Winners have emerged in the BusinessDay Top CEOs & Next Bulls Awards 2020 organised by BusinessDay Media in collaboration with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
The Award, now in its sixth edition, celebrates chief executives of quoted companies that have demonstrated the most impressive gains in both share price and profit-after-tax over the course of 2019.
This year’s event, which held virtually in strict adherence to the COVID-19 guidelines on Saturday, September 5, 2020, had the theme ‘Advancing Against All Odds’, demonstrating that it is not all doom and gloom as real business heroes are revealed when they come against big odds.
Wole Oshin, Group Managing Director, Custodian Investment Plc; Sarbeswar Sahoo, Managing Director, Prestige Assurance Plc; Adebola Akindele, Group Managing Director, Courteville Business Solutions; Ganiyu Musa, Group Managing Director, Cornerstone Insurance Plc, and Hassan Usman, Managing Director/CEO, Jaiz Bank Plc, won in the Top CEOs category.
Other winners of the Top CEOs Awards are Andrew Otike Odibi, Managing Director, C & I Leasing Plc; Owen Omogiafo, President/CEO; Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp); Olusola Peter Obabori, Group Managing Director, Redstar Express Plc; Khaled El Dokani, Country CEO, Lafarge Africa Plc; Patrick Ilodianya, Managing Director, SFS Real Estate Investment Trust; Babatunde Fajemirokun, Managing Director/CEO, AIICO Insurance Plc; Ferdinand Moolman, CEO, MTN Nigeria Plc; Herbert Wigwe, Managing Director/CEO, Access Bank Plc; Roger Thompson Brown, CEO, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc; Oyeyimika Adeboye, Managing Director, Cadbury Nigeria Plc, and Abubakar Suleiman, Managing Director/CEO, Sterling Bank Plc.
The Next Bulls Awards winners include Fejiro Hanu Agbodje, Founder/CEO, Patricia Technologies Limited; Obi Ezeude, President/CEO, Beloxxi Group; Pat McMichael, CEO, Eat ‘N’ GO; Titi Adeoye, Managing Directir/CEO, Sankore Investments; Femi Adeoti, Managing Director/CEO, IINLAKS Computers Limited; Bimbo Adeoye, Managing Director/CEO, Fintrak Software Company Limited.
Others are Adebola Sheidu, founder and chairman, Brains and Hammers Limited; Valentine Chime, Managing Director, Digital Nigeria limited; Thomas Pelletier, Managing Director of MASSILIA MOTORS and Managing Director of CFAO Nigeria PLC.
The award was introduced in 2014 to celebrate chief executives who through sound strategy, disciplined execution, world-class governance and adoption of a customer-first ethos have delivered alpha, thereby creating competitive shareholder value.
Since inception, the annual awards have become the capital market pacesetter used by investors to identify the best performing chief executive officers and the most resilient stocks on the NSE.
The winners of the award are selected by a proprietary survey carried out by the BusinessDay Research and Intelligence Unit (BRIU). Respondents include equity analysts, retail and institutional investors, financial journalists, sectoral experts, and professional advisers.
Nomination of shortlisted companies follows the impressive growth, market reputation, regulatory compliance, and world-class corporate values of these organisations, under visionary leadership, and stead growth of these companies, attracting broad positive interest from sector watchers.
Winners of the 25 CEO awards in 2019 included renowned CEOs Herbert Wigwe, group managing director of Access Bank, as well as Edwin Igbiti, managing director of AllCO Insurance, and a host of others.
In 2019, Access Bank won the special category award as Best Media Communicator on the NSE and E-Tranzact International plc also bagged the award of the Best Transformation and Turnaround Company on the NSE.
Past winners of Next Bulls Awards have included iconic companies like Airtel, Caverton Group, Enyo Retail & Supply, Halogen Security, Innoson Group, Mojec International, SystemSpecs, and Tolaram Group.
BusinessDay, as the organiser of the Top CEOs & Next Bulls Awards, decided to hold the event knowing that there is no better time than now to give recognition to companies that are thriving in spite of challenges, as businesses are trying to navigate the disruption brought about the recent crisis.
The celebration of the Top CEOs & Next Bulls Awards is worthwhile because these companies defied the odds in 2019 before ending the year as outperformers.
Asides from the economic contribution and employment opportunities created by these companies, Nigeria direly needs such success stories to inspire young Nigerian entrepreneurs who are growing up in a society with far too few role models.
