The women leading Africa’s FinTech boom
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 24 May 2022
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Finance has traditionally been dominated by men. But now that’s starting to change. We talk to the female entrepreneurs in Africa who are using financial technology to give more people access to money and services - through apps, payment platforms and chatbots.
Odunayo Eweniyi is the co-founder of Piggyvest in Nigeria, the first ever online app for personal savings and investment in West Africa. She tells us how she came up with the idea and how she’s using FirstCheck Africa, an angel fund for women entrepreneurs, to help others.
Jihan Abass, the founder and CEO of Griffin insurance, Kenya’s first digital-only car insurance company, tells us about her ambitious plans to expand. Ethel Cofie, the boss of Edel Technology Consulting, who’s been named as one of the top 5 women influencing technology in Africa, gives her advice to women starting out in tech. She’s set up a support network, Women in Tech Africa.
We also visit a coding bootcamp for young women in Ghana, called Developers in Vogue. Its founder, Ivy Barley, tells us why she set it up and we hear from the students about the difference it’s made to their lives.
Presenter and producer: Jo Critcher
(Picture: Students at Developers in Vogue coding bootcamp in Ghana; Credit: Developers in Vogue)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Joe Critcher. Welcome to Business Daily on the BBC. Today, we're looking at how a growing |
| 0:07.3 | number of women are leading the fintech revolution in Africa. We're saying invest in female founders |
| 0:13.6 | because female founders can give you the returns that male founders give you, just give us a level |
| 0:19.6 | playing field that we'll do the rest. |
| 0:21.3 | We speak to some of the most influential women in tech and discuss the challenges they've |
| 0:25.8 | overcome and how they're helping to train up the next generation. |
| 0:29.8 | The more women we get, the more niche and targeted fintech products we will get. |
| 0:34.9 | This is Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:39.7 | So what does fintech mean? |
| 0:41.9 | Well, it stands for financial technology and is used to describe any company which |
| 0:46.5 | uses new technology to improve and automate the delivery and use of financial services. |
| 0:52.7 | Some examples of this include mobile apps or payment platforms |
| 0:57.2 | and chatbots. Now finance has traditionally been seen as a male industry, but some women in Africa |
| 1:03.6 | are using fintech to change that. Let's start by hearing the story of Angela Mugo from Kenya |
| 1:09.6 | and her attempts to get a job. |
| 1:11.7 | Originally wanted to do analytical chemistry, but then when I started to do it, I realised |
| 1:16.0 | I didn't like it. And so that is why I ended up doing electrical engineering. |
| 1:20.3 | Angela's first hurdle as a student was looking for an internship, but the company she |
| 1:25.0 | approached refused to place her. Me and a girlfriend of mine, we decided to go to this company. |
| 1:30.3 | They told us the thing is we do a lot of technical work. |
| 1:33.3 | There's a lot of hole climbing. |
| 1:35.3 | There's a lot of dragging, heavy, heavy wires and everything, and we don't think you. |
... |
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