Dr (Mrs) Markie Idowu, crowned recently as Best Female Fintech CEO at the Nigerian Fintech Awards, has over 34 years of experience in banking and IT, 28 years of which were spent in the banking industry. She worked for several banks including GTBank, Fidelity Bank and Polaris Bank, where she left as Executive Director (ED), Retail and Lagos Commercial Banking, prior to which she was ED, Technology and Service.

In her current role as Group Managing Director/CEO, Xpress Payment Solutions Limited, a leading financial technology (fintech) company in Nigeria, Dr Idowu is making giant strides. She is leading major strategic initiatives and the transformation of the company to be the preferred choice for e-payments in Africa.

A life-long learner, Dr Idowu holds an MSc in Software Engineering with Distinction and Best Result from Aston University, UK. This was after graduating at 19 with a first-class degree in Computer Science from the University of Benin, where she also finished as Best Graduating Student in the Faculty of Science. Another master’s in business administration from Lagos Business School and a PhD in Credit Management complete her degree-earning education.

Dr Markie remains an avid learner, attending executive education programmes at Harvard, MIT, LSE, INSEAD, Euromoney, LBS, among others, to stay in the forefront of 21st-century knowledge.

In addition to myriads of other recognitions and awards from reputable institutions nationally and globally, Dr Idowu was honoured as one of “Africa’s Most Inspirational Women in Leadership 2023”. She had bagged the same honour in 2022. Dr Markie is a Fellow of the National Institute of Credit Administration, where she is also the Vice Chairman of council, as well as an Honorary Senior Member (HCIB) of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

She is a Recipient of the prestigious British Chevening Scholar Award (1992); Distinguished Leadership in National Development Gold Award (2005), Africa’s Best Payment Solution Personality of the Year (2020), League of Africa Development Students (LEADS), ”Africa’s Patriotic Amazon of the Year” (2022) and Payment Solution Personality of the Year (2023), among many others. She is also a member of the Institute of Directors (IOD).

Dr Idowu has served on the board of several companies. These include Polaris Bank, MainOne Cable Company, Equity Assurance, IHS, NIBSS (where she represented the GMD, Polaris Bank), Mainstreet Brokers Limited and Women in Technology in Nigeria (WITIN).

Described by many as an innovative, amiable, intelligent, gallant but humble Corporate Leader, Dr Idowu is fully involved in economic empowerment and capacity building. This is achieved via her people development/mentoring initiatives through which she supports the underprivileged and empowers individuals and small businesses. She is a believer in diversity and inclusion and is immensely proud of the strides Xpress Payments’ Agency Banking business is making at driving financial inclusion in Nigeria. Throughout her career, she has helped businesses recognise their unique capabilities and position them as top-notch by implementing business strategy, policy formulation, and execution, resulting in significant revenue and profit growth.

It is in recognition of her contribution to national development in the field of Financial Technology that Dr (Mrs.) Markie Idowu was deemed worthy to be conferred with the Woman of Merit Gold Award which is part of the PSR National Awards.