Nigerian wins UK’s Women in Telecoms Champion award
August 3, 2026 6:49 pm
Miss Obiageli Okafor
Nigerian-born product leader, Miss Obiageli Okafor (popularly called Obii), has been named Women in Telecoms Champion at the Comms Council UK Awards 2026, becoming the first African to receive the honour since the category was created.
Okafor, a Senior Product Manager at global cloud communications firm 8×8 and Co-Founder of a nonprofit – PMHelp, was recognised for her contribution to UK telecoms and her work expanding access to technology for professionals across Africa and beyond on July 17, 2026.
Speaking to our correspondent in Enugu on Monday, she said, “I was genuinely shocked.”
She added, “My first thought was gratitude, for everyone who had believed in me, from my family and colleagues at 8×8 to my PMHelp community, and for the younger version of myself in Nigeria who could never have imagined standing on a stage in London receiving recognition from an entire industry.”
The award recognises women making an outstanding contribution to UK telecoms, an industry where women make up less than one-fifth of the workforce, according to figures cited by industry body techUK, with the shortfall sharpest at management and director level. Ofcom and leading UK telecoms firms have pledged to attract, retain and promote more women in the sector.
“Being the first African to receive this recognition means our people now know there are no barriers stopping us from achieving what we want.
“Talent has no borders, and African women belong in every room where technology is being built, and decisions are being made.”
Okafor worked as a product manager across Nigeria and Dubai before relocating to the UK, where she faced repeated job rejections and worked three jobs to get by before rebuilding her career from scratch and rising to her current role at 8×8. That setback led her to found PMHelp, which has supported more than 52,000 professionals across 70-plus countries through mentoring and career support.
She is also co-founder of Capstone, an AI-powered platform that gives product managers real-world practice through workplace simulations.
Her award comes as she releases her first book, “Impossible to Ignore”, a playbook on building career visibility. She credits the strategy in the book with growing her LinkedIn following from just over 2,000 to more than 11,000 in a matter of months, a rise she says led directly to recruiter interest, speaking invitations, industry awards and new opportunities.
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