How PalmPay is helping young Nigerian women break into tech

Ifeabunike Chinenye just concluded her NYSC with the hope of getting a job, but none was forthcoming. However, PalmPay’s post on the purple woman’s tech training on Instagram changed my story.

“When I saw it, the word ‘tech’ immediately caught my attention. I thought, Let me just give it a try because nothing happens if you don’t try.”

So I decided to apply, and I was surprised when they reached out to me. In fact, I think it was the next day that I was selected.

“Today, I’m now part of the ten graduate trainees selected by Palmpay. This is truly a great opportunity,‘ she said.

Tiwalola Oluwaolaolu, who is also currently seeking employment, said she came across the advertisement, clicked on it, and saw that PalmPay was inviting applications.

Read also: PalmPay expands Purple Women initiative to boost female leadership in fintech

“I saw it while scrolling through Instagram. I came across the advert, clicked on it, and saw that PalmPay was inviting people to apply for training. I also sent it to a friend who told me she learned a lot from the program as well,” Oluwaolaolu said.

Ifeoluwa Adebayo, a tech journalist, currently doesn’t see her career as limited to just writing. She intends to join the tech ecosystem, and having been accepted into the PalmPay graduate training program is a significant opportunity for her.

In her words, she said, “I’m passionate about tech, and I love the idea of joining a tech organisation that will help improve my professional growth and development.

“So I saw this as an opportunity to be part of an organisation that would help me build my passion within the tech ecosystem,” she said.

PalmPay’s Purple Woman initiative was designed precisely for aspiring professionals like her. The programme targets women interested in careers across software engineering, data analysis, product development, DevOps, marketing, and design.

Participants undergo structured training while gaining hands-on experience inside the company.

The company recently completed the third edition of its Purple Woman training, which ran from March 5–6. There were intensive online training sessions, and March 7 was a masterclass and networking event in Lagos.

Out of 100 women shortlisted for the training, 10 were selected to join Palmpay as graduate trainees for a duration of six months. 

PalmPay’s initiative to train women aligns with other fintechs, such as Moniepoint’s Women in Tech initiative, which focuses on tech skills, including cloud engineering, backend engineering, technical product management, data engineering, systems administration, technical support, and user experience.

Data from Women in Tech Nigeria shows women account for 17 percent of the national tech workforce. Training linked to hiring aims to change that share.

Chika Nwosu, the company’s CEO, said during an interview with journalists at the Purple Woman 3.0 edition that said the Purple Woman initiative was created to address the gender imbalance in fintech.

“This initiative came about because there are not so many women in the fintech industry, and our sole purpose was to help bridge that gap,” he said.

“Our goal is to see more women occupying leadership positions in fintech.”

Beyond career advancement, Nwosu believes empowering women economically can have a wider social impact.

“Money in the hands of a man may feed a family, but money in the hands of a woman feeds generations,” he said. “When women have financial independence and exposure, we will see more children going to school and stronger families being built.”

The programme selects 10 participants in each cohort, all of whom join PalmPay as graduate trainees during the six-month internship.

According to Nwosu, the results from previous editions have been encouraging.

“The interns from the previous cohort who joined us last year have all returned to work with our company. They are doing very well, which shows the programme is achieving its purpose,” he said.

Women shaping the future of fintech

Speaking during a panel discussion at the masterclass event on product development and innovation, industry leaders stressed that successful technology products often emerge from solving real local problems.

“Products are not created just because someone wants to build something,” Kemi Okusanya is the CEO of Hydrogen, said. “The person producing it must be solving a problem, addressing local needs, and touching particular segments of society.”

She highlighted the example of Western Union, which initially emerged to solve the challenge of sending money between cities and states in the United States before expanding internationally.

“They started by solving a local problem. Once they understood the needs of that market, they were able to extend the solution to other markets, such as by adapting their services to meet the specific financial needs and preferences of diverse populations in those regions, including offering tailored financial products and services that resonate with local customs and practices,” Okusanya said.

She also emphasised that including women in product design teams can significantly improve how financial services are built.

“If you don’t bring women into the room when designing products, you miss their lived experiences. You cannot assume that a product designed without them will meet their needs,” she said.

She discussed the structural challenges that women entrepreneurs face, especially when it comes to accessing venture capital.

Research by Boston Consulting Group shows that women-led startups receive less than two percent of global venture capital funding, despite evidence that many female-founded companies deliver strong financial performance.

Increasing women’s participation in product development, leadership roles, and startup ecosystems, they argued, could lead to more innovative and inclusive technology solutions.

Read also: Inside PalmPay’s purple woman powering jobs and tech skills

Examples already exist—from platforms that help hospitals quickly locate blood supplies to digital tools that simplify financial management and creative platforms that make design software accessible to students.

“These founders built solutions based on their lived experiences, and those solutions are now serving millions of users,” Harriet Kariuki, head of SME Business at PalmPay, said.