ExiPay Technologies’ Helmi de Villiers.

Today, Helmi de Villiers is the head of business development for ExiPay Technologies, a fintech and payment platform, having worked her way up through financial and fintech spheres to be a trusted player in this burgeoning sector. It’s a far cry from her first qualification in typing. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do after matric, but my mother said, ‘if a woman can type, she will never be without a job’,” she recalls, adding: “Yes, that is giving away my age, but those were the days.”

Armed with her certificate, she landed a job at the Pietersburg, now Polokwane, Chamber of Commerce, and continued to study while working, earning a diploma, and then her B.Tech degree. She then moved to Absa, where a manager spotted her potential.