Goldman Sachs Engineer David Ozowara Named Software Development Professional

By Tolulope Oke

The 11th edition of the Nigeria Technology Awards ceremony took place on the evening of December 6, 2025, at the Virginrose Resorts on Bishop Oluwole Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, and the room reflected the weight that eleven years of institution-building produces. NiTA, organised annually by Beta Media Group, has spent more than a decade establishing itself as the country’s most credible platform for recognising technology excellence, and the 2025 edition brought together winners across 27 categories whose contributions span every major domain of Nigeria’s technology economy. Among the names announced at the ceremony was David Excel Ozowara, a Software Engineering Analyst at Goldman Sachs in Dallas, Texas, who was named Most Promising Software Development Professional of the Year.

Dr. Felix C. Nnuji, Event Director and Advisory Board Member of the Nigeria Technology Awards, was direct about what the recognition represents and the process that produced it. “NiTA’s credibility comes from a strict, documented evaluation process designed to ensure that excellence, not visibility, determines success,” Dr. Nnuji said. “All entries undergo rigorous documentation checks, peer evaluation, and verified public voting. There is no sponsorship influence at any stage.” The prohibition on self-nomination, one of NiTA’s most structurally significant rules, means that Ozowara’s path to the award began with an independent third party who identified his work as award-worthy and committed to the formal nomination process on his behalf. That external nomination was then advanced through three evaluation tiers: internal documentation screening, expert panel scoring by the 12-member Advisory Board, and verified public voting.

Ozowara was unable to attend the December 6 ceremony in person and received the award in absentia, but joined the event live via video, delivering a two-minute address to the room in which he spoke about the significance of the Nigerian technology community formally recognising engineers building careers abroad. Reached for further comment, he described how he received news of his selection. “When I received the winning notification in September, I had to read it more than once,” he said. “NiTA is not the kind of award that comes to people who are not ready for it. I knew what the evaluation process involved, and receiving that letter told me that the work had been seen by people who know the field.”

Dr. Nnuji, speaking about the significance of recognising a Nigerian engineer at one of the world’s leading financial institutions, described the award’s purpose in terms that extend beyond any single winner. “When we recognise a professional of David Ozowara’s calibre, we are not just giving an award,” Dr. Nnuji said. “We are making a statement about what Nigerian engineers are capable of at the global level. His work represents the kind of impact this award was designed to celebrate.” Goldman Sachs, where Ozowara has served as a Software Engineering Analyst since July 2025, is widely regarded as among the most technically demanding employers in global financial services, and his selection by an independent third-party nominator reflects the external recognition his contributions command.

Ozowara, who also holds the designation of Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Information and Strategy Management and brings a growing body of peer-reviewed publications spanning cybersecurity, financial technology, AI governance, and cloud computing, said the recognition carries a significance that extends beyond his individual career. “For me, this award is a reminder that Nigeria pays attention to what its people are doing abroad,” he said. “The country does not stop at its borders, and neither does the recognition that matters most to me as a Nigerian engineer.” His profile at the time of the NiTA recognition reflects sustained intellectual and professional investment, from his early research contributions in 2021 and 2022 through his current engineering responsibilities at Goldman Sachs.

Since NiTA’s founding, the awards have recognised more than 1,000 corporate and individual achievers, drawing from a pool of more than 7,300 nominees across ten prior editions. The judging framework, evaluated against a five-point rubric covering innovation, execution, scalability, measurable impact, and alignment with Nigeria’s digital-economy goals, is designed to ensure that the recognition reflects demonstrated achievement. Dr. Nnuji was clear on what the standard produces. “The people who have won NiTA before, they are the context in which any new winner’s achievement is understood,” he said. “That context is built over more than a decade of rigorous evaluation. It does not happen by accident, and it cannot be faked.” Ozowara, asked what he hopes the recognition communicates to the next generation of Nigerian technology professionals, offered a direct answer. “I want young Nigerian engineers to understand that excellence in this field is not geography-dependent,” he said. “The discipline and the capacity to build things that matter at a global level are available to anyone who commits to them.”