Jeanette Uddoh is a visionary leader and the founder of Africa Rising – Women in Innovation, a dynamic community dedicated to championing the cause of African and Neo-African women in innovation. Through this initiative, she actively works to bridge the gender and diversity gap in the innovation ecosystem, fostering an inclusive space for female innovators to thrive. Jeanette is widely recognized for her transformative leadership in technology, financial services, and digital innovation, making a lasting impact in industries traditionally dominated by men.
Prior to founding Africa Rising, Jeanette served as Head of Innovation & New Products at Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS), the backbone of Nigeria’s digital payment infrastructure. In this role, she led groundbreaking projects to enhance the interoperability and security of retail electronic payments. Before that, she was the Head of Innovation at Access Bank, Africa’s largest bank by customer base, where she played a pivotal role in shaping the bank’s innovation strategy and fostering a culture of disruptive thinking. Her expertise spans innovation management, design thinking, analytics, banking operations optimization, and process improvement. Throughout her career, she has spearheaded strategic projects, including the Central Reconciliation Project at Access Bank, which significantly reduced financial losses from ATM irreconciliations and improved audit ratings across the bank’s branches.
A highly decorated professional, Jeanette has received numerous prestigious accolades, including the InnoLead Most Valuable Player (MVP) Impact Award 2020, making her the only African and Nigerian to win this honor since its inception. She is also a UN Speaker, a recipient of the Global Women in Leadership 2021 Awards, and an Access Bank Group CEO Award winner in multiple categories, including Employee Volunteer of the Year 2020 and Personal Volunteer of the Year 2020. During her MBA in Information Management, with a focus on AI and Cloud Technologies, she was named among the Poets & Quants Best and Brightest MBA Students across top U.S. business schools. Her unwavering passion for empowering women, driving technological innovation, and reshaping financial ecosystems continues to make her a formidable force in the global innovation landscape.
