Akoobooks Audio has won the Woman in Tech Startup of the Year award 2021, given by Women in Tech Africa – the continent’s premier organization with a focus on entrepreneurship expansion and multiplying the numbers of females in technology, especially in Africa.
The results were announced during a ceremony held Saturday 31 July in a hybrid format due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The firm’s CEO Ethel Cofie, was joined in the Ghanaian capital Accra at the Institute for Democratic Governance Conference Room, by about 20 participants, while others followed the proceedings online.
The maiden edition’s award theme, ‘Celebrating African Women in Tech,’ sought to serve as a source of motivation and encouragement for African women excelling in technology fields at all career levels.
“I am so honoured and grateful. Thanks so much to the amazing panel of WITA judges and Ethel Cofie for choosing me, and kudos to all the phenomenal fellow nominees, “said AkooBooks CEO Ama Dadson, on receiving her trophy. “The rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship means that having validation like this gives an entrepreneur something to hold onto when times are rough“.
Other prizes – Outstanding Woman in Tech South Africa, and CIO/CTO of the Year, went to two women from the MTN Group: Yolanda Cuba, Group Regional Vice President Southern & Eastern Africa, MTN Group and Titilope Fakuade, CIO MTN Liberia. Temie Giwa Tubosun, Founder, LifeBank Nigeria was awarded Tech Entrepreneur of the Year while ShEquity was awarded the Most Impactful Women Initiative.
The guest speaker, Rwandan Minister of State for ICT and TVET Claudette Irere, gave an inspirational keynote address.
Ama Dadson said: “During Covid, lockdown, business slowed down, but on the other hand it created a captive, static audience hungry for more digital entertainment and education. We intend to grow the demand for audio consumption of African books. “
90% of African literature cannot be found in digital form, so Akoobooks aims to provide African publishers and writers with the platform to transform their books and reach as many people as possible.
Women in Tech Africa’s membership spans 30 countries globally, with 12 physical chapters in Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Germany, Ireland, Britain, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius, and Cape Verde. Its vision is threefold: to create today’s female leaders and role models for tomorrow’s women; to show the world what a strong African woman can achieve and to support African growth through technology.
AkooBooks Audio is Ghana’s first publisher and digital distributor of African audiobooks and offers a wide range of audio services. Founded by Ama Dadson in 2017, as a solution to providing her mother, a children’s book author who lost her sight, access to African audiobooks. It offers African authors and publishers, a digital publishing service and a platform to distribute books on mobile devices and reach new audiences across the continent and globally. Their library of African audio includes, audiobooks, historic and contemporary speeches, spoken word poetry, academic lectures, motivational programs and is available anytime, and accessible anywhere at flexible subscription plans and low retail cost in English and various Ghanaian and African languages.
“Akoo” means “parrot” in the Akan language spoken in Ghana, so AkooBooks are “talking books. They are available online and on mobile devices. Check out their catalogue at https://app.akoobooks.net. The AkooBooks app is also available on the Google and Apple playstores.
