A year ago, Yetunde Folarin was an aspiring backend engineer with a dream. Today, she’s a Junior Backend Engineer at Palmpay, building systems that support millions of financial transactions across Africa. Her transformation wasn’t accident, it was the direct result of Palmpay’s strategic commitment to embedding education and workforce development into its social impact agenda, proving that sustainable fintech growth is inextricably linked to creating genuine opportunities for underrepresented communities.
Yetunde’s journey captures the essence of what makes Palmpay’s educational initiatives fundamentally different from typical corporate social responsibility theater. Through the Purple Woman Program, Yetunde gained hands-on experience working alongside PalmPay’s engineering team, learning how backend systems power digital financial services from transaction processing to fraud prevention and system reliability. For Yetunde, the experience proved transformative: “The Purple Woman Program didn’t just provide learning opportunities. It opened the door for me to step into the fintech space and contribute to systems that impact millions of people.
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This isn’t a lone success story. All 10 women trained through Purple Woman 2.0 were offered full-time roles at PalmPay, and they are still thriving with us today, according to leadership at the fintech firm. After the internship, the company evaluates performance with the aim to not just train, but to employ women in the organization. In an industry where women currently represent just 17% of Nigeria’s tech workforce, according to Women in Tech Nigeria, such decisive action toward gender parity carries outsized importance.
The scale of Palmpay’s educational strategy extends across multiple cohorts and programs. This year’s edition of the Purple Woman program continued that mission, equipping 100 women with practical, in-demand skills across high-demand fields, including Digital Marketing, Software Engineering, and Product Management. The program’s evolution tells a compelling story: from 50 women in 2024 to 100 women in 2025,plus internship placements for 10 participants,the initiative continues to create measurable impact.
But Palmpay’s educational reach extends far beyond gender inclusion in tech careers. The platform’s Young Stars initiative targets systemic educational barriers at their source. Palmpay launched the Young Stars initiative to address educational challenges by recognizing high-performing pupils at a critical stage in their academic development, with students receiving scholarships and school support kits. In Lagos, the company partnered with Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB) to reward high-performing pupils in selected public schools across Lagos State, with outstanding pupils receiving scholarships, shopping vouchers and branded school kits to support their educational needs and ease financial pressure on their families.
The context underscores why these initiatives matter urgently. According to UNICEF, about 18.3 million school-age children remain out of the classroom in Nigeria, despite gradual improvements in school enrollment nationwide. Simultaneously, 5,000 female entrepreneurs in Kano and Kaduna receive hands-on financial literacy training on mobile payments through Palmpay’s “Passing the Baton” initiative, with their shops rebranded with signages, aprons, and other kits that enhance visibility for their businesses.
What makes these initiatives strategically distinct is the absence of artificial separation between education and employment. PalmPay uses training initiatives to connect people to careers. Its Purple Woman project targets women through instruction in software engineering, analysis, product work, DevOps, marketing, and design, combining coursework with placements inside company teams so participants gain exposure to workflows and recruitment processes. This embedded pathway transforms education from an aspirational concept into actionable career progression.
For Palmpay’s leadership, this approach reflects deeper philosophy than seasonal goodwill. Managing Director of PalmPay, Chika Nwosu, noted that recognizing and rewarding exceptional students goes beyond celebrating excellence, stressing that it also serves as a support system for families struggling with the cost of education and reinforces the value of education while strengthening motivation.
As Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem matures and competition intensifies, the companies distinguishing themselves won’t necessarily be those with the fastest apps or lowest fees, they’ll be the ones solving foundational access problems. Palmpay’s layered educational strategy, scholarships for school children, financial training for entrepreneurs, direct employment pathways for young women in tech,represents a sophisticated understanding that sustainable fintech growth depends on expanding the economic capabilities of entire communities, not just converting them into transaction-generating users. In markets where billions lack foundational skills and economic opportunity, that distinction may ultimately prove the most powerful competitive advantage any platform can build.
