Chima Stephen
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Available for full time roles and contract engagements

I turn ambiguous problems into delivered products.

IT Project Manager and Business Transformation Consultant with over half a decade shaping ideas into working solutions across fintech, telecom, banking and emerging AI. I build the governance and process that does not exist yet, then ship against it.

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Chima Stephen
Chima Stephen
PMP®Certified 2025
6 yrsDelivery experience
MTNZenith BankFidelity BankAirtelCoralPayTrackPayEmpayITReerac AISyncfinanceKlevaHR MTNZenith BankFidelity BankAirtelCoralPayTrackPayEmpayITReerac AISyncfinanceKlevaHR
For international recruiters

Hire me as an independent contractor. No entity, no EOR, no payroll overhead.

For companies in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, I engage as a self employed contractor based in Lagos. I handle my own tax obligations and labour compliance under Nigerian law, so you can bring me on through a straightforward contract without setting up a local entity or routing through an employer of record.

United States
United Kingdom
Canada
Australia
Engagement
Contract, retainer or project based. Full time or fractional.
Compliance
Self managed tax filing and labour compliance in Nigeria.
Overlap
I structure my day around your core hours, whichever zone that is.
Based in Nigeria? This section is for overseas employers only. For roles here at home I am available on standard full time or contract terms, on site in Lagos, hybrid or remote.
01

Delivery record

What actually shipped, and what it did. Not a list of responsibilities.

CBN Finalist

TrackPay QR Payments

AFF Hackathon · Sponsored by CBN

QR code payment solution giving Nigerian businesses a low cost way to accept digital payments. Reached the finals of the Africa Fintech Foundry hackathon sponsored by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Fintech Project Manager
Live

USSD Digital Lending Platform

MTN Nigeria

Led delivery of a micro lending platform integrating MADAPI and lending.core, architected to scale to 10 million telco subscribers.

2024 to Present
Complete

Device Upgrade Rollout

MTN Nigeria

Coordinated a technical upgrade across 700+ devices with field engineering teams, protecting delivery SLAs and minimising downtime.

Sep 2020 to Feb 2021
Complete

Digital Agency Delivery

Padding Technologies

Ran marketing, social and web development projects end to end for multiple client brands. Grew client followings 45% to 400% and cut delivery times 15%.

Jan 2024 to Jun 2024
Live

Reerac AI

Cyncra Technologies

AI recruitment platform built around Nova, an AI interviewer. Cut client hiring cycles to 3 to 10 days and reduced cost to hire by up to 70%.

Oct 2024 to Present
Live

Syncfinance

Cyncra Technologies

Consumer fintech product spanning equities, savings, fixed income and alternative assets. Now the highest revenue generating line in the portfolio.

2024 to Present
Live

KlevaHR

Swifta Systems and Services

Enterprise HRMS delivered end to end. Live with 1,500+ client organisations, 6,000+ users and over $500K in revenue.

2024
Shipped

EmpayIT Payment Rails

Swedish e-ticketing client

Integrated MoMo and non MoMo payment and reconciliation flows across PWA and USSD. Cut transaction processing time by 35%.

2024 to Present
Shipped

USSD Banking Solutions

Zenith Bank

Consulted on USSD banking and insurance solutions, translating business requirements into delivery plans within a regulated environment.

2024 to Present
Shipped

USSD Insurance Products

Fidelity Bank

Delivered USSD based insurance and banking flows, part of a client portfolio contributing $200K+ in combined revenue.

2024 to Present
Shipped

Digital Insurance, USSD

Airtel Nigeria

Consulted on USSD based digital insurance products, coordinating between business, compliance and engineering stakeholders.

2024 to Present
Live

Agripluck

Cyncra Technologies

Agritech product within a cross industry portfolio that grew to over $150K combined revenue and 4,000+ users, fully bootstrapped.

Oct 2024 to Present
02

How I actually work

Delivery runs on discipline and the right systems. These are the tools I plan, track, report and collaborate in every day, plus the automation and AI layer I use on top of them to move faster.

Core stack

Delivery, planning and collaboration

The systems I run projects, reporting and teams on. This is where the work actually happens.
Jira Confluence Asana Trello ClickUp Linear Basecamp X Microsoft Excel Google Sheets P Microsoft Project P PowerPoint W Microsoft Word T Microsoft Teams O Outlook S Slack Zoom Google Meet Google Workspace Google Docs Notion Miro Lucidchart Figma GitHub

Automation and no code

For removing manual overhead from reporting and delivery workflows.
n8n Zapier Make Airtable

AI and vibe coding

A supporting layer. I use AI tools to prototype, pressure test ideas and think through hard problems before they reach an engineering backlog.
Claude D Devin AI ChatGPT Cursor Gemini v0 G Gamma
03

By the numbers

$0M+
Portfolio revenue managed
Across products and client engagements
0M
User scale architected
MTN digital lending platform
0%
Milestone adherence
Across the Swifta engagement portfolio
0%
Faster delivery timelines
Through resourcing and risk structure
04

Experience

Cyncra
Technologies
Oct 2024 to Present
Current
Co-Founder & Director of Operations
  • Built company wide governance playbooks from zero covering resource allocation, budgets and project prioritisation, where no process existed before.
  • Directed a cross industry product portfolio to $150K+ combined revenue with 4,000+ users, fully bootstrapped.
  • Directed legal, compliance and governance documentation aligned to Nigeria's Data Protection Act 2023.
  • Built executive ready reporting and dashboards supporting strategic decisions across product and operations.
Swifta Systems
and Services
Mar 2024 to Present
Current
Project Manager
  • Led delivery of a USSD Digital Lending Platform for MTN, architected to scale to 10 million users.
  • Delivered USSD banking and insurance solutions for Zenith Bank, Fidelity Bank, Airtel and CoralPay, contributing $200K+ in combined revenue.
  • Ran 6+ concurrent client engagements in parallel while holding 99.9% milestone adherence.
  • Cut average delivery timelines 20% through structured sprint cycles and risk mitigation planning.
TrackPay
Hackathon engagement
CBN Finalist
Fintech Project Manager
  • Led end to end product development of a QR code payment solution for Nigerian businesses, from concept through to the hackathon finals.
  • Coordinated a cross functional team of developers and designers under compressed timelines, running daily stand ups and sprint checkpoints against submission deadlines.
  • Defined the core merchant onboarding journey and payment flows, prioritising scope to deliver a working, demo ready product inside the competition window.
  • Aligned the payment architecture with CBN regulatory frameworks for digital payments, keeping the solution viable for real deployment rather than a demo only build.
  • Presented the solution and business case to the judging panel as a finalist at the AFF hackathon sponsored by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Padding
Technologies
Jan 2024 to Jun 2024
Complete
Digital Project Manager
  • Managed marketing, social media and web development delivery end to end for multiple client brands.
  • Grew client social followings 45% to 400% through coordinated, analytics driven campaigns.
  • Cut project delivery times 15% through improved sprint structure and cross functional coordination.
OLAM Nigeria
Nov 2021 to Feb 2022
Complete
Product Management Intern
  • Structured daily manufacturing schedules with production leadership across multiple production lines.
  • Streamlined inventory tracking and replenishment, improving supply chain efficiency by roughly 15%.
MTN Nigeria
Sep 2020 to Feb 2021
Complete
Project Coordinator
  • Coordinated a technical upgrade across 700+ MTN devices with field engineering teams, minimising operational downtime.
  • Tracked rollout progress and escalated issues across technical and supervisory teams to protect timelines and SLAs.
05

Where I add the most value

01 / ZERO TO ONE

Governance from scratch

I built the operating frameworks a growing business did not have yet. Not inherited, invented.

02 / REGULATED DELIVERY

Fintech and banking builds

Lending, payments and USSD banking products shipped against real compliance and stakeholder complexity.

03 / PARALLEL EXECUTION

Multi account discipline

Six or more live engagements held at once without losing delivery discipline on any single one.

04 / TRANSLATION

Business to engineering

Turns ambiguous business requirements into functional specs engineering can actually build against.

05 / FOUNDER LENS

Operator, not just PM

Thinks about pricing, partnerships and growth. Not only the plan, but why the plan exists at all.

06 / AI FLUENCY

Vibe coding and automation

Prototypes with AI and no code tools, so ideas get pressure tested before they cost engineering time.

06

Credentials

PMP® Project Management Institute, 2025
AFF Hackathon Finalist Sponsored by CBN
MTA Microsoft Technology Associate
Scrum Master Master of Project Academy
B.Tech Industrial Chemistry, FUTO
MBA Lagos Business School, in progress
PMI Member, Nigeria Chapter