Get Guardian on GoogleThe convener of CIO & C-Suite Projects Africa, Abiola Laseinde, has said that 13 African countries were represented at this year’s conference held in Lagos, with Nigeria as the host.
Laseinde, who made this known in her opening address, said the initiative began in 2020 and has transformed into a continental platform for recognising technology leaders whose contributions to business and economic development often receive limited attention.
This year’s conference, held under the theme: ‘Leading the Next Africa,’ attracted about 160 nominations from 14 African countries.
Acknowledging the contributions of sponsors and partners since the event’s inception in 2020, Laseinde thanked the jurors, sponsors, technical partners and volunteers for sustaining the initiative.
Speaking on the award selection process, a partner at Deloitte, Olawal Noiki, said it involved multiple stages of assessment, including reviews of business cases, evidence of impact and the value delivered by nominees to their organisations and the wider economy.
He said submissions were evaluated by experts and two panels of jurors before finalists and eventual winners were selected.
He added that the assessment considered the business challenges addressed by each initiative, its beneficiaries and the results achieved.
“The event is really about honouring the individuals that are powering Africa’s digital future, the CIOs, the teams and the organisations that are adding value both to their businesses and ultimately to the African economy,” he said.
In her remarks, the Director of Payments System Supervision at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Rakiya Yusuf, stressed the need for effective data sovereignty policies to protect the country’s economic and security interests while strengthening its digital economy.
Speaking on the theme: “Policy, Regulation and Data Sovereignty,” Yusuf said the rapid expansion of digital payments, e-commerce, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and platform-based services had made data governance increasingly critical to Nigeria’s economic development.
She said the country needed a trusted, inclusive and resilient digital economy capable of supporting innovation, attracting investment and delivering sustainable growth.
Also speaking, the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NGX Group, Temi Popoola, urged chief information officers (CIOs) and corporate boards to measure the business value of trust and its relationship with data quality, cyber resilience, customer confidence, transaction volumes and revenue growth.
Popoola, who was represented by the Group Chief Strategy Officer of NGX Group, Jumoke Olaniyan, said Africa had considerable opportunities in entrepreneurship, innovation, infrastructure and capital investment but needed trusted digital foundations to translate them into scalable business.
