BusinessDay Media Limited, Nigeria’s influential and respected source of business news and analysis, is set to hold its annual CEO Forum on July 13, 2023 with the theme ‘Charting a Course to Growth and Development’. This year’s forum seeks to explore what is required by business leaders in repositioning for economic growth.
Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo State; Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank; and Ralph Mupita, group president and chief executive officer of MTN are among the speakers who will address the forum.
The event, now in its 14th edition, brings together decision-makers in the country’s private and public sectors to discuss emerging opportunities and prevailing challenges they encounter in running their organisations.
This year’s edition of the CEO Forum will feature three eminent keynote speakers including Mupita.
Adesina will speak on ‘The Day the Lion Roared: Making Nigeria a global industrial and economic giant’, while Osagie Okunbor, MD of Shell Petroleum Development Company/chair of Shell Companies in Nigeria, will speak on ‘Future of Oil and Gas in Nigeria’.
The forum will begin with a breakfast session, with a presentation by Yemi Kale, partner and chief economist at KPMG in Nigeria on the topic ‘What to expect from the Nigerian economy’. This will be followed by a paper presentation on ‘Impactful Governance: Building Edo State into an industrial, commercial and investment hub’ to be delivered by Obaseki.
The conference will include several CEO panels exploring such diverse subjects such as ‘Impact of Government Policy’, ‘Navigating Digital Disruption’, ‘Future of Oil and Gas in Nigeria’, and ‘Mobilising Capital for Growth and Development’.
‘Impact of Government Policy’ will be discussed by Ibukun Awosika, founder/CEO of The Chair Centre Group; Asue Ighodalo, chairman, Nigerian Breweries; Julius Rone, CEO/executive director, UTM Offshore Limited, and Herbert Wigwe, CEO, Access Bank.
Olaniyi Atose, CEO, Finanzmann; Elo Umeh, CEO, Terragon; Gbenga Agboola, CEO, Flutterwave; Ayotunde Coker of Open Access Data Center will discuss ‘Navigating Digital Disruption’.
The third panel session on ‘Future of Oil and Gas in Nigeria’ will include Roger Brown, CEO, Seplat Energy; Olu Verheijen, special adviser to the President on energy; Audrey Joe-Ezigbo, deputy managing director, Falcon Corporation Ltd as discussants.
The panellists on the topic ‘Mobilising Capital for Growth and Development’ include Oliver Alawuba, CEO, UBA; Yewande Sadiku, former CEO, NIPC; Tominiyi Owolabi, MD, Olaniwun Ajayi LP; Toyin Sanni, Emerging Africa; Bola Onadele Koko, CEO, FMDQ Group Plc; Okey Enelamah, chairman, African Capital Alliance; and Kunle Elebute, senior partner at KPMG.
Etop Ikpe, CEO Autochek will also speak at the forum.
“A gathering of Nigerian CEOs, C-suite executives and their public official counterparts couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s happening as the country contends with a foreign investment drought for the first time in three decades, and in the early days of a new government that hasn’t minced words and actions about attracting investment into Nigeria,” Frank Aigbogun, publisher of BusinessDay, said.
“The primary objective of the CEO Forum is to provide a platform for debate and discussions surrounding emerging opportunities and prevailing challenges C-suite executives encounter in running their organisations,” Tayo Fagbule, editor of BusinesssDay, said.
The CEO Forum has been held annually since 2009. It was the first C-suite-focused gathering in Nigeria to make the intellectual dimensions of executive leadership its centerpiece.
The CEO Forum is a unique platform for discussion and debate around current and prevailing economic and industrial challenges facing Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Over the years, the forum has attracted global thought-leaders to act as keynote speakers at the event. Past speakers include Michael Porter, the world-acclaimed economist and researcher at Harvard Business School; Paul Collier, professor of Economics and Public Policy in the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford; and Richard Ingleton, global CEO of TNS – one of the World’s largest insight, information and consultancy groups.
Others were Rich Lesser, global CEO of the Boston Consulting Group; Peter Tufano, dean of the business school at Oxford University; Jeffery Sachs; Hal Gregersen, the master of modern innovation at MIT, and Efosa Ojomo, research fellow at the Forum for Growth & Innovation, Harvard Business School, among other leading visionaries.
