Olapeju Nwanganga: Unlocking Market Women’s Capital Through Technology

Underneath the vibrant chaos of Nigeria’s open-air markets lies a multi-trillion-naira economy running on fragile systems, mental calculations and worn out notebooks of millions of women traders.

Olapeju Nwanganga, a finance expert with over a decade of experience in FMCG and Oil and Gas, saw no chaos but opportunity: an ocean of untapped data ready to be digitised.

As Founder of Ploutos Page Limited, Nwanganga had already created tools like Pepcode for SME bookkeeping and AuditMe. Her flagship innovation, ÓWÀ by Pepcode, is a grassroots revolution. Using a simple voice-note and SMS system, semi-literate market women can record daily sales, purchases, and debts. What was once trapped in their minds becomes a verifiable digital financial history.

“These women are astute businesswomen, but to the formal banking system, they are invisible and unbankable,” Nwanganga explains. “ÓWÀ makes their business visible. That digital record becomes a track record.” This track record is the key to microloans, supplier credit, and government grants resources historically out of reach.

Digitisation turns informal sales data into capital, helping traders grow and integrate into the formal economy. Nwanganga’s team works directly on market stalls, building trust and simplifying technology, ensuring adoption and impact.

One of the top five recipients of $10,000 from the sixth cycle of the Standard Chartered’s Women in Tech Nigeria Accelerator delivered in partnership with Village Capital and Enterprise Development Centre, Nwanganga is now scaling ÓWÀ, giving market women not just an app, but an identity within the financial system.

“We are turning their entrepreneurial spirit into collateral,” she says. Through ÓWÀ, Olapeju Nwanganga is not just balancing books, but she is also balancing scales of economic opportunity for Nigeria’s most resilient, yet marginalised, entrepreneurs.