Nafisat’s Journey from Fear to Expertise
Abdulkadir Nafisat is a Women Techsters Fellow from Kogi State, Nigeria. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria, and a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the Nigerian Defence Academy Kaduna, Nigeria. She is married with a daughter.
Nafisat has always been interested in technology; the more she chased a career in the technology industry, the more apparent her passion for technology. One thing that has been a constant motivation for her is her belief that technology is one ever-growing field and that it holds the key to solving many of the problems ravaging the world today, especially with the vast amount of data available today. Her dream has always been to become one of the top women in the technology field across the globe.
Although she has a background in technology, Nafisat did not actively start pursuing a career in technology till 2021. Getting married came with significant changes like relocating, which made her quit her job and her tailoring business, prompting her to explore a career in technology. Contrary to what she expected, even with a background in tech, she still had a phobia for coding and programming, making her tech journey difficult.
She started to explore opportunities that could help her find her feet, and that was when she came across the Women Techsters Fellowship. She applied and got admitted into the Data Science and AI learning track.
It was not easy because, around that time, she just gave birth to her daughter, so she had to juggle motherhood and home keeping with learning. Also, she had to battle electricity and network issues, but Nafisat refused to be discouraged. Over time, through support from her husband and encouragement from the Women Techsters community, she was able to find her balance.
Through the Women Techsters Fellowship, Nafisat grew from being afraid of coding and programming to becoming very comfortable with trying out programs and working on hands-on projects, both personal and group projects. She also mastered navigating tools like Excel, Power Bi, and Python for Data Analytics, Data Science, SQL, and Machine Learning.
In addition, being exposed to a community of like-minded women and the expertise of female facilitators and mentors in her field, and being allowed to impact younger girls during the Tech Girls Drive have further motivated her and made her confident that her dreams are valid.
Nafisat intends to keep improving herself in Data Science and Machine Learning and further her education in this field. She also plans to start a tech school in her community someday to teach young children from a very young age.
