Ghana: Farida Bedwei, an engineer working for digital inclusion

Software engineer, techpreneur, disability rights activist, Farida Bedwei works to promote digital inclusion. The Ghanaian co-founded the fintech Logiciel, which has developed a banking application for the microfinance sector.

Farida Bedwei has developed her career in the telecommunications software and mobile services sectors. Graduating in Computer Science from the University of Hertfordshire in the UK in 2005, she first worked from 2001 to 2010 as Senior Software Architect for Rancard Solutions, a software company enabling brands worldwide to access targeted and relevant mobile audiences across Africa. From 2011, she explored the microfinance world, working as an IT consultant for G-Life FSL, a technology-driven microfinance institution offering banking services to the informal sector.

In the same year, she co-founded Logiciel, a fintech specialized in banking applications. As technical manager, she developed the gKudi microfinance platform, a banking system for the microfinance sector used by over 60 microfinances in Ghana. This solution is aimed in particular at the digital inclusion of microfinances, which target the informal sector in which women predominate. In 2014, she was appointed to the Board of Directors of Ghana’s National Communications Authority.

In 2014, she sat on the Board of Directors of Ghana’s National Communications Authority.

From 2021 to 2022, Farida joins Byte The Bits, a digital data company, as CEO and then joined Microsoft where, until 2024, she was Senior Software Engineer and worked on the development of its metaverse platform. Since 2024, she has been a consultant with the Digital Opportunity Trust, a Canadian organization that offers training programs in technology, entrepreneurship and leadership to young people around the world.

Commitment to the rights of people with disabilities

Affected by cerebral palsy at birth, she is committed to the rights of people with disabilities. In 2018, she partnered with Ghanaian games studio Leti Arts and wrote a comic book featuring a superheroine with cerebral palsy “Karmzah”. She initiated “Demystifying disabilities”, an online program she hosts to raise awareness of disability in society. She is also an executive member of Sharecare Ghana, where she raises awareness of autoimmune and neurological diseases.

Over the course of her career, Farida has won several awards and distinctions. In 2011, she won the Maiden – Legacy and Legacy Ideas Award. In 2013, she won the Most Influential Women in Business and Government Award Financial Sector. In 2016, she was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In 2018, she received the Special Award from President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.