File photo: Moniepoint
Moniepoint Inc. has expanded its talent development push with a women-focused technology programme aimed at deepening participation in Nigeria’s fast-growing digital economy as competition for skilled software and product talent intensifies across Africa’s largest market.
The initiative, held in Lagos as part of International Women’s Day activities recently, brought together women working across different levels of the technology ecosystem for leadership development, product training and applied engineering experience. The event was hosted at Moniepoint’s headquarters in partnership with Women Techmakers Lagos and Google Developer Group Lagos.
The programme, themed ‘Break the Pattern’, combined keynote sessions, panel discussions and a hands-on product development workshop focused on artificial intelligence-enabled tools and rapid application building.
Moniepoint said the initiative reflects a broader effort to strengthen its engineering pipeline while addressing structural barriers that have historically limited women’s participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.
Head of Product at Moniepoint, Kemi Nwogu, said societal norms continue to shape career choices for young women in ways that restrict entry into technology.
“From a young age, many girls have been subtly discouraged from pursuing science and tech,” she said. “These patterns are not facts; they are constructs. And what has been constructed can be deconstructed.”
She urged participants to prioritise continuous skill development through structured learning pathways such as coding bootcamps, online courses and open-source projects, alongside real-world product exposure.
The event also featured a panel discussion titled ‘Unscripted: Leading Beyond the Patterns We Inherited’, which examined leadership models in Nigeria’s technology sector and the cultural expectations that influence career progression across engineering, design and customer experience roles.
Participants included professionals from fintech, software engineering and creative industries who discussed how they have navigated organisational structures and, in some cases, redefined leadership approaches within their teams.
A key component of the programme was a workshop titled Prompt to Production, which introduced participants to AI-assisted product development, from prompt engineering to prototype deployment. The session culminated in a buildathon where teams developed and presented functional applications, with selected projects recognised at the end of the programme.
Organisers said the practical focus was intended to close the gap between ideation and execution, particularly for participants with limited prior software development experience.
Co-organiser at Women Techmakers Lagos, Funke Olasupo, said the goal was to move beyond awareness-building to capability development.
“IWD celebrations are often heavy on inspiration, but we wanted to offer something more, a proof of capability,” she said. “By the end of the day, something that once felt complex started to feel possible.”
The programme forms part of Moniepoint’s broader investment in Nigeria’s developer ecosystem, which includes partnerships with community groups and internal initiatives such as Women in Tech, DreamDevs and HatchDev, alongside participation in government-backed skills programmes.
Moniepoint, one of Nigeria’s fastest-growing fintech employers, has been expanding its hiring and training footprint as digital payments and embedded financial services continue to scale across informal and formal sectors of the economy.
