By Tunde Oso

Influential figures in finance and technology have converged at the annual Piggyvest Finance Roundtable in Lagos, to share insights on how to bridge the financial gender gap in the Nigeria economy.

The Piggyvest Finance Roundtable brings together stakeholders in the tech and finance sectors to discuss its report’s findings, share their unique perspectives and provide context for the financial lives of real Nigerians.

The experts include Ngozi Chukwu of TechCabal, Samson Esemuede of Zrosk Investment Management, Adekunle Oyenekan of Lagos State Employment Trust Fund and Odunayo Eweniyi of Piggyvest.

Other notable attendees include Jola Ayeye (Carousel Network), Somto Ifezue (Piggyvest) Layo Ogunbawo (Splice), Ibikunle Oriola (Food Concepts), Daniel Adeyemi (The Condia), Nneka Agbata (The CleanLab Manufacturing Ltd), Bukky Akomolafe (Travelstart), Yewande Akomolafe-Kalu (Flutterwave), Nchedolisa Akuma (Stears), and finance creators like Ibiyinka Ibru, Tito Abumere, Fisayo Fosudo and Jennifer Awirigwe.

In 2024, Piggyvest surveyed more than ten thousand Nigerians from diverse age groups, genders, and income levels to explore the impact of inflation on their income, saving and spending behaviours, business and future plans, and debt management. The results were gathered into a detailed report published on October 31, 2024, to mark World Savings Day.
Presenting the 2024 PiggyVest Savings Report, Boluwatife Akindele, Senior Content Strategy Associate at PiggyVest, said, “By all metrics, we were even more successful with the second installment. We’ve reached millions of people with this report, but the data it reveals is not cute.”
A notable data point from the Savings Report was that men have a 1.4 times greater likelihood than women to earn a monthly income of ¦ 1,000,000. According to the report, “26% of Nigerians report owning a business, with women having a higher likelihood of ownership than men.”
“I think one of the reasons women are likelier to own businesses than men is because of exclusion from the workforce due to flexibility,” Ibiyinka Ibru commented on these data points. “That drop-off happens when women start families. In terms of micro-businesses, most of these women are not starting these businesses to scale but to survive and feed their families.”
Yewande Akomolafe-Kalu, Bukky Akomolafe and Layo Ogunbawo further dissected these data points in a panel session moderated by Ngozi Chukwu. According to Akomolafe-Kalu, while women own many of these micro-businesses, their management style is different. In her experience, women who own these micro-businesses tend to combine personal funds with business funds, which doesn’t help when trying to access loans. “We need more financial education for women. But we also need to take the nuances of their situation into account because it’s easier to speak on these issues when you’re removed from it.”
This discussion also emphasised the burden of childcare and eldercare as one major reason women often fall behind in the workplace. Bukky Akomolafe stated, “The biggest reasons why women fall behind at work are the choices we make to get married and have children. Every time you make those decisions, you are sacrificing something in your career.”
Layo Ogunbawo stressed that the burden of alleviating this pressure and creating solutions to support these women should not fall to the women themselves. “It is on everybody else, the society and organisations, to do the work of supporting women. HR policies in the workplace need to be very inclusive. We need to give women just as many opportunities to shine.”
To ensure that women are not left behind in the digital revolution, Akomolafe-Kanu suggested that more companies carry out community outreaches and skills training for women. “Women have been excluded from financial services, and we need to tailor more solutions to the real-life experiences of women. This is only possible if women are building products, making decisions in companies, and starting and leading these communities.”
Joshua Chibueze, Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Piggyvest, commented on another successful Finance Roundtable: “The consistency is starting to show some results. We are seeing the Piggyvest Savings Report become a reliable data source for companies and individuals making economic and personal financial decisions. If we keep this up, this report can become a reference point for the government, PhD theses or researchers to see how the economy has evolved over time.”