The African Women Leadership Programme launched by AZA Finance, a fintech company, in partnership with Naaw by Beautiful Soul, a digital leadership development platform, began its activities earlier on Tuesday.

The programme dubbed ‘Growing Africa’s Future Leaders in Fintech’ is aimed at increasing the percentage of African women in fintech and equipping them with tools to increase their likelihood of reaching high management positions. 

The programme will bring together African women who are interested in the fintech sector to mentor, train and coach them.

The nine monthly training programme will involve group coaching sessions, group mentoring sessions with Azawatus – self-coaching exercises – and online challenges. 

Monthly activities will include one group coaching or mentoring session of two hours every first Tuesday of the month, one self-coaching exercise or a challenge and one 15 minutes online checking in every month on Naaw community platform.

According to a team member at ‘Naaw by Beautiful Soul’, Fatuma Sokona, the training began with a coaching session on ‘Navigating the Fintech World as a Woman’. Interested participants can join via this link: https://fr.surveymonkey.com/r/awlpaza

Elizabeth Rossiello, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of AZA Finance, said, "AZA Finance’s vision is to build a robust pipeline of African women with C-level potential for the fintech industry. As an employer, they are truly dedicated to empowering women and aspire to promote women in managerial roles as much as possible.

"Given the nature of the industry, AZA is particularly keen on attracting into the programme women with a background in engineering and product management.

"It is also interested in data analysis/business intelligence and customer service. These women should have experience in highly dynamic environments (start-up, consultancy) within the technology or financial industries." 

She added that she aspires to create opportunities for African women to become leaders, not only at AZA Finance but in the fintech industry in general.

"We are building up the pool of female talents to benefit from this nine-month online programme designed and delivered by leadership and fintech experts that includes training, mentoring and coaching. Find people who are sharing your values, link up with them and stick together, link up with us," she said

Sharing her experience with AZA Finance, the Chief Revenue Officer, Meryem Habibi, said she was inspired to join AZA because of the value and culture it carries across to grow and build women.

“AZA is taking interest in women's growth and getting everyone involved in decision-making, which gives the women a sense of belonging as they know their effort is recognised and their contribution to the work output,” she said.

The Head of People Operations at AZA Finance, Premo Ojokojo, has also reiterated that AZA is a place of growth, especially for women looking forward to growing their careers.

She, however, explained that career growth or career success is not always about moving from one level of position to the other but how much the individual has grown, the responsibility is taken on, the opportunities presented and how they impact or influence decisions.  

“The opportunities here are opened to everyone. The first thing that caught my attention at AZA is that about 50% of the executive teams are women, and I believe women are the best managers. Here, we respect the value you are adding to the organisational growth and we give you the platform to be you,” she added.