search
      All speakers
      Premier Oiwoh

      Premier Oiwoh

      Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer

      Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc.

      Register now View the agenda

      Mr. Premier Oiwoh is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS); Nigeria’s central payments-switch infrastructure.

      A seasoned financial-services and payment-systems leader with over three decades of multi functional and international experience, he is renowned for his expertise in business-process automation, digital financial and payment services, banking operations and technology. As MD/CEO of NIBSS, he provides strategic direction for the organisation’s mandate and has transformed the Nigerian payments landscape through innovative, inclusive solutions and enhanced infrastructure resilience.

      Under his leadership, NIBSS has delivered landmark industry initiatives that have reshaped Nigeria’s payment ecosystem; including the NQR Contactless Payment Platform, the AfriGO Domestic Card Scheme (Nigeria’s first home-grown card network), a centralised fraud management system (HAWK), and several extensive IT-infrastructure upgrades that have strengthened the resilience, scalability, security and reliability of the national switch. These achievements have cemented NIBSS position as a trusted enabler of digital payment adoption, financial inclusion and system integrity nationwide.

      Mr Oiwoh’s leadership is underpinned by a Bachelor’s degree, an MBA, and continuous executive development at world-class institutions. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (FCIB), an alumnus of Harvard Business School General Management Programme, the Lagos Business School Senior Management Programme, the Advanced Management Programme at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (USA), alongside other international executive programmes focused on leadership and digital innovation.

      Prior to his appointment as MD/CEO of NIBSS, he served as Executive Director, Operations & Technology at Keystone Bank Ltd., and earlier at Diamond Bank Plc, holding senior roles inbusiness management and IT-operations leadership across Nigeria and Francophone West Africa.

      Widely regarded as a “strategic process enabler” and a thought leader in Africa’s digital payments space, Mr. Oiwoh sits on the NIBSS Board and is an active member of the Bankers’ Committee. He is recognised by the FinTech Association of Nigeria as a key ecosystem partner and frequently represents Nigeria on global platforms as a vocal advocate for technology-driven financial inclusion, often highlighting the country’s pioneering achievements in instant payments and digital-ID-enabled services.

      Mr. Oiwoh’s impact has earned him multiple honours. He is widely respected for combining operational discipline with visionary innovation to drive trust, inclusion and growth across Nigeria’s payments ecosystem.

      Speaking at the summit

      • 11:30am–12:10pmMon 16 NovForum StageOpen

        Chamkar - The Proving Ground

        A Different Financial Future: What Emerging Markets Can Shape, Share and Scale

        Forum StageOpen

        About this session

        If emerging markets can build stronger domestic financial infrastructure, connect it across borders and reduce unnecessary dependence on external intermediaries, the impact goes far beyond payments. It changes how trade is settled, how capital moves, how small businesses reach markets, how governments exercise monetary and regulatory authority, and how regions relate economically to one another. The closing plenary steps back from the architecture itself to examine what this shift could mean at scale. It asks where greater financial autonomy could materially change economic outcomes, which forms of regional cooperation could create the greatest shared value, and what new risks or concentrations of power could emerge alongside that progress. The discussion looks ahead to the financial system these choices could produce over the next decade, and what role emerging markets can play in shaping it rather than simply adapting to it.

      • 1:30–3:00pmMon 16 NovRoundtableOpen

        Bakong - Sovereign Rails

        Who Owns the Rails? Governance, Access and the Economics of Shared Infrastructure

        RoundtableOpen

        About this session

        Shared payment infrastructure creates value precisely because competitors use the same network, but that makes ownership and funding contentious. Banks may resist paying for infrastructure used by newer competitors. Fintechs may resist access terms controlled by incumbents. Governments may finance the network and still face pressure over unequal access or rising operating costs. Different markets have taken different approaches, including central-bank ownership, industry-owned switches and open-source infrastructure. The roundtable compares these models through three questions: who owns the rail, who gets access and on what terms, and who pays to maintain and upgrade it. It then examines how those choices change once infrastructure crosses borders and sovereignty becomes shared rather than purely national.