IWD 2025: Meet 8 women shaping Nigeria’s Conglomerate Industry

As Nigeria joins the world in celebrating International Women’s Day 2025, a group of trailblazing women is redefining leadership in the country’s conglomerate industry.

From banking to manufacturing, oil and gas, investment, and FMCG, these eight powerhouses are steering some of Nigeria’s largest conglomerates such as Access Holdings Plc, Honeywell Group Limited, Transactional Corporation of Nigeria Plc, Oando Plc, Custodian Investment Plc, VFD Group Plc, UAC of Nigeria Plc and BUA Group Plc.

Their success journeys reflect resilience, expertise, and a commitment to transforming the business landscape, proving that women are not just participants but key architects of Nigeria’s economic growth.

Here are eight women making strides in Nigeria’s conglomerate industry in 2025

Bolaji Agbede is the acting Group CEO of Access Holdings Plc, a multinational financial services group that offers commercial banking, lending, payment, insurance, and asset management services.

She is a versatile professional with over 27 years of experience in human resources management, customer relationship management, and banking operations with a proven record of successful people integration during mergers and acquisitions, culture transformation, and execution of corporate strategies.

Agbede commenced her professional career in Guaranty Trust Bank and served in various capacities including relationship manager and vault custodian. She diligently distinguished herself and rose from the role of executive trainee in 1992 to manager in 2001. She also served as the CEO of JKG Limited in 2003 a business consulting outfit.

The GCEO started her journey into Access Holdings Plc as an assistant general manager at Access Bank in 2003 and was responsible for managing the Bank’s portfolio of chemical trading companies. She has occupied the role of head of HR for the Access Bank Group since 2010 wherein she oversees the human capital development of the Group.

Owen D. Omogiafo is the president and Group CEO of Transnational Corporation Plc (Transcorp), one of Nigeria’s largest listed conglomerates with strategic investments in the Hospitality, Oil & Gas, and Power sectors.

Before this, Owen was the MD/CEO of Transcorp Hotels Plc, where she drove the completion of the $132 million renovation of the Transcorp Hilton Abuja.

According to Transcorp, She is the first female and youngest person to hold these positions. She has over two decades of experience in organisational development, human capital management, financial services, change management, hospitality, energy, business transformation, and strategy.

She has held the role of the director of resources at Heirs Holdings Limited, a Pan-African investment company; HR advisor to the Group managing director at the United Bank for Africa Plc; and as an organisation and human performance consultant at Accenture, specialising in change management.

The GCEO sits on the Advisory Board of Heirs Academy and is the vice president of the Lagos Business School Alumni Association.

Oluwayemisi Busari is the senior advisor on Government Relations at Honeywell Group Limited, a Nigerian conglomerate operating in diversified businesses such as foods and agriculture, telecommunication, and infrastructure.

She is regarded as a commercial lawyer with extensive expertise across various business sectors. Her exceptional skills in deal advisory and structuring have made her a trusted legal expert in significant cross-border transactions.

Busari has held positions on boards across Africa, including Airtel Nigeria and FBNBank Sierra Leone. With nearly three decades of experience in company secretarial, corporate governance, litigation, and commercial law practices, she is an accomplished legal practitioner.

In her current role, she demonstrates exceptional leadership as she manages engagements with government and regulatory bodies, ensuring effective stakeholder management. Busari’s management responsibilities also extended to overseeing corporate communications and HR functions at a time.

She began her career at Irving and Bonnar/Bentley Edu & Co Law Firm in Lagos, where she excelled and progressed to the role of senior associate before joining the Honeywell Group.

Busari is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, the Federation of International Women Lawyers, the Institute of Directors (IOD), and the Institute of Corporate Governance.

Ayotola Jagun is the Group Chief Compliance Officer and Company Secretary at Oando Plc, a Nigerian multinational energy conglomerate operating across multiple divisions including upstream (oil exploration and production), midstream (oil transportation), and downstream (petroleum product marketing).

She is General Manager (GM) of Compliance, Governance, and Risk of Oando Energy Resources Nigeria Limited where she develops, implements, and monitors an effective corporate compliance program across the Oando Group to ensure overall compliance by the company and its staff with all laws, regulations, company policies, standards and procedures and best practice.

An experienced lawyer with over 31 years of experience at the Nigerian Bar and a specialist in Corporate Law, Compliance, and Corporate Governance, Jagun’s legal experience spans several jurisdictions including the United Kingdom, Bermuda, Canada, and Nigeria.

She has worked in notable firms including, Chief Rotimi Williams Chambers, PwC LLP, and Unilever in the United Kingdom and Citigroup and Capital G Limited in Bermuda.

A dual-qualified lawyer (Nigeria and England), she also holds an M.Sc. degree in Corporate Governance & Ethics from the University of London. Ayotola is a Certified Anti-money Laundering Specialist (ACAMS) and a Certified Ethics Officer (The Ethics Institute SA).

Jagun is a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute, UK, the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators Nigeria, and the Chartered Institute of Directors Nigeria.

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Omobola Johnson is the Board chairman of Custodian Investment Plc, formerly Custodian and Allied Insurance Plc, an investment holding company in Nigeria offering insurance and reinsurance solutions for life and non-life cover in Custodian and Allied Insurance Limited, Custodian Life Assurance Limited, Custodian Trustees and Crusader Sterling Pensions Limited.

She is the former minister of Communications Technology, past chairman of Accenture Nigeria, founding chairperson of Women in Management and Business (WIMBIZ), and a fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN).

An alumnus of the University of Manchester, University of London, and Cranfield University, Johnson started her professional career in management consulting in the London Office of Arthur Andersen/Andersen Consulting (now known as Accenture) in 1985.

In 2005, she was appointed as the country managing director for Accenture. In March 2010, she sought early retirement from Accenture to enable her to pursue other interests. She was appointed as a member of Nigeria’s Presidential Advisory Council in 2010 providing support to the former president Goodluck Jonathan.

Johnson brings to the Board over 30 years of experience from both the private and public sectors of the Nigerian economy. She was appointed to the Board of Guinness Nigeria on 29th January 2016 as an independent non-executive director, and she became the Board Chair on July 1st, 2021, and the first female to hold the position.

She is a member of the Finance and Risk Committee as well as the Governance and Remunerations Committee.

Morenike Ominike is an executive director and chief of staff at VFD Group, a sector-agnostic proprietary investment company and conglomerate with diverse interests spanning finance, real estate, hospitality, energy, and more. She also sits as a board member for Anchoria Securities Limited and VFD Ghana.

Behind the scenes of VFD Group’s N300 billion ecosystem, Morenike Ominike ensures the engine runs smoothly. She is responsible for keeping all the moving parts in sync which is no small feat when managing multi-industry expansions, complex portfolio shifts, and the demands of a high-growth company.

Omonike has over a decade of progressive experience in the financial services industry in Portfolio Management, Operations, and Compliance. She is an SEC-sponsored compliance officer and a member of the Compliance Institute of Nigeria as a designate compliance professional.

She has worked with Afrinvest Asset Management Limited where she excelled as a Head, Fund/Portfolio Manager, Operations Associate and Compliance Officer. She also worked with Asset and Resource Management Company (ARM) as the Head of Compliance overseeing Compliance activities for the group and all its subsidiaries.

Funke Ijaiya-Oladipo is the Group finance director at UAC of Nigeria Plc, a leading conglomerate operating in the food and beverage, real estate, paint, and logistics sectors.

She is a high-achieving, results-driven, finance professional with over 17 years of operational finance, corporate finance, and capital markets experience. With a focus on connecting Africa to the world and the world to Africa, she has also advised local and international companies on raising equity capital, mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and divestments in Nigeria, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

She was appointed as Group finance director at UAC on July 28, 2021. Prior to this appointment, Funke was UAC’s Group chief financial officer, with overall responsibility for the company’s finance function.

Her previous roles with UAC include serving as head of investor relations, responsible for strategic stakeholder management and aligning UAC’s capital market activities to its strategic priorities. Funke began her career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs in London.

Oluseye Alayande is the Group chief legal officer and company secretary of BUA Group, a leading food, infrastructure, mining and manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Nigeria with diversified investments spanning key business sectors of the African economy.

She possesses over 20 years of rich comprehensive experience in the legal profession across diverse areas of law and within various national and multinational organizations. She is an accomplished, progressive, and seasoned lawyer with exceptional leadership abilities and relevant expertise that is channeled toward consistently delivering fully compliant services within diverse and demanding regulatory environments.

Prior to joining BUA in January 2021, she was the chief legal officer and company secretary of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company Plc, deputy general counsel of Afren Nigeria, senior general counsel of Afren Nigeria, and legal manager of Sahara Group Limited.

Notably, she led the BUA legal advisory team on the $200 million facility advanced by the Africa Finance Corporation to BUA, receiving the 2022 African Banker Awards deal of the year award in Agriculture.

She is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, the Institute of Chartered Arbitrators (UK Chapter), and the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators.