Changemakers: Juliet Ehimuan

Juliet Ehimuan EMBA2008 wants to raise human dignity by helping to develop human capacity and create opportunities for growth. But Ehimuan is not a charity boss or a UN chief. As Country Director of Google Nigeria, she’s a global tech leader whose contributions to technology and entrepreneurship have won her multiple awards and recognition, including being named one of Forbes’ 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa and featuring in the third series of the BBC Women of Africa strand, Power Women.

“With our technologies and economies today it’s more important than ever to not leave anyone behind,” she says. “Technology has the power to create a level playing field. Putting technology in the hands of people allows them to create their own opportunities.”

With Ehimuan at the helm, Google Nigeria is providing free digital skills training to 10 million Africans in five years. So far, through a combination of classroom and online lessons, three million have been trained. In Africa, where 11 million people enter the job market every year to compete for less than three million newly created jobs, the digital skills project is providing a much-needed boost; not just to Nigeria, but the whole region.

“The biggest problem in the world is disconnectedness,” she says. “Now, with a smartphone, you can be connected to anyone else in the world, or to any information you need, in seconds. That’s empowering.”

Ehimuan, who graduated from London Business School’s Executive MBA programme in 2008, has witnessed first-hand how technology can change lives. From the farmer who identified the ants killing his crops and saved his harvest by looking at photos of affected crops online, to the young man who became a globally acclaimed videographer by staying up all night to watch YouTube tutorials, she knows who she needs to reach.