Bandana Sharma has bagged Best Women Performer in IT Award

Bandana Sharma has bagged Best Women Performer in IT Award

• September 20, 2022

Bandana Sharma is currently employed as a Senior Manager (IT), ISO at one of the eldest and pioneer banks of Nepal, Nepal Bank Limited, a Semi Government Financial Institution, having large network of branches all over Nepal.

She begins her IT journey in the year 2000 by joining BCA (Bachelor in Computer Application) from Pokhara University. After completion of her BCA in 2003, she has worked as a computer teacher in higher secondary school and at the same time joined MSc.IT (Master of Science in IT) from Alagappa University, India in the form of distant education.

After completion of her MSc.IT in 2005, she joined Nepal Bank Limited (https://nepalbank.com.np) as an IT Support Officer in the year 2006, when Nepal Bank Limited was undergoing a restructuring process under the national financial sector reform program conducted by Nepal’s banking regulatory organization and supported by World Bank and DFID.

A management team named ICCMT, consisting of international bankers from bank of Scotland was appointed to restructure Nepal Bank. As being an IT officer, she has taken part in various IT projects such as core banking migration, manual and system reconciliation and other application implementations etc.

Ater 2.5 years of her experience in the Bank, she was transferred to one of the remote areas of Nepal Bank, Sudhur Paschim (Far Western) Province as IT regional in-charge. She carried out her responsibilities very well and had successfully conducted computerization of remote areas, branch network security program, remote banking etc.

During her service period in Nepal Bank, Bandana Sharma had won one of the prestigious international academic awards, Erasmus Mundus Scholarship and got an opportunity to study her second Master Degree in Network and E-Business Centered Computing (MScNEBCC). She had undertaken different modules of the program in different reputed universities of Europe and UK and completed her second Master degree program in 2011.

Leaving behind many opportunities in UK and Europe she returned back to her home country and continued her job in Nepal Bank Ltd. She was interested to continue her IT journey in Nepal Bank because other private banks in Nepal were more focused on profitable ventures but Nepal bank being a government bank had to provide services to the remote areas all around the nation to serve the rural people and community as well.

Nepal Bank Ltd. is currently one of the leading commercial banks of Nepal with IT-enabled digital services all over the geographical locations with about 300 branches. As being in a different job-roles and responsibilities in various positions in IT field of the bank, she has proved her work capability by aligning IT into Nepal Bank’s business strategy.

Currently, she has taken a crucial responsibility as being appointed as an Information Security Officer (ISO) of Nepal Bank Ltd. Her major responsibility as an ISO is to identify the information security risk of the bank and manage it in timely manner. Currently, she is also pursuing Master in Business Administration (MBA) from Indra Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), India.

Beside her banking career, Bandana Sharma is also a social activist and energetically engaged in various forums and union programs. She is a vice president of Financial Institute Employees Union Nepal (https://fieunnepal.org.np), registered national level trade union of financial sector employees of Nepal.

She has also been a titular member of UNI APRO finance steering committee (https://uniglobalunion.org), an active member of WIIT, Nepal (Women in Information Technology) and also a union trainer and independent researcher. She has done various researches in workplace issues, working conditions, harassment and violence in the world of work in banking, insurance, microfinance, ICT and fintech sectors.

One of her articles has been published in International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology (IJRASET) at Volume 7, Issue 1, January 2019, available at www.ijraset.com. Her main ambition of life is to promote effective participation of more percentage of women in STEM area in upcoming years by providing safe and secure workplace and working conditions to them.

Her final saying to every woman is “Never limit yourself because of others limited imagination and never limit others because of your own limited imagination” keep on flying higher.