Nma Favour Ozichukwu, the current Operations Manager at iSpace Foundation, an innovations hub in Ghana that serves as a global community for tech entrepreneurs and startups shares her story on how Ghana has been her home for five years and counting.
In telling her story of how far she has come in five years, Ms. Ozichukwu, narrated how she was going back to Nigeria from Ivory Coast after her nine (9) months French course and decided to stay in Ghana for a few months to visit friends and groove.
In the moment of grooving, she decided to take on a 3 months contract role with LX HR Solutions, where she learnt a lot and met interesting people. As the contract was about to end and the plan of going home was about to manifest, she met with the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of iSpace Foundation,Josiah Abakah Kwesi Eyison.
She applied for the vacant role of a Programs Manager at his company and she was selected to lead Unlocking Women and Technology. Sharing her experience in the role, this is what Ms. Ozichukwu had to say,
“This was my first program manager role, I had major experience in Admin and linguistics. I attended a lot of seminars, worked late hours, attended a lot of training organised by the company and those I stumbled on, I made a lot of friends,enemies, acquaintances, I stepped on a lot of toes, I made several mistakes, and learned several lessons.”
Explaining why she applied for the role of Programs Manager even though she had planned to go back home to her family in Nigeria, Ms. Ozichukwu explained that growing up she was used to staying away from home alot and at this time she had gotten used to the system so decided to stay in Ghana.
“I have always “run” from home, growing up from secondary school, my school was about 5 hrs from the city where my family lived and I was a boarding student, during holidays, I also would stay back in the city with a family till school resumed. So going away from home and interacting with peers was something I valued so much, I always wanted to be around inspiring people that give time that energy. After school,I had already gotten used to the system here so I decided to stay back in Ghana.”
She further stated that even though her parents didn’t understand her decision to stay in Ghana she had the support of her elder brother who spoke to their parents on her behalf and since her stay in Ghana she has visited home on holidays and whenever her job takes her to her home country, Nigeria.
Narrating how she transitioned from the role of Programs Manager to her current one, Operations Manager, Ms. Ozichukwu said that the move wasn’t intentional as she had been advised by her mentor to take on a more challenging role when iSpace was restructuring and everyone had been asked to reapply for their role. And even though she was told she wasn’t qualified, she applied and was given the opportunity.
“In 2018 when iSpace was going through restructuring, positions were made available and we were asked to reapply for roles. At this time I was very comfortable with my position as program’s manager, I spoke to my mentor who advised me to take a more challenging role. I sent in my application, the external HR officer that handled the restructuring advised me and bluntly said she doesn’t think I’m ready for this role. Well, I finally didn’t reapply as a Programs Manager, I was interviewed and given an opportunity.”
She further added that looking back five years ago she wouldn’t have made any different decision and expressed her love for the people of Ghana and calls Ghana her second home but she plans to return to Nigeria permanently in the future as she desires be a force to reckon with when it comes to building up young women in Nigeria.
If you’re in a dilemma of making a career choice, Ms. Ozichukwu says “ Think about what you enjoy doing, find courses that would make you keep doing what you enjoy, seek professional assistance (a mentor), take internship opportunities and go there to learn!”
