• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Joycee Awojoodu, Founder/CEO of ORÍKÌ Group

Joycee Awojoodu

Joycee Awojoodu is the Founder/CEO of ORÍKÌ Group. She is an entrepreneur, economist and power sector specialist. She has a history of running companies in Nigeria mainly: ORÍKÌ and PowerCareers. ORÍKÌ is a luxury personal grooming brand that fuses all-natural ingredients primarily sourced from the Continent of Africa with scientific research to create extraordinary personal care products for women and men; and PowerCareers is a leading recruiting and training solution for the colossal human capacity gap in Nigeria’s energy sector.

Joycee has completed Universal classes accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is certified in natural skin care and actively leads the research and innovation of the ORÍKÌ brand. She most recently worked for the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development’s (DFID) infrastructure assistance programme in Nigeria, the Nigerian Infrastructure Advisory Facility (NIAF) as the Technical Assistant on Research, Analysis and Informatics (Performance Monitoring) to the Honourable Minister of Power for the past 2 years.

In this role, she worked on the on-going reform, privatisation and future policy strategy for Nigeria’s power sector. She began her career in power at Constellation Energy, a Fortune 100 company in the United States. At the age of 23, she started a successful energy brokerage firm focused on the supply of renewable energy, natural gas and electricity across four states in the USA.

A few years later, she decided to move to Nigeria, having never been before, to pursue her ambition of contributing to the realization of stable and reliable electricity for all. Prior to her role consulting for the Nigerian Federal Government, she commenced work in Nigeria in the Renewable Energy Research and Development Team at the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) where she created policies for incentivizing renewable energy investment for the Federal Government of Nigeria. Joycee was a part of the team that developed the renewable energy tariffs that still hold today for investment in Nigeria’s power sector.

Before ORÍKÌ was birthed, Joyce’s journey into the world of natural oils began at 12 when she mixed an avocado, yogurt and olive oil together to make a mask for her hair; the result left her in awe and she continued to pursue this passion, a passion that led her back to Nigeria to birth the brand ORÍKÌ.

“I am passionate about creating an African indigenous luxury brand that touches the lives of the women and men who gather the nuts, plants and herbs to produce the raw materials. The company is committed to sourcing the best quality and finest selection of products.” She says.

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For Joycee, “ORÍKÌ is poised to go global as a proudly African all-natural personal grooming & lifestyle brand. Beyond our international and global aspirations, at ORÍKÌ we aspire to make a difference.”

ORÍKÌ was birthed after years of experimenting with all types of natural ingredients, at one point creating a mini lab in a home setting, testing and experimenting with diverse materials from activated charcoal to wild berries and ingredients in between. She wanted others to experience and believe in the potency of natural. Seeing a void in the industry and a depiction and narration of Africa as being helpless and lacking, she launched a skincare brand “inspired by nature and crowned with opulence,” focusing on a wide range of raw materials and ingredients for all skin types, creating formulas that work for all depending on skin type and concern.

They carefully considered a name that would best reflect the inspired fusion of their brand, blending natural and organic ingredients with scientific research to create extraordinary skin care, hair care and body products that are superior.

The word ‘ORIKI’ [Or.eek.e] has a rich ancient history in the Yoruba language, one of the predominant tribes and languages in Nigeria. The literal translation is “Your Crown/Your Origin” and an ORÍKÌ name is meant to inspire and bring out the best in an individual.

Joycee is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, a nominee of The Future Awards Prize in Public Service, 2013, selected into the African Leadership Network, and a Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program Fellow.

 

Kemi Ajumobi