Reinforcing its commitment to advancing women in business and technology, a Nigerian digital bank, PalmPay, through its Purple Woman programme, has prioritised women to drive greater involvement of the gender in the fintech workforce.

Citing statistics according to Women in Tech Nigeria, women currently represent just 17 per cent of Nigeria’s tech workforce, a move the organisation said tends to bridge the gap and see more women in leadership positions in the space.

Managing Director of PalmPay Nigeria, Chika Nwosu, said this in commemoration of International Women’s Day (IWD), where the company, as part of its efforts to celebrate the day, organises a yearly programme, Purple Woman, designed to equip young women with practical skills and genuine access to opportunities in technology and business.

According to him, the Purple Woman programme, which is in its third edition, is focused on increasing female representation in technology and financial services, which focuses on economic and professional empowerment through skills, mentorship, and resources necessary to advance their careers and scale their businesses.
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“There are very few women in the fintech space and we intend to bridge the gap. We want to see many women in leadership positions in fintech. If we can empower more women in society, it will make a greater difference. We empower young women through internships, where they are trained for six months and retained.

“We want to be part of the organisation that will ensure that a lot of women are empowered to be in leadership positions across boards and succeed in their careers,” he said.

Speaking on Personal Branding, Director, Enterprise Development Centre (Pan-Atlantic University), Dr Nneka Okekearu, argued that a lot of women have so much to do, but they are shackled by the unconscious biases that they have been placed with since childhood.

She said self-worth was about creating awareness and building confidence in realising that women know it and should own it.
On gender imbalance, she acknowledged that Nigeria has made strides, even though there is room for more
improvements.

With more than 30 per cent of commercial banks having female chief executives, she said a lot more women are now coming on board.
However, emphasising the missing middle, which she described as a challenge, she said, is when women get into the workforce, “by the time they get married and become pregnant, they leave. We need to put some systems in place so that by the time they come back, there will be no gaps.”

Similarly, the chief executive officer of Hydrogen, Kemi Okusanya, said: “As a woman, nothing is stopping you except you stop yourself. From a product perspective, the world needs us more. I call out to women with an interest in tech to come into the space to start developing the product from our experiences. Nothing is stopping us from being global, and to achieve that, we have to start from the local area and take lessons from there.”