Organised by Eskenzi PR in media partnership with the IT Safety Guru, the Most Inspiring Girls in Cyber Awards purpose to make clear the exceptional ladies in our trade. The next is a function on one among 2026’s Prime 20 ladies chosen by an esteemed panel of judges. Introduced in a Q&A format, the nominee’s solutions are written in their very own phrases.
In 2026, the awards have been sponsored by BT, Bridewell, Plexal and Constancy Worldwide. Neighborhood companions included WiCyS UK & Eire Affiliate, Girls in Tech and Cybersecurity Hub (WiTCH) and Seidea.
What does your job position entail?
As Chief Data Safety Officer, I’m accountable for defending the organisation’s digital belongings whereas enabling the enterprise to innovate safely and confidently.
I lead the implementation and embedding of enterprise cybersecurity and data safety danger frameworks throughout a number of markets, guaranteeing consistency in how dangers are recognized, assessed, and mitigated. This contains overseeing incident response, regulatory compliance, expertise danger, and third-party danger, whereas sustaining an end-to-end view of the organisation’s cyber danger posture.
A core a part of my position entails driving the adoption of structured danger frameworks, working intently with expertise, enterprise, and regional groups to evaluate important data belongings, outline danger profiles, and implement management enhancements that scale back publicity whereas minimising enterprise disruption.
I additionally present advisory to government management and boards, translating advanced cyber and expertise dangers into clear enterprise insights that inform strategic selections, regulatory alignment, and danger urge for food.
My position requires robust stakeholder engagement throughout C-level executives, regulators, and regional groups, guaranteeing alignment, accountability, and efficient governance by means of danger committees and reporting boards. I additionally monitor key danger and management indicators, monitor remediation efforts, and guarantee rising dangers are proactively addressed.
Past danger administration, I facilitate cyber disaster administration and resilience efforts together with cyber drills, Cyber response playbooks, and restoration capabilities to make sure the organisation is ready to reply successfully to incidents.
Equally vital is constructing a robust safety tradition. I drive consciousness and engagement throughout the organisation to make sure cybersecurity is embedded into on a regular basis decision-making.
Over the course of my profession, I’ve helped strengthen cybersecurity and resilience for organisations throughout banking, telecommunications, vitality, and expertise sectors in a number of African markets.
Cybersecurity right now is now not purely a technical self-discipline. It’s a management duty and a belief crucial.
At its core, my position is about safeguarding belief within the digital economic system.
How did you get into the cybersecurity trade?
Like many individuals in cybersecurity, I didn’t got down to construct a profession on this area — I grew into it as expertise and danger turned unattainable to disregard.
Nevertheless, my curiosity in expertise began early. I studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering, specialising in communication methods, which gave me a robust technical basis. My first position was with MTN, one among Africa’s main telecommunications firms, the place I labored as an Data Programs Service Desk Engineer.
In that position, I had the chance to interact with totally different elements of the organisation and gained a broad understanding of how expertise helps enterprise operations. It was throughout this time that I turned notably fascinated by the dynamics of the data safety area — how methods could possibly be protected, how dangers emerged, and the way rapidly threats might evolve.
A pivotal second in my journey got here once I had a candid dialog with an skilled chief — the Normal Supervisor of the Data Programs Group. I shared my profession aspirations and my need to work on giant, impactful data safety initiatives that provided selection, complexity, and strategic depth past routine operational roles.
He listened rigorously and gave me recommendation that modified the trajectory of my profession. He advised I take into account becoming a member of a specialised cybersecurity and IT GRC agency, the place I might acquire broader publicity and speed up my development within the area.
I took that recommendation.
That call marked the start of my journey into cybersecurity advisory — a path that has since developed into main cybersecurity and resilience initiatives throughout a number of sectors and markets.
Over the previous 16 years, I’ve had the chance to work with monetary establishments, telecommunications firms, expertise companies, and public sector organisations throughout Africa, serving to them strengthen cybersecurity frameworks, help regulatory compliance, and put together for rising threats.
What continues to make cybersecurity significant to me is its influence. Cybersecurity protects organisations, economies, and people. And stays one of the crucial important disciplines in our more and more digital world.
What is likely one of the greatest challenges you’ve got confronted as a girl within the tech/cyber trade and the way did you overcome it?
One of the vital vital challenges I’ve confronted as a girl in cybersecurity is navigating visibility, illustration, and the strain to persistently show credibility in environments the place ladies are sometimes underrepresented.
After I started my profession, there have been comparatively few ladies in senior cybersecurity management roles, notably in technical and risk-focused positions. This usually meant being the one lady within the room throughout important discussions, the place assumptions about functionality might floor earlier than I had the chance to contribute.
Alongside the best way, I encountered moments of bias typically refined, typically direct:
“It’s onerous to imagine the undertaking chief was feminine.” — mentioned after efficiently delivering an enterprise-wide data safety undertaking.
“You aren’t technical.” — mentioned earlier than I had the chance to completely interact.
— amongst others.
In every of those moments, I selected to reply not with resistance, however with excellence. By persistently delivering outcomes, demonstrating experience, and exhibiting up with confidence, these perceptions have been step by step changed with respect.
Past illustration, one other defining problem got here at a extra private stage. At one level in my profession, I used to be near stepping away as a result of balancing the calls for of labor and the house entrance felt overwhelming. What helped me navigate that season was studying from others: mentors, friends, and skilled ladies who had walked related paths. Their steering empowered me to take management, redefine steadiness, and transfer ahead with readability and confidence.
That lesson has stayed with me. As John Maxwell places it, whereas a smart individual learns from their errors, the wisest study from the successes of others. I’ve utilized this persistently, studying from mentors, shared experiences, and the broader cybersecurity neighborhood.
As a budding data safety marketing consultant, I used to be notably influenced by Adedoyin Odunfa, a revered cybersecurity chief whose management, kindness, and dedication to creating others left a long-lasting impression on me. I additionally drew sensible insights from assets equivalent to The Stress Cooker by Nkiru Olumide Ojo, which I nonetheless check with.
One other defining second for me prior to now was listening to a fellow senior feminine cybersecurity chief brazenly share her expertise of stepping away briefly to regain composure earlier than going through high-pressure consumer conditions. That honesty was highly effective. It strengthened that energy and vulnerability can coexist.
I’ve confronted related moments — delivering advanced cybersecurity and privateness initiatives, presenting at board-level engagements, and facilitating government coaching classes, even during times of intense strain or fatigue. These experiences strengthened my resilience and strengthened my perception that competence, consistency, and steady development in the end converse for themselves.
Equally vital has been persistently investing in myself, talking up, and constructing the correct help methods. I discovered that visibility issues: a closed mouth can imply missed alternatives. Networking, mentorship, and neighborhood have all performed a important position in my development.
In the present day, whereas illustration in cybersecurity continues to enhance, there’s nonetheless extra work to be achieved. Creating pathways, growing visibility, and offering sustained help for ladies in cybersecurity stay important priorities for the trade.
What are you doing to help different ladies, and/or to extend range, within the tech/cyber trade?
Supporting ladies in cybersecurity has develop into an integral a part of my skilled journey and management philosophy.
I strongly imagine that each lady’s journey begins someplace, usually lengthy earlier than the influence is seen. That perception has formed how I method mentorship and management.
Over time, I’ve mentored a number of ladies coming into or rising throughout the cybersecurity career. Many started merely curious and wanting to study, in some circumstances, we have been studying collectively. In the present day, they’re contributing to cybersecurity initiatives throughout totally different elements of the world. Generally I pause in awe of what these small seeds of mentoring have grown into.
I additionally based InfoSec Amazons, a mentoring initiative targeted on serving to ladies construct confidence and develop cybersecurity, resilience, and management capabilities, whereas navigating profession alternatives in cybersecurity and associated fields. The aim is to create a supportive ecosystem the place ladies should not solely geared up to enter the sphere, however to thrive and lead inside it.
Past direct mentorship, I’ve contributed to broader trade efforts to advance range and inclusion. I’ve supported and collaborated with initiatives throughout platforms equivalent to ISACA London (She Leads Tech), ISC2 Nigeria, Cybersafe Basis (CyberGirls), SheSecures, NaijaSecCon, and the United Nations ITU mentorship programme, contributing by means of steering, talking engagements, consciousness initiatives, {and professional} improvement alternatives for ladies and younger professionals at totally different phases of their careers.
By mentoring, advocacy, and trade engagement, I stay dedicated to creating pathways for extra ladies to take part, develop, and lead in cybersecurity.
I strongly imagine that range strengthens cybersecurity. Totally different views improve problem-solving, danger evaluation, and innovation — all of that are important in a area that should continuously anticipate evolving threats.
Constructing a extra inclusive cybersecurity workforce isn’t solely the correct factor to do. It’s important for strengthening the resilience of our digital ecosystems.
Who has impressed you in your life/profession?
I’ve been lucky to attract inspiration from many phenomenal position fashions throughout totally different aspects of my life and profession — each women and men — making it troublesome to call all of them. Nevertheless, I can spotlight a couple of distinctive leaders in cybersecurity, expertise, and enterprise who’ve influenced my journey, together with Tope Aladenusi, Ade Akomolafe, Opeyemi Onifade, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Adedoyin Odunfa, Dr. Alissa Abdullah, Dr. Peter Obadare, Wunmi Adetokunbo-Ajayi, Ibukun Awosika, Dr. Nneka Abulokwe, and Mikko Hyppönen. Every has formed my considering in numerous methods — by means of management, excellence, braveness, and influence.
Isaac Newton’s well-known reflection in his 1675 letter to Robert Hooke — “If I’ve seen additional, it’s by standing on the shoulders of giants” — resonates deeply with me and displays how I method development and management.
Earlier than formally transitioning into cybersecurity, I sought steering from an skilled skilled about my profession aspirations. I listened, acted on that recommendation, and it modified the trajectory of my profession. That have strengthened the significance of studying from those that have gone forward.
At one other section in my journey, I confronted a unique sort of problem — balancing the calls for of labor and residential. There was a degree the place I thought of stepping again. What helped me navigate that season was the counsel of skilled ladies who had walked related paths. Their steering empowered me to take management, redefine steadiness, and transfer ahead with readability and confidence.
As a budding data safety marketing consultant, I used to be notably influenced by Adedoyin Odunfa, a revered cybersecurity chief whose management, kindness, and dedication to creating others left a long-lasting impression on me.
I’ve additionally drawn insights from books and thought management targeted on supporting ladies in demanding careers. One which stood out to me is The Stress Cooker by Nkiru Olumide Ojo, which I discovered each sensible and deeply relatable.
As an African Yoruba proverb reminds us:
“Ẹni tí ó bá ṣubú, á mọ ibi tí kò yẹ kí a tún rìn.”
“The one who falls is aware of the trail others ought to keep away from.”
In some ways, my journey has been formed by studying from others — their errors, successes, experiences, and steering — and I stay dedicated to doing the identical for the following technology.
