Get our fun 5-minute roundup of happenings in African and global tech, directly in your inbox every weekday, hours before everyone else. Powered by AI and perfected by seasoned editors. Every story blends AI speed with human judgment. Every day, we handpick the biggest stories, skip the noise, and bring you a fun digest you can trust. Esohe Igbinoba is the Director of Programs and Partnerships at Businessfront (publishers of Techpoint Africa).
Her carreer spans over a decade, building teams and bringing communities together. Over the years, she has answered numerous questions from fresh entrants in program management who are always eager to know what the career progression looks like and how they can position themselves to attract the right opportunities. In this interview, Igbinoba addresses some of the frequently asked questions and offers practical insights for those seeking to excel in program management.
A program manager is someone who takes an idea and turns it into a living, breathing initiative, from strategy and stakeholder mapping, through execution, funding, and team resourcing, all the way to measuring the impact it actually had. It’s part strategist, part operator, part relationship-builder. The biggest misconception is that program management is “just project management with a softer title” — that it’s mostly logistics and scheduling.
In reality, a project manager is often executing something that’s already defined and funded. A program manager frequently has to define the idea itself, find the money to fund it, build the team to deliver it, and manage the politics of multiple stakeholders who all want something different from the same initiative. Another misconception is that it’s a “soft” career with a low ceiling. It isn’t.
Done well, it’s one of the more lucrative paths available, with senior professionals earning as much as ₦5 million a month.