Telecom
Moniepoint Women in Tech initiative turns 5, expands access for 15 interns
As the world marks International Women’s Day (IWD), Moniepoint Inc, leading digital financial services provider and Africa’s fastest growing financial institution, has announced the expansion of its “Women in Tech” program. This year, the program will increase its offerings from 10 to 15 internship roles, furthering its commitment to bridging the gender gap in the technology sector.
This announcement aligns with the 2025 IWD theme, “Accelerate Action,” which calls for urgent action to close the gender gap and promote equality across industries. The program is a vital part of Moniepoint’s ongoing efforts to elevate women in the technology space, particularly in Nigeria, where women remain underrepresented despite the country’s significant gender parity in population. Focusing on the need to Accelerate Action emphasizes the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. It calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face, both in personal and professional spheres.
The technology sector is essential to driving growth and innovation, but the role of women within it remains limited. Recent statistics from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reveal that while women make up nearly half of Nigeria’s population, they account for just 25% of the tech workforce, despite representing 22% of STEM graduates annually. These disparities highlight the need for more focused efforts to increase female representation and foster gender inclusion in the tech industry. The Women in Tech initiative aims to address these gaps by providing young women with hands-on experience, mentorship, and the opportunity to work on live projects that will shape the future of digital finance in Africa.
For this year’s edition, Moniepoint’s internship program will expand to include 15 women, increasing the number of roles available to participants. The initiative will provide successful applicants with the chance to join diverse teams, including Cloud Engineering, Backend Engineering, Technical Product Management, Data Engineering, Systems Administration, Technical Support, and User Experience.
Known as the “Dream 15,” these women will engage in a six-month internship, during which they will receive direct mentorship, a salary, work tools, branded merchandise, and the opportunity to be considered for full-time employment based on performance. This expanded program is a testament to Moniepoint’s dedication to offering young women the tools they need to succeed in technology, a field where they are still underrepresented but essential to its evolution.
Chinaza Nduka-Dike, Vice President of People Operations at Moniepoint Inc, expressed her enthusiasm about the program’s expansion, noting, “With the Women in Tech initiative, we are not just inspiring inclusion – we are actively creating sustainable pathways for women to thrive in the tech industry. This is a space where diversity fuels innovation, and through programs like this, we are empowering women to take on leadership roles, develop crucial skills, and shape the future of technology. The progress we’ve seen in past editions, where alumni have gone on to make significant contributions to the company and the wider tech ecosystem, fills us with pride, and we look forward to nurturing even more female talent in the years ahead. This initiative has been instrumental in our mission to power the dreams of millions while transforming the careers of talented women for the past four years. ”
Daniela Uzosike, a systems administrator and member of the third cohort of Moniepoint’s Women in Tech program, shared her excitement about the expanded opportunities for this year’s intake. “The opportunity to work with Moniepoint not only transformed my career but also allowed me to be part of a program that truly values the potential of women in technology. I’m thrilled to see the increase in roles this year, and I’m excited to see more women take part in this initiative, gain the experience they need, and shape the future of tech in Africa,” she said.
The Women in Tech initiative has consistently proven to be a transformative force, not just for individual participants, but for the broader tech community. By creating a space for women to access resources, gain mentorship, and build skills, Moniepoint is helping to close the gender gap in technology, ensuring that women are central to the growth and future of the sector.
The internship is open to women across Africa who are interested in starting a career in technology. Interested applicants can find out more about available roles and apply for the programme via the Women in Tech website, https://womenintech.moniepoint.com
Airtel Nigeria has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s digital infrastructure and data access to bridge gaps in connectivity and unlock new opportunities in the country.
The company restated this commitment during a recent high-level inspection tour of the Nxtra Data Centre that is being developed through Nxtra by Airtel Africa at Eko Atlantic, Lagos, the highly rated smart city with ambition to become the Data Centre hub of Nigeria.
The inspection tour was led by the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh and the Chief Executive Officer of Nxtra by Airtel Africa, Yashnath Issur, with the esteemed chairman of Eko Atlantic Mr. Gabbi Massoud, the CEO of the lead Engineering firm Design Group Limited, Mr. Bayo Odunlami and tech journalists.
The Nxtra Data Centre went through a stringent design validation process and cleared the approval to proceed construction from Eko Atlantic.
Commenting on the developments, Mr Issur said the site visit was a milestone marker and an indication of the company’s commitment to delivering the world-class digital facility on time and ensure that, ultimately, the investments deliver reliable, secure, world-class services for Nigeria and the rest of the continent.
“This Nxtra Data Centre in Lagos represents a critical part of our long-term vision for Nigeria’s digital ecosystem. Today’s visit allows us to review progress, engage our stakeholders, and ensure that our infrastructure investments continue to meet global standards and local needs.
“This data centre will deliver critical high multi megawatt capacity in line with hyperscale customers and enable high density environment. We are putting the infra to bring the cloud to Nigeria,” he said.
The data centre, set to be the largest in Nigeria, is being established to deliver hyperscale and edge facilities across key African markets. With a load of 38 Megawatts, the Lagos facility is expected to serve as a major hub for data hosting, cloud services, content distribution, artificial intelligence, and enterprise solutions in West Africa.
In his remarks, Mr Balsingh reiterated that the data centre was progressing steadily towards the previously announced 2028 go live date.
“Since the announcement of this project, our focus has been on building a world-class facility that supports Africa’s digital transformation agenda. We are encouraged by the progress recorded so far and remain committed to delivering a secure, energy-efficient, and future-ready data centre for Nigeria,” he said.
During the tour, stakeholders were ushered through key sections of the site, including piling zones, where required structural requirements have been tested. Technical teams provided briefings on infrastructure design, security architecture, redundancy systems, and sustainability measures being implemented to ensure reliability and operational excellence.
Strategically located close to major fibre routes and undersea cable landing stations, the Eko Atlantic data centre is designed to enhance Nigeria’s data sovereignty, reduce latency, and improve access to reliable digital services for private and enterprise customers, significantly boosting the country’s data hosting capacity and supporting emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Mr. Massoud noted that the inspection tour underscored the city’s dedication to infrastructure of global relevance.
“Eko Atlantic as a city with high quality infrastructure will contribute positively to boost the economy of Nigeria and is a perfect place for the development of the digital infrastructure of Nigeria. The Nxtra data centre reflects the calibre of projects we seek to attract — long-term, technology-driven investments built to the highest global standards.
Today’s visit affirms the rigour of the planning and execution process by Nxtra, and the commitment of Eko Atlantic to facilitate and promote the Nigeria’s evolving digital ecosystem,” he said.
Through this ongoing investment, Airtel Nigeria and Nxtra continue to demonstrate their commitment to building infrastructure that enables innovation, supports economic development, and accelerates Nigeria’s digital transformation.
Nxtra by Airtel is developing a network of hyperscale data centres across the continent. Besides Lagos, construction of a new data centre has also commenced in Nairobi, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Google has partnered with top African research institutions to unveil WAXAL, a massive open-access speech dataset aimed at giving over 100 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa a stronger voice in the AI future.
The initiative, announced Monday, targets a key digital gap by supplying high-quality data for 21 local languages, such as Hausa, Yoruba, Luganda, and Acholi. It includes 1,250 hours of transcribed natural speech and more than 20 hours of studio-grade recordings for advanced synthetic voice tech.
Voice AI has exploded globally, yet Africa’s 2,000-plus languages suffer from severe data shortages, sidelining hundreds of millions from native-tongue tech access. WAXAL, three years in the making with Google funding, changes that equation.
“This dataset lays the groundwork for students, researchers, and entrepreneurs to craft tech in their own languages, impacting over 100 million lives,” said Aisha Walcott-Bryantt, Head of Google Research Africa.
She highlighted its potential for African innovators to develop educational tools and voice services that spark economic growth continent-wide.
Community-led from the start, the project involved Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana, Digital Umuganda (Rwanda), and others. These partners own the data outright, pioneering fair AI collaboration models.
Covered languages: Acholi, Akan, Dagaare, Dagbani, Dholuo, Ewe, Fante, Fulani (Fula), Hausa, Igbo, Ikposo (Kposo), Kikuyu, Lingala, Luganda, Malagasy, Masaaba, Nyankole, Rukiga, Shona, Soga (Lusoga), Swahili, Yoruba.
WAXAL goes live today. Details at goo.gle/IntroducingWaxal.
Telecom operators in Nigeria invested more than $1 billion in 2025 to deploy over 2,850 new sites, boosting nationwide coverage and capacity, according to data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
NCC
The investment details emerged in the just-released 2025 Network Performance Reports, announced by Dr. Aminu Maida, executive vice chairman (EVC), NCC.
Speaking at an engagement on the reports, Dr. Maida emphasised the regulator’s focus on transparent, data-driven oversight.
“Through our collaboration with Ookla, we are providing independent insights into real-world network performance and the lived experience of Nigerians across cities, rural communities, highways, and emerging 5G zones,” he said.
The Q4 2025 reports highlight steady gains in network quality, including improved median download speeds in urban and rural areas compared to Q3.
The video Quality of Experience gap between urban and rural zones has also narrowed, bolstered by a stronger 4G backbone.
Dr. Maida noted ongoing challenges, such as 5G service gaps and upload speed disparities. “We are actively engaging with operators to address these issues, including gaps in mobile service coverage,” he added.
Operators have committed to surpassing their 2025 investment levels in 2026, with infrastructure rollout set to intensify.
“We look forward to continued collaboration with industry stakeholders as we translate these insights into better connectivity, improved service quality, and a more inclusive digital future for all Nigerians,” the EVC concluded.
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