Omowonuola Akintola wants Africa to build its geospatial future
An unmapped village. A community overlooked for development. A disaster response slowed by missing data. Those are the kinds of problems Omowonuola Akintola has spent her career trying to solve. Through geospatial data, she has helped governments and humanitarian organisations better understand the places they serve—from identifying underserved communities for rural electrification projects to…
Omowonuola Akintola has dedicated her career to harnessing the power of geospatial data to address critical issues in Africa, from underserved communities to disaster response. Her journey began in Osogbo, Nigeria, where she grew up reading voraciously and eventually pursued a degree in Surveying and Geoinformatics.
At Obafemi Awolowo University, Akintola discovered her passion lay not in traditional land surveying, but in using technology to gain deeper insights into geographical data. This led her to immerse herself in programming languages, desktop software, and geospatial tools. After graduation, she took on a role at OEA Consult Limited, where she applied her technical skills to hydrology projects.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Akintola returned to her hometown of Osogbo, where she was introduced to a remote position at a German energy consulting firm. Here, she utilized geospatial analysis to support rural electrification and agricultural projects across Nigeria and Ethiopia. One project in particular involved evaluating the impact of electricity access on community livelihoods, using satellite imagery to assess changes over time.
In 2022, Akintola shifted her focus to humanitarian work, joining the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) to apply her geospatial skills to disaster response and development. Working with satellite imagery and local knowledge, her team created and updated maps for governments, aid organizations, and emergency responders. This work allowed her to contribute to critical decision-making processes, ensuring that resources were allocated effectively before and after disasters.
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