About Our Founder
Our story would not be complete without telling you about Mary, our creator, who birthed Uwani Hub. She never knew her paternal grandmother but her Dad (from the little memory he has of his mom), Uncles, and Aunts always insisted she was an exact look-alike of their mum, they all called her ‘Uwani’. Which means ‘my mother’ according to her dad. Uwani hailed from the northern part of Kano, an area now carved into Jigawa State. ‘Uwani’ in the Hausa language means ‘My Mother’.
Mary always wanted to honor the paternal grandma she never knew so in 2016, she embarked on a trip to the Old Kano region to discover where her grandma came from. When she first arrived in her grandma’s village, it was a case of ‘Ba Hausa’ and ‘Ba English’, which meant they did not understand her and she could not understand them. One thing however stood out according to Mary.
They kept marveling at her face and making gestures about her face. They beckoned on a woman who turns out to be the last female child of Mary’s Grandma’s Father, as she would later find out.
The trip was fulfilling but her grandmother’s family members were not able to find her grandma’s pictures as she died in the 50s. They, however, were excited to have Mary in their midst and made her promise to come visiting again. Mary has been in love with the internet since 2002 when she first visited a cybercafe to create her first email address. She engaged in a number of freelance activities over the years, most especially writing. She is quick to mention that discovering WordPress saved her from roaming the internet, gave her a home and family in Tech. WordPress to her is the easiest way to get curious about tech and into tech.
Mary grew up in a family of six in the city of Lagos where she schooled till she graduated high school. In 2002, just about the time, she graduated high school, her parents retired from civil service and moved back to the village to rest from the troubles of Lagos city. This led her to attend Olabisi Onabanjo University where she graduated in 2008 with her first degree in Philosophy. In 2014, she further enrolled in a Master’s program in Information Resources Management at the same university with a major in Knowledge Management.
In 2015, she went to Ghana for her internship and spent 4 months in the communication department of the Salesians of Don Bosco, West Africa Province. After that, she worked more as a freelancer before incorporating her business with the help of a good friend and business partner in 2017. In 2013, after finishing her youth service and working for two organizations, Mary went back to school this time at Babcock University for a postgraduate diploma in Mass Communication. During this period she undertook work-study as a writer, editor, and social media officer for the Babcock Centre for Executive Development.
Due to her contributions as a Salesian Volunteer and her interaction with young people within her community in Ijebu, Babcock, and Lagos, Mary decided to have an office in Ijebu so she could connect more with young people from her village. If there is one thing Mary loves to do, it is teaching and engaging curious young and old people on how they can use ICT to empower themselves. The thought of making an impact on this group of people in her Ijebu community gave birth to Uwani Hub, named after her paternal grandmother. Mary decided to spend some of her time teaching youths, most especially young girls and women, how to maximize the knowledge of computer technologies they were thought in high school to best develop themselves.
At Uwani Hub, our mission is to make digital literates out of women and teenagers who come across us, to make them into thinkers, creators who are able to use technology to solve problems in their personal life and in our society, & more importantly, to be prosumers of technology, not just consumers. Our vision is to replicate the Uwani Hub model across rural towns & villages on our African continent.
Mary Job
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