Gbenga Sesan

Gbenga Sesan

Gbenga Sesan (born on July 27, 1977) was appointed Nigeria's first Information Technology Youth Ambassador in October 2001.^[1] His interest and work is built around the use of ICTs in socio-economic transformation—focusing on underserved groups. He has often expressed his strong belief in the potential that Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) hold for Nigeria and Africa. He has been an active participant at national, regional, and international discussions on the need for Africa's inclusion in the Information Society, and has consulted widely for numerous organisations, including Harvard University, Microsoft, Res Publica, Freedom House, International Telecommunications Union, Heinrich Boll Foundation and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) -- where he was the Vice Chair of the African Technical Advisory Committee.^[2] He is the Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria^[3] and was the pioneer Program Manager of Lagos Digital Village, a multistakeholder telecenter project that provides training, research and mentorship opportunities for underserved youth in Nigeria. ‘Gbenga serves on the board of Women's Technology Empowerment Centre, Alliance of Change Empowerment Speakers and EnoughisEnough Nigeria, among others. He is also an author and regular feature on some of Nigeria’s popular television shows. He was appointed as the youngest member of the Presidential Task Force on the Restructuring of the Nigerian Information Technology, Broadcasting and Telecommunications sectors in August 2006; member of the United Nations Committee of eLeaders on Youth and ICT in April 2008 and Ashoka Fellow in October 2008.

Education

'Gbenga is a graduate of Electronic & Electrical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University and has been trained at Lagos Business School, New York Group for Technology Transfer, Oxford, Harvard, Stanford and Santa Clara universities. He also holds a Diploma in Software Application, Certificate in Venture in Management and Certificate in Project Management from Lagos Business School.

Achievements

In recognition of his dynamic efforts, 'Gbenga has been honoured with the 2011 Cordes Fellowship, 2010 Santa Clara University GSBI Fellowship, 2010 Crans Montana Forum of New Leaders for Tomorrow Fellowship award, 2010 Our Common Future Fellowship award, 2009 OAU Distinguished Alumni award, 2009 National Youth Merit award, 2008 OAU Ife EEESS Distinguished Alumni award, 2008 FGC Idoani Alumni award,^[4] 2007 Archbishop Tutu Fellowship award, 2007 LEAP Annual Nigerian Youth Leadership award, 2007 The Future Youth Advocacy award, 2006 International Telecommunications Union YES Scholarship award, 2006 The Future Best Use of Technology award, 2005 Stockholm Challenge Champion honor, 2004 NiPRO Excellence in Information Technology award, 2003 JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) in Nigeria award, 2002 JCI Ten Outstanding Great Ife Alumni (TOGA) award, 2002 Journalists’ Frontier of Technology in Nigeria award, and the 2001 ITU African Youth Fellowship award. ‘Gbenga Sesan has been profiled as one of the 35 Icons of ICT in Nigeria and is a darling of high profile television shows. He maintains a blog (Òrò: ‘Gbenga Sesan lets out the words) at www.gbengasesan.com, and continues to spend time discussing with people-groups on the effective use of Information and Communication Technologies for development. He was also a guest columnist with Nigeria’s ICT Newspaper, Technology Times, where he writes the weekly column, “Bridges”.

'Gbenga holds research around Africa's possible employment of ICT opportunities very dear. He presently also is completing multiple research interests around ICT for Development issues. He has authored various Information Technology seminar papers and articles (www.gbengasesan.com/gbengasesan.pdf), which have been published by national dailies and on international organizations' websites. He has presented papers at national seminars and has been interviewed and featured by various media houses including This Day newspaper, The Comet newspaper, The Punch newspaper, Insider Weekly magazine, Tribune newspaper, Daily Champion newspaper, Daily Times newspaper, Vanguard newspaper, Financial Standard, IT & Telecom Digest magazine, Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Africa Independent Television (AIT), Murhi International Television (MiTV), Voice of Nigeria (VON), AllAfrica.com, CNN Inside Africa, and the British Broadcasting Corporation (Go Digital).

Future Prospects

‘Gbenga’s writing efforts have helped produce four books. “Wh@t’s Next? The Future of the Information Society - A Youth Perspective” was edited by Youth for Intergenerational Justice and Sustainability, and TakingITGlobal. Featuring young authors from every continent, the book describes what young people are doing with ICTs today, and attempts to describe the direction of the Information Society. 'Gbenga also contributed towards the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa's “Africa Networking: Development Information, ICTs and Governance”. He wrote the chapter titled, "African Youth in the Information Society". In November 2005, ‘Gbenga completed editorial work on “Global Process, Local Reality: Nigerian Youth Lead Action in the Information Society”, which was presented at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. He completed work on his first attempt at an autobiography, In My Own Words, in 2009 and it was published by London-based Imprimata Publishers.

References

1. ^ "Nigeria looks to webwise youth". BBC News. 9 April 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1916994.stm. Retrieved 27 October 2009. 
2. ^ "How I became drunk with IT, by whizzkid". Daily Sun (Nigeria). 25 October 2007. http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/money/2007/oct/25/Money-25-10-07-003.htm. Retrieved 27 October 2009. 
3. ^ "Microsoft Combats Cybercrime in Nigeria". PC World. 25 October 2008. http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/152784/microsoft_combats_cybercrime_in_nigeria.html. Retrieved 27 October 2009. 
4. ^ "OAU VC to Chair Alumni Award". THISDAY. 8 May 2009. http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=150738. Retrieved 27 October 2009. 

External links

• His website
• His Ashoka profile

Persondata
Name	Sesan, 'Gbenga
Alternative names	Oluwagbenga (long form of 'Gbenga), Olabisi
Short description	A Nigerian social entrepreneur with keen interest in the use of ICTs for development; towards the creation of improved livelihood opportunities.
Date of birth	27 July 1977
Place of birth	Akure, Nigeria
Date of death
Place of death