Akindele wins ‘African Business Leader’ award, unveils entrepreneurship book

Akintoye Akindele, an entrepreneur and chairman of Platform Capita Investment Partners Limited, has emerged the winner of the ‘African Business Leader of the Year’ award at the 2022 edition of the African Business Leadership Awards.

Daniel Mckorley, group chief executive officer of McDan Group of Companies, Ghana, was declared as the first runner-up.

Ifeanyi Okowa, governor of Delta State, and Peter Ashade, group chief executive officer, United Capital Plc, are some of the other personalities who made the award list, according to a statement.

The convener of the award, The African Leadership Magazine, said winners and runners-up would be presented with the awards at the 7th Africa Summit in London on July 4.

It said the winners in the 13 categories were selected from over 370,000 entries.

“The winners emerged through a keenly contested 3-step points-based selection process that included a call for nomination; a call for online voting for shortlisted nominees; and the editorial board’s final review of the nominations and voting submissions – using supporting evidence and voting considerations in their final decisions to decide the African Business Leadership Awards 2021 winners,” it added.

Commenting on the award, Akindele said, “This award is for every young person from Cairo to Cape Town, Mombasa to Marrakesh. To every entrepreneur, every girl and woman, your dreams are valid and the future is better than the past. No matter how dim it looks now, raise your head up and keep going.”

Expressing gratitude to God, he said, “God, I am grateful and humbled. I am taking this as a sign that You are with me. The African narrative work is not easy. The price I, my loved ones, colleagues and friends are paying is huge but it is Your work and You have said it must be done. I am honoured.”

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Akindele announced that the book he co-authored, titled ‘A Love Affair with Failure: When hitting bottom becomes a launchpad to success’, would be launched on July 6 in New York, the United States.

The book, co-authored with Olakunle Soriyan and published by Forbes Books, contains a foreword by T.D. Jakes, according to the statement.

Commenting on the book, drakintoyeakindele.com said, “In A Love Affair with Failure, the authors aim to help emerging entrepreneurs be prepared for the inevitable challenges ahead and urge them to be resilient in pursuing their dreams, embracing the idea of failing not only as a prerequisite for achieving success, but also a victory in itself because it signifies having had the courage to take action.”

According to the statement, Akindele, who has over 25 years of experience in banking, private equity and advisory, is the chairman of Unicorn Group and Diatom Impact; co-chairman of Whitespace X and founder of Synergy Capital Managers.

It said: “Akindele has completed over 50 transactions across five continents. He holds a bachelor’s degree (1st Class Honours) in Chemical Engineering from the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University.

“He also holds a doctorate degree in Business Administration (Finance) from the International School of Management – Paris, France and is a CFA charter holder and a trustee of the CFA Society of Nigeria. He is an Alumnus of the London and Said Business Schools.”