Experts  are billed to speak as panellists at the Inclusion for all (I4ALL) Dialogues, holding on July 26.

The theme of the virtual event is “Digital ID for the last mile – enabling access to digital ID for rural female agricultural workers”

Meet the panelists

Dr. Osasuyi Dirisu

Osasuyi Dirisu is the Executive Director at the Policy Innovation Centre and Senior Fellow at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group where she oversees behavioural and policy interventions in governance, gender, inclusion, and social development in Nigeria. She is a development and gender expert with over 20 years’ experience implementing research and development projects on women empowerment, sexual and gender-based violence, health behavior, health systems, gender inequalities, as well as social and economic inclusion. She was formerly Research Director at the Population Council and in that role, led the design and implementation of research studies across Nigeria. Osasuyi was the Country Lead for the BMGF funded Evidence Consortium on Women’s Group (ECWG) in Nigeria. She also led development of the National Gender Based Violence (GBV) Dashboard, an innovative data management and visualization platform for the collation of validated, real-time GBV data in Nigeria. She holds a PhD from the University of Leeds.

Prof. Janice Olawoye

Janice Olawoye was the principal co-investigator on this study as a consultant to IITA. Janice Olawoye obtained her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Ibadan in 1986. She became a Professor of Rural Sociology in 1998 at the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, University of Ibadan, where she taught for 38 years until voluntarily retiring in 2016. She served the University in various administrative and committee capacities including being elected the first female Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry (2004-2006).  With extensive teaching and research experience, Professor Olawoye has developed expertise in social issues related to rural development, with special emphasis upon gender. She has over 70 professional publications and has carried out well over 60 research assignments for several national and international development organizations including The World Bank, FAO, and IFAD. She has supervised many undergraduate and postgraduate students including 30 Ph.D. students. Janice Olawoye has served on the boards of several NGOs, including charitable organizations.

Uche Chigbo

Uchenna Chigbo is currently the Director Operations in National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and has over 22 years working experience in Government and Consulting.  She has served in several capacities in NIMC as Director in charge of the Director-General’s office; Senior Special Assistant to the DG/CEO; Special Adviser to DG/CEO; Head Project Management Office, Project Manager- NIMS Backend Operations; Head- Facility Management Services; Regional Head of Operations in North East geopolitical zone, amongst many other adhoc roles and responsibilities.

Before her sojourn in NIMC, she has worked previously with government institutions in Nigeria such as Bureau of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Federal Capital Territory, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation where she served as the Technical Assistant to Director Information Technology under the Presidential Implementation Committee Secretariat on the National Identification schemes, National Consumer Credit Scheme and National Outsourcing Initiatives – the committee that oversaw the setting up of NIMC in 2007.  She later became a pioneer staff of NIMC as an Assistant Director in the IT/Identity Database Department.

She holds a Masters in Business Administration from Business School Netherlands and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science/Statistics from the University of Nigeria Nsukka. She is also an alumnus of Lagos Business School, a member of the Computer Society of Nigeria and has attended various leadership, executive development courses, conferences, seminars and professional IT training in Nigeria and overseas.

Dr. Paul Oluikpe

Dr. Paul Oluikpe is the Head of the Financial Inclusion Delivery Unit (FIDU) at the Development Finance Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria. He previously worked in the Strategy Management Department and then the Trade and Exchange Department of the Bank as Head of Policy Formulation and Implementation before moving to FIDU. He holds a distinction in Strategy and Innovation from the Said Business School, Oxford University, a PhD in Engineering and an MSc from the School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University, UK. His role at FIDU involves leading change management, coordinating the stakeholder space in Nigeria, driving the implementation of the financial inclusion strategy, monitoring performance and communicating outcomes. Paul has worked as an academic with Abia State Polytechnic,  Loughborough University and the University of Nottingham. He was honoured in 2015 with the Emerald Citation for Excellence Awards for his seminal research paper “Developing a Corporate Knowledge Management Strategy”, and recognized by the British Council in 2017 for contributions to Professional Development during the Education UK Alumni Awards.    His work experience in the non-profit development sector particularly with the World Bank, the British Council, Water Aid and the National Autistic Society, UK shaped his philosophical outlook in terms of developmental priorities for Nigeria especially around financial inclusion, poverty and inequality. He brings this wealth of experience to the immediate role of advancing financial inclusion to the Nigerian citizen using the levers of policy, regulation and on the ground implementation.