When she was a child, Sylvia Jebet dreamed of becoming a teacher, inspired by her love for math, science, and the joy of sharing knowledge.
However, she ended up pursuing a career in telecommunications engineering, a path she hadn’t originally imagined for herself.
At 25, Sylvia Jebet is now the Developer Relations Associate and Women in Tech Lead for Africa at Africa’s Talking, a tech firm in Kenya.
In an interview with NTV in Shanghai, China, she shared her plan to use her tech skills and insights from Huawei’s Seed for the Future program to boost agriculture in Uasin Gishu.
Before joining Africa’s Talking, she studied Telecommunications and Information Engineering at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), graduating in 2022.
“At the time, we were about 10 ladies in class, out of an opening class of 60 students. We graduated with about 41 students,” Jebet told NTV and Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024 in Shanghai, China.
Sylvia Jebet’s love for technology grew as she noticed its increasing presence around her and through her daily interactions with various devices at home.
This interest influenced her decision to join the Huawei Seeds for the Future program, which offers hands-on training and exposes tech enthusiasts to practical solutions in the field.
Among the five Kenyan students chosen for the program, she is the only female participant.
This Huawei initiative focuses on training Africans in the Sub-Saharan region, with 18,000 individuals already benefiting from improved technical and practical skills.
Looking ahead, Huawei plans to expand this opportunity to an extra 150,000 students throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.
“We got to learn about artificial intelligence from a country that is far ahead in terms of technology and saw real-time applications of these technologies here in China. We were stationed in Beijing,” Jebet revealed.
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After finishing the year-long cohort learning period, Sylvia took part in the 2020 group of the Huawei program, which included a brief one-week immersion in China.
Being recognized and having her convocation at prestigious global tech events like MWC is a major achievement for her in the tech industry as a woman.
With newfound insights from the Huawei program, Sylvia is eager to bring her knowledge home to Uasin Gishu and make a tangible impact.
Her objective is to leverage technology to enhance agricultural production, focusing on tackling issues like persistent post-harvest losses through comprehensive mechanization of the agricultural process.
“Being in China has shown me how we can effectively mechanize our farming back at home. I have learnt how we can do vertical farming structures like hydroponic farming and green housing with key monitoring points like soil pH, soil sciences, knowing the right moisture content for production, and managing crop production end to end,” she explained.