Finance Excellence: Titilayo Oduleye Wins Top NiTA Honors in Innovation Category

The Nigeria Technology Awards ceremony held on December 11th, 2021, marked a triumph for the country’s finance sector when Titilayo Elizabeth Oduleye was crowned the winner of the Most Promising Finance and Innovative Professional of the Year award.

The achievement represents more than individual recognition for the talented accountant; it highlights the emergence of a new breed of African finance professionals who are redefining what excellence means in an increasingly digital and interconnected global economy.

Titilayo's academic credentials established the foundation for her professional success. Graduating from Obafemi Awolowo University in 2017 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting, she earned a remarkable 4.02 out of 5.0 grade point average, placing her among the top 5 percent of her graduating class. This early demonstration of intellectual capability and dedication would prove to be merely the beginning of a career marked by consistent achievement and innovation.

Her entry into the professional world came through Cashbridge Global Leasing in Lagos, where she worked as a Financial Reporting Analyst between 2018 and 2019. The role provided her with an ideal platform to develop the meticulous attention to detail and analytical thinking that would later define her career.

Her daily reconciliation work, matching cash flows to sales figures, achieved a remarkable 99 percent accuracy rate in validating fund collections. This level of precision not only prevented potential revenue losses but also demonstrated her capacity to maintain high standards under the pressure of daily operational demands.

The move to Rainoil Limited marked a significant step forward in Titilayo's professional journey. Joining the downstream oil and gas company as a Financial Accountant in 2019, she quickly proved her worth in an industry known for its complexity and high stakes. Her standout contribution came during a complex corporate transaction, where she led cross-functional analytical teams through rigorous valuation and due diligence work.

This effort resulted in materially improved deal terms, generating cost efficiencies of 28 percent for the company. The outcome reflects not only strong technical capability, but also her ability to align diverse stakeholders and stay focused on strategic objectives in high-stakes situations.

In her role at Rainoil, which she held until 2021, Titilayo also demonstrated unwavering commitment to the fundamentals of financial management. Her weekly preparation of bank reconciliation statements for all the company's financial institution accounts ensured that errors were identified and corrected promptly, maintaining the integrity that stakeholders expect from corporate financial reporting. This combination of high-level strategic contribution and attention to foundational processes exemplifies the well-rounded professional that organizations seek to build their future upon.

What truly distinguishes Titilayo from many of her contemporaries is her dedication to continuous professional development. Beyond her university degree, she has earned the Associate Chartered Accountant credential with the Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria, which carries the same professional weight as the CPA designation recognized internationally.

Her technological fluency extends from standard business tools like MS Office Suite and Sage X3 to advanced analytics platforms such as Power BI and programming languages including R, SQL, and Python. In an era where finance is being transformed by data science and artificial intelligence, this technical versatility positions her to lead rather than merely adapt.

Yet for all her professional accomplishments, Titilayo has not forgotten the importance of contributing to society beyond the corporate sphere. Her involvement in managing teams that constructed classroom blocks for a high school in a local Nigerian community demonstrates an understanding that true success includes lifting others as one climbs.

This commitment to social impact adds an important dimension to her profile, showing that the pursuit of professional excellence and community development are not mutually exclusive but can reinforce each other.

The NiTA recognition arrives at a pivotal moment for both Titilayo's career and Nigeria's financial sector more broadly. As African economies seek to compete in global markets, they need professionals who understand both the traditional principles of sound financial management and the innovative technologies reshaping how business operates.

Titilayo embodies this dual capability. Her track record demonstrates that she can deliver tangible value, whether working on daily reconciliations or multi-million-dollar acquisitions, using spreadsheets or advanced programming tools.

For young Africans, especially young women considering careers in finance and technology, Titilayo's story offers both inspiration and a practical roadmap. Her success shows that excellence built on solid fundamentals, combined with a willingness to embrace new tools and approaches, creates opportunities regardless of where one starts.

As she receives this prestigious award, she does so not just as an individual achiever but as a representative of what the next generation of African finance professionals can accomplish when talent meets opportunity and dedication.