PalmPay Nigeria has reaffirmed its commitment to increasing women’s participation in the financial technology sector through its Purple Women initiative, as the company hosted the third edition of its Global Women’s Masterclass designed to equip young women with digital and professional skills.
Speaking at the event, Chika Nwosu, managing director of PalmPay Nigeria, said the initiative was launched to address the low representation of women in fintech and the broader technology ecosystem.
“This initiative is because we noticed that there are not so many women in fintech and in the tech industry, and we intend to bridge that gap. We want to see a whole lot of women in leadership positions in fintech,” Nwosu said.
The programme, organised in collaboration with the Global Women’s International Campaign Nigeria to commemorate International Women’s Day, forms part of PalmPay’s broader effort to create an inclusive digital economy and empower women with technology-driven skills.
According to Nwosu, empowering women produces long-term social and economic impact. “A money in the hand of a man feeds a family, but money in the hand of a woman feeds generations,” he said, noting that women’s financial empowerment often translates to better education and opportunities for children and stronger households.
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Although the programme is hosted in Lagos, he explained that participation is open to women across Nigeria through an online registration platform. “Our head office is in Lagos, but we invite women from all over Nigeria. They register through a link for Purple Women. It is not only for people in Lagos; it is for all Nigerians,” he said.
At the end of the masterclass, 10 participants were selected for a six month internship programme at PalmPay where they will receive practical experience across different departments.
Explaining the selection process, Anthony Iwuala, head of human resources at PalmPay, said the company used a merit based system to identify the most qualified candidates. “For us at PalmPay, we believe in equity and equality and following the right process. As a company, we believe in people who have skills and talent, so we ensure that we select people who are qualified,” Iwuala said.
According to him, participants were assessed through the classes and written tests conducted during the programme. “Participants went through the classes and wrote tests for every class. A lot of people passed, but we still had to rank them and select only the top ten,” he said.
Iwuala added that the selected interns will be deployed across departments such as marketing, human resources, administration, product development, sales and business intelligence where they will receive mentorship and hands-on training. “We assign mentors to them, and these mentors will provide on the job training for six months,” he said.
He stressed that the programme is designed not only to train participants but also to create employment opportunities. “We are not just taking them to train them; we train them to employ them,” he said.
He noted that previous editions have already produced tangible results. The Purple Women 2.0 programme saw the ten women we trained offered full employment at PalmPay, and they are still working with us currently, Iwuala said. “These ones will not be different.”
Read also: Inside PalmPay’s purple woman powering jobs and tech skills
Also speaking at the event, Kemi Okusanya, chief executive officer of Hydrogen, urged women to pursue careers in technology and product development, noting that women must play a stronger role in designing digital products. “The only thing that can stop you is yourself. From a product perspective, the world needs us more,” she said.
Okusanya warned that when technology products are developed mainly by men, important user experiences can be overlooked. “We cannot keep having men develop products that women use. If that continues, there will always be a gap. Women need to enter that space and start developing products from our own experiences,” she said.
She also encouraged women in the technology ecosystem to think beyond local markets. “There is nothing stopping us from becoming global. But we must start locally, take the lessons from our environment and build solutions that can scale globally,” she said.
In her presentation, Nneka Okekearu, director of the enterprise development centre at Pan-Atlantic University, delivered a masterclass focused on self worth, confidence and self awareness for women.
Okekearu explained that many women grow up with unconscious biases that affect their confidence and career choices. “A lot of women have grown up being told they cannot do certain things. Unlike their male counterparts, they are sometimes discouraged from pursuing opportunities,” she said.
According to her, the session focused on helping women recognise their abilities and build confidence. “A lot of women have so much to give, but they are shackled by unconscious bias. The session focused on self-awareness, building confidence and realising that we know it and should own it,” she added.
She acknowledged that progress has been made in female leadership in Nigeria’s corporate sector. “Today we have more than 30 percent of commercial banks with female CEOs. We now have women serving as bank chairpersons and more women on corporate boards,” she posited.
However, she highlighted what she described as the missing middle, where many women leave the workforce at critical career stages. “When women enter the workforce, by the time they get married and have children, many leave. We need systems that allow them to return without losing their career progress,” Okekearu said.
Nwosu said PalmPay plans to expand the programme further with future editions. “The fourth edition will definitely come and we are going to make it bigger and better,” he said, adding that the long term goal is to see Nigerian women take leadership roles across multiple sectors of the economy.
