When Adedolapo Oguntayo-Williams arrived at a convention hosted by considered one of Nigeria’s premier banks in 2024, she was pushing her daughter in a stroller. There was no ramp. If a multi-billion-naira monetary establishment may overlook one thing as basic as a wheelchair pathway, what likelihood did individuals with disabilities have inside Africa’s digital economic system? She stopped ready for company panels to determine it out. From childhood desires of the cockpit and washing dishes in Cyprus on a state scholarship, to negotiating vendor contracts for Ruff ‘n’ Tumble and working world cybersecurity compliance remotely from Abule Egba, Lagos, Adedolapo’s profession has by no means adopted a straight line. Now, she is utilizing that enterprise playbook to bootstrap LearnArk Inclusion Academy—a tuition-free tech coaching engine designed to transfer deaf, blind, and bodily impaired expertise from the margins into high-value tech roles. “Inclusion had to go beyond conversations and good intentions,” she tells TechCabal. “It had to translate into access, opportunities, and the ability for people to build independent lives.” In this version of My Life in Tech, JOHN ADOYI charts Adedolapo Oguntayo-Williams’s journey from industrial engineering to constructing digital ramps for Africa’s most ignored expertise.
In 2024, when Adedolapo Oguntayo-Williams, an inclusion educator and expertise advocate, arrived at a convention hosted by considered one of Lagos’s main industrial banks, she was pushing her daughter in a stroller. There was no accessible pathway for them.
An industrial engineer by coaching, she had spent years in enterprise evaluation and product administration, studying to scrutinise operational issues and perceive whom they have an effect on. The expertise stayed together with her. “If a leading financial institution could overlook something as fundamental as an accessible pathway, what would the situation be like in many other public spaces?” she remembers pondering.
The incident prompted her to look at bodily and digital accessibility wherever she went. More usually than not, she noticed that individuals with disabilities had been largely ignored. She started asking what she may do to change that.
“I knew I could not solve Nigeria’s wider accessibility challenges on my own, but I could contribute in an area I understood: education and technology,” she says.
Her reply was the LearnArk Inclusion Academy, a free expertise coaching programme for individuals with disabilities supplied by means of her edtech platform, LearnArk. “For me, inclusion had to go beyond conversations and good intentions. It had to translate into access, opportunities, and the ability for people to build independent lives.”
It is the most recent chapter in a profession that started with a really completely different ambition.
From a childhood dream to Cyprus
Oguntayo-Williams as soon as aspired to turn into a pilot, drawn to aviation and the prospect of seeing the world from a definite vantage level. At the time, girls had been not often seen within the cockpit, which made the profession path much more compelling. “I wanted to be the different one. I wanted to go into a field where there were not a lot of women,” she says.
By her fifth yr in secondary college, she and her mom had begun researching aviation faculties in Nigeria. They discovered one in Zaria, Kaduna State, in north-west Nigeria, however the tuition was nicely past what her household may afford. She pivoted in the direction of petroleum engineering and utilized to the University of Lagos, however was supplied an alternate course as an alternative.
“You know how the Nigerian university thing is, where you apply to study something and they offer you something else. Obviously, I wasn’t having it,” she says.
An various route emerged by means of her pastor’s spouse, whose son had secured admission to a college in Cyprus. She shared the establishment’s prospectus with Oguntayo-Williams’s mom; industrial engineering was the closest self-discipline to petroleum engineering on supply.
“As God would have it, I gained admission to Eastern Mediterranean University to study industrial engineering,” she says. In 2012, on the age of 16, she left Nigeria for Cyprus.
“My university experience was honestly amazing,” she says.
In 2013, she was awarded the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) State Scholarship, which included a month-to-month stipend. That similar yr, she enrolled in enterprise administration as a second main, ultimately graduating high of her class in her division.
University additionally afforded her the latitude to discover broader entrepreneurial pursuits. During her second yr, Oguntayo-Williams based Deroy Consults, organising entrepreneurship seminars to encourage undergraduates to look past conventional levels and construct viable enterprises.
“Looking back, I am particularly proud that I did not limit my university experience to writing examinations and graduating,” she says. “I genuinely took advantage of the opportunities around me.”
Studying overseas additionally reworked her outlook on training and fairness. Engaging with friends from numerous backgrounds in an unfamiliar tutorial setting demonstrated how entry to high quality training can increase what people imagine they’ll accomplish.
“Most importantly, it gave me the confidence to see myself as someone who could contribute beyond my immediate environment,” she says.
She started reflecting on younger folks in Nigeria who possessed the mind and drive to excel, however lacked comparable entry to world alternatives. Although she was not but sure how to act on that realisation, the thought remained together with her.
“I left university with a broader understanding of what was possible, and a strong conviction that education should not merely prepare you for employment; it should equip you to create opportunities, solve systemic problems, and make an impact.”
Finding her footing within the office
After graduating in 2016, Oguntayo-Williams moved to the United States, working as a paralegal secretary in Brooklyn, New York. By 2017, nevertheless, she had returned to Nigeria.
A pal establishing a administration consulting apply employed her as its director of selling on a wage of ₦50,000 a month (round $140 on the prevailing 2017 alternate charge). She remained there for 9 months.
“I didn’t want to stay at home, and I didn’t want to be a broke babe. Imagine being exposed to a lot of money in Cyprus and America, then coming back with no money,” she says.
In 2018, she left and joined Ruff ‘n’ Tumble, a Nigerian youngsters’s style and attire model, first as an govt assistant and later as a purchaser. The firm had distributors in Turkey, and its founder, Adenike Ogunlesi, was searching for somebody who may converse Turkish.
Oguntayo-Williams says she had discovered the language whereas finding out in Cyprus, the place she lived on the Turkish aspect of the island.
“While I was in school, I took jobs in cafes as a dishwasher and waitress. Interacting with local people helped me pick up the language quickly,” she says.
At Ruff ‘n’ Tumble, she labored instantly with Ogunlesi, whose method formed how she approached enterprise. She remembers how the founder reacted each time she got here to her workplace and not using a pen and pocket book.
“Sometimes I would go to her office without a pen and a book, and she would shout at me. She would say, ‘Your brain is not to jot down notes; your brain is to think.’ That scared me. I made sure I always had a pen and a book with me,” she says.
Ogunlesi additionally taught her to learn past the themes she naturally loved and launched her to negotiation. Those classes have remained helpful all through her profession.
“The skills I learned while working with Mrs Ogunlesi have been instrumental in everything I do,” she says. “Whether I am hiring, doing business or working in my current role at ShortPoint.”
Moving into expertise
In 2019, Oguntayo-Williams left Ruff ‘n’ Tumble to be a part of AXA Mansard as a enterprise transformation analyst. A contact on the insurance coverage and asset administration group knowledgeable her of its transformation programme, which focused first-class graduates, and urged her to apply.
“He told me, ‘Girl, you are a first-class graduate. I think you are perfect for this job.’ I said, ‘Put me on.’ I sent my CV, attended the interview, and got the job,” she says.
At AXA, she labored on core inner restructuring, changing legacy handbook workflows with automated digital programs. She describes the remit as an intersection of enterprise evaluation, product administration, and course of optimisation.
The firm invested closely in skilled growth, and he or she complemented inner coaching by pursuing exterior technical certifications independently.
“Beyond the training they provided, I took more courses, earned certifications, and kept improving myself,” she says.
AXA offered her preliminary formal grounding in enterprise expertise and delivered her first {industry} credential, clarifying the operational panorama throughout the digital economic system.
In August 2020, Oguntayo-Williams left AXA and joined ShortPoint, a worldwide software program firm that develops instruments for constructing and customising company intranet web sites, as an affiliate product supervisor. Her expertise in enterprise transformation, alongside the extra programs and certifications she had pursued, helped her safe the position, and he or she labored remotely from her mom’s residence in Abule Egba, Lagos.
“I would never have thought that I could be in Lagos and be working for someone in another continent,” she says.
Within a yr, she was promoted to product supervisor, directing software program growth cycles from conception to launch. By 2023, she transitioned into cybersecurity and compliance, taking cost of the corporate’s governance and knowledge safety operations.
The pivot carried vital regulatory tasks, however her grounding in product design and programs structure gave her the requisite technical basis.
“Cybersecurity and compliance deepened my focus on what allows organisations to innovate responsibly: protecting information, managing risk, and building trust,” she explains.
In January 2026, she broadened her remit additional by assuming tasks as human sources supervisor.
“My experience has really been amazing. I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve been able to excel working with colleagues from diverse countries and nationalities. My interpersonal and leadership capabilities have matured considerably,” she says.
Building LearnArk
The conceptual framework for LearnArk originated throughout Oguntayo-Williams’s undergraduate years in Cyprus. Experiencing how a world tutorial setting unlocked skilled mobility made her contemplate the hundreds of thousands of younger Africans unable to examine overseas who nonetheless warranted high-calibre instruction.
Her preliminary mannequin was a web based portal the place accredited universities may ship subsidised or tuition-free programs to African college students. She initiated discussions with Rutgers University, whereas Eastern Mediterranean University agreed to provide curriculum content material. She employed a software program engineer and deployed her private financial savings to assemble the structure.
“Eventually, I had to pause the project because I could not sustain it financially,” she admits.
In 2023, whereas on maternity go away, she re-evaluated the idea. Years of informally mentoring aspiring expertise professionals had revealed that the first impediment was not entry to tutorial principle, however navigating the transition into formal employment.
“People were eager to learn, but finding structured learning opportunities, practical guidance, mentorship, and a clear pathway to employment was difficult,” she says.
That deficit outlined LearnArk’s strategic pivot. Shifting away from an educational market, she restructured the enterprise round sensible, industry-aligned technical instruction.
“I wanted to address the gap between wanting to enter technology and knowing how to take practical steps towards a career,” she says. “People can find lots of information online, but they still struggle to understand which pathway fits them, what skills are required, and how to apply what they learn in a commercial environment.”
LearnArk now runs structured cohorts in product administration, knowledge analytics, cybersecurity, and rising applied sciences, augmented by interview teaching and recruitment placement assist.
“LearnArk has trained more than 1,000 learners, which is an important milestone, but I want us to deepen how we track outcomes: whether learners secure roles, apply their skills in the workplace, or advance within their respective disciplines,” she says.
Building an inclusive pathway into expertise
Central to this mandate is the LearnArk Inclusion Academy, by means of which Oguntayo-Williams delivers tuition-free digital expertise instruction to individuals with disabilities.
“We designed the academy to make technology education genuinely accessible to individuals with physical disabilities, visual impairments, and hearing impairments,” she says.
Candidates register through the portal, specifying their most popular tracks and accessibility necessities. The operational staff and mentors present specialised assist all through the cohort, whereas the organisation works to scale up its closed-captioning capabilities and sign-language interpretation.
“I have been bootstrapping the academy from inception. There are real costs attached to providing learner support, upgrading accessibility tools, and expanding our intake,” she says. “We are open to strategic partnerships, institutional grants, and technical resources that will help us scale our reach without compromising our commitment to zero tuition fees.”
Her underlying goal stays easy.
“For me, the real measure of success is not simply the number of people we enrol, but whether the academy enables individuals who have historically faced structural barriers to acquire skills, secure viable opportunities, and participate meaningfully in the technology ecosystem,” she says.
Balancing work, household and goal
For Oguntayo-Williams, one of many hardest classes of constructing a profession and a enterprise whereas elevating a household was studying that she couldn’t do all the pieces without delay.
After experiencing burnout, she realised she couldn’t preserve counting on motivation or assume she had to do all the pieces herself to show her dedication. The expertise modified how she approaches work. She now plans her week forward, prioritises fewer duties, delegates the place attainable and units clearer boundaries.
“I no longer see being constantly busy as proof of impact,” she says. “I want to build things that create real value and can continue to grow without requiring me to sacrifice every other part of my life to keep them going.”
Over the subsequent yr, she needs to strengthen LearnArk’s studying pathways, construct extra {industry} partnerships and create higher alternatives for learners to flip their coaching into employment and profession development. She additionally hopes to increase the Inclusion Academy, so extra folks with disabilities can entry expertise training, mentorship and alternatives within the digital economic system.
Ultimately, Oguntayo-Williams needs to be remembered for greater than the positions she held or organisations she constructed.
“I want to be remembered for the doors I helped open, the systems and policies I helped improve, and the people whose lives became different because I chose to make a contribution,” she says.
