Connect Nigeria Business Fair will be starting off tomorrow, 27th of August and will end on Friday, 28th of August. #CNBizFair, Africa’s number one Business event, promises to be all the awesomeness that your mind has Imagined. To drive you through corridors of business wisdom are insightful personalities who have carved out a niche for themselves in the world of business. They will be sharing with all attendees tips that should help them grow. Below are the names of Day 1 speakers.
Keynote Speaker
Toki Mabogunje
Toki Mabogunje is an experienced business development consultant who has served in several bodies that further the interest of private enterprise in Nigeria.
She is the founder and principal consultant of Toki Mabogunje and Co., a firm that provides training and capacity building services to both private and public sector organizations.
Mabogunje is also currently the president of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the premier collective of businesses in Lagos State. She has previously served as its vice president and deputy president. Her other engagements include being a council member at the ICC World Chamber Federation.
Her experience goes back 37 years and encompasses law, media, and business services.
Between 1983 and 1991, she worked at the Ministry of Justice in various roles, including as a civil litigator for the federal government. In the four years following this, she was group head of legal and corporate services at Minaj Media Group. She went on to become president of the group in 1997.
Mabogunje later became vice president (South West) of the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises.
She’s also been a board member of the Business Club Ikeja, a network of business professionals based in Lagos, and currently sits on the boards of the following organizations: Arterial Network, AWIEF, Convention for Business Integrity (CBI), Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria, and the Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency.
Mabogunje has a Bachelor at Law degree from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) and is an alumnus of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, the University of Exeter, and the International Training Center (ILO), Italy.
1st Panel Session
Owolabi Salami
Owolabi Salami is Chief Operating Officer at Allianz Nigeria Insurance plc, one of Nigeria’s leading insurance companies. In this role, he oversees the firm’s Strategy, Administration, and Marketing, across the country.
His experience straddles law and insurance and spans more than 28 years.
Before taking up his present role at Allianz, Mr Salami served as Chief Responsibility Officer at ARM Life plc. There, he drove sustainability initiatives and coordinated the institutions’ engagement with various public concerns. He previously held the position of Deputy CEO at AIICO insurance.
Earlier in his insurance career, Mr Salami was Divisional Director, Retail Sales, at AXA Mansard—a post he filled for over seven years. He oversaw its divisional sales team and helped grow the company’s reach during a period of resurgence for insurance in Nigeria.
Mr Salami has Bachelor at Law Degree from Buckingham University, UK, and was called to the Bar at the Nigerian Law School in 1990.
He is an alumnus of the Lagos Business School, where he obtained a qualification from its Advanced Management Program; the Cranfield School of Management, where he received a certificate in Strategic Marketing; and the Harvard Business School.
Mr. Salami is a member of the Chartered Institute of Insurance Nigeria, and the Chartered Institute of Insurance, UK.
His wide experience encompasses business strategy, acquisition, and turnaround.
Jammeelah Sharrieff-Ayedun
Jameelah Sharrieff-Ayedun is the CEO at CreditRegistry Services, Nigeria’s pioneer credit bureau operator. She also co-founded the parent company, CR Services, headquartered in Seattle, USA.
Sharrieff-Ayedun has three decades worth of experience spanning multiple industries—including engineering and IT –and five continents— North America, South America, Asia, Europe, and Africa.
Before co-founding CreditRegistry, she was Global Product Development Manager at Microsoft, China. There, she was in charge of international product development teams and led career development efforts for Microsoft teams in Shanghai.
She had earlier served as a program manager for the company in the United States, where she oversaw identity management and online services.
For ten years, Sharrieff-Ayedun worked with General Motors in various capacities: Advanced Research and Development Design Engineer, Instrumentation Project Engineer, Product Design Engineer, and Manager of its Systems Integration and Validation.
Prior to becoming CEO at CreditRegistry Nigeria, she was the company’s Executive Vice President, Business Development. In this role, she led the implementation of strategies that significantly grew the organization’s market coverage.
Sharrieff-Ayedun has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. She received the institution’s Stryker Award, given to people who have made outstanding contributions to student and campus life.
She is also an alumnus of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Sharrieff-Ayedun is a member of the Institute of Directors and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. She sits on the board of several companies and is a former president and first ambassador of the American Women’s Club in Nigeria.
Onwuegbuzie Henrietta
Dr Henrietta Onwuegbuzie is a globally certified Management Consultant and leads sessions in Entrepreneurship on the MBA and Executive programmes at Lagos Business School (LBS).
She is currently the Academic Director for the Owner-Manager Programme and Project Director for the Impact Investing policy initiative at the School. She is one of the first two Africans selected to be Visiting Faculty at Yale School of Management, the US in 2019.
Onwuegbuzie has been involved in consulting engagements for the Public sector, conglomerates as well as growing businesses. She is passionate about economic development and social transformation in Nigeria and Africa and has initiated the creation of over 100 profitable, social impact businesses through the MBA and Executive programmes at LBS.
She has presented award-winning papers at various international conferences on entrepreneurship and sustainable development. In 2013, she was conferred the African Women Development Champion Award by the Centre for Economic and Leadership Development. In the same year, she was appointed one of the national mentors for the YouWin Entrepreneurship programme, driven from the office of the Nigerian president.
She worked actively with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), from 2012-2014. In 2015, she was conferred a certificate of recognition in New York by LEAP, a UN working group under the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) sector, in recognition of her ground-breaking work in developing change accelerators.
She has been rated the top 4% among Nigerian top Executives in the Education Management Industry.
2nd Panel Session
Steve Harris
Steve Harris is a leading business strategy and a life coach. He is the managing consultant at EdgeCution, a management consultancy company that serves corporates in Nigeria.
Prior to establishing EdgeCution, he was the head of the consulting group at Visible Impact, where he designed and facilitated customer service and personal mastery training.
His strength as a life coach is underlined by the popularity of his podcast; it’s been downloaded over 300,000 times and is rated within the top 15 of the training category on iTunes. Over 2,000 people have taken his online courses.
He has designed and facilitated management and leadership retreats for organizations across Nigeria and has taken on customer service management programs for some of the country’s top companies.
His culture turnaround and transformation programs have enabled large scale corporations to adapt to the demands of the contemporary business environment.
He has been listed among the World’s Top 100 Business Coaches to Follow on Twitter, and featured on Forbes Africa.
Harris is certified by the International Coach Federation (ICF). He is also an accredited small business consultant and management consultant, a member of the Life Coaches Association of Nigeria, the American Association of Small Business Consultants, Texas, the USA, and the International Certified Consultants Association, Canada.
Steve Harris will be speaking at the Connect Nigeria Business Fair. There, he will be sharing the secrets of successful business transformation that can enable Nigeria’s enterprises to grow in today’s world.
Nelly Agbogu
Nelly Agbogu is Creative Director and Chief Executive Officer at Nellies Nigeria, a company committed to developing recipes for gluten-free food products in Nigeria.
She is also the founder of the popular Naija Brand Chick page on Instagram, where she shares social media tips and hacks to thousands of small business owners.
She’s a renowned social media influencer and leading brand-building coach for emerging enterprises.
Before breaking out as an entrepreneur, she was a Human Resource Officer at First Logic Enterprise. She’s also served as a Product Line Administrator at Schlumberger.
A graduate of Psychology from the Enugu State University of Technology (ESUT), Nelly draws from her varied experiences across several industries. She is enthusiastic about helping SMEs grow.
Ubong King
Ubong King is a serial entrepreneur, business consultant, security expert, and public speaker. He is head of Protection Plus Services Limited (PPSL), a private security consulting firm.
His career in security services extends over 22 years, within which he’s managed multiple firms and led one of his own.
Ubong is also president of the Ubong King Foundation, an NGO that’s training young people to be leaders in their various spheres.
He has filled leading roles in several security firms. These include Head of Operations at Alarm Center Limited; Deputy Operations Manager, Armed Reactions and Protocol, Halogen Security Limited; and General Manager, XL Security, and Protections Services.
Ubong is a former chairman of the Lagos State Chapter of the American Society of Industrial Securities (ASIS).
In 2018, his foundation convened the platform ‘Thinkation’, aimed at encouraging productivity among young Nigerians.
Emeka Mordi
Emeka Mordi is Chief Operating Officer at One Finance and Investment (OneFi), a financial technology company. He is also Head of SME Finance at Carbon, a daughter startup to OneFi.
His career has seen him traverse business intelligence, finance, new media, and technology. He has also been involved in Nigeria’s emerging e-commerce industry.
Before joining One Finance, Mordi was Growth Manager for Europe at Iroko TV. There he supervised operations aimed at expanding the company’s presence in Europe.
He began his career as an analyst at FEES limited, a business intelligence service provider based in Lagos. After moving to the United Kingdom, he took up a position of support analyst at Sony Computer Entertainment, Europe. This was followed by a stint at Universal Music Group, where he was a business analyst and project manager.
He returned to Sony in 2008 as a program consultant, before starting at Blue Mahogany. His next professional roles were as Managing Director at Morpheus Limited, and Chief Operating Officer at Spinlet, both in Nigeria.
Mordi has a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) degree in Management Information Systems from Drexel University, Pennsylvania, USA.
He will be speaking at this year’s edition of the Connect Nigeria Business Fair. There he will be discussing the business and startup scene in Nigeria, its challenges, opportunities, and the path to growth for SMEs in the country.
The Connect Nigeria Business Fair is free to attend. It takes place virtually on the 27th and 28th of August, 2020. You can register to attend the event here.
