Meet Ada Nduka Oyom: Nigeria’s Tech Queen and Founder of She Code Africa

Ada Nduka Oyom, also known by her online handle “Kolokodess,” is a Nigerian software developer, developer relations expert, and founder of She Code Africa. Born and raised in the suburban part of Lagos, Nigeria, she grew up as the second child and only daughter in a family of four children. Her father, who regularly brought home daily newspapers, instilled in her a love for reading and staying informed from a very tender age. This early exposure to information and her organized, responsible upbringing would later shape her approach to community building and leadership. Ada Nduka Oyom journey with technology began in high school when her father brought home a single PC for the entire family.

 She and her brothers would take turns using it, with restricted hours an experience that taught her both resourcefulness and the value of shared access to technology. “I was still unaware of all of the things that I could do with it,” she recalled. “I have no idea what to do with it, I mean, aside from playing games and doing the homework and just began typing”.

From Microbiology to Tech: An Unconventional Path

Ada’s academic journey took an unexpected turn when she enrolled at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) to study Microbiology. It was during her second year in 2014 that she watched the movie “ The Intern“, which depicted life at Google. “I got fascinated by it and decided to take my love for gadgets a step further,” she explained.

Ada Nduka Oyom discovered an active Google Developer Student Club (GDSC) on campus then run by Google Student Ambassadors and attended her first event. “Immediately I knew that it was something I wanted to keep up with,” she said. For about a year, she participated in most events using only her phone, as she didn’t have a laptop. This constraint proved frustrating “one minute I could be trying to practice using a language syntax without even running any program and next minute, my phone crashes!”  but it also demonstrated her determination. By her third year, she had become the lead for the Google Developer Group (GDG) chapter at UNN, now known as DSC UNN. She led the chapter for two years before graduation, organizing over 50 events and building a network that would prove invaluable to her career. “That role alone gave me a lot of exposure into tech and I have come to cherish all of that till date,” she reflected.

Early Career and Professional Development

After graduating in 2016, Ada Nduka Oyom faced significant challenges breaking into tech. “Getting a laptop to help with my learning was war,” she recalled. “Let’s not talk about how hard it was even getting a stable editor APK installed on my phone”. She attended a 3-month bootcamp while continuing self-learning through FreeCodeCamp.org. Her early career included roles at FindWorka and as Developer Relations Lead at Interswitch Group, one of Africa’s largest payment processing companies. Her technical stack includes JavaScript (React & Vue), Python (Django), PHP (Laravel), and UI design with Figma . She also hosted the ForLoop Pod podcast, interviewing tech personalities and discussing industry issues.

The transition to full-time tech wasn’t easy. “Getting an internship or even into a Bootcamp program at the start was a lot more difficult for me as I came from a non-traditional background with very little programming experience and had to study twice as hard to make a good impression on the tests/interviews,” she explained. However, her microbiology background ultimately helped differentiate her. “It’s shown me that I can achieve/attain whatever it is I set my mind to and that mantra has done a great deal in most of what i do today,” she noted. “I’m known as the go-getter, the one who’s always trying out new things, the one who pushes a little harder”.

Founding She Code Africa: A Movement is Born

The inspiration for She Code Africa (SCA) came from a glaring observation during World Programmers Day in 2016. Ada noticed that only one Black woman from Africa was celebrated among women in tech globally. “It just came off weird to me somehow because over the couple of years while I was in school… I got to also interact with so many other amazing women in tech,” she recalled. She knew there were countless talented women doing remarkable work who lacked visibility and recognition. One month after completing her university education, Ada took a “huge step” and founded She Code Africa in 2016. What began as spotlighting interviews with her female friends on social media quickly evolved into something much larger. The organization’s mission is “to equip African girls and women with access to technology and digital skills training, bridging the gender gap and fostering economic independence”.

Today, She Code Africa has grown into one of the continent’s most influential women-in-tech movements, with:

• Over 30,000 community members
• More than 49,000 program beneficiaries and scholarship recipients
• Over 5,000 women trained through Academy and training programs
• More than 4 million people inspired by stories of African women in tech

The community provides a “safe space” for “SCA Queens” a term coined by community lead Omotola Omotayo offering employment, entrepreneurship, networking, and personal development opportunities.

Key Programs and Impact

Under Ada’s leadership, She Code Africa has launched numerous transformative initiatives:

• SCA Academy and Training Programs: Comprehensive technical training in web development, mobile development, cloud engineering, data science, and other fields. The academy has trained over 5,000 women
• Laptop Scholarship Program: Recognizing that many women begin their tech journey without essential tools, SCA provides laptops to selected beneficiaries. The initiative has partnered with organizations to award laptops during the 5th anniversary, SCA Summit 2022, and SCA Summit 2023’
• Contributhon (Open Source Bootcamp): SCA’s first open source program, launched in partnership with organizations including the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, Jenkins, CloudBees, and The @ Company. The program matched 15 women with 14 expert mentors for active open source contributions.
• Cloud School: In partnership with Deimos Cloud, SCA trained approximately 60 women in Site Reliability Engineering, with 8 progressing to internships and 4 receiving fully sponsored Nanodegree scholarships.
• SCA Summit: The largest gathering of women in tech in Africa, hosted annually since 2022. The hybrid events bring together thousands of participants for keynotes, panel sessions, workshops, and networking.

Google and Developer Relations Leadership

Since 2019, Ada has served as Developer Relations Ecosystem Community Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa at Google. In this role, she oversees Google Developer Groups (GDGs) and the Women Techmakers (WTM) initiative across the region. Her day-to-day involves coordinating events and global campaigns focused on Google’s internal product teams including Cloud, TensorFlow, Firebase, Flutter, and Android while championing diversity and inclusion initiatives. She has co-hosted the first-ever DevFest Inspire session (web track) targeting Google Developers across Europe and Africa, and made her Google I/O debut as a speaker in 2021.

Her transition to Developer Relations was intentional. “I started out in tech as a Software developer, my plan was to go full-stack, climb the ladder into becoming an Engineering manager,” she explained. “But I wasn’t deriving a lot of Joy from just coding every day of my life.” She discovered that Developer Relations allowed her to combine her technical knowledge with community building, public speaking, and technical writing. “So, you mean I could get paid for doing all of these things I loved to do? heck, sign me up!”.

Open Source Community Africa (OSCA)

A passionate advocate for open source, Ada co-founded Open Source Community Africa (OSCA) with Samson Goddy in 2018. The community aims to “spread the gospel of Open Source and engender the interest and participation of Africans in Open Source”. OSCA has grown to include 14 active chapters and hosts OSCAFEST an annual conference bringing together open source enthusiasts, advocates, and experts across Africa. The community focuses on building and diversifying open-source contributions from African developers, creating pathways for local talent to engage with global projects.

DevRel Lite and Mentorship

Recognizing the lack of resources for newcomers to Developer Relations, Ada launched DevRel Lite a platform to guide newbies in the DevRel space. “Who is in a better position to teach about a concept than someone who’s been involved in it for about seven (7) years?” she noted; Through tweets, Twitter Spaces, and blog posts, she demystifies Developer Relations and helps enthusiasts understand what the role entails.

Ada Nduka Oyom is also a dedicated mentor, volunteering under several programs to help more people grow in tech. Her mentorship philosophy emphasizes practical skill-building and confidence. “Set goals, work hard towards them, achieve them,” she advises women considering tech careers. “Being a woman in tech doesn’t just stop at bearing the title, the rest of the world is expectant to see what you can do, how far you can go, how resilient you can be, how smart your brains are and at every given opportunity, do not derail in letting them know your worth! You’re Smart, You’re Beautiful, You’re Intelligent! You’re a definition of Beauty and Brains”.

Awards and Global Recognition

Ada’s work has garnered numerous prestigious awards:

• Women in Tech Award, Nigeria Tech Ecosystem Awards (2025)— Most recent recognition for her outstanding contribution to the tech ecosystem
• Role Model Award, Booking.com Tech Playmaker Awards (2020) — Her first global award win, which she described as “who would have thought?”
• YTech 100 Honorees, Future Awards Africa (2019) — Recognition among Nigeria’s top young tech leaders
• Top 50 TechWomen of Lagos, TechCabal (2019) — Early career recognition
• 10 Most Inspiring Nigerian Women in Tech, Tecknext (2022)
• 100 Most Inspiring Women, Leading Ladies Africa (2022)
• Most Authentic Dev Advocate, HackerNoon (2022)
• Mozilla Open Leader — Alumni of Mozilla’s leadership program
• 100 Most Influential Women in Technology in Africa

She has been featured on the GitHub ReadME Podcast (2021), spotlighted by GitHub, collaborated with UNICEF Nigeria on World Youth Skills Day, and spoken at major conferences including Google I/O, DevFest, Digital Nigeria Conference, GITEX Africa 2023, and PyData Global Conference .

Philosophy and Vision

At the core of Ada’s work is a belief that “technology is not just about building products, it’s about building people” . She emphasizes that diversity in tech requires more than surface-level representation. “It’s more than just having an IWD event, it’s more than just playing ally or advocate on social media,” she asserts. “What are you doing as a company to help combat this? What policy are you putting in place to ensure that nursing moms don’t have to make difficult decisions between family and career?”

Her vision for She Code Africa is an Africa where women are equally represented across all career roles and levels in Technology. She believes in starting from the grassroots up, acknowledging that “the women in tech community in Nigeria and Africa still has a very long way to go,” but maintaining that “with the right support, initiatives and personnel, larger input can be gotten from the ladies”.

Personal Life and “Minister of Enjoyment”

Ada Nduka Oyom, beyond her professional achievements, embraces what she calls her “baby girl lifestyle” a commitment to joy and self-care that has earned her the nickname “Minister of Enjoyment” among friends. She is an avid traveler, having visited Ethiopia (Addis Ababa), Tanzania (Kilimanjaro & Zanzibar), and various Nigerian cities including Abuja and Enugu.

She maintains an active presence on social media, where she has gone viral on TikTok four different times, and shares her thoughts on technology, community building, and life through her Medium blog and Twitter/X account @Kolokodess. She describes herself as a “Software Developer | Developer Relations and Community Expert | DEI Consultant”. Her personal mantra reflects her journey from microbiology to tech leadership: “If I can work hard and come this far in Software development without a B.Sc degree in Computer science, then I or anyone else can achieve whatever it is they set their mind to