PalmPay Group has announced a strategic partnership with Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB) to recognise and reward high-performing students in selected public schools across Lagos, as a broader commitment to supporting ambition and expanding opportunities for young Nigerians.

Nigeria continues to face a significant out-of-school children challenge. According to UNICEF, 18.3 million school age children are currently out of the classroom. While access to education has improved over time, keeping children in school requires more than enrollment alone. It also depends on motivation, support, and visible pathways that show young people the long-term value of education.

Through this collaboration, PalmPay will work with LASUBEB and educators across selected public schools to identify and reward outstanding students. Selected students will be rewarded with scholarships, shopping vouchers and branded school kits designed to support their learning needs and ease part of the burden on their families.

Speaking on the partnership, Chika Nwosu, Managing Director at PalmPay, said: “Recognizing and rewarding high-performing students goes beyond celebrating excellence. It reinforces the value of education, strengthens motivation, and supports families in keeping their children in school. Through our partnership with LASUBEB, we are contributing to an ecosystem where young people are encouraged to stay engaged and pursue their ambitions.”

By working directly within the public education system, the initiative is designed to deliver support where it can make the greatest difference. When students see their efforts recognized and rewarded, it strengthens their commitment to learning and helps families see that academic discipline and consistency can open doors to real opportunity.

The partnership reflects PalmPay’s broader commitment to economic and social inclusion. As the company continues expanding financial access across Nigeria, it is also investing in initiatives that help reduce barriers for families and create more pathways for young people to thrive.

By integrating education-focused support into its wider CSR agenda, PalmPay is contributing to ongoing efforts to strengthen community outcomes, encourage aspiration, and invest in the future workforce that will drive Nigeria’s growth.

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has intensified nationwide disease surveillance following reports of a Hantavirus infection cluster connected to international cruise ship travel involving several countries.

Dr Jide Idris, director-general, NCDC, in a public health advisory, confirmed that Nigeria has not recorded any confirmed Hantavirus case and stated that the overall public health risk remains low.

According to the agency, the reported outbreak currently involves a limited number of confirmed and suspected infections linked to cruise ship exposure, while international investigations and contact tracing efforts continue.

The NCDC explained that the advisory was released to strengthen national preparedness and encourage vigilance against emerging infectious diseases amid growing global concern surrounding the outbreak.

Health authorities noted that Hantaviruses are mainly transmitted through exposure to infected rodents, their urine, saliva, droppings, or contaminated dust particles. Symptoms may include fever, fatigue, muscle pain, gastrointestinal illness, and in severe cases, respiratory complications.

The current outbreak has reportedly been associated with the Andes virus strain, which has shown limited human-to-human transmission through close contact in previous cases.

The NCDC stated that enhanced monitoring systems have been activated nationwide to support early detection and rapid response efforts.

The agency also urged Nigerians to maintain proper hygiene, prevent rodent infestations, safely store food items, and avoid exposure to rodents and contaminated environments.

Officials further advised the public to rely only on verified information from recognized health authorities and avoid spreading misinformation regarding the outbreak.

In a critical move to bolster talent density and accelerate Nigeria’s digital economy, Africa’s all in one financial ecosystem, Moniepoint hosted an International Women’s Day event bringing together women in technology for a day of leadership development and hands-on product building.

Held at Moniepoint’ Headquarters in Lagos, themed “Break the Pattern,” the event was organised in partnership with Women Techmakers Lagos and Google Developer Group (GDG) Lagos with participants spanning both technical and non-technical backgrounds, reflecting the breadth of women currently active across Nigeria’s digital economy.

In a keynote address delivered by Kemi Nwogu, Head of Product at Moniepoint Inc, titled “Breaking the Pattern: How Women Can Redefine the Future of Tech,” she made the case that progress for women in technology requires not just access to existing structures, but the tools and confidence to reshape them. Furthermore, Nwogu issued a bold call to action, urging attendees to move beyond traditional career playbooks and take ownership of shaping the industry’s future.

“From a young age, many girls have been subtly discouraged from pursuing science and tech. They are told sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly, that tech is too hard, too technical, or simply not for them. These patterns are not facts, they are constructs. And what has been constructed can be deconstructed! The future of tech needs leaders who build people, not just products, cultures, not just systems,”said Nwogu.

On building skills with purpose, she urged women to “show up everyday, make small, steady progress with online courses, coding bootcamps, open-source projects while leveraging the full ecosystem; take on challenging tasks as your greatest classroom using real problems to build real skills; while knowing why you’re building a skill as every learning goal can be tied to a career journey.”

This thematic fare of the event was further explored in a panel discussion, “Unscripted: Leading Beyond the Patterns We Inherited”, moderated by Atinuke Oluwabamikemi Kayode and featuring leaders from fintech, creative design, and software engineering space, including Chukwu Adaeze (Creative Director, CAV Digital), Chinenye Ogbu (Customer Experience Lead, Hydrogen), and Motunrayo Koyejo (Senior Software Engineer, Cowrywise).

The robust and extensive conversation examined the professional archetypes that have historically defined leadership in the Nigerian tech ecosystem: the engineering culture that equates output with exhaustion, the creative industry’s tendency toward top-down authority, the script-driven rigidity of customer-facing roles. The panelists also provided deep insights into how they had navigated and, in places, dismantled those patterns within their teams and organizations.

The event went beyond conversations to a hands-on workshop, Prompt to Production, facilitated by Taiwo Famakinde which guided attendees through modern product development from prompt design through rapid prototyping to the deployment of a functional application using AI tools.

A lot of the participants entered with little to no prior experience building software products. The workshop then fed directly into a Buildathon, where participants developed and deployed their own solutions in real time, with the strongest builds recognised and rewarded at the closing ceremony.

“IWD celebrations are often heavy on inspiration, but we wanted to offer something more, a proof of capability. Oftentimes, there is a gap between having ideas and actually building them, and we set out to bridge that by creating a space where women could easily deploy their ideas into live products with AI in just a few hours. By the end of the day, something that once felt complex due to the fast pace of AI started to feel possible.

“Our participants left with both the technical confidence to build and the leadership frameworks to navigate their careers on their own terms, ensuring they are no longer just participants in the tech ecosystem, but the architects of its future. They are now ready to test their ideas and lead without waiting for perfect conditions or a full team.” said Funke Olasupo, Co-organizer, Women Techmakers Lagos.

Interestingly, the “Break the Pattern” event sits within a broader investment in Nigeria’s technology talent pipeline that Moniepoint has deployed over the years. As one of Nigeria’s most significant fintech employers, the company runs a critical engine that sustains Nigeria’s formal and informal economy.

Moniepoint has invested in developer community partnerships including its ongoing collaboration with GDG Lagos as well as internal programmes designed to build engineering depth across product domains that include its highly successful Women in Tech initiative, DreamDevs, HatchDev and the government’s acclaimed 3MTT programme.