Inspired by the audacity of Madame Clicquot and to celebrate the House’s 200th-anniversary Veuve Clicquot decided to pay homage to this great, daring woman by creating the Bold Woman Award. This initiative is passionately committed to empowering successive generations of audacious female leaders. It supports and gives women entrepreneurs a voice encouraging future generations to be even more audacious.
We are making history, as this year marks the first time that the globally renowned award will be launched in Nigeria. 2022 also marks the 50th year of this coveted award which honors the impact of female leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship worldwide.
Selected from a pool of over 250 visionary Nigeria businesswomen, Affiong Williams, Founder ReelFruit, Ifedayo Durosinmi-Etti, Founder of Herconomy, and Ifeoluwa Dare-Johnson, Founder of Healthtracka have emerged as the top 3 finalists for the prestigious Bold Woman Award in Nigeria
Let’s meet the finalists.
Affiong Williams,
Founder of ReelFruit
“I resonate with Madame Clicquot building her business in tumultuous times, including wars and trade embargos which affected her market. I liken building a business in Nigeria to being ‘at war’- there are so many variables to contend with as well as macro challenges that are beyond your control that you must solve. Like Madame Clicquot, I have had to look at every challenge and navigate around it, to continue to grow the business to its full potential”
Affiong Williams is a successful agro entrepreneur who values innovation. She is the CEO and founder of ReelFruit, the largest fruit-processing, fruit-packaging, and fruit-distribution firm in Nigeria. The 2012-founded business sells a variety of dried fruit and nut snacks locally through over 400 supermarkets, airlines, schools, and hotels, as well as worldwide in the US (Amazon.com), Switzerland, Belgium, and Saudi Arabia. ReelFruit is a prestigious brand that triumphed in a global competition for women entrepreneurs in the Netherlands.
Additionally, Forbes Magazine named Affiong as one of the year’s most promising “30 under 30” businesspeople in 2015. In 2017, she won “Entrepreneur of the Year”, awarded by the prestigious Women in Management, Business and Public Service (WimBiz).
Ifedayo Durosinmi-Etti,
Founder of Herconomy
“The Bold Woman Award commends the work of fearless female business leaders and also challenges the status quo—calling for higher ethical standards and transformational practices. It will be an absolute honor to showcase not just me but my brand as one of the companies in Nigeria paving the way.”
Ifedayo Durosinmi – Etti is a sales and marketing expert with over 10 years of management and leadership experience working in the fashion, marketing and manufacturing Industries. She is also the Managing Partner of Herconomy, a social enterprise and cooperative focused on connecting women to various opportunities such as scholarships, grants, fellowships and job opportunities.
Ifedayo has broken several glass ceilings by being part of the Africa Startup Initiative (ASIP) Accelerator Programme and becoming a recruitment partner with Amazon. She is a recipient of the Women’s Advocacy Award from the West African Leadership Organisation for her exemplary leadership and dedication to socio-economic development in West Africa.
Ifeoluwa Dare-Johnson,
Founder of HealthTracka.
“I want to say to every woman that you CAN. You CAN be a woman (with all the complexities that come with it) and be ambitious. You CAN get to the top of your career. You CAN do the seemingly hard things. You CAN build a global business. “You CAN be a bold woman, unapologetically.”
Ifeoluwa Dare-Johnson is the Founder and CEO of HealthTracka, a health tech startup decentralizing access to medical diagnostics in Africa, through at-home lab testing and digital results. According to Ifeoluwa, people don’t know their health status because they have not done any tests to ascertain if they have some health issues and that has been the gap HealthTracka wants to fill.
Before Healthtracka, Ifeoluwa worked as a Marketing Lecturer – Consumer Insights at the Chartered Institute of Marketing (January 2021). She was also Head of Marketing at BETACAR HQ (April 2019 – December 2020) and Head of Marketing at SynlabNG (2018 – 2019)
The Bold Woman Award will recognize one exceptional female Nigerian leader out of the three(3) finalists who will join the ranks of an illustrious list of over 410 audacious women honored by this prestigious award in 27 countries. The Bold Woman Award winner will also have the opportunity to travel to Reims, France for an immersion in the history, tradition, and luxury of Maison Veuve Clicquot.
To stay updated on the winner, kindly follow Veuve Clicquot on all social media platforms.
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