The Founder/Chief Analyst of Nairametrics, Ugochukwu (Ugodre) Obi-Chukwu, has emerged as the winner of the 2023 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Obi-Chukwu bagged the award in the Emerging Category.
He was earlier shortlisted as one of the 2 finalists in the category alongside the Founder/CEO of Nature’s Bounty Health Products T/A ReelFruit, Affiong Williams.
More details: In the Master entrepreneur category, the Managing Director of Interswitch, Mitchell Elegbe emerged as the winner. Elegbe was shortlisted alongside 3 other finalists in this category, including the Chairman/Founder of Brittania-U Limited, Uju Catherine Ifejika, Managing Director of Providus Bank Walter Akpani, and Managing Director of Rite Foods Nigeria Limited, Saleem Adegunwa.
Meanwhile, Rose Ada Okwechime received the Lifetime Achievement Award as a pioneer of a primary mortgage bank in Nigeria. Until her retirement, Okwechime was the founding Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc, the premier and leading non-aligned primary mortgage bank in Nigeria. She was honoured for being a frontline Mortgage Banker in Nigeria’s financial landscape.
The EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award: Launched in West Africa in 2011, the EOY award was instituted to recognise and celebrate unique men and women who have combined ingenuity, hard work and perseverance to create and sustain successful growing businesses. The programme, a yearly global event, has enjoyed international recognition for over 30 years.
Senior Partner and Entrepreneur of The Year Award leader for the West Africa region, Ashish Bakhshi, while providing an overview of the programme, said:
- “The EY Entrepreneur of The Year award brings together some of the finest and most accomplished entrepreneurs, some of whom have grown to become global market leaders in their fields of play. The shortlisted finalists undergo the final stage of judging by an independent five-member panel of entrepreneurs, some of whom were past winners of the award.
- “They assess the finalists through criteria such as their entrepreneurial spirit and leadership, financials, innovation, as well as community impact, among others.”
The top entrepreneurs were announced at a Gala/Award dinner on Thursday, March 16 with the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo as Special Guest of Honour.