Nigeria’s financial services landscape is undergoing a profound shift with women-led innovations in fintech expanding access to banking, payments, and credit for millions of unbanked and underbanked citizens.

These women are leveraging technology, policy advocacy, and community-driven solutions to bring financial services to underserved populations, particularly women and small-scale entrepreneurs.

Here is a list of 12 outstanding women shaping Nigeria’s financial inclusion landscape.

Foyinsola Akinjayeju – CEO of EFInA (Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access)

Akinjayeju is a strategic voice and coalition-builder, mobilising cross-sector action across fintech, banking, payments, telecoms, and policymaking. Under her leadership, EFInA has sharpened its role as a catalyst for inclusive innovation and a trusted partner for stakeholders committed to scalable impact.

Folasade Femi-Lawal – Country Manager, West Africa, Mastercard

Femi-Lawal is a Nigerian financial executive and digital payment expert, currently serving as Mastercard’s country manager and area business head for West Africa, where she focuses on driving digital payment adoption and financial inclusion.

Ifeoma Uddoh – CEO, SheCluded

Uddoh is a social entrepreneur and founder of Shecluded, a fintech for women. Her career spans over a decade in strategy consulting, analytics, and seed funding for notable companies such as PwC and Iroko Partners Ltd. Since its launch in 2019, Shecluded has become a UK tech hub company (2020), supporting women with access to funding.

Uche Uzoebo – CEO, SANEF

Uzoebo is the managing director/chief executive officer of Shared Agent Network Expansion Facilities Limited (SANEF). She is a proven change agent who specialises in digital payments, financial inclusion, gender advocacy, agency banking, project management, product/business development, merchant acquisition, as well as corporate, commercial, and retail banking.

Ebehijie Momoh – MD/CEO, AfriGOPay

Momoh is a Nigerian businesswoman currently serving as the MD/CEO of AfriGOPay Financial Services Limited (AFSL), a subsidiary of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS). Since her appointment in June 2024, she has played a key role in expanding Nigeria’s domestic card payment infrastructure under the AfriGO brand.

Chinyere Don-Okhuofu – Divisional CEO, Sales Networks at Interswitch

Don-Okhuofu is the divisional chief executive officer of Sales Networks at Interswitch. She is a leader in the payment industry with over 16 years of experience. She joined Interswitch in January 2012 as the chief ATM and devices officer and became the divisional CEO of Industry Vertical Markets in April 2014.

Odunayo Eweniyi – Co-founder, PiggyVest

Eweniyi is the co-founder and chief operating officer of PiggyVest, a digital investment platform in Nigeria. Founded in 2016, PiggyVest is an online savings and investment platform operating in Nigeria with about five million registered users. Piggyvest gives access to simple ways to save, invest, and manage money.

Solape Akinpelu – Founder & CEO, HerVest

Solape Akinpelu is the founder of HerVest, a women-focused and inclusive fintech platform for the underserved and excluded women in Africa. HerVest enables women to participate in savings, impact investments, and credit, particularly for smallholder women farmers in Nigeria. With over 40,000 members, HerVest is dedicated to improving women’s lives through financial access and services.

Nkem Okocha – Founder, Mamamoni

Nkem Okocha is a Nigerian social entrepreneur and activist who founded Mamamoni, a fintech social enterprise that supports poor rural and urban slum women with free vocational skills and mobile loans. Since 2013, she has supported over 4,000 women in several rural/urban slum communities and given out over 100 microloans.

Fara Ashiru Jituboh – Co-founder/CEO, Okra

Ashiru-Jibutoh is the CEO and CTO of Okra, a Nigeria-based fintech platform that enables secure, real-time financial information exchange between customers, applications, and banks. Before founding Okra, Ashiru-Jibutoh worked with American startups like JP Morgan Chase, Sana Benefits, Fidelity Investments, BMW, and Canva, where she gained experience building and scaling products in emerging markets.

Olayinka David-West – Dean at Lagos Business School

David-West is a Nigerian academic and dean of Lagos Business School(LBS), Pan-Atlantic University in Lagos, Nigeria. She is the programme lead for the Sustainable and Inclusive Digital Financial Services (SIDFS) initiative, which is dedicated to conducting research, engaging stakeholders, and proposing policy amendments to enhance financial inclusion in Nigeria.

Arunma Oteh, Academic

Oteh is a global leader recognised for her contributions to financial markets and economic development. She is currently an academic at the University of Oxford and chairs the Board of a U.K. asset manager.(Business Day)

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