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… Calls for deeper tech inclusion
By Rita Okoye
As Nigeria and the rest of the world continue to navigate the complex terrain of economic inequality, access to opportunities, and digital transformation, an expert in cloud infrastructure and DevOps engineering with a deep interest in people-focused innovation has made a passionate appeal: “We must stop treating technology as a privilege. It is a necessity, and more importantly, a pathway to dignity.”
Michael Uanikehi, a Lead Cloud DevOps Engineer based in Manchester, United Kingdom, has spent the better part of the last decade designing, scaling, and securing digital infrastructures across Europe. But for him, technology is more than infrastructure or automation but about impact.
Speaking with our correspondent during an interactive session on the global shift toward digital resilience and the growing role of tech in closing economic gaps, Uanikehi stressed that no society can truly leap forward without investing in digital literacy and access.
“I’ve seen firsthand how a young person from a rural town in Nigeria can learn Kubernetes and Terraform online and completely transform their life,” he said. “The barrier is rarely talent—it’s access, guidance, and opportunity.”
Speaking further, he recalled being curious about how things worked—taking apart radios, learning rudimentary coding from cyber cafes, and eventually moving into IT support roles before making the leap into cloud engineering.
Today, he leads a team of engineers at Techchak, where he’s responsible for deploying scalable, secure, cloud-native solutions used across multiple sectors.
When asked what fuels his passion for DevOps, Uanikehi smiled. “DevOps isn’t just about code pipelines or containers. It’s about systems that can adapt, self-heal, and scale. In many ways, that’s what human potential is like—resilient, if given the right environment.”
On some of the projects that hve armed him recognitions across Europe, he pointed to a project he led involving the migration of an entire CI/CD infrastructure from IBM to GitHub Actions.
“It was high-stakes, but it taught me a lot about leadership, change management, and the value of automation done right. We had to think beyond just scripts; we were thinking about people, about performance, about continuity.”
Outside of his daily work, Uanikehi noted that he’s an advocate for mentorship, adding that he regularly coaches aspiring engineers, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds.
He’s also involved in remote training sessions that help African tech talents bridge the knowledge gap in cloud infrastructure and DevOps tools.
Asked what he thinks governments and institutions should do to bridge the digital divide?
He disclosed that it must “Start by removing the gatekeeping. Give people devices, give them connectivity, give them freedom to learn. The next global unicorn could come from Aba or Kaduna, not just Silicon Valley. But we have to believe in that future and build for it.”
With certifications from AWS, Microsoft, and HashiCorp, and a portfolio that includes designing secure financial systems, orchestrating containerized deployments across AWS and Azure, and leading security-focused infrastructure strategies, Uanikehi has earned his place among the most respected DevOps minds in the field.
Yet, he insisted that the greatest work is still ahead.
“Technology helped me change my life. Now I want to see it change millions more. It’s not just possible—it’s necessary.”
