Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

How Ibironke Yekinni is redefining Africa’s software testing and quality assurance industry

By Guardian Nigeria
07 March 2023   |   2:31 am
Ibironke Yekinni is the founder of Testify Ltd, a software testing consultancy and the Head of Software Quality Assurance Engineering at Africa Fintech a payment integration startup for African consumers.

Ibironke Yekinni is the founder of Testify Ltd, a software testing consultancy and the Head of Software Quality Assurance Engineering at Africa Fintech a payment integration startup for African consumers.

She is also the founder of Testify Academy, a training organisation that helps people switch to Tech careers through software testing skills. She is a recent graduate of the University of Salford, where she has a Masters in CyberSecurity, Threat Intelligence and Forensics.

Ibironke speaks to Njeoma…. about her plans to build Africa’s leading software testing consultancy and Academy and the challenges African women face in building careers in Tech

Tell us about your academic background and how you began a career in software testing.
I started my higher education at Ogun State College of Technology, where I graduated with distinction with a National Diploma in Computer Science. I worked in a factory and saved money to pay for my school fees, rent, and study materials so I could get my Higher National Diploma (HND) in Computer Science and Statistics. Due to Nigeria’s HND/BSC bias, I had to obtain a university degree in computer science from Caleb University, Lagos.

After graduation, I landed a job at an IT firm, where I learned the fundamentals of UI/UX, web design, product management, data science, and other tech fields. There, I also learned about software testing, which I found interesting and took online classes to get better at.

After working as a senior software quality and testing professional for companies like Carbon and Interswitch Group, I started my own software testing company in 2019.

In 2021, our software testing consultancy and academy were featured in Forbes alongside 25 other African female tech founded companies. I just recently completed a Masters program in CyberSecurity, Threat Intelligence and Forensics from the University of Salford, UK.

I currently work as the Head of Software QA Engineering at Africa Fintech, a payment integration startup for African consumers, and I have also trained over 1000 young people in software testing, which I consider to be more than a job.

You’ve been invited to speak at one of the biggest tech events in Europe, Tech Show London. Tell us more about this event.
I was excited when I received an invitation to speak at the event, which is considered the United Kingdom’s most important and largest technology event for business, happening in ExCel London.

I will be speaking on a panel session on How to Migrate to the Cloud Efficiently and have a solo presentation on Developing API Test Automation with Cypress. The Tech Show London event will have over 12,000 participants from across Europe, and it was an honor to be invited to speak at this prestigious event.

Tell us about Testify Academy and the motivation behind starting the academy.
I was inspired to start Testify Academy because of my empathy for those who are having difficulty finding a job.

I launched the academy on Telegram, and after a few free training sessions, we started charging a fee for our training program. The most rewarding aspect of our initial training programs was receiving testimonials from our students, who had gone on to secure jobs with reputable organizations all over the world. I’m pleased to be contributing to the reduction of unemployment in Nigeria and Africa. By 2025, I hope to have equipped 5,000 people with employable tech skills through software testing.

How would you describe the growth of the software testing industry in Africa? What are the potentials of the sector?
The African tech ecosystem and tech culture are growing at an exponential rate, with tech startups and organizations developing apps for the web and mobile, and smart products being developed on a daily basis. However, a key component in the software development life cycle which is quality assurance is frequently omitted, considered insignificant, or an unnecessary cost center.

Some startups and organizations think they don’t need it because they hired experienced programmers. Unfortunately, when they launch their products, we see service disruptions, customers’ dissatisfaction or app downtime because of the neglect of software testing and quality assurance.

While it is true that startups may not have the resources to manage a fully staffed QA team, software testing ensures software quality and saves them money in the long run.

With the continuous growth of the ecosystem, the need for and opportunities for software testing also continue to grow, and there is a need for software testing and quality assurance professionals to meet the needs of the market.

The great thing about software testing skills is that anyone can start their career in software testing, even without a tech background or coding skills.

The African tech ecosystem has witnessed rapid growth in the last five years. As a female founder, what challenges have you faced building your business?
African female entrepreneurs face challenges in their entrepreneurial endeavors, including a lack of funding. Despite these challenges, women account for a sizable proportion of African entrepreneurs, with women owning 58% of African businesses.

As a female founder, I’ve had to work twice as hard to have the same opportunities as my male counterpart. While these may appear to be challenges, I see them as an opportunity to improve my capabilities and the value I bring to the marketplace.

Improving women’s participation and leadership in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, in my opinion, is critical for promoting gender equality and driving economic growth in Africa. Investing in African women entrepreneurs is critical for economic empowerment and job creation for the continent’s growing youth population.

With Gender Equity, the theme of this year’s international women’s day, what would you say needs to be done to create more inclusion for women in tech?
Africa has numerous opportunities to reduce inequality, achieve development and economic growth, and accelerate business and market integration.

One of these opportunities is to include women in the digital economy by providing women and girls with tech skills like software testing amongst others.

In addition to providing appropriate training opportunities for women and girls, I believe there is a need to address structural inequalities that prevent women from achieving economic empowerment, such as the unequal distribution of unpaid care work, gender-based violence, discriminatory social norms, and others.

What would you say are the barriers for women’s inclusion in tech?
Women’s participation in the digital economy is one of the barriers. Women are assumed to be less qualified and are not given opportunities in the sector, which reinforces existing inequalities.

Women and girls also have limited access to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) training and education, as well as programs that promote general digital literacy.

Because girls do not have equal access to digital education, they are frequently excluded from the fastest-growing economic sectors, potentially slowing overall job growth and entrepreneurial opportunities.

How is Testify working to close this gap?
As a founder and a woman, I am committed to making it easier for other women to get ahead in the tech industry through our training academy.

We’ve designed programs targeting females who are unemployed, singles, wives, and mothers who mostly stay at home, as well as females who are employed or entrepreneurs who want to learn tech skills and increase their ability to earn more. One of them was the Hunt de’Bug bootcamp in 2021, which was held for two days and had over 100 women in attendance.

Testify is also expanding opportunities for women to access digital education, collaborate and provide digital education, and participate in the digital and tech economy.

We are also collaborating with social enterprises and corporate organizations to help females by subsidizing and incentivizing their training, as well as subsidizing Testify testing and consulting services for female-founded tech startups.

In this article

0 Comments