She is one of the leading women in the African cybersecurity industry. Through CyberSafe Foundation, she raises awareness on how to stay cyber-safe. For her impact on the continent, she has already received several awards and recognitions.
Confidence Staveley (photo) is a Nigerian cybersecurity expert. She graduated from Middlesex University, in 2011, with a BSc in information technology and Business information systems. In 2013, she got a Master’s in IT management from the University of Bradford.
In 2019, she founded Cybersafe Foundation, an NGO that raises promotes changes (through awareness campaigns and training) for a safer internet for African users.
Recently, through the #NoGoFallMaga initiative, the organization launched cybersecurity awareness campaigns that reached over 20 million people. It also organized cybersecurity training reaching more than 4,000 small and medium-sized businesses and over 9,000 employees. The NGO also launched the first cybersecurity awareness handbook in Africa.
“We were looking at really innovative ways to drive awareness about cybersecurity and making people see the importance in the first place and how it applies to them as individuals. And helping them take actionable steps to become safer online, but we’re doing it in a way that’s not overwhelming,” Confidence Staveley said in June 2022, explaining the reasons behind the campaign.
Since August 2022, the cybersecurity expert, who calls herself a “cyber evangelist”, is a member of the Forbes Technology Council. She entered the professional world, in 2009, as a computer instructor at Eastern Data Services Ltd. In 2011, she was hired as an IT Assistant by the Cross River State Government.
She later joined Lloyds Banking Group as a customer service advisor and telephone banking consultant. In 2013, she joined the Calabar International Convention Centre as an IT specialist and, two years later, she landed at InfoGraphics Nigeria, where she was appointed technical marketing and interactive media manager.
Between 2016 and 2018, she was a cybersecurity analyst for UIC Innovations Africa. A year later, she became the country manager of the computer security firm DIGISS. Concurrently, from 2017 to 2022, she worked as a part-time managing partner of the marketing firm Gidinerd.
Ms. Staveley is a multiple award winner. She has been cited on CIO Magazine’s 2021-2022 list of Africa’s 45 most influential women in Digital Transformation. the Cyber Security Expert Association of Nigeria (CSEAN) also named her the 2022 Cyber Security Woman of the Year and she received the Meridian Global Leadership Award at the Global Leadership Summit for her positive impacts. This year, she also made it to the list of the top 100 Most Inspiring Women in Nigeria and received the Obama Leader's Personal Commitment Award.
Melchior Koba
