Ina Alogwu

Lead 9Mobile Digital Strategy, positioning it as a formidable force in the telecoms and digital innovation space.

Providing strategic oversight of the Bank's operations

Oversee the development, execution and continuous monitoring of ARM Group’s digital strategy in line with its organizational values and priorities, by creating and supporting an environment of digital innovation, ensuring the use of technologies for the benefit of stakeholders and ARM’s workforce; and driving the efficient delivery of customer-centred products and services.

As the Group Head of Verve Digital, I am responsible for discovering new markets and oversee end-to-end road mapping of Verve digital initiatives, coordinate go-to-market strategies for launch and re-launch of new products or services driven by digital payment platforms and Digital commerce. Based on my in-depth understanding on future product trends and opportunities in the African payment industry, I champion strategic initiatives around innovation of digital payment methods beyond cards. Developed strategic relationships with industry players and leading financial institutions and leading the innovation team in developing a Digital Identity payment platform in line with corporate agenda on building a sustainable infrastructure for ‘payment beyond card’ initiative.

As the Group Portfolio Manager for Retail Services, I led formidable teams of Product Managers initiating and pioneering several industry-leading initiatives such as the successful redesign of an e-commerce gateway to drive Pan African infrastructure for leading Payment Service Providers and banks; the development of competitive platforms that facilitate processing of retail electronic transactions and digital commerce across the West and East African markets. Built strategic alliances with diverse stakeholders including industry leaders, key vendors and regulators in payments processing, network infrastructure and digital technology to drive effective business growth across West and East African markets. A major achievement which I spearheaded was the development of an Agency Banking Processing Platform which drove unprecedented growth in cash-in cash-out operations for 3rd Party Agent Networks of banks and non-banks including 3 tier one banks and 4 Fintechs in Nigeria.

As the Group Head Payment Processing with oversight over the West and East African markets, I led the development of competitive Platforms to facilitate payment and settlement processing initiatives across these assigned markets. Championed the restructuring and transitioning of the business model from product-led to platform-led business strategy and developed strategic partnerships to achieve Interswitch’s agenda of being the leader in digital payment and commerce industry in Africa. I leveraged my ability to influence stakeholders with diverse points of view to build coalition and strategic engagements with stakeholders in the Financial & payment industry and represented the company on various industry platforms and national discourse, participating in regulation review committees to define regulatory frameworks in Nigeria.

As the Pioneer Head of Product Strategy and Innovation, I oversaw the strategic direction of all product clusters within the Interswitch Group and developed innovative and emerging technologies to enable the company deliver market-leading and profitable products across East and West Africa markets. While ensuring all innovation activities are aligned with the corporate strategic growth agenda. Institutionalised a formal Product Management process and provided strategic leadership support and hands on technical expertise to support cross border teams, while prioritising and solving problems quickly, efficiently identifying key risks and developing mitigation strategies and concurrent development plan.

Product Head, Tokens, Devises and Security with oversight on managing strategic planning and developing tactical initiatives for the company's fraud management, multi factor authentication and payment tokens. As the product head, I made sure the multi-disciplinary team had access to the latest solutions and technologies in the fraud prevention space and constantly tracked and improved the performance of existing fraud prevention systems and models while instilling a culture of continuous improvement. Worked closely with the Risk and Compliance team to deliver compliance oversight to the rest of the business, assisting with product, policy and procedure reviews. I also defined competitive features and functionality for physical and virtual payment card products that created new revenue streams for the business.

Divisional Head Managed Services and Trusted Infrastructure, leading information security strategies centered on a risk-management paradigm to protect against threats, reduce vulnerabilities and drive robust security architecture, operations and incident response. In order to effectively manage and reduce risk, I monitored the comprehensive evaluation of existing processes and created new ones. Set policy, standards, and mutually-acceptable tracking and governance mechanisms and established processes to conduct security risk assessment, identify threats and reduce potential impacts to information security. Collaborated with other industry players and partners to understand industry trends, create business cases for best practices and implement changes to stay abreast of evolving threats and risks to business processes. Kept stakeholder abreast of industry trends and competitors’ activities by through compilation and effective submission of monthly security reports that track incidents and trends within the Interswitch group. I also, successfully managed Interswitch Information Security program and led the PCIDSS- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard recertification process and became a trusted advisor to acquirers and issuers on PCIDSS in Nigeria.

As the Risk Specialist, I led the effective implementation of the organization’s risk management program in a manner that fulfilled the strategic goals of the company. Maintained and developed the risk framework and tools, such as country risk assessment, client and opportunity risk assessment tools, 3rd party risk assessment tool, risk register and surveillance function. Spearheaded the development of risk assessment tools, methodologies, processes and procedures as appropriate to different strategic business units and in line with the company’s risk appetite and provided strategic support to the management on risk and governance regulatory requirements across all markets the Company operates in. Partnered with business, technology and other stakeholders to deliver actionable and measurable business outcomes while minimizing risk exposure. Pioneered the Fraud Management role and instituted top-notch teams with expertise in risk management functions.

Investigated and prosecuted cases involving economic and financial crimes. Developed and maintained professional working relationships with other relevant agencies and ensured that mutual problems are resolved quickly and that a high standard of service and contact is established and maintained. Served as Training & development Specialist. Designed and delivered specialized training procedure for new Cadet Officers.

Developed Business Plans for companies requiring equity financing, showing current resources, upcoming growth opportunities and sustainable competitive advantage. Assisted in developing and implementing business/competitive strategy for organizations undergoing re-organization and market repositioning. Conducted market research for existing clients, highlighting industry trends, effect of governmental policy, competitive analysis, best practices within the industry and developing criteria for ideal benchmarks. Performed industry research to identify major players and evaluated market trends and strategy, financial performance of these major market players to determine market viability in various market conditions. Carried out diagnostic study and develop financial model to ensure long term business sustainability.