The 10th year anniversary edition of The Future Awards Africa (TFAA2015) took place on Sunday 6 December, 2015 at the InterContinental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The highlight of the evening was the presentation of The Future Awards Africa Prize in Technology to Rasheeda Mandeeya Yehuza from Ghana.
Rasheeda, 25, is passionate about technology and how society can apply it to improve development in Ghana and across the African continent. She currently works as a software engineer at VOTO Mobile which provides a platform to amplify the voice of the under-heard and under-represented via a mobile phone notification and survey platform.
Rasheeda has instructed and mentored at several Tech Needs Girls events and has spoken at youth and girl education camps across Ghana to help raise awareness for females in Information Technology.
Other nominees for this award category were Nigeria’s Joshua Ihejiamaizu (23), Abiola Olaniran (26), South Africa’s Duran De Villiers (30) and 27 year-old Arthur Zang from Cameroon.
The Future Awards Africa celebrates young achievers doing excellent work across the continent in various fields ranging from science and technology, business, entertainment, politics to education.
The event was attended by high-profile personalities including the Kaduna state governor, Nasir el-Rufai, Oby Ezekwesili, Mo Abudu, Tara Fela-Durotoye, and more.
See Rasheeda’s profile below:
The Future Awards Africa Prize in Technology, Rasheeda Mandeeya Yehuza Winner
25 years
Ghana
25 year-old Rasheeda Mandeeya Yehuza is passionate about technology and how society can apply it to improve development in Ghana and Africa at-large. Yehuza currently works as a software engineer at VOTO Mobile, which provides a platform to amplify the voice of the under-heard and under-represented via a mobile phone notification and survey platform.
In 2013, Rasheeda founded Nasara Tech Ltd, a technology-focused company that creates solutions to problems identified in local communities, and accordingly can be applied worldwide. She has led and managed the development of Nasara Tech’s two in-house products, Nasara Mobile and The Nasara Voting System, as well as custom application projects for specific client needs. With her keen knowledge of technology and programming, she has also built computer games such as Buju Hunt and Sphere Attack and has developed desktop applications, including the snapso shutdown manager and web browser as freewares which can be found on softpedia.
Rasheeda is very passionate about youth development and as a result, is an active member and organizer of the GhanaThink Foundation programs; Barcamp Kumasi and ‘Kumasi Konnect’, both of which bring together young Ghanaians to learn about the issues that affect them, generate ideas for development, network and partner with others who have similar interests to improve or create businesses and projects.
As part of her commitment to social entrepreneurship, Rasheeda co-founded Tech Needs Girls Ghana, an interactive workshop for girls in Ghana. The workshop involves a hands-on session where girls learn to develop mobile and web applications, interact with software that teaches them more about STEM, and provides mentoring for female technologists. Rasheeda has instructed and mentored at several Tech Needs Girls events and has spoken at youth and girl education camps around Ghana to help raise the awareness for females in information technology.
