City People Magazine has announced Ms. Oluchukwu Modesta Oluoha as the winner of its 2022 Outstanding Talent in STEM Award, honouring her exceptional leadership in Identity and Access Management (IAM), regulatory compliance, and cybersecurity governance. The award recognises her as one of Nigeria’s leading voices advancing digital trust and ethical management in financial technology, celebrating a career defined by integrity, innovation, and measurable impact in an increasingly digital world.
The City People Awards have become one of Nigeria’s most respected platforms for celebrating excellence across industries. This year’s edition drew more than 100,000 nominations across the nation and in the diaspora, reflecting the depth of talent and competition across the professional landscape. Winners were selected through a rigorous review process led by City People’s editorial board and independent experts, who evaluated nominees on the basis of innovation, leadership, ethics, and sustained professional impact. Emerging at the top of such a competitive field, Ms. Oluoha’s recognition emphasises her role in shaping Nigeria’s digital security and compliance ecosystem through strategic foresight and people-centred leadership.
According to the editorial board, Ms. Oluoha’s selection was unanimous. “Oluchukwu represents a generation of professionals who redefine compliance as a strategic enabler rather than a constraint.” Her work in digital governance and access management shows that security, when designed thoughtfully, can strengthen not just systems but trust itself.
For Ms. Oluoha, the recognition is both humbling and inspiring. Speaking after receiving the award, she said, “Compliance is about trust, clarity, and accountability. My work is driven by the conviction that technology must protect people as much as it protects data. When we align governance with empathy, we make security sustainable.”
Those words encapsulate a career built on balance where regulatory rigour meets operational empathy. At Habaripay (a subsidiary of GTCO), where she currently serves as Information Security Compliance Supervisor, Oluoha is redefining how identity and access management operate within high-transaction financial environments. She is leading enterprise-wide IAM programs that include privileged access management, certificate and directory services, and zero-trust implementation. Her initiatives are reinforcing audit readiness, reducing insider risk, and strengthening adherence to global compliance frameworks such as GDPR and PCI-DSS.
Ms. Oluoha’s leadership extends beyond process enforcement. She has built a culture of awareness by training staff across departments to understand and apply IAM principles. Under her guidance, Habaripay achieved a milestone this year with the implementation of a centralised IAM incident response framework, improving response time, system integrity, and transparency across the organisation. Her colleagues describe her as “a bridge between compliance and culture,” someone who not only writes policies but ensures people live by them.
Previously, Oluoha served as Brand Social Media Compliance Lead, where she combined digital strategy with regulatory precision. She spearheaded brand protection initiatives that resulted in the deactivation of over 1,000 fraudulent social media accounts, curbing impersonation and digital fraud. The results were measurable: a 25 percent improvement in compliance reporting visibility, a 30 percent reduction in policy-related complaints, and a 20 percent increase in positive customer sentiment. Her work demonstrated that compliance, when approached with innovation, can enhance both corporate reputation and customer trust.
In the early years of her career, she served as Regulatory Consumer Compliance Officer at Guaranty Trust Bank, overseeing risk assessments, regulatory audits, and onboarding compliance across multiple branches. She was instrumental in strengthening GTBank’s audit readiness and policy adherence, ensuring operational resilience in an increasingly complex regulatory environment. Before that, as Business Development Officer, she distinguished herself through a 100 percent client retention rate achieved by integrating compliance discipline into client relationship management.
“This award is about recognizing professionals who combine technical depth with measurable impact. Ms. Oluoha has delivered results at scale, through foresight, expertise, and disciplined execution,” says Wale Lawal, Senior Editor at City People Magazine.
An MBA graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria , and holder of a B.Sc. in Pure and Industrial Chemistry from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka (2009), Ms. Oluoha combines analytical depth with managerial insight. She builds systems that make ethical behaviour the path of least resistance, and her initiatives have not only enhanced compliance performance but have also reduced audit cycle times and improved employee participation in governance programs.
In addition to her professional and academic roles, Ms. Oluoha is an advocate for women in technology. Through workshops and mentorship programs, she encourages young women to pursue careers in cybersecurity and data governance. “Representation matters,” she often says. “When more women enter cybersecurity, we expand the perspectives that define how we protect people and information.”
The City People Award celebrates professionals whose leadership is elevating security and governance standards across Nigeria’s public and private sectors. Past honorees have included innovators in fintech, telecommunications, and digital infrastructure. This year’s award committee noted that Ms. Oluoha’s work “embodies the shift from reactive compliance to proactive trust engineering,” calling her “a national asset in the digital transformation era.”
Her selection also signals a broader shift in how Nigeria’s business landscape values cybersecurity leadership. In an economy increasingly dependent on digital platforms, leaders like Ms. Oluoha are redefining what it means to build resilient, trustworthy institutions. Her influence, according to City People analysts, extends well beyond her organisation, shaping how financial and technology firms interpret and operationalise compliance.
Reflecting on her journey, Ms. Oluoha remains focused on the road ahead. “This recognition is not an endpoint,” she said during the award ceremony. “It’s a reminder to keep building systems where transparency is natural, and security is seamless. True digital trust begins when compliance becomes part of the culture.”
Her words echoed through the hall as colleagues, regulators, and fellow honorees applauded a fitting close to a year in which cybersecurity and regulatory resilience became central to business sustainability. For City People, honoring Oluchukwu Modesta Oluoha is more than a recognition of personal achievement; it is a statement about the kind of leadership that defines Nigeria’s future.
In a world where data drives decision-making and digital integrity determines reputation, Ms. Oluoha’s story stands as evidence that governance, when practiced with empathy and precision, can power progress. Her award is both a milestone and a call to action, reminding professionals everywhere that building digital trust is not just a technical task but a human responsibility
