1. Disability in Corporate Africa A Personal Experience Farida N. Bedwei

2. Background Born in Lagos in 1979 Diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at age one Lived in the Caribbean and Britain till age 9 when we moved to Ghana Homeschooled by my mother till age 12 Entered mainstream school at JSS 1 Did a two year diploma in the Management of Information Systems after JSS Entered the workforce at age 17.

3. 1 st Job - Administrative assistant Introduction into the corporate world Eager to learn and loved the idea of earning my own money Had to something to prove – that I can excel at whatever I put my mind to

4. 2 nd Job - Programmer My dream job A step in the direction I wanted my career to go Learned how to manage expectations and responsibilities First encounter with working under pressure No excuses for not being able to deliver Worked long and odd hours Male dominated environment

5. 3 rd Job – Solutions Analyst – Senior Software Architect Startup company with more formal corporate structures than previous company Different technology – had to learn on the job again Took a year off after 3 years to go to university Came back and worked for another 5 years

6. 4th Job– IT Manager for Microfinance company New environment, new experiences Different set of rules and different kind of pressure

7. Current Role – Co-founder and CTO of Logiciel (Ghana) Ltd.

8. Challenges navigating corporate Ghana Infrastructure – disability unfriendly offices Being judged by appearance when job hunting Difficulty travelling to other parts of the country or other African countries on working visits because of the disability- unfriendliness of the environments.

9. A case for hiring qualified disabled candidates They are hardworking They have something to prove The physically and visually challenged ones have restricted movements so are not likely to take breaks every hour or so to ‘stretch their legs’ so can get a lot more done They are unlikely to have itchy feet so you can retain them for a very long time Fill your diversity quota Gain insight on how to serve customers with similar disabilities

10. Questions?

11. Thank You