From Aba hustle to the UK Award: What Obii Okafor’s journey means for Women in Tech

If someone had told Obii five years ago that her passion for tech would make her the first African to receive the Women in Telecoms Champion Award in the UK, she might have found it hard to believe.

At the time, she had already built a life in Nigeria, worked in tech and built a shoe-making business from the ground up in Aba. But even then, she knew she had not seen the end of what was possible. 

In 2026, that passion led Obiageli Okafor, also known as Obii Okafor, to become a recipient of the Women in Telecoms Champion Award in the United Kingdom. She made history as the first African and the first Nigerian to receive this recognition since the category was created in 2025.

Her decision to leave Nigeria was driven by a combination of ambition, curiosity and the desire to expand the possibilities available to her. However, she wanted exposure to a more mature technology ecosystem and the opportunity to work on products serving global markets. 

In many ways, it was an attempt to add to everything Nigeria had already taught her and to see how far those lessons could travel.

For her, the recognition was more than a personal milestone. It reflected not only the work she has done in technology but also her commitment to creating pathways for others.

"Becoming the first African to receive the Women in Telecoms Champion Award was deeply meaningful because it recognised both the work I do within technology and the work I do to make the industry more accessible to others.  Becoming its first African recipient felt like more than a personal milestone. It was a reminder that African women are not only participating in global conversations about technology. We are building products, shaping industries, leading teams and creating pathways for others to follow," Okafor said.

The Women in Telecoms Champion Award adds to other recognitions Obii received in 2026, including being named among She Inspires’ 100 Female Impact Leaders in the UK and being recognised among Nigeria’s 50 Women Tech Titans.

But perhaps the most powerful part of recognition is not the name engraved on the award. It is what happens when someone else sees it.

“I hope another African woman sees the photograph, hears the story and thinks, “That room is not closed to me.” Recognition matters most when it expands someone else’s imagination of what is possible,” Okafor said.

How Obii Okafor’s journey started in tech

Obii Okafor’s technology journey was not linear. After graduating in Nigeria, she was doing several things at once — building her own shoe-making business called Eon Brands, working in a non-profit, and also working as a technical writer. 

A lot of her writing involved translating complex ideas into clear product documentation and technical specifications. Over time, she became increasingly curious about what happened before and after the writing. Who decided what should be built? How were customer problems identified? What influenced one product decision over another?

That curiosity pulled her deeper into technology. 

Today, Okafor is an award-winning Senior Product Manager, entrepreneur, author and technology leader focused on building products and creating opportunities that help people get into technology, grow their careers and stand out.

She is a Senior Product Manager at 8×8 and the Chief Executive and Co-founder of PMHelp, a global product community that has supported thousands of professionals across more than 70 countries through mentoring, education and career development initiatives.

She is also building Capstone, an AI-powered proof-of-work and work-simulation platform designed to help professionals demonstrate their real-world skills through realistic job scenarios, while enabling employers to assess talent based on capability and performance rather than CV claims alone.

Obii Okafor is also the author of Impossible to Ignore, a practical guide to career visibility, credibility and creating opportunities through the work you already do. Her work sits at the intersection of technology, talent development and access, with a simple mission: helping more people get in, stay in and stand out.

Her academic background is not the traditional one people may expect from someone working in technology. Okafor studied English and literary studies for her first degree at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria, and later completed a Master’s degree in digital business management at the University of Portsmouth. 

“Looking back, both disciplines have shaped the kind of product leader I am. English taught me how to listen, communicate and understand human motivation, while digital business gave me a stronger grounding in technology, strategy and commercial thinking,” Okafor said.

She went on to work with organisations including Connected Development and Tafabot across Nigeria and Dubai, where she became more exposed to digital products, users and business strategy.

Eventually, she realised that product management sat at the intersection of everything she enjoyed: understanding people, solving problems, communicating clearly and building things that create real value.

How Obii Okafor’s experiences in Nigeria built her for global recognition

Before moving to the UK, Okafor’s career in Nigeria was incredibly varied, and that variety shaped her more than any single job title could have.

She worked across technology, entrepreneurship and product. She spent time at Connected Development, worked as a product manager, built and eventually exited her footwear business and later moved deeper into technology through roles at Tafabot, where she grew from product management into strategic partnerships and leadership.

However, there were challenges too. Okafor often had to operate with limited resources, unclear structures and fewer examples of women who looked like her in senior technology positions. 

What those experiences gave her was range. 

“Building a shoe-making business in Aba taught me how to make decisions when resources are limited, understand customers quickly and take responsibility for outcomes. Working in technology taught me how to operate in fast-moving environments, work across different teams and think beyond just delivering features to understanding the commercial impact of what we were building,” Okafor said.

Like many young professionals in Nigeria, Okafor had to prove herself repeatedly, learn outside her formal education and create opportunities rather than wait for them to arrive.

She attested that there were times when competence alone was not enough. She had to become better at communicating her ideas, building relationships and making her contribution visible. Those experiences made her resourceful, commercially aware and comfortable with ambiguity in the UK.

The tough reality of relocating and surviving the UK job market 

Obii Okafor’s early days in the UK were humbling. According to her, relocation can look glamorous from a distance, but in reality it often involves losing the context that once made your achievements meaningful. 

“I arrived in the UK with professional experience, entrepreneurial success and confidence in my ability, yet I quickly realised that employers did not automatically understand the companies I had worked for, the scale of the problems I had solved or the credibility I had built in Nigeria. I had experience, but I did not yet have UK experience, a strong local network or the language to position my background in a way the market immediately recognised,” she said.

She added that there was also the practical reality of survival. She had to work three jobs to stay afloat while continuing to apply for roles aligned with her long-term career goals. 

Moving from being respected in your field to taking whatever honest work is available can affect your confidence, but Okafor was determined to succeed.

“I wanted to learn, compete globally and eventually use that access to create more opportunities for other people. The UK became the place where I rebuilt my career, but Nigeria remained the foundation of the courage, ingenuity and sense of responsibility that I brought with me,” Obii said.

Key lessons to learn from Obii Okafor’s journey

One of the biggest lessons Okafor learnt is that resilience is not simply the ability to endure pain; it is the ability to keep making intelligent choices while life is not going according to plan. Resilience is not always pushing harder. Sometimes it is knowing when to pause, pivot or begin again.

Another lesson is that leadership is less about being the most impressive person in the room and more about creating clarity, confidence and movement for other people. 

“Doesn’t matter if I am leading a product initiative at 8×8, supporting the PMHelp community or building Capstone, my responsibility is to understand the problem, make decisions and help people contribute their best work,” Okafor said.

Leadership also requires honesty. You need the confidence to say what is not working, the humility to change your mind and the discipline to give credit generously.

The third lesson is that opportunity should not end with the person who receives it. Every award, introduction, speaking invitation or career breakthrough gives her more access, and access creates responsibility. That is why she mentors, builds communities, speaks openly about relocation and career visibility, and creates tools that make professional growth less mysterious. 

Practical advice for African women in tech 

Obii Okafor’s advice to African women in tech is: Where you begin does not have to determine the scale of where you can lead. Your current environment may not fully recognise your ability. You may not have the perfect degree, network, passport or access to opportunity. 

You may be carrying responsibilities that make your progress slower than someone else’s. None of those realities should be minimised, but they also do not mean that your ambition is unrealistic.

Do not wait for complete confidence. Build evidence. Learn the skill, complete the project, ask for feedback, apply for the opportunity and keep a record of what you have achieved. Find communities and mentors, but do not assume that one powerful person will rescue your career. Build a network of peers, advocates and people whose work you genuinely support.

Also, do not shrink your African experience to make other people comfortable. The ability to build in complex environments, work across cultures and create with limited resources is valuable global experience. Learn to articulate it proudly and commercially.

Most importantly, remember that you are allowed to want more. Ambition is not arrogance, and visibility is not vanity when it is grounded in value. Your voice, perspective and leadership are needed in global technology. Begin before the route is fully clear. The path may not be straight, but it can still take you somewhere extraordinary, and your journey may become the evidence another woman needs to begin hers.

“Global recognition is encouraging, but it is not the final destination. The real measure of success is whether my progress makes the road clearer for someone coming behind me,” Okafor said.

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