Angela Wamola is a seasoned professional with over two decades experience in digital transformation environments and business leadership. She serves as the head of Strategy and Planning at Kenya’s leading telcos, Safaricom.
In a past interview with The Standard, she revealed that she was a typical E student in high school and the black sheep in her family when it came to education.
This is how she rose from an E student to a top executive as told by WoK:
Difficult subjects
Born and raised in Nairobi, Angela was an E student in high school. Mathematics and physics were especially very hard for her.
This changed in Form three when they were given forms to fill in courses they keen on pursuing in the University.
University
This got her thinking and since she had an uncle that was an engineer, she thought it would be the best course.
After a change in attitude and putting in the work, she joined the University of Nairobi to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering.
The journey was hard and understanding pure Mathematics and Physics seemed impossible.
It wasn’t until third year that she had an attitude shift and began understanding the subjects. Much later, she would obtain an executive MBA from the University of Cape Town.
Career
Despite studying engineering, she went on to work in the IT sector.
After working at Computech, she joined Safaricom in 2011. She started at the IT support department and steadily climbed the career ladder to become the head of core network planning and support department before becoming the technological head of Strategy and Planning.
She founded and provided leadership for Safaricom Women in Technology (WIT) platform. She received the Safaricom Technology Heiko award and CEO Awards Safaricom Way Heroes 2014-15.
In 2015, the professional also received the Kenya ICT Authority Women on STEM recognition at Connected East Africa.
She is now the Senior Director, Strategic Engagement for GSMA at Sub Saharan Africa. This is a trade body that represents the interests of hundreds of mobile operators worldwide.
She is a member of Village Capital Communities Africa Advisory board, Shared Value Africa Initiative Kenya Working Group, Smart Africa Digital Identity Working Group.
