By Ayo Onikoyi

You’ve worked across banking, consulting, and public reform. What motivates your trajectory?

The need to solve real problems. I started in Access Bank where I built tools to help allocate capital more responsibly. Then I moved into policy analytics with the Nigerian government, and now I’m at Deloitte where I scale data solutions to serve millions. Every move has been about one thing: using data to improve people’s lives.

You often speak of ‘data patriots.’ What does that term mean?

A data patriot is someone who sees data as a tool for national service, not just profit. It’s the health worker in Jos using dashboards to forecast drug stockouts. It’s the engineer in Ibadan optimizing traffic light timing.

We need data scientists who are invested in our continent’s future—not just in their careers.

What’s the hardest part of implementing analytics in Nigeria?

Culture. Many leaders see data as a technical asset rather than a strategic one. At Access Bank, I had to run workshops for directors to show how predictive models could reduce loan defaults. At Deloitte, we still spend time aligning client mindsets before we talk about models.

What excites you most at Deloitte?

Scale. We’re doing multi-country work now—climate resilience analytics, smart subsidy tracking, even border surveillance tools. And we’re building from Africa, for Africa. That’s empowering.

What’s your advice to aspiring data professionals?

Learn the domain. Understand the language of healthcare, education, urban planning. Don’t just build models, build meaningful ones. And remember: our work is not about being clever, it’s about being useful.