A Nigerian Obinna Ukwuani has made his country proud after being appointed as the chief digital officer by the Bank of Kigali, Rwanda. 

Ukwuani, a former Paystack executive, will lead the Bank’s Digital Factory Division for product innovation and development in Digital Banking. A role he has resumed since June.

 This was announced by the bank in a statement in Rwandan media on Tuesday Morning. Obinna has a degree in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has worked in software, agriculture processing, and education sectors. 

Ukwuani grew up in Washington DC, graduating with honours in high school that earned him a place at MIT, which later saw him decline a six-figure paycheck in the United States and returned to Nigeria to develop Nigeria’s digital skills industry. In October 2011, he launched Exposure Robotics Academy – one of Nigeria’s first high-profile STEM education programmes – in Lagos. 

It was designed as a five-week residential program aimed at teaching creative problem solving, engineering principles, and programming to high school students during the summer. Within three years, the academy coached up to 113 students from 17 states across Nigeria and Ghana on how to code and build robots, some of whom have since gained scholarships into American universities and are just as determined to further the teaching of STEM back home. 

In January 2018, he partnered with the Bank of Kigali to launch Makers Robotics Academy Rwanda, the first-ever robotics Bootcamp in the country. The programme hosted 40 Rwandan high school students on an intensive three-week course facilitated by MIT students.