Oritsela Ebimami is an AI and IT support professional and the Founder and Executive Director of Warri Women in Tech, a community creating pathways for women and girls in Warri, Delta State, to take part in the digital economy. The location carries its own context: Nigeria's technology industry is concentrated largely in Lagos, and Warri sits well outside that core — a distance that shapes who gets a foothold in the digital economy, the access question her community was founded to address.

Her career spans IT support, AI and programme work. She works as an IT support specialist and AI prompt engineer, alongside roles as a technology educator, user researcher and speaker. In April 2026, she began working as a prompt engineer at Warri Tech Hub, developing structured prompts for AI tools. Prompt engineering has grown into a distinct job function as generative AI tools have spread into everyday work, and the role is built around exactly that kind of structured instruction design.

She spent eight months as a Scrum Master at BlueBow Research Consultancy in the London area, from October 2023 to May 2024. She is also the founder of Techsela Consultancy, where she works across AI, IT support, digital systems and operations.

In July 2026, she founded Warri Women in Tech to bridge the gender gap in technology by creating pathways for women and girls. She was also accepted into the Mentor Me Collective's Grow with Google programme as part of its Elite 495 cohort. Grow with Google is Google's digital skills training initiative, and for readers tracking how the gender gap is being tackled outside the major hubs, the community's first programmes and her cohort training are the concrete threads to follow.

Ebimami says her work has followed one thread, from studying language and human communication to exploring AI, technology, mental health and communities. She believes the future will belong not only to those who build the most advanced systems, but to those who understand the people those systems are meant to serve.

Speaking about her daily routine, she said: “My day usually starts around 4:30am. I stretch, meditate, drink water, play chess, and slowly get into the work for the day.”

Her working setup is deliberately lean. “So, it is basically my laptop and my phone. My laptop is where I research, write, work with AI tools, plan programs, and build things. My phone is where a lot of the human side of my work happens: communities, conversations, opportunities, collaborations, random ideas. Between the two, I can basically run most of what I do,” she explained.

Her regular toolkit includes Google Workspace, Microsoft Office, Dedoose, Notion, WhatsApp, Zoom, ChatGPT and Google Meet.

When it comes to generating ideas, she steps away from the problem. “I might listen to music, watch anime, play chess, read, or just sit with my thoughts. I have realised that sometimes trying too hard to have an idea gets in the way of having one. Some of my best ideas come when I stop trying to force them,” she said.

Asked to name an app she finds valuable, she singled out Duolingo, the language-learning app.

One product she wishes existed is a technology navigation system for people trying to find their way in the digital world. “Something that looks at where you are, what you already know, what you want to achieve and what is available around you, then helps you figure out what to learn, which tools to use, who to connect with and what opportunity to pursue next,” she said.

If she could shape education policy, she would focus on technology education across Africa. “We have so many problems to solve, but we need people who can look at those problems and say, ‘How can I build a better way?’ I want technology education to produce problem-solvers, not just people who know how to use tools or collect certificates,” she said. That problem-solver emphasis runs through the community she has built in Warri.

The figure she finds most interesting is Chanel Power, an AI/ML engineer and the founder of Mentor Me Collective. “I find the combination of deep technical work and what she has built around technical learning and mentorship really interesting. She is an example of someone who has built expertise and then built something around that expertise,” Ebimami said.

The quotation that resonates most with her comes from bell hooks' Teaching to Transgress, her 1994 book on pedagogy: “…so that we can know beyond the boundaries of what is acceptable, so that we can think and rethink, so that we can create new visions.”

As for the story she would most love to read: “I would love to read about a woman building technology education somewhere in Africa outside the usual tech centres. I want to know what made her start, what she saw that other people were not seeing, and what she has learnt from teaching people technology in an African context,” she said.