By Seye Joseph —
The truth is that when it comes to science, engineering and technology related professions, the number of women in the fields are infinitesimal, compare to the mammoth number of men who throng in these paths.
Not many believe that women could serve in the same capacity where men function, not because they don’t have the acumen to function in these capacities but the way the society has been structured that women are second fiddle object and are not expected to perform certain responsibilities in the society but the whole idea was rescinded at the just concluded 2nd National Fintech Conference held in Lagos.
At the panel discussion that focused on “Women Leaders in FinTech: Leadership Challenges and Opportunities at the conference, the Director and Fellow, Information System, Lagos Business School Dr. Olayinka David-West described women as major catalyst that can drive organizational growth and development of fintech companies in Nigeria and across the continent of Africa.
David-West said that women can help in building a viable fintech company across the state of the company in general, starting from technology development, product development, all the way to implementation to rolling out the products.
She described them as having unique opportunity and advantage. “They are very close to the market and see things that men don’t necessarily see”
“They understand things and are more empathetic because they see through different kinds of eyes through family mindset because they have that caring mindset.
She added that when it comes to financial inclusion, product development in fintech, women can make technology more efficient and more easily adaptable to people’s needs and that is what women can bring to the table where there is opportunity and a gap.
For them to effectively function at fintech companies, David West said that if they want to play the development and programmatic role, they must be efficient in mathematics, technology, and engineering.
“The good thing is that technology is not about knowing the science alone, it is also about knowing the practice, you find out that most women and girls are now having code programming for them”, she pointed.
The university don also mentioned that cultural stereotype must be broken. In her explanation, “If someone can do something, that is what they enjoy, that is what they are passionate about, should we stigmatize them that they can’t do this because you are certain gender? No!”
“There is open opportunities for everybody, let’s take this opportunity. Let’s give women as much as chances that they have because in a business women will help you grow, women will stay with you, they will not be looking left and right for a better job, that is who we are naturally”
David West said that women grow businesses, give stability in business, and are in nurturing.
According to her, “A woman can be at the bank end of a fintech company, while the man can be doing the marketing and the selling. She can help build organization culture because once you begin to scale as a startup, you need stability, once investor bring money they want to see who is in your team, not just who are you. It also helps men to behave better because you need sometimes somebody of different gender of different mindset”, she explained.
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