By Modupe Gbadeyanka
One of the major players in the financial services sector in Nigeria, Moniepoint Incorporated, has announced the launch of this year’s edition of the Women in Tech initiative, with intending participants expected to apply via https://womenintech.moniepoint.com.
The programme is to provide women with the opportunity to grow their skills in the male-dominated sector by gaining the necessary experience to advance their careers.
Selected applicants get to spend time working on real projects to help shape digital finance in Africa, as alumni from the programme have become active contributors to the development of their products making a huge difference in the world while making significant strides within the tech ecosystem.
Business Post reports that the unveiling of this year’s edition, the fourth, coincided with International Women’s Day, which has a theme that called for action to break down barriers, challenge stereotypes, and create environments where all women are valued and respected.
The role of women and their centrality in the growth and evolution of technology has been widely acknowledged. Yet, recent statistics show that women remain underrepresented in the technology industry.
The last census results by the National Population Commission show that there are almost as many women as there are men in Nigeria, however, data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on women and men in the country reveal that women occupy just 25 per cent of the employment rate in the technology industry even as 22 per cent of annual STEM graduates from Nigerian universities are women.
Although a global challenge, these gaps have underscored the need to increase female representation in the tech industry in Nigeria.
“Increasingly, we are seeing that diversity and inclusion can ignite innovation and growth.
“Intentional outreaches such as our Women in Tech which have helped to increase female representation and have had a transformative power to create meaningful inclusion while ensuring that we can keep pace with the talent development in a global economy.
“We have been able to fill talent gaps while giving women great jobs and a sustainable livelihood.
“Looking back at the past editions, we are filled with an immense sense of pride at the progress made and looking forward to adding more women to the pool who in turn can grow as leaders and build thriving, successful organizations,” the Head of People Operations at Moniepoint, Ms Chinaza Nduka-Dike, said.
The previous editions had five women in each cohort, and this year, the six-month internship programme, which is aimed at ensuring that young women have access to building a career in technology, will see 10 women take on roles in various teams.
These teams include Cloud Engineering, Backend Engineering, Technical Product Management, Data Engineering, Systems Administration, Technical Support and User Experience.
Christened as the Dream 10, these women will be provided with direct mentorship during the internship. Other perks include a salary, work tools, merch, the opportunity to work on live projects during the internship and an offer of full-time employment depending on assessment post-internship.
“I am a living witness to the transformative power of bold action initiatives like this. It’s been a privilege to work on products that you can see making a visible difference in the lives of millions.
“Moniepoint’s supportive ecosystem has been very pivotal to my growth and personal development,” a frontend engineer and member of the pioneer cohort of the Moniepoint Women in Tech, Ms Tefe Oladejo, said.
Adedapo Adesanya