Gbenga Sesan

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'Gbenga Sesan

'Gbenga Sesan (born Oluwagbenga Olabisi Sesan 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 EnoughisEnough Nigeria.[4] He is also an author and regular feature on some of Nigeria’s popular television shows. He is a man of high intellect full of novelty. He was appointed as the youngest member of the Presidential Task Force on the Restructuring of the Nigerian Information Technology, Broadcasting and Telecommunications Sectors[5] in August 2006; member of the United Nations Committee of eLeaders on Youth and ICT in April 2008; Ashoka Fellow in October 2008 and member of the Presidential Committee on Roadmap for the Achievement of Accelerated Universal Broadband Infrastructure and Services Provision[6] in September 2012.

Education

'Gbenga is a graduate of Electronic & Electrical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University and completed Executive Education programs 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 2012, 'Gbenga was listed by CNN as one of the Top 10 Leading African Tech Voices,[7] and by Ventures Africa as one of 40 African Legends Under 40.[8] He has been honoured with the 2012 National Peace Award, 2012 Global Network for Africa’s Prosperity (GNAP) Fellowship,[9] 2011 Cordes Fellowship,[10] 2010 Santa Clara University GSBI Fellowship, 2010 Crans Montana Forum of New Leaders for Tomorrow Fellowship award, 2010 Our Common Future Fellowship[11] award, 2009 OAU Distinguished Alumni award,[12] 2009 National Youth Merit award, 2008 OAU Ife EEESS Distinguished Alumni award, 2008 FGC Idoani Alumni award, 2007 Nigerian Youth Leadership award, 2007 The Future Youth Advocacy award, 2006 International Telecommunications Union YES Scholarship award, 2006 Ondo State Sunshine award, 2006 The Future Best Use of Technology award, 2005 Stockholm Challenge Champion honour, 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 International Telecommunications Union’s African Youth Fellowship award. He has been profiled as one of the 35 Icons of ICT in Nigeria and he keeps a blog at www.gbengasesan.com. A member of the United Nations Committee of eLeaders on Youth and ICT,[13] 'Gbenga is a Crans Montana Forum Fellow, Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow,[14] Ashoka Fellow, Our Common Future Fellow and Cordes Fellow.

Publications

‘Gbenga’s writing efforts have helped produce five books and numerous published works. “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[15]”. 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[16]”, which was presented at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. "ICTs for Development: The Challenges of Meeting the Millennium Development Goals in Africa[17]" was published by Nigerian Communications Commission/Growing Businesses Foundation/Club of Rome in September 2006 and featured a chapter on "Telecentres in Nigeria" by 'Gbenga. He completed work on his first attempt at an autobiography, In My Own Words[18], in 2009 and it was published by London-based Imprimata Publishers. Some of his published works include Digital Lifestyle of Connected Nigerians,[19] Echoes From Ajegunle: Stories of Transformed Lives, From Small Steps to Giant Leap[20], ICTs for Development: A Social Entrepreneur’s Perspective[21], Ajegunle.org: Changing Ajegunle, 25 Youths at a time[22] and Social Enterprise in Africa: An Emerging Concept in an Emerging Economy[23]

Family

‘Gbenga is married to Temilade Sesan, PhD,[24] an expert on Energy Poverty and Development issues in sub-Saharan Africa. They got married on January 17, 2009,[25] on Temilade's birthday anniversary.

References

  1. ↑ "Nigeria looks to webwise youth". BBC News. 9 April 2002. Retrieved 27 October 2009. 
  2. ↑ "How I became drunk with IT, by whizzkid". Daily Sun (Nigeria). 25 October 2007. Retrieved 27 October 2009. 
  3. ↑ "Microsoft Combats Cybercrime in Nigeria". PC World. 25 October 2008. Retrieved 27 October 2009. 
  4. ↑ "Our Nigeria; Our Future". EiE Nigeria. Retrieved 27 September 2012. 
  5. ↑ "Politics of NCC, NBC merger". Retrieved 27 September 2012. 
  6. ↑ "Meet Nigeria's Broadband Roadmap Cartographers". Retrieved 27 September 2012. 
  7. ↑ "10 African tech voices to follow on Twitter". Retrieved 27 September 2012. 
  8. ↑ "Forty-Forty: A Compendium Of Young African Legends". Retrieved 27 September 2012. 
  9. ↑ "Our Distinguished Fellows". Retrieved 27 September 2012. 
  10. ↑ "Social Enterprise and Job Creation in Uganda and Nigeria". Retrieved 27 September 2012. 
  11. ↑ "OCF Fellow: 'Gbenga Sesan". Retrieved 27 September 2012. 
  12. ↑ "OAU VC to Chair Alumni Award". THISDAY. 8 May 2009. Retrieved 27 October 2009. 
  13. ↑ "Members of the Youth eLeaders Committee". Retrieved 27 September 2012. 
  14. ↑ "2007 Fellows". Retrieved 27 September 2012. 
  15. ↑ Sesan, 'Gbenga (2004). African Youth in the Information Society in Africa Networking: Development Information, ICTs and Governance (with Mihyo, P.). Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. pp. 125–139. ISBN 978-90-5727-052-9. 
  16. ↑ Sesan, 'Gbenga (2005). Global Process, Local Reality: Nigerian Youth Lead Action in the Information Society. Lagos, Nigeria: Paradigm Initiative Nigeria. ISBN 978-068-094-2. 
  17. ↑ Sesan, 'Gbenga (2006). Telecenters in Nigeria. Abuja, Nigeria: Nigerian Communications Commission/Growing Businesses Foundation/Club of Rome. pp. 263–272. ISBN 978-070-671-2. 
  18. ↑ Sesan, 'Gbenga (2009). In My Own Words. London: Imprimata. ISBN 978-1-906192-33-4. 
  19. ↑ Sesan, 'Gbenga (2010). Anthology of Abstracts of the 3rd International Conference on ICT for Africa. Yaoundé, Cameroon: International Center for IT and Development. 
  20. ↑ Sesan, 'Gbenga (February 2010). "From Small Steps to Giant Leaps: Putting Research into Practice". Engineers Without Borders (UK) National Research Conference 2010 Journal: 106–108. 
  21. ↑ Sesan, 'Gbenga (February 2009). "The Social Dimensions of Engineering Research". Engineers Without Borders (UK) National Research Conference 2009 Journal: 243–249. 
  22. ↑ Sesan, 'Gbenga; Nwosu, U. (December 2007). "Ajegunle.org: Changing Ajegunle, 25 Youths at a time". Telecentre Magazine. 1 1: 41–42. 
  23. ↑ Sesan, 'Gbenga (October 2006). "Educational Research and Reviews". International NGO Journal. 1 1: 4–8. 
  24. ↑ "Nottingham University eTheses". Retrieved 27 September 2012. 
  25. ↑ "Wedding Website". Retrieved 27 September 2012. 

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