As part of activities leading up to her investiture as the 14th President of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) and the first female President in the Institute’s history, Dr. Fiona Ahmed Ahimie, Managing Director of First Securities Brokers Limited, hosted the inaugural LeadHER Mentorship Session last week.

The session, themed “Leading with Purpose, Breaking Barriers, Building Legacy,” brought together emerging female professionals and aspiring leaders from across various industries for an engaging afternoon of mentorship, learning, and empowerment.

The LeadHER Mentorship Session was designed to provide participants with practical insights into leadership, career advancement, personal development, and navigating challenges in the traditionally male-dominated sectors.

Through candid conversations and shared experiences, attendees gained valuable perspectives on building successful careers while creating lasting impact within their organizations and communities.

Speaking at the event, Dr. Ahimie noted that leadership is not merely about achieving personal success but about creating pathways for others to thrive.

“Throughout my professional journey, I have benefited from the guidance, support, and encouragement of remarkable mentors. The LeadHER Mentorship Session is an opportunity to pay that forward by equipping and inspiring the next generation of women to pursue excellence, embrace leadership opportunities, and break barriers with confidence,” she said.

The mentorship session forms part of a broader commitment to advancing female participation and leadership within Nigeria’s financial services industry and the wider corporate ecosystem. It also reflects Dr. Ahimie’s longstanding dedication to talent development, professional excellence, and inclusive leadership.

The event provided a platform for meaningful dialogue, networking, and knowledge sharing.

Dr. Ahimie’s investiture as President of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers marks a historic milestone for the Institute and the Nigerian capital market, underscoring the growing role of women in shaping the future of the financial services industry.

Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), official industry body and advocacy group for major telecommunications providers in Nigeria, has backed the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) directive requiring banks and fintechs to host payment transaction data locally.

Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, ALTON

Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, ALTON, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagosat the weekend.

His position follows a recent CBN directive mandating that banks, fintechs, and other payment service providers store payment transaction data generated in Nigeria on local servers from January 1, 2027.

The directive forms part of measures aimed at strengthening oversight of the country’s rapidly growing digital payments ecosystem.

Adebayo said data sovereignty required countries to take responsibility for their entire data value chain.

According to him, this covers data collection, management, storage, and integrity assurance.

“We cannot continue to outsource that to other jurisdictions.

“The more we host our data locally, the better for us,” he said.

Adebayo said local hosting would enable Nigeria to manage data end-to-end and guarantee the integrity of critical information.

He noted that hosting payment data outside the country increased communication requirements, latency, and retrieval costs.

“For every transaction involving data hosted outside our shores, communication has to take place from your location to the host and back.

“It increases latency and also increases the cost of data retrieval,” he said.

The ALTON chairman described the directive as an important first step toward achieving national data sovereignty.

He also dismissed concerns about infrastructure readiness, saying Nigeria already had significant data center capacity.

According to him, several Nigerian-owned facilities currently host data for organisations operating from other jurisdictions.

“I’m happy to say that we have a lot of data centres owned and managed by Nigerians that are hosting data from other jurisdictions.

“If people overseas can host their data here, why can’t we host our own data here?” he queried.

Adebayo argued that local hosting would reduce dependence on foreign infrastructure while improving national control over data security.

He said concerns about security and reliability should not justify continued reliance on foreign hosting providers.

“No one can protect your house better than yourself.

“You have more at stake in terms of security and safety than somebody else hosting your data,” he said.

The telecom industry leader also highlighted the cost implications of local hosting.

He said organisations that host data locally would pay in local currency rather than foreign currency.

According to him, this would help reduce exposure to exchange rate pressures and lower long-term operating costs.

Adebayo said Nigeria currently had about six Tier III data centres, with additional facilities under development.

He, however, stressed that capacity was more important than the number of facilities.

“It’s not just about the numbers; it’s about the capacity of what they can host.

“So far, we can,” he said.

He urged stakeholders to accelerate efforts toward domestic data hosting and management.

“The earlier we begin to domesticate our data hosting and data management, the better for us,” Adebayo added.

Ifeanyi Nwanegbo, a distinguished Data Scientist and Applied Data Science professional, has been honoured as the Outstanding Innovator in Applied Artificial Intelligence and Data Science at the 2024 Africa Digital Awards (ADA). The prestigious event, held recently at the Oriental Hotel in Lagos, brought together the continent’s tech elite to celebrate pioneers pushing the boundaries of the digital economy.

In a formal recognition letter signed by Tayo Adewusi, the Publisher and CEO of ICT Watch Magazine, organizers of the awards, the body noted that Nwanegbo’s selection was in deep appreciation of his leadership role in reshaping core business operations through technology.

“His ability to build complex predictive models and robust data pipelines using Python, SQL, and AWS has positioned him as a transformative figure in the field of applied analytics,” the letter reads.

Nwanegbo’s professional journey highlights a consistent track record of converting raw data into strategic assets. With a Master of Science in Data Analytics and Information Systems from Texas State University, he has demonstrated expertise in transforming disparate datasets into actionable insights. His work focuses on feature engineering, statistical analysis, and machine learning to drive high-level business decisions and operational improvements.

His impact has been felt across major global and local organizations, including a significant tenure as a Data Scientist at MTN Group. During his time with the telecommunications giant, Nwanegbo analyzed large-scale customer and operational datasets to support data-driven decision-making across commercial teams.

He successfully transformed transactional and behavioral data into structured analytical sets, enabling more accurate customer segmentation and trend analysis.

At Texas State University, Nwanegbo led critical projects as an Analytics and Data Systems Associate, including a full-scale migration of departmental data systems from Gato to Calico. This project involved redesigning schemas and restructuring ingestion workflows to ensure long-term system reliability.

His work supported KPI tracking and student engagement analysis, providing academic leadership with the repeatable analytical workflows necessary for modern institutional management.

Beyond his corporate and academic roles, Nwanegbo has distinguished himself through high-impact technical projects, such as developing an end-to-end sales demand forecasting and inventory optimization pipeline. By utilizing Python and ARIMA models, he improved forecast accuracy to reduce stockouts and holding costs, demonstrating the tangible economic value of applied AI in supply chain management.

The Africa Digital Awards recognition serves as a testament to Nwanegbo’s technical certifications, including his status as an AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Professional and a Project Management Professional (PMP).

As the continent continues its digital shift, innovators like Nwanegbo remain central to building the high-velocity smart systems that will define Africa’s industrial and technological future.