'Gbenga Sesan
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'Gbenga Sesan (born on July 27, 1977) was appointed Nigeria's first Information Technology Youth Ambassador in November 2001. His interest and work is built around "Youth Bridging the Digital Divide". 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 the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) -- where he is presently the Vice Chair of the African Technical Advisory Committee. He is Program Manager of Lagos Digital Village, a multistakeholder telecenter project that provides training, research and mentorship opportunities for underserved youth in Nigeria. ‘Gbenga is also leading a team of other telecenter stakeholders towards hosting the first meeting of the Nigerian Telecenters’ Network, an initiative supported by Telecenters.org. He was also appointed as the youngest member of the Presidential Task Force on the Restructuring of the Nigerian Information Technology and Telecommunications sectors in August 2006.
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[edit] Education
'Gbenga is completing his postgraduate study in ICT Policy and Regulation and holds a Diploma in Software Application, Certificate in Venture in Management, Bachelor of Science in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University and Certificate in Project Management from Lagos Business School. He has capped this with community service through his active participation in national, regional and global processes that focus on the Information Society. 'Gbenga led Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) - an online youth network, www.pin.org.ng - to be one of the finalists of the Hafkin award in 2001. Since then, he has led PIN in numerous volunteer efforts, including the "African Youth and the Information Society" project which is an initiative of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. The project helped prepare for the emergence of the African Youth ICT4D Network.
[edit] Achievements
In recognition of his dynamic efforts, 'Gbenga was a recipient of the 2006 “Best Use of Technology” award, 2005 “Stockholm Challenge Champion” honour, 2004 “Excellence in Information Technology” award, 2003 "Ten Outstanding Young Persons in Nigeria" award, 2002 "Frontier of Technology in Nigeria" award, and the 2001 International Telecommunication Union's African Youth Fellowship award. He has also been profiled as one of the 35 "Icons of ICT" in Nigeria and is a regular feature of high profile television talk shows, including Patito’s Gang and New Dawn with Funmi Iyanda. Outside numerous volunteer efforts as Team Leader of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria and Co-coordinator of the African Youth ICT4D Network, ‘Gbenga Sesan maintains a personal website at www.gbengasesan.com, a blog (Òrò: ‘Gbenga Sesan lets out the words) at www.gbengasesan.com/blog, and continues to spend time discussing with people-groups on the effective use of Information and Communication Technologies for development. He is also a guest columnist with Nigeria’s ICT Newspaper, Technology Times, where he writes the weekly column, “Bridges”.
He maintains a personal website, www.gbengasesan.com, and continues to spend time discussing with youth groups on the effective use of Information and Communication Technologies for development. 'Gbenga holds research around Africa's possible employment of ICT opportunities very dear, and is presently completing multiple research interests around ICT for Development issues (ICT for Peace, Internet Governance, eAdvocacy, etc). He has authored various Information Technology seminar papers and articles (www.gbengasesan.com/papers.htm), 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).
[edit] Future Prospects
‘Gbenga’s writing efforts have helped produce three 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 is presently involved in three other international book projects that will be published between March and November 2006.
