City People Magazine has recognised Jeanette Uddoh with the 2022 Outstanding Talent in STEM Award for Digital Innovation and Financial Technology Leadership. The award celebrates her remarkable contributions to the banking and fintech industries, as well as her pioneering efforts in driving digital transformation across Africa.
The annual Outstanding Talent Awards, organised by City People Magazine, honour professionals whose work has significantly advanced science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in ways that create measurable national impact. From more than 100,000 nominees within Nigeria and the diaspora, Uddoh distinguished herself through her unique blend of data-driven decision-making, design thinking, and sustainable innovation, which she has applied to major transformation projects across the continent.
For the Awards Committee, her story reflects the future of African innovation, where technology serves not only to automate systems but also to empower people.
A graduate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Uddoh began her professional journey in banking, where her passion for systems improvement and data analytics soon distinguished her from her peers. Over the years, she has built a remarkable track record of success in operational excellence, digital innovation, and customer experience transformation. Her breakthrough came during her time at Access Bank Plc, where she rose to become Head of Innovation for Nigeria and the bank’s African subsidiaries. In that role, she led end-to-end development of digital financial products that transformed how millions of customers accessed banking services.
Over the years, Uddoh and her team developed over ten fintech solutions, ranging from mobile lending products to automated customer service platforms, achieving a 50 percent year-on-year growth in the bank’s digital lending business. She was also instrumental in the creation of an AI-powered chatbot that improved customer satisfaction scores by 20 percent and became an industry benchmark for user experience.
Her leadership extended beyond product design. She championed the introduction of a data-driven ideation portal, a social platform that encouraged staff to propose and vote on innovation ideas. The initiative saw over 50 percent of employees actively participating, fostering a new culture of creativity and inclusion within the organisation.
In early 2022, Jeanette Uddoh took her expertise to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) as Head of Innovation and New Products. There, she spearheaded projects that pushed the boundaries of digital finance and interoperability in Nigeria’s payments landscape. Working closely with the Central Bank of Nigeria and fintech partners, she led the development of groundbreaking AI-powered payment solutions that introduced contactless transactions and facial recognition for secure authentication. These innovations positioned NIBSS at the forefront of digital finance modernisation and reinforced her reputation as one of the country’s most forward-thinking innovation leaders.
Under her leadership, NIBSS achieved a 25 percent increase in annual revenue, largely driven by her ability to align business goals with customer-centric product development. She also introduced new frameworks for stakeholder engagement that strengthened collaboration among banks, startups, and regulators, ensuring that technological growth translated into measurable public benefit.
“Jeanette has an extraordinary capacity to turn data into strategy,” said a senior NIBSS official. “She builds products that don’t just work, they solve real problems for real people.”
Beyond her corporate roles, Jeanette Uddoh has become a powerful voice for women in technology and innovation. She is the founder of Africa Rising Women in Innovation, a network of over 500 female innovators across Africa dedicated to mentorship, collaboration, and professional growth. Through this platform, she has organised mentorship programs and knowledge-sharing sessions that have helped women across industries develop confidence in STEM careers. Her advocacy emphasises that gender equality in innovation is not just a moral imperative but a strategic advantage.
“When women lead in STEM, communities progress faster,” she often says. “Representation shapes what the next generation believes is possible.”
Her commitment to gender inclusion earned her several recognitions prior to this award, including Global Women in Leadership (2021) and Most Valuable Player (2020) from Innovation Leader, a Boston-based professional network celebrating excellence in corporate innovation.
Uddoh’s approach to innovation extends beyond technology; it is rooted in sustainability and ethics. Long before sustainability became a corporate buzzword, she championed paperless workflows, process automation, and data governance frameworks that reduced waste and improved transparency. Her initiatives at Access Bank and NIBSS introduced environmentally conscious systems that balanced efficiency with long-term responsibility. In her words, “True innovation is sustainable innovation, one that serves both today’s customers and tomorrow’s communities.”
Jeanette Uddoh is a certified IBM Design Thinking Practitioner and has completed professional programs in Technology Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School and Social Impact Strategy at the University of Pennsylvania. These global experiences have shaped her multidisciplinary approach to innovation, combining technology, human behaviour, and strategic management. She has delivered keynote sessions and workshops on digital transformation, agile leadership, and customer experience at major industry events across Nigeria and beyond. Her thought leadership continues to inspire professionals seeking to build sustainable careers in STEM.
According to Wale Lawal, Senior Editor at City People Magazine, “Jeanette represents a new generation of STEM leaders, evidence-led, purpose-driven, and people-focused. Her ability to merge design thinking with data analytics has made her one of the most influential innovation managers in Africa’s fintech space.”
The 2022 Outstanding Talent in STEM Award highlights not just Uddoh’s achievements but her enduring influence in shaping Africa’s innovation landscape. Her body of work demonstrates how digital technology can drive national development when paired with strategy, structure, and social responsibility. She is also a member of several professional organisations, including the International Association of Innovation Professionals (USA), the Global Innovation Institute (USA), and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, underscoring her global engagement with the innovation community.
Her career exemplifies how structured thinking, creativity, and leadership can redefine industries. Whether through fintech development, digital inclusion, or organisational culture, she has consistently turned vision into measurable value.
Speaking after receiving the award, Uddoh expressed deep gratitude and humility. “This recognition is not just about me,” she said. “It’s about every young innovator who believes that ideas can change systems. Innovation is service, and service, when done well, becomes legacy.”
She dedicated the award to her mentors, colleagues, and the teams she has led over the years, emphasising that collaboration remains the cornerstone of her success. “No transformation is achieved alone,” she added. “Every achievement we celebrate today is the product of shared effort and shared vision.”
The Awards Committee described her as “analytically rigorous, ethically grounded, and operationally consistent, a professional whose contributions continue to set the standard for excellence in STEM leadership.” Her recognition at the 2022 City People Outstanding Talent Awards cements her position among the leading innovators shaping the future of Africa’s digital economy.
For Uddoh, the award is not an end but a beginning: a renewed call to keep pushing boundaries, empowering people, and redefining what innovation means in Africa.
