The TechQuest Innovation Award and Hackathon 2025 brings a renewed focus on the future of finance, compliance, audit technology, and data driven decision systems. As the event continues to grow into one of the continent’s most respected platforms for applied problem solving, the credibility of the judging panel remains central to its mission. This year, the organising committee has appointed Ms Ngozi Joan Isibor as one of the judges for the 2025 edition, a decision that reflects the event’s dedication to rigorous evaluation and industry aligned standards. Her appointment signals to innovators that financial accuracy, governance discipline, and analytical depth will be taken seriously throughout the competition.
Ms Isibor’s career has been shaped by practical experience across financial reporting, audit execution, internal controls, risk management, and valuation analytics. Her work spans public and private sector engagements in several regions, and she brings with her a well established understanding of regulatory expectations, global reporting frameworks, and technical documentation. For teams presenting solutions in financial technology, compliance automation, governance support, investment analytics, or data enhanced decision platforms, she represents the level of precision and evaluative discipline that TechQuest encourages.
Her professional journey began with an accounting foundation from the University of Benin. That period created a clear grounding in structure, accuracy, and technical competence, elements that have remained consistent throughout her career. She entered the audit profession with responsibilities that required close analysis of financial data, documentation of audit procedures, review of accounting entries, and identification of control weaknesses. These early years shaped her habit of asking precise questions and approaching every engagement with clarity. Her recommendations to clients strengthened internal systems, improved reporting quality, and reinforced process discipline, setting the tone for the leadership roles she would later take on.
As she advanced, her work expanded across both listed and unlisted entities and across different regulatory environments. She gained experience working with global teams and navigating engagements that required coordination across multiple regions. Her role in a global professional services environment exposed her to the complexities of cross border audits, regulatory filings, investment management operations, and multinational structures. She collaborated with component auditors in several countries, engaged with tax and information technology specialists on complex matters, and delivered assurance work under both US GAAP and IFRS. This progression reflects a consistent pattern of growth driven by competence, trust, and the ability to interpret technical requirements with clarity.
Her engagements in private equity, investment management, and cross border reporting were particularly significant. In these areas, she handled group and standalone audits for portfolios with sophisticated valuation models and multi jurisdiction exposure. She reviewed discounted cash flow analyses, comparables, transaction metrics, and the drivers that support investment decisions. She supported valuation reviews for portfolio companies, contributing to the assessment of performance trends and risk return considerations. Her involvement in merger and acquisition work exposed her to the analytical and documentation demands behind investment strategy, valuation frameworks, and acquisition reviews.
Alongside her client work, she also played an active role in capability development within the audit environment. She helped design training programs that improved technical capability across audit teams. She facilitated learning sessions that strengthened the understanding of accounting standards, audit methodology, and documentation requirements. She coached younger professionals and guided engagement teams of different sizes. These contributions demonstrate a commitment to accountability and knowledge sharing, attributes that remain valuable in a judging environment where clarity and guidance matter.
This depth of experience positions her carefully within the three judging areas she will cover at the TechQuest Innovation Award and Hackathon 2025. The first area focuses on Financial Reporting, Audit Quality, and Compliance Solutions. This category recognises the rapid development of tools that aim to simplify reporting, automate compliance tasks, strengthen documentation quality, and help organisations maintain regulatory alignment. Ms Isibor has worked extensively across US GAAP, IFRS, ISA, PCAOB standards, and SEC review requirements. These frameworks represent the core reference points for financial reporting and assurance across different markets, and her familiarity with these standards equips her to assess whether a solution demonstrates accuracy, clarity, and a strong understanding of compliance demands.
Her background in preparing audit documentation, supporting audit reports, and reviewing regulatory filings gives her the capacity to evaluate how functional and reliable a financial reporting tool is. She has assessed internal control structures, reviewed reporting cycles, and examined how documentation supports regulatory readiness. This means she understands what quality looks like, what regulators expect, and what organisations need to maintain consistency. In a hackathon environment, where teams propose platforms that enhance transparency or automate specific compliance processes, her insight will help distinguish concepts with real world potential from those that are not yet fully grounded in practical demands.
The second judging area is Risk Management, Internal Controls, and SOX Innovation. This is an area where her experience is particularly extensive. She has worked directly on the identification of risks, assessment of internal controls, documentation of deficiencies, and evaluation of remediation activities. Her involvement in SOX audit work required her to test controls, review documentation, analyse control failures, and engage with internal audit and specialist teams to confirm compliance. These tasks created an understanding of risk monitoring as a continuous function rather than a periodic exercise. Her hands-on exposure to governance reporting, deficiency analysis, and remediation tracking gives her the perspective needed to evaluate whether a risk management or control automation solution is truly implementable.
This judging area addresses tools designed to assess risk exposure, monitor control performance, automate compliance tasks, or enhance governance oversight. With her background, she will look for solutions that recognise organisational realities. She will evaluate whether tools are designed to integrate into workflows sensibly, whether they reflect regulatory expectations, and whether they support long term adoption rather than short term experimentation. Her understanding of SOX requirements and internal control frameworks means she can identify whether a proposed solution aligns with the structure and documentation standards that organisations must meet.
The third judging area focuses on Valuation Analytics, Investment Decision Support, and Financial Data Tools. Her private equity and investment management audit work provides a strong foundation for this. She has reviewed valuation models, tested underlying assumptions, and analysed performance metrics used by investment teams. She understands discounted cash flow modelling, comparables, transaction multiples, and the indicators used to assess acquisition candidates. Her experience with portfolio level evaluation gives her insight into how investors interpret risk, make decisions, and track performance across multiple entities.
This makes her well suited to judge financial modelling tools, valuation analytics platforms, investment assessment engines, and decision support dashboards. She is familiar with the metrics, data flows, and analytical structures that investment professionals require. Teams building tools for investment managers will benefit from her ability to recognise whether a model is technically sound, whether assumptions are reasonable, and whether the platform reflects how decisions are made in practice. Her grounding in risk return analysis and valuation drivers ensures that her feedback will be relevant and results oriented.
Her presence on the judging panel creates tangible value for participating teams. She brings an approach that blends technical knowledge with practical expectations. She will look for solutions that work in real organisational settings, not concepts that rely only on theory. She will examine whether products demonstrate clarity, regulatory awareness, and sustainable functionality. Teams presenting financial or governance solutions can expect a judge who understands both the detail and the bigger picture. Her ability to connect compliance expectations with operational realities will be especially useful for early stage innovators who are still shaping their understanding of how organisations adopt new systems.
Her appointment also strengthens the credibility of the judging process. TechQuest continues to expand its influence across Africa’s innovation community, and the quality of judges is an essential part of maintaining trust. Ms Isibor’s background aligns fully with the event’s ambition to support credible, impact focused innovation in finance, governance, audit, and data enhanced decision making. Her role reinforces the message that solutions must be grounded in accuracy, compliance, and real world usability.
As TechQuest Innovation Award and Hackathon 2025 approaches, innovators, students, professionals, and start ups across Africa are encouraged to submit their entries. The event invites problem solvers who are building tools that address financial reporting challenges, strengthen internal controls, enhance compliance structures, improve valuation analytics, or introduce smarter ways to interpret financial data. With judges like Ms Ngozi Joan Isibor, the evaluation process will reflect a careful balance of technical depth, analytical rigour, and practical understanding.
Her appointment embodies the spirit of the hackathon. It brings together experience, discipline, and a commitment to quality. It ensures that the projects selected will not only demonstrate creativity but will also meet the standards expected in the professional environments they aim to serve. The TechQuest community looks forward to the insights she will contribute and to the innovations that will emerge in the 2025 cycle.
