| Farida Mohammad Kabir | |
| Birth Date: | 25 July 1992 |
| Nationality: | Nigerian |
| Citizenship: | United Kingdom |
| Education: | Masters Degree |
| Alma Mater: | Ahmadu Bello University |
| Occupation: | epidemiologistSoftware Developer& entrepreneur |
Farida Mohammad Kabir (born 25 July 1992) is a Nigerian epidemiologist, software developer, and technology entrepreneur.[1] She is the team lead for Google Women TechMakers and co-organizer for Google Developer Group, Abuja. She is also the founder/CEO of OTRAC, a health technology company that develops enterprise software systems for the healthcare sector in Nigeria.[2]
Farida Kabir was born in London, UK, in 1992.[3] She is the eldest of five daughters. Kabir attended primary school in Lagos and secondary school in Kaduna Nigeria. She studied at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria from January 2009 to April 2014, graduating with a Bachelors of Science in Biological Science.[4] In 2015, she was trained as a front line field epidemiologist by the Nigeria Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program of the NCDC. She later got a scholarship from the Visiola Foundation to study software development. Kabir also holds an MBA from the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank.[5]
Kabir started her career in public health as a data analyst with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) during the 2014 - 2015 Ebola outbreak in the country. She has also worked with the Lassa fever emergency operations center as the assistant communications officer under the social mobilization and communications unit of the NCDC.
In 2016, she was one of five Africans awarded by French President François Hollande in recognition of her entrepreneurial advances in Health Technology.[6] That same year she went back to study software development through a scholarship awarded by the Visiola Foundation. She went ahead to intern at hotels.ng, a software company owned by Mark Essien. She has worked on various software projects with companies like eForge solutions and SAMS.
In 2017, Kabir made a move to the private sector to work in the area of health technology. She founded OTRAC, a health technology company that develops enterprise software systems for the healthcare sector in Nigeria.[7] OTRAC was founded in 2017 and is currently active in Nigeria and South Africa.[8]
Kabir is the current ambassador and team lead for Google Women TechMakers Abuja. Google Women TechMakers is a program that supports and encourages more women to get into the STEM field, and help those that are already in STEM. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.[5] She is one of 100 women named in Leading Ladies Africa (LLA)’s 100 Most Inspiring Women in Nigeria list for 2019.[9]
Kabir served as the Federal ICT advisor for the Department of International Development (DFID)’s Partnership to Engage, Reform, and Learn (PERL) programme. This is a five-year project that focuses on strengthening government institutions and increasing citizen participation.[6]