Inside Daniel Anomfueme’s mission to build Africa’s first truly decentralised science tech ecosystem
Daniel Anomfueme began as the neighborhood’s unofficial IT support, learning tech via Wikipedia and a Galaxy Star Samsung. Now a Technical Project Manager, he's building DeSci Africa to democratize scientific knowledge.
There is a particular kind of person who, before they know what a career is, is already doing the work. They are not prodigies in the traditional sense. They do not write code or build an app at age twelve; they are simply restlessly curious, and that curiosity, left to blossom, eventually becomes a profession. Daniel Anomfueme is that kind of person.
Today, Anomfueme is a technical project manager and community builder, though he is quick to add that the description does not fully capture how he sees himself.
“I think of myself as ambitious,” he says. “Someone who can zoom out to see the big picture and then zoom in to get things done.”
It is a self-description that has been portrayed throughout his career. Anomfueme has worked as a technical project manager, helped secure millions in funding for a decentralised autonomous organisation, launched a blockchain governance platform, founded the first decentralised science community on the African continent, and quietly built a home server lab that runs more than thirty services for himself and his friends.
Screens and curiosity: How it all started
Anomfueme grew up in a family he describes as middle-class. Not wealthy, not struggling, just a family that could eat, and that occasionally had access to a computer.
One of his earliest interests was comic books, and although he could not afford to buy them, he found a workaround online. He would visit Wikipedia frequently to read comics and learn about Greek mythology.
“I also used to go to Nairaland. There was a mobile phone technology forum, and I spent a lot of time there.”
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It was an early lesson in how the Internet could democratise access to knowledge, an area he would later build a career around.
The real technological revolution for Anomfueme came with a Samsung Galaxy Star, a small white Android phone he received in junior secondary school. It was a modest device, but i...
