work has been featured in Forbes Africa and Wired UK, with the World Bank citing her programs as a model for gender equality in tech education.

Key to her approach is the development of localized curricula addressing cultural barriers - her open-source platform provides materials in Yoruba, Hausa, and Pidgin English. Recent partnerships with MTN and Airtel have enabled mobile-based learning reaching 50,000+ rural students. Her 2024 TEDx talk 'Reimagining Tech Education for Africa's Next Billion' has garnered over 2 million views.