Bella Disu is a Nigerian business executive, arts enthusiast, and philanthropist with over 14 years of professional experience across industries. In 2004, she joined Globacom, where she currently provides strategic leadership as the Executive Vice Chairman of the foremost multinational telecommunications company operating in Nigeria and Ghana. In her role, she has steered Globacom on a path of sustained competitive advantage through a focus on quality, efficiency, innovation and customer responsiveness. In 2011, she took on the additional role of CEO of Cobblestone Properties and Estates Limited, a leading property development company which has a robust portfolio of residential and commercial properties in Nigeria.
With extensive experience in high value contract negotiation and project management, she has successfully constituted and led notable projects such as new customer experience Gloworld outlets and the inauguration of the Alliance Francaise Mike Adenuga Centre by President Emmanuel Macron on July 4, 2018 in Lagos, Nigeria.
Disu also serves as a non-executive director on the board of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Nigeria’s apex construction company, and as a director at Abumet Plc, a glass and aluminium manufacturing company. As the youngest member on both boards, Bella brings her enthusiasm for innovation and transformation to drive productivity and profitability of both organisations.
She holds a B.A in International Relations from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She is a member of the prestigious Institute of Directors, Nigeria and the Nigerian Institute of Management. She is the chairperson of the Bella Disu Foundation, a non-profit organisation she established to improve the potential of children from less privileged backgrounds by providing access to quality education and employment skills.
Bella is an avid sponsor of the arts, and in this capacity, a director of the Mike Adenuga Center, she is actively involved in promoting the French and Nigerian cultures through its partnership with Alliance Française.
A music lover, she plays the Piano and Saxophone and for years has been a benefactor of the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) to encourage a better environment for musical learning.
She is married with children. Her desire to see the return of the well-illustrated and richly narrated folk-tales she read as a child led her to write a book for children aged 5-7. The book, a folktale that reflects Nigerian culture and characters, will be published this year.
On Globacom’s support for the widely televised program CNN African voices, she believes that all Africans need to play their part in building the continent’s future, revealing that the partnership with CNN African Voices had allowed Globacom to extend its impact in a unique way. “Globacom had in the last 16 years supported sports, cultural and entrepreneurial activities across the continent, with the goal of nurturing and showcasing talents and would continue in this trajectory.” She said.
On her view about the Nigerian environment as regards doing business, she says it is laudable that the government has initiated moves to ease the process of doing business in Nigeria but the environment can be friendlier. In her words, “The government can do a lot more to ensure that there is a sustainable environment for the private sector to flourish. How? In the telecoms sector, for instance, ensure that there are no delays in the allocation of spectrum licences and eliminate bureaucratic obstacles that affect the way we roll out services and expand our networks.” She said.
For Bella, a lot more can be done in terms of how digital innovation is pushed, how the change is driven and the need to be innovative. “I am a firm believer that the world is experiencing rapidly total transformation and if you don’t adapt and move with it, you will get left behind. Globacom is having a route to innovation where we say we are identifying needs and finding ways to proffer solutions by using our platform to deploy artificial intelligence, which will basically emulate what people do.”
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