- The story of an entrepreneur.
Who she is,
where she comes from,
how she got there, and what in the world
she does everyday is one that is often told.
But yet, it is mainly told as a story
of exclusion, even if unintentionally.
The story teller is usually a tall male,
from an Ivy League institution,
who inherited the genes and the financial gifts
from his parents to build a thriving company.
Or a middle class young man, who dropped out
of high school, and spent uncountable hours
writing code to make it easier for us all
to choose our next meal or date, on an app.
And sometimes, it's a middle-aged woman
from a challenging background,
who is addressing a social problem
for thousands of kids who look just like hers.
However, as they are told today,
these stories make many of us think,
"Wow, that was amazing, but I can never do that.
It could never be me.
I could never be that."
As a child growing up in Sierra Leone, I was told
that I should want, that what I want,
and what I should want is to become a medical doctor.
Three degrees later from Ivy League institutions
and a private sector research experience,
I find myself as a data scientist
within government, trying to do
what many people told me and continue to tell me
everyday that I am not ready for.
As the first Chief Innovation Officer
of the Republic of Sierra Leone
and a Technology and Innovation Advisor to the Presidency,
(applause)
Thank you.
I will tell stories today about how young men
and women entrepreneurs on my team,
are helping the government deliver
on its commitments to citizens through code,
and by engaging with various partners daily.
Glenna Wilson, a young database engineer
recently recruited from a bank,
is working with a small local start-up
and the country's National Statistics Bureau
to build interactive visualization tools
to inform national planning and intervention policies.
She lives with her grandmother
and loves to sing at church on Sundays.
Cabinet, a reggae musician with
four studio albums and a three year old boy
builds testing platforms for us to
evaluate the technologies we deploy
for government services and citizen engagement.
For these solutions to work for everyone,
they have to function online and offline.
On a feature phone, or a smartphone.
And for some, even when they have no phone credit.
And that's exactly what we've done,
building a simple unit solution that scales
algorithmically, so it works for everyone.
But of course, while we generally expect
that innovation is happening within the private
sector, we are resigned to expect
the opposite in the public sector.
Before leaving my job as a manager at IBM
Research Africa to join President Bio's government,
I was warned that I will stop learning quickly.
This advice mostly came from people who love me.
But after four months spent building a team
who embrace creative freedom and are eager
to build solutions that their own kids
and parents can benefit from,
I have learned more in this period
than I could have ever imagined.
(applause)
My team has engaged public financial institutions
to develop data architectures that will be compatible
for a future driven by edge computing,
internet of things, and big data analytics.
If government is to fully address complex
identity challenges, financial inclusion,
and security for its citizens,
it has to innovate and use state of the art solutions.
A couple weeks ago, in a conversation with
the Vice President, he mentioned to me that he used
the results of a machine learning analysis we presented
at a cabinet meeting to inform a fiscal
intervention by his government.
A recent collaboration with our country's vehicular
registration agency and the anti-corruption commission
has explored how government vehicles were
misappropriated over a ten year period,
and is identifying the loopholes in current
government vehicle ownership policy and
transfer methods through data science.
Mohammed James, a young computer scientist,
and Michaela George, a lawyer leading the policy team,
closely collaborate on projects like this.
And I'm proud to say that Michaela is not alone,
over 60 percent of the data scientists on my team are women.
(applause)
Look, we are not the first ones to have built
something like this in government.
The United States Digital Services, developed
by President Obama for example,
has had tremendous impact.
Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana, and many other countries
in Africa have developed the space for entrepreneurs,
particularly in the private sector, to thrive.
That same agility, grit, passion, and play
used to learn and develop solutions in the private sector
needs to be commonplace in government.
And that's what we are on course to do in Sierra Leone.
For me, these stories challenge our current
understanding of who can and cannot innovate
or be an entrepreneur.
(clears throat)
Excuse me.
In my office at State House, I have a set
of office principles written on a whiteboard.
The first one at the top is: You belong here.
The next is: Let's get technical.
(audience laughter)
Everyone can innovate and I seek to reaffirm this
with my team daily, because we have a chance
to make our world more equitable through innovation,
particularly in the public sector,
we just happen to be starting in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Thank you very much.
(applause)
(down tempo drums)