Uzoma Dozie

Uzoma Dozie (born 2 November 1969 in London) is a Nigerian banker, fintech founder and financial-inclusion advocate. He is the son of Pascal Dozie, the founder of Diamond Bank and an early backer of MTN Nigeria. Uzoma trained as a scientist before moving into finance: he holds a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Reading, an MSc in Organic Chemistry from University College London, and an MBA from Imperial College London. After a brief stint as a pharmaceutical sales representative in the UK, he returned to Nigeria and — to avoid working directly at his father's bank at first — spent about a year at Guaranty Trust Bank under Fola Adeola, followed by a role on the oil-and-gas desk at Citizen International Bank (later Spring Bank).

He joined Diamond Bank after his MBA and rose through the ranks, holding roles including Executive Director for Corporate Banking, Executive Director for Regional Business (Lagos & West), and Deputy Managing Director for Retail Banking. In October/November 2014 he was appointed Group Managing Director and CEO. Over roughly two decades at the bank he championed its digital-transformation agenda, growing the customer base past 18 million, and in 2018 he steered Diamond Bank's merger with Access Bank Plc — creating what became one of Africa's largest banks by customer count.

In 2019, following the merger, Dozie founded Sparkle, a mobile-first financial-technology "ecosystem" aimed at Nigeria's retail and SME sector, offering accounts, inventory management, invoicing, forex and payments. He serves as its Founder and CEO. He is a well-known evangelist for data-driven banking and financial inclusion — famously arguing that "the bank of the future will bank data, not cash," and noting that Sparkle acquired more customers via mobile in three years than Diamond Bank did in twenty with 400 branches.

Alongside his operating role, Dozie is an active angel investor through Black Knights, a Lagos-based online angel fund and mentorship platform he founded to back early-stage Nigerian startups and SMEs. He also launched TechFest (2018) and hosted the online show *Tech Turks* to spotlight tech founders, and sits on the board of Women's World Banking, which advances women's financial inclusion globally.

• Invests at the early/seed stage in Nigerian technology startups and SMEs through Black Knights, which he describes as "Nigeria's first online angel fund platform" built to support small and medium enterprises as "drivers of the nation's GDP."
• Black Knights takes a long-term approach, providing not just funding but "access to market, access to business advice and mentorship, and… a community of entrepreneurs."
• Emphasizes that his investors "are not just putting in money — they also give financial insights and advice," and that hands-on angel investing "gives me a lot of satisfaction."
• Strong personal conviction in financial inclusion and data-driven services — the same thesis that drives Sparkle, aiming to "democratize access to valuable solutions for both business and personal needs" and reach the unbanked/underbanked.
• Values businesses he can validate first-hand; he has backed companies whose products he personally used and believed could scale (see Taeillo below).