Fadimatou Iyawa ousmanou
STEM Leader & Youth Advocate

A computer engineer with expertise in biometrics and cybersecurity, Fadimatou Iyawa Ousmanou is a holder of two Master’s degrees in Telecommunications and Networks and in Information Systems and Software Engineering. She also holds an International Honours Diploma in Business Administration from the Cambridge Institute of Professional Training, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Peace and Development at the Protestant University of Central Africa. An engineering consultant at Cyberstion, a US-based company, she is also a systems and network engineering consultant for Veridos, the German partner of Elections Cameroun, in charge of the national electoral biometrics project, as well asnCEO and Founder of Felio Design and Expert Tracking, Cameroon. Her superb profile positions her as a true Woman Leader in STEM. Fadimatou has always had a strong passion for youth issues ever since her university days. This passion, showcased by her involvement in a wide range of associations at national level, such as the humanitarian association YUMMEN, of which she is the founding president and with which she is involved in a World Bank-financed youth education project in Northern Cameroon. She is also the promoter of the Women and Youth Leaders Empowerment Forum (WYLEF) initiative, a platform that promotes female and youth leadership. In 2017, Fadimatou became the Adamawa Focal Point for the Cameroon Health Information and Libraries Association (AIBSC). Later that year, at the end of the World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) held in October in Sochi, Russia, she was appointed Secretary.  General of FUTURE TEAM Cameroon. She is also an Alumni of the American Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI ) program of the  Regional Leadership Center (CRL), at the African Center for Higher Studies in Management (CESAG), Dakar, since February 2017, where she studied Business and Entrepreneurship (5th cohort of YALI).

She has earned several Awards to her credit, namely:

• Best Leadership in Peace and Citizenship award by Youth
• Connekt Cameroon 2020;
• Excellence in Leadership award 2020;
• Best Leadership in Volunteerism award by MINJEC 2020;
• Excellence in Leadership award by the CNYC 202;
• The 30 best Young Cameroonians in 2022
• The 10 Women embodying Female Leadership in the Sahel 2023;
• The 40 best Young Cameroonians in 2024;

The Peace Medal, awarded by the Belgian Combatants

Federation and the Belgian Embassy in Cameroon in 2024