EPISODE OVERVIEW
Nigeria’s financial inclusion numbers are improving. But behind every statistic is a woman in a rural market who has a mobile number, knows an agent exists nearby, and still cannot navigate a USSD menu on her own.
Imade Bibowei-Osuobeni has spent years working in those communities. As the Founder and CEO of Tech Herfrica, she has trained thousands of women farmers and traders in digital and financial literacy across the FCT, Oyo, and Enugu states, and what she has seen challenges the dominant narrative around digital financial services.
In this episode of I4All Radio, Imade brings evidence-backed, community-rooted perspective to one of the most important questions in Nigeria’s inclusion agenda: Is digital finance expanding faster than digital capability at the last mile?
Drawing from her frontline work with rural women and girls, she surfaces practical, policy-relevant insights on what must accompany DFS expansion to ensure that digital adoption translates into meaningful financial inclusion, rather than shallow or dependent access. The conversation moves beyond connectivity and agent availability to examine the harder infrastructure: digital literacy investments, inclusive interface design, local language access, infrastructure strengthening, and consumer protection. Because without these, the promise of digital finance at the last mile remains exactly that: a promise.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Imade Bibowei-Osuobeni, Founder & CEO, Tech Herfrica
Imade is a Nigerian public policy advisor and the founder of Tech Herfrica, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to the digital and financial inclusion of women and girls in rural Africa. Founded in 2023, Tech Herfrica has trained over 4,000 women, distributed mobile devices, facilitated millions of naira in trade, and raised beneficiary incomes by an average of 50%. Her work has been recognised by the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations Trade and Development body, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
She speaks not as an observer of exclusion, but as someone working inside it, every day.
