Saudi Arabia : Saudi fintech firm Geidea has launched a training program in partnership with The London Institute of Banking and Finance to support women in the fintech sector.   

The program stands firmly in line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 blueprint for women’s empowerment, which aims to increase women’s participation rate in the labor market.   

The fully-funded GeideAct course is virtual, part-time and six weeks long, and its graduates will receive a Certified Fintech Practitioner qualification upon completion, it said.   

The GeideAct which begins in February 2023 will be accessible to any women in the Kingdom who work in tech, fintech or financial services. The program is part of the company’s commitment to learning and creating an inclusive fintech sector in Saudi Arabia, it said.   

The training program contains several major fintech topics, such as the impact of fintech on business models across banking and finance and different strategies for growth. It also includes how risk and regulation impact the sector, the newest technologies and how they affect product design and distribution.   

“By providing women in Saudi Arabia with access to training and development, GeideAct delivers a more inclusive and diverse Saudi fintech talent bank,” said Renier Lemmens, Group CEO at Geidea.   

He added: “GeideAct is all about accelerated learning, and we are giving back to a vast pool of young talents to help them to become future fintech leaders.”  

The company said its training program is flexible as it targets professionals in the early to mid-phases of their careers, and so it takes place twice a week for 45 minutes each.   

Lemmens is also considering more training programs when he called it “the first of many GeideAct programs” and hoped to introduce the initiative across all markets in which they operate.   

Saudi women have been taking up key responsibilities and contributing to the growth of Saudi Arabia as the Kingdom pushes for inclusive development as part of Vision 2030.   

With the female unemployment rate at a record low of 19.3 percent in the second quarter, the Kingdom is looking at bolstering the presence of women in the workforce.  

Nuwair S. Al-Shammari, deputy dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication at Imam Mohammad ibn Saud Islamic University, said that Saudi women have progressed because of historical decisions taken under the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.  

The reforms enabled Saudi women to be active partners in national development — the cornerstone of the National Transformation Program and Saudi Vision 2030.