Twenty five Managing Directors of various listed companies in the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) grabbed recognition from the 2018 BusinessDay top 25 CEOs award.
The first top five MDs that were recognized in the 4th edition of the BusinessDay CEO awards were ; Herbert Wigwe, CEO and group manging director, Access bank, this was followed by Peter Ashade, MD of Africa Prudential Plc, Peter Folikwe, MD of Berger Paints Nigeria, fourth on the list was Ibrahim Aminu, MD of Cement Company of Northen Nigeria Plc and closing the first set of winners was Andrew Otike-Odibi, MD C&I Leasing Plc, the awards were presented to the various MDs by Oscar Onyema, CEO, Nigeria Stock Exchange.
The special award of this year’s edition was given to Oscar Onyema, CEO of the Nigeria Stock Exchange and the prestigious presentation was done by Bamaga Tukur.
Presenting the awards to the next five top MDs that made the list of BusinessDay top 25 CEOs was Adenrele Adesina, Ogun state governor, who was however represented by the commissioner for budget and planning, and the awardees were; Thabo Mabe, Group CEO, Dangote Flour Mills, Abdullahi Sule, Ag. Group MD, Dangote Sugar, Uzoma Dozie, CEO Diamond Bank, Ade Ayeyemi, Group CEO, Ecobnak Plc and Mahmud Tukur, MD of Eterna Plc.
The next category of awards was presented by Haruna Jalo-Waziri, MD of Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) and those that swept the awards were; Urum Kalu Eke, CEO, FBN Holdings, Nnamdi Okonkwo, MD of Fidelity Bank, Fidelis Ayebae, CEO, Fidson Healthcare,Paul Gbededo, CEO, Flour Mills of Nigeria and Segun Agbaje, CEO, Guarnty Trust Bank.
The next set of MDs recognized were; Olanrewaju Jaiyeola, MD of Honeywell Flour Mills, Pius Apere, MD of Linkage Assurance, Nnamdi Okafor, Md of May & Baker Nigeria Plc, Paul farrer, MD NASCON Allied Industries Plc and Tope Smart, CEO of NEM Insurance Plc.
The last set of awardees who were definitely not the least were; Mauricio ALARCON, Md of Nestle Nigeria Plc, Graham Hefer, MD of Okomu Oil Palm Company, Yinka Sanni, Chief Exceutive of Stabic IBTC Holdings, Kennedy Uzoka, CEO of United Bank for Africa and Peter Amangbo, CEO of zenith bank Plc. This category of award was presented by Ambibola Ogunbajo, president, NSE.
BusinessDay yesterday celebrated the above awarded top 25 CEOS who added significant value to their respective organizations, the capital market, their stakeholders and the overall economy.
The Top 25 CEOs were conceptualized to recognize and commend the managing directors whose companies outperformed the market.
Parameters employed in the selection of the winners included share price appreciation and sustainable growth in profit after tax (PAT).
Interestingly, the top 25 CEOs that made the BusinessDay the 2017 list were collectively responsible for approximately 45 percent of the N4.36 trillion gained in Nigeria’s equity market in the year under review.
Despite the challenging environment, these CEOs dug deep into their creative capacities to successfully deploy innovative strategies, exceptional plans and valuable resources to survive, thrive and navigate their respective organizations through an economic downturn until the tide slowly turned toward an era of economic stability.
Thereafter, Nigeria’s non-oil economy grew 1.5 percent year-on-year (YOY) in the fourth quarter of 2017, its strongest performance since 2015, according to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Overall economic growth for 2017 was 0.83 percent.
It is to this end that BusinessDay celebrated these distinguished men and women who have contributed to the successes recorded by their companies and the Nigeria Economy in general.
The award was instituted in 2014 and since its introduction, has become the capital market bellwether used in identifying the performing Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and stocks on the NSE.
Endurance Okafor
