Blessing Okwra

Nigerian education innovator who created accessible STEM programs for underserved communities

Blessing Okwra is a Nigerian entrepreneur and education innovator whose work has profoundly impacted access to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in West Africa. Born in Lagos in 1989, she witnessed firsthand the systemic barriers preventing girls from pursuing technical careers. This inspired her to found Edify in 2015, a social enterprise that develops low-cost, modular STEM labs deployable in rural schools. By 2019, her programs had reached over 50,000 students across 8 countries through partnerships with UNESCO and the African Union.

Okwra's breakthrough came with the development of the Mobile STEM Unit - a solar-powered container laboratory equipped with Raspberry Pi computers and 3D printers. This portable facility travels to remote villages, providing hands-on learning experiences that traditional schools couldn't offer. A World Economic Forum article highlighted her work as a model for tech education in developing regions.

Her 2017 initiative GirlsCodeAfrica has trained over 2,000 young women in coding and robotics, with 40% of graduates securing tech internships. Okwra's approach emphasizes community involvement, training local teachers to sustain programs long-term. In 2018, she was named one of Africa's Top 100 Innovators by the Tony Elumelu Foundation, and her TEDx talk "Closing Africa's STEM Gap" has over 1.2 million views.

Okwra's work addresses both educational inequality and gender disparity, creating pathways for marginalized youth to participate in the digital economy. Her modular model has been replicated in东南亚 and Latin America, demonstrating scalable solutions for global education challenges.