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Women to Lead Corporate Nigeria from 2026 As Predicted By Ekeh, Zinox Boss
By Hilary Audu,
In a world that is predominantly patriarchal in nature, it is refreshing to see the women-folk doing great things and giving the men-folk a good run for their money.
Leo Stan Ekeh, Chairman, Zinox Group
From the likes of outgoing German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, former President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist, Oprah Winfrey and even our own Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr. NgoziOkonjo-Iweala, women have displayed ample evidence that they have the capacity, the brain-power, and the determination to hold their own in the leadership sphere.
It is also instructive to note that the rise of this gender and the need to empower them is one that has been consistently predicted, preached, put in practice by one man – Chairman of the Zinox Group, Leo Stan Ekeh, whom I have followed his public talks and other teachings over the years.
I must confess that the unerring stance of the tech guru on the place of women in contemporary society had inspired me in altering my life course.
Well over 15 years ago, Ekeh had declared that women would play a greater role in the global scheme of things by the turn of the 21st Century, with the Zinox boss disclosing that the impact of women would be felt even keener in leadership roles from the year 2026. Simply put, the Zinox boss had predicted that women would take over and that a time would come when corporate organizations that had no females as CEOs or in their Executive Management cadre would be considered old-fashioned.
Even more importantly, he had affirmed that in judging or rating the success of a man, one should assess the quality of woman he married. Inadvertently, he had aligned the success of a man to his choice of a partner.
At this point, I was a little bit discomfited by these bold assertions by the Zinox boss who was a like a lone voice in the wilderness of women empowerment then, especially in Nigeria. Back then, the sense of male domination was a foregone conclusion. Women were hardly represented in leadership positions, be it in corporate or political circles. Indeed, it was a rarity to see a man go against the grain in predicting female domination or gender empowerment in those days.
But those were not the reasons for my discomfort.
I was less than adequately educated back then, having come from a conservative background where women are hardly given the same consideration as their male counterparts when it comes to education. Therefore, hearing Mr. Ekeh utter these words at a public event organized by Technology Distributions Ltd. in Ikeja many years ago had not only opened my eyes to the need to better my lot; it had also made me decide to seek higher education.
If Mr. Ekeh were a preacher or owned a church, I would have been one of his most loyal church members.
Ekeh has consistently submitted that women are more financially prudent, humble, less prone to fraud, spiritually sound, better counsellors and possibly even smarter than their male counterparts of the same age – factors which he has identified as traits which make them more naturally suited for leadership.
At the inaugural edition of the Africa Fintech Disrupt Conference sponsored by Access Bank in 2018, Ekeh had returned, after delivering a rousing speech to standing ovation, to encourage women to prepare to take charge, even as he specifically declared that the world should adjust to this coming reality which he reiterated would begin to take shape from 2026.
Today, his prediction about women domination is beginning to emerge, just in the same way his many other projections – such as the rise of e-commerce as a global game-changer and the position of technology in altering the nature of business, among many others – have come to pass with glaring accuracy.
If the example of Lagarde (a former head of the International Monetary Fund) and Okonjo-Iweala (a Harvard-trained two-time former Minister of Finance in Nigeria), both of whom currently oversee affairs at two of the most respected global institutions is not enough proof, what of the instances of women who have aspired to and secured the number one jobs in their countries?
The list is long.
Estonia has a female Prime Minister in KajaKallas,Moldova’s female President, Maia Sandu, has been in office since December 4, 2020 and Lithuania’s President, a woman, Ingrida Simonyte has occupied that office since December 25, 2020. Also, Greece’s President Katerina Sakellaropoulou has been in office since March 13, 2020, Denmark has a female Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen who took office on June 27, 2019; Slovakia’s President Zuzana Caputova has thrived after assuming the role on June 15, 2019, among many others.
Even in tech which is widely regarded as a male-dominated sector, women are also gradually taking over.
Susan Wojcickiis CEO of YouTube. She contributed to the development of Google Images and AdSense as she rose up the ranks before eventually suggesting the acquisition of YouTube, and becoming its CEO in 2014. Sheryl Sandberg, billionaire business executive and philanthropist, is Chief Operating Officer of Facebook. Also, Meg Whitman is CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and chairman of HP Inc. while IBM also has a female CEO in Ginni Rometty.
Here in Nigeria, the women are also gradually rising above the age-long patriarchal culture and shattering the proverbial glass ceilings that have long held them back, just as Ekeh had predicted.
While we are yet to achieve the level of political maturity that would see a woman become President of Nigeria – a development that may not be that far off – women have broken into and are dominating many other sectors.
Today, Nigeria has seven female bank CEOs, a development that many would have declared as impossible many years ago but which a man like Ekeh foresaw. The list of female bank MD/CEOs include YemisiEdun, acting MD/CEO, First City Monument Bank (FCMB); OluwatomiSomefun, MD/CEO, Unit Bank Plc; Miriam Olusanya, MD/CEO, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB); Halima Buba, MD/CEO, SunTrust Bank Plc; NnekaOnyeali-Ikpe, MD/CEO, Fidelity Bank Plc; KafilatAraoye, MD/CEO, Lotus Bank and Ireti Samuel-Ogbu, MD/CEO, City Bank.
And in the much-vaunted tech sector, we have the likes of OlufunkeOpeke of MainOne who is effortlessly rubbing shoulders with other men in this field. There is also Ify Afe, former MD, Central Africa at HP Inc. and who is now Chief of Staff and Board Member, HP Diversity,Equity and Inclusion (DE&I); in addition to Google Country Manager, Nigeria, Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor, among others.
But in closing this piece, it would be out of place to talk about the growing role of women in tech and as leaders, especially in Corporate Nigeria without returning to the pivotal role played by Ekeh in putting into practice something he has preached for years.
My interest in the Zinox Group in the wake of Mr. Ekeh’s inspiring clamour for gender empowerment and belief in the rise of the women-folk received further impetus when I learnt of the pivotal roles played by women in his companies.
Perhaps, there is no other globally renowned entrepreneur in the world today who has placed as many women in leadership positions, solely on merit, in his organization as Mr. Ekeh. In the Zinox Group, there are about five female Managing Directors, arguably a first in today’s business world.
In TD Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa’s leading technology distributor, you can find four of these female MDs. They are led by Mrs. Chioma Ekeh, wife of Mr. Ekeh, a cerebral mathematician, Chartered Accountant and globally recognised woman tech leader who has led the company in consistently breaking new grounds over the years. There is also Mrs. Shade Oyebode who heads the company’s Operations Unit, Mrs. Chioma Chimere, a Coordinating Managing Director (CMD) who manages the company’s business development drive and yet another MD in Mrs. GozyIjogun who oversees Sales.
Then you move over to Zinox Technologies Ltd. and there you find Mrs. Kelechi Eze-Okonta, another outstanding performer, who has been MD of the tech giant for the past three years. The Human Resources Unit of the Zinox Group is also headed by a female Executive Director in the person of Mrs. Chioma Nwoke.
Certainly, there is no stopping the rise of the women-folk and with notable male champions of gender empowerment such as Ekeh and others in our corner, it is only a matter of time before the world aligns.
Hilary Audu, a female gender empowerment expert, writes from Abuja
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How Moniepoint’s Founders, Tosin Eniolorunda and Felix Ike are Redefining African Tech and Finance
In an era where global tech giants dominate headlines, two Nigerian entrepreneurs are quietly revolutionizing financial services across Africa, proving that world-class innovation can emerge from homegrown talent and local institutions.
Tosin Eniolorunda and Felix Ike, co-founders of Moniepoint Inc, have built one of Africa’s fastest-growing fintech companies, not despite their exclusively Nigerian education, but in many ways, because of it.
Their journey from the lecture halls of Obafemi Awolowo University and the University of Lagos to the TIME100 Most Influential Companies list stands as a powerful testament to the caliber of talent nurtured within Nigerian universities and the transformative potential of locally-rooted vision.
Tosin Eniolorunda’s path exemplifies how Nigerian educational institutions can cultivate entrepreneurial excellence. After earning his degree in Mechanical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, he didn’t follow the well-trodden path abroad but instead chose to build solutions for Nigerian challenges within Nigeria itself. This decision proved prescient.
Understanding the unique financial ecosystem and infrastructure gaps firsthand from the work at TeamApt Ltd where they were building from majority of the country’s banks, Tosin pioneered several industry firsts: introducing instant POS transfers to Nigeria, launching the country’s first virtual account services, and constructing a vertically integrated payments processing switch with full switching and processing licenses.
These feats and technological achievements must be viewed from the prism that these were deeply contextual innovations born from intimate knowledge of local needs, the kind of understanding that comes from being educated and embedded in the communities one serves.
Felix Ike’s contribution complements this vision with technical brilliance equally rooted in Nigerian educational excellence. Graduating with first-class honors in Computer Science from the University of Lagos, Felix brought to Moniepoint the kind of engineering rigor required to build mission-critical financial infrastructure.
As Chief Technology Officer, he has architected systems that are not just functional but scalable, resilient, and secure enough to serve over 10 million businesses and individuals across Nigeria and Africa. His work demonstrates that Nigerian universities are producing software engineering leaders capable of building world-class technology that can compete on the global stage with technology that processes millions of transactions daily and underpins the financial dreams of an entire continent.
Since its founding in 2015, Moniepoint has evolved into Africa’s largest distributor of financial services in Nigeria, with presence across all 774 local government areas. The company’s all-in-one financial ecosystem offering seamless payments, banking, credit, and business management solutions reflects a sophisticated understanding of what African businesses and individuals actually need to thrive.
The accolades have followed: recognition by TIME as one of the 100 Most Influential Companies in 2025, listing among CNBC’s top UK fintech firms, and ranking in the Financial Times’ Africa’s Fastest-Growing Companies for three consecutive years.
The Moniepoint story as an indigenously rooted but globally compliant player challenges prevailing narratives about where innovation must originate and what credentials are necessary for building transformative companies. Tosin and Felix’s success illustrates that Nigerian universities, when their graduates are empowered with vision, opportunity, and determination, can produce founders who don’t just participate in the global economy but reshape it.
Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has announced that the National Identification Number (NIN) issued by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) will automatically serve as the Tax Identification Number (Tax ID) for all Nigerian citizens, while registered businesses will use their Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) registration numbers.
FIRS
The disclosure was made during a public awareness campaign on the new tax laws posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday.
According to the Service, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act (NTAA), which comes into force in January 2026, mandates the use of Tax IDs for certain financial and commercial transactions, including bank account ownership.
FIRS explained that the measure is part of efforts to unify all previously issued Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) by both the federal and state revenue services into a single identifier.
“For individuals, your NIN automatically serves as your Tax ID, while for registered companies, your CAC RC number is used. You do not need a physical card; the Tax ID is a unique number linked directly to your identity,” the Service stated.
The agency noted that the requirement has been in place since the Finance Act of 2019 but has now been strengthened under the NTAA to ensure compliance and ease of administration.
Officials emphasized that the reform would simplify tax processes, reduce duplication, and improve transparency in Nigeria’s tax system.
The Service added that the integration of NIN and CAC numbers into the tax framework would also enhance data accuracy, curb tax evasion, and streamline the monitoring of taxable activities across the country.
Tax experts have described the development as a significant step toward modernizing Nigeria’s revenue administration, noting that it aligns with global best practices where national identity systems are linked to tax compliance.
The FIRS urged Nigerians to ensure that their NINs and CAC registration details are up-to-date, stressing that the identifiers would be required for transactions such as property purchases, contract awards, and access to certain financial services once the NTAA takes effect
The United States will begin a partial suspension of visa issuance to Nigerians from January 1, 2026, following a new presidential proclamation aimed at strengthening border and national security.
The US Mission in Nigeria announced on Monday that the restriction will take effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time in accordance with Presidential Proclamation 10998, titled ‘Restricting and Limiting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States.’
According to the mission, Nigeria is one of 19 countries affected by the measure.
Others listed are Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The proclamation provides for a partial suspension of visa issuance covering nonimmigrant B-1/B-2 visitor visas, as well as F, M and J student and exchange visitor visas.
It also applies to immigrant visas, though with limited exceptions.
The statement read in part, “Effective January 1, 2026, at 12:01 a.m. EST, in line with Presidential Proclamation 10998 on “Restricting and Limiting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States,” the Department of State is partially suspending visa issuance to nationals of 19 countries – Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burundi, Cote D’Ivoire, Cuba, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Venezuela, Zambia, and Zimbabwe – for nonimmigrant B-1/B-2 visitor visas and F, M, J student and exchange visitor visas, and all immigrant visas with limited exceptions.”
US officials clarified that the policy does not apply to all travellers. Exemptions include immigrant visas for ethnic and religious minorities facing persecution in Iran, dual nationals applying with passports from countries not affected by the suspension, and Special Immigrant Visas for eligible US government employees.
Other exempted categories include lawful permanent residents of the United States and participants in certain major international sporting events.
The US government emphasised that the proclamation applies only to foreign nationals who are outside the United States on the effective date and who do not hold a valid US visa as of January 1, 2026.
“Foreign nationals, even those outside the United States, who hold valid visas as of the effective date are not subject to Presidential Proclamation 10998. No visas issued before January 1, 2026, at 12:01 a.m. EST, have been or will be revoked pursuant to the Proclamation,” the statement added.
Visa applicants from affected countries may continue to submit applications and attend interviews. However, the US Mission noted that such applicants “may be ineligible for visa issuance or admission to the US” under the new rules.
The announcement comes amid a series of recent US policy decisions that have raised concerns among Nigerians seeking to travel, study or migrate to the country.
In October, the United States added Nigeria back to its list of countries accused of violating religious freedom, citing persistent insecurity and attacks on Christian communities. This was followed by Nigeria’s inclusion on a revised US travel ban list that imposed partial entry restrictions on Nigerians.
The US has also tightened immigration and visa policies affecting Nigerians. Earlier this year, the validity of most non-immigrant visas issued to Nigerians was reduced to single-entry visas with a three-month duration.
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