The African money app Kuda has announced a month-long calendar of events to celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day in order to advance equity and increase advocacy for women’s inclusion and visibility.
Every year on March 8, the world observes International Women’s Day as a time to focus on issues affecting women’s rights, including gender equality, access to reproductive health care, and safety from abuse and violence. This year’s International Women’s Day has the motto “Embrace Equity.”
The goal of Kuda’s International Women’s Day activities is to seek more opportunities for women to advance in their personal and professional lives, as well as to adjust women for economic growth and success in careers and businesses.
A demonstration of the contribution Kuda made to advancing gender equity from 2022 to 2023 is one of the IWD activities that are scheduled to take up the entire month of March. The company will further its commitment to gender equity as part of the showcase.
Rosie Hewat, the Chief People Officer at Kuda, spoke about this year’s IWD “As an organization that supports equal opportunity, we are committed to fostering a positive workplace culture where everyone, regardless of gender, can aspirate, advance in their careers, and achieve their personal objectives.”
“We have always made it a point to intentionally create a workplace where gender equity is the default setting, and we are pleased to report that we have made progress in doing so, especially within our Engineering and Product teams. This is a phase of our development, and we will keep working to create the kind of workplace we envision.”
She disclosed that over the past year, Kuda has improved its school-to-workplace internship program in an effort to give young engineers and product managers the necessary skills for career advancement.
Other actions include expanding the Engineering and Product teams to hire more women into leadership positions, creating a recruitment model that rewards peer recommendations, and providing more opportunities for product management interns to become product managers at Kuda. The company’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity committee, which is headed by a woman, is supporting more progressive initiatives.
Hewat also revealed that by sponsoring 20 young women to attend the Africa Girls In Tech boot camp, the company 2022 boosted their career development. The beneficiaries of the program, which was run in collaboration with Africa Agility, had the opportunity to gain product and technology knowledge, as well as obtain internships at tech startups or begin freelancing.
“Due to these equity-promoting initiatives, Kuda continues to be a workplace of distinction. We have hired 133% more women in the past year, added 87% more women to our Product team, and increased the proportion of women on our Engineering team by 144%. We’re also happy to report that there are now exactly as many women working at Kuda as men, she said.
A fintech business called Kuda operates in Nigeria and the UK. Babs Ogundeyi and Musty Mustapha co-founded the business in 2019, and it is now valued at $500 million USD.
Target Global and Valar Ventures, among other institutional investors, have contributed more than US$90 million to the venture. One of the seven African technology startups recognized by the WEF for 2021 was Kuda.
