Cameroon Detains Foremost Techie, Rebecca Enonchong

Human rights activists, journalists and politicians have converged on the Bonanjo Gendamarie Legion where Cameroonian-born Rebecca Enonchong has been arrested and is being detained for questioning.

She is accused of using her twitter handle on July 21 to ask why the International Monetary Fund/IMF has still gone ahead to approve an additional US$689.5million to Cameroon after evidence emerged from an audit report that Covid-19 grants to Cameroon were mismanaged.

A statement from Edith Kah Walla late August 11, announced that Rebecca Enonchong was being deferred to the Court of First Instance Bonanjo. Shortly after, a twitter hatchtag #FreeRebecca has been created, sparking off national and international call for the Cameroon government to set her free.

Rebecca Enonchong is one woman who has never swallowed her thoughts or play the ostrich about what happens in Cameroon or about Cameroon.

The top tech Cameroon-born woman who is also one of the first fifty most influential women in Africa has always been on the limelight when it comes to positive and objective criticism of societal and governmental ills in Cameroon.

Enonchong, The Tech Guru

After finishing her education, Enonchong went on to work for a number of organizations including Inter-American Development Bank (IaDB) and Oracle Corporation.

In 1999, Enonchong founded the company AppsTech, a Bethesda, Maryland-based global provider of enterprise application solutions.
AppsTech is an Oracle Platinum Partner and has customers in over 40 countries.

AppsTech opened offices in several countries, including Enonchong’s native Cameroon. She describes the experience as having been difficult and having led to the closure of AppsTech subsidiaries.

In 2002, The World Economic Forum of Davos, Switzerland named Enonchong a Global Leader for Tomorrow (GLT) along with other tech entrepreneurs such as Google co-founder Larry Page and Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff.
In 2013, Enonchong was recognized as a finalist for the African digital woman award.

In March 2014, Forbes listed her as one of the ‘10 Female Tech Founders to Watch in Africa’.
Enonchong has also gained notoriety as one of the more followed sources for African tech news on Twitter, with over 30 thousand followers.

Her handle, @Africatechie, has become a nickname for Enonchong in IT circles. Enonchong has spent much of her career promoting technology in Africa. She has carried out work in both the U.S. and in Africa. She was the founder and Chairperson of the Africa Technology Forum, a non-profit dedicated to helping technology startups in Africa.

Enonchong is a member of the board of directors for the Salesforce.com Foundation.
She is on the board of VC4Africa, which is one of the largest online communities in Africa that is dedicated to entrepreneurs and investors.

She is a member of the UK Department for International Development’s Digital Advisory Panel, and was previously involved with the UN’s Women Global Advisory Committee and the United Nations ICT Task Force.

Enonchong, the Freedom Fighter

Rebecca Enonchong is one woman who has always fought for unconditional freedom for Cameroonians and by Cameroonians by attacking individuals and institutions that make moves to restrict these freedoms.

She is one of those who have called for the president of Cameroon to quit power and ensue a political transition in Cameroon, hand over power to the next generation.
“Papa your children are pleading on you to leave power through a political transition,” she said.

Each time a journalist or activist is arrested in Cameroon, she will use all platforms to call for their immediate release like was the case with award winning Equinoxe former journalist Mimi Mefo Takambou and a host of others.

She was also one of the key actors that raised the flag when a bill to introduce the phone tax in Cameroon was being voted in parliament in Cameroon.

Enonhong’s early life

Enonchong was born in Cameroon in 1967. Her father was Dr. Henry Ndifor Abi Enonchong, who was a well-known barrister in Cameroon. While Enonchong was growing up in Cameroon, her father helped create the Federal Cameroon Bar Association and its successor, the Cameroon Bar Association. In her teens, Enonchong moved to the US with her family.

While studying, she took up a job selling door-to-door newspaper subscriptions from the age of 15.
She later became a manager at the same company at the age of 17.

Enonchong attended the Catholic University of America, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree and also a Master of Science degree in Economics.