Anino Enuwa is the founder and managing director of Avandis Consulting in France which has a subsidiary in Nigeria. Her firm provides strategy and financial advisory services with expertise in SME finance. Avandis deals with the spectrum of businesses from owner-managed businesses to large organisations. They work closely with business leaders and chief executives, harnessing their knowledge and expertise to provide wide-ranging individualised solutions for complex management challenges from advice on managing day to day operations, to devising growth initiatives to optimise business performance.
A former banker with Citibank, Emuwa is an experienced non-executive director and most recently, she was a member of the board of the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company PLC where she chaired the Audit Committee and was appointed board strategy lead.
Dr Anino is an advocate for women business leadership and her article on women entrepreneurs is published in Forbes and Entrepreneur. As an AACSB certified business school instructor, she runs programmes for women leading businesses and convenes the women CEOs and the women business owners networks in Nigeria.
She is also an international public speaker on entrepreneurship, women business leadership and international business. Her recent speaking engagements include the Institute of Directors (2019), Excellence in Leadership Conference (2019), and Women’s Economic Empowerment Summit (2018).
Anino graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the London School of Economics. She also holds an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management and a Doctorate in Business Administration from the Nottingham Business School, where she is an alumni fellow.
She is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute U.K. and a member of the Institute of Directors, London. She is a business mentor for women entrepreneurs for the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women. Anino has lived and worked in six countries in Europe and Africa and is bilingual in English and French.
Emuwa says her mission is to work towards the growth and development of a class of entrepreneurial women business leaders in Africa. In particular, helping them to improve their management skills and to secure funding, as she believes the small businesses sector is the path to employment creation, innovation and economic growth which the continent needs.
She loves to contribute to the development and growth of entrepreneurial businesses, particularly those which are women-owned and provide a platform where owners can develop their management skills and secure access to finance.
Coming from a developing country, Nigeria, the opportunity she had of a good education which is key to opportunities, is what she admits is not available to millions of women. To this end, she would like to pay it forward and play an instrumental role in helping African women access opportunities to economically empower themselves, their families and their communities.
Amino understands that for working mothers, balancing work and family is sometimes difficult, particularly for single mothers. She, therefore, admonishes them to not hesitate to ask people within their personal network to help out. According to her, the early years can be tough but will be over sooner than you realize, your children will be grown and you’ll be able to focus fully on your career.
She of the opinion that, if you do decide to work part-time or take a career break, make sure you keep your skills up-to-date. “There is so much change happening and your skills can quickly become obsolete. Take on-line short courses or listen to webinars, read up and engage with colleagues and professional contacts from time to time. You can achieve your career goals, but you need to find out how to do it differently to suit you and your family.” She reveals.
Emuwa says, for smaller businesses, Avandis offers business mentoring accompanying business owners, from start-up to growth, helping them to transition into highly skilled business managers.
