Farida Bedwei: Meet powerful Ghanaian software engineer diagnosed with cerebral palsy
- Farida Nana Efua Bedwei is a Ghanaian software engineer and co-founder of Logiciel, a fin-tech Company in Ghana
- Despite being diagnosed with cerebral palsy at the age of one, Bedwei, is one of Ghana's most influential women in the tech world
- YEN.com.gh throws the spotlight on her early childhood, education, career and achievements
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At the age of one, Ghanaian Software engineer, Farida Nana Efua Bedwei was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a disease that affect movement and muscle tone or posture due to damage to one’s immature brain as it develops.
Despite her disability, Efua Bedwei, is considered one of Ghana’s most powerful women in financial technology. She is proof that disability doesn’t mean inability or being disadvantaged.
The Co-founder of Logiciel, a fin-tech company in Ghana is currently one of the influential personalities in the tech arena.
Born in Lagos, Nigeria on April 6, 1979, Efua Bedwei lived in the UK, Dominica and Grenada due to the nature of her father’s job, but eventually settled together with the family at age 9 in Ghana.
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While cerebral palsy affects her body movement and muscle coordination, it does not interfere with her ability to learn.
Farida Bedwei, was home-schooled when she settled in Ghana until the age of 12 and subsequently enrolled at the St. Michael Information Technology Centre after her parents discovered her early passion for computers at the tender age of 15.
''I’m sure most of my classmates were wondering what I was doing with them.
And that is how I started my career as a software engineer because through that course I realized what aspect of IT I was going to specialize in.
I loved the idea of solving problems and creating things,'' Farida Bedwei is quoted as saying.
Between the years 2004-2005, she obtained a one-year degree in Computer Science from the University of Hertfordshire, UK.
She further acquired a certificate in Project Management in 2009 from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).
Farida Bedwei began her career as a software developer at Soft Company Ltd (now known as the Softtribe).
She later moved from there to Rancard Solutions Ltd, where she progressed from the position of solutions analyst to Senior Software Architect from 2001 to 2010.
In 2010, the Ghanaian Software engineer moved to G-Life Micro-finance where she was in charge of designing and implementing new products and services.
Later in April 2011, she left to set up her own company, Logiciel Ltd in Accra, Ghana, as co-founder and chief technology officer.
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While at Logiciel Ltd, she led the creation and successful implementation of gKudi, a web-based (cloud) banking software suite for the micro-finance industry.
Currently, 130 micro-finance institutions nationwide have been reported to be using gKudi.
Efua Bedwei also reached out to shape narratives and influence the mind-set of people particularly persons suffering from cerebral palsy through the comic character she created called ‘Karmzah’
‘Karmzah’ gets her power from her crutches that she has to use for her cerebral palsy.
In 2015 she also authored her first book, a mini-autobiography titled: Definition of a miracle.
Having chalked these laudable feats, South Africa’s CEO Magazine named her the most influential woman in business and government in Africa for the financial sector in 2013.
Bedwei continues to be the perfect example for young girls including those without cerebral palsy that they can shatter glass ceilings in every field they desire to dominate and become influential figures in those fields.
In other stories, YEN.com.gh for many who are born in deprived areas of Ghana, becoming a PhD holder could be a tickle of one’s own fancy or a dream they may never wake up to live, but Justice Issah Surugu Musah, is proof that resilience triumphs hurdles.
The journey to the top of the educational ladder did not come on a silver platter for Justice Issah Surugu Musah, who bagged his doctorate degree in style.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
