Zephia Ovia-Ikem
August 6, 2025 2025-08-06 11:50Zephia Ovia-Ikem
Zephia Ovia-Ikem is a Member of the Governing Council and Director, Strategic Partnerships & International Office at James Hope University. She holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies, from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Bachelor's degree in Politics & International Relations from the University of Manchester in the UK. Zephia’s academic pathway has equipped her with the tools to champion business and development solutions across public and private sectors.
Zephia’s corporate experience spans across Investment Banking, Payment Solutions, Financial Technology and Development Consulting. She previously worked at Paystack Payments Limited as a Financial Partnerships Manager and Product Strategy & Operations Specialist, where she was responsible for leading strategic partnerships across financial services. Working across teams to ensure regulatory compliance with financial partners, operationalizing product development, as well as fostering key relationships to support product adoption and growth.
Passionate about education, tech and African start-up businesses, Zephia Ovia-Ikem is the Founder & host of The Star Network Podcast. A business podcast and community focused on the entrepreneurial stories of young African Business leaders navigating start-up challenges, scaling, and regulatory complexities. Prior to Paystack, Zephia led the development of Akiba (an online savings and investment app) at Vetiva Capital Limited, the firm's premier retail savings and investment product.
Zephia is committed to the prosperity of African countries as she believes we all have a role to play in contributing positively to socio-economic development. An advocate for education, youth civic engagement and financial inclusion. Her dedication towards development is expressed through the launch of her NGO - Future Leaders Impact and Development Organisation (“FLIDO”) in 2019. FLIDO’s mission is to create a space for knowledge sharing between the youth and private & public sector leaders to create access to job creation opportunities and empowerment of youth ideas.
As a participant in the 2019 Nexus global summit (New York, USA), Zephia was selected in the top 10 participants out of 1,000 applicants to serve as an official delegate in a Brain trust Session with the United Nations (UN) – Youth Creating a Resilient World: (Youth Actions to raise the bar on Economic Health, Peace & Security under UNFPA).
She is a UNICEF Generation Unlimited (Nigeria chapter) steering committee member, supporting the organizations mandate to empower 20 million young Nigerians by 2030 with education, skills and employment opportunities.