Aituaz Kola-Oladejo is a fintech strategist skilled in helping organisations in the financial services industry actualise their latent potentials and optimise limited resources.
With 20+ years’ experience across banking operations, business development, talent management, risk management, innovation management, product management and research, she has been actively involved in several financial services industry committees charged with the responsibility of improving key aspects of the payment landscape in Nigeria.
She is currently the Executive Director of the Financial Services Innovators (FSI), a non-for-profit organisation of over 3,500 innovators.
The primary mandate of FSI is to achieve CBN’s mandate of enabling innovation among fintechs within a supervised framework and to project a common voice.
FSI’s role also entails policy advocacy and is charged with the responsibility of organising capacity building workshops and fora in collaboration with the CBN on policies and guidelines.
FSI is lowering barriers to entry, promoting a level playing field for innovators without undermining the safety and security of the payment system for the general public, while also advocating policies and regulations that encourage innovation in the fintech community.
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At FSI, the first fintech industry innovation sandbox in Africa was built and it provides a platform for innovators to experiment with their ideas thereby lowering the barriers to entry into the financial services industry.
Aituaz’s role in FSI also entails helping startups settle down, succeed and grow by providing them with the right information, network and capacity building programmes.
Before the advent of FSI, she was the Head of Research and Development at the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), the central switch of the nation where she led the ‘Enhance Payment Innovation and Empower Fintech Startup’ Initiative in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
She also spent the first 12 years of her career as a banker with her experience shared between banking operations, business development and risk management.
Aituaz Kola-Oladejo has cross-functional experience in business and also the ability to establish partnership and working relationships in diverse social, cultural, political and economic settings.
As former Head, Research and Development at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems Plc, she was the pioneer leader for institutional research and development, leading innovation management, payment awareness and training, including strategy at the leading provider of infrastructure services in the Nigerian financial service industry.
Aituaz holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom. She is also a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). She is married with three children.
