Category: Business & Economy

Recognising socio-economic productive, valuable and impactful Nigerian entities that improve Nigerian and global business & economy.

Winners Of 2018 Lagos Chamber Of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) Awards

Winners have emerged in the 2018 Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) Awards held at Oriental Hotel, Lekki Express Way, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The objective of the Annual Commerce and Industry Award is to recognize, promote and celebrate private and public institutions operating in Nigeria for best business sustainability and positive impact on the people/society.

Metrics for Selecting Awardees

  • Positive Impact on the Society: Affecting society broadly, challenging the status quo, redefining life style, creating wealth and vitality and giving people increased confidence.
  • Best Practices: Compliance with set standards, regulations, level of disclosure, corporate governance.
  • Growth Through Innovation: Enhanced product and services through innovation for increased value and facilitate limitless possibilities.
  • Service Excellence and Customers/Clients Delight.
  • Business Sustainability and creation of positive legacies

Winners of the 2018 Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) Awards

  1. Best Business Television – CNBC Africa
  2. CSR in Education – Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE)
  3. Best Company in Local Content on ICT – Rack Centre
  4. Best Business Newspaper – BusinessDay
  5. Brand of the Year – Chivita Active Fruit Nectar

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) is the first (since 1888) and the largest Chamber of Commerce in Nigeria with membership strength of over 2,000 institutions spread across all sectors/sub-sectors of the economy. As part of its core mandate of trade promotion and business/policy advocacy, the Chamber organizes deserving corporate organizations, public institutions and individuals who have contributed significantly to the development of commerce & industry on an annual basis.

Air Peace Wins NIPR “National Carrier of Repute” & “Nigerian Crew Member of Repute” Awards [2018]

Air Peace and six of its crew members have been honoured with the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) “National Carrier of Repute” and “Nigerian Crew Member of Repute” awards respectively for delivering flight services with exceptional efficiency.


President of NIPR, Dr. Rotimi Oladele presented the awards to the airline and its crew members during the annual conference of the Institute in Umuahia, Abia State. 
Air Peace, he enthused, had brought honour to Nigeria in the aviation industry and proved that the nation had the capacity to fix its challenges.

Oladele affirmed that the carrier’s on-time performance, customer service, safety and fleet maintenance reputations were unparalleled.
 The NIPR boss commended Air Peace’s crew chosen for the “Nigerian Crew Member of Repute” award – Capt. Adesola Arasi, First Officer Violet Enahoro, Ademola Olowolade, Ann Otiede, Yemisi Beckley and Paul Ijeh – for distinguishing themselves in their engagements with members of the flying public.

He justified the choice of Air Peace and its crew for the awards, saying they were practically assessed by NIPR teams without their knowledge.

He said a total of 20 airlines were covertly assessed by the Institute’s teams on board 29 flights and at the carriers’ offices. Air Peace and its crew, he said, emerged winners after securing a total of 67 percent of the votes.

Responding on behalf of Air Peace, its Corporate Communications Manager, Mr. Chris Iwarah assured that the carrier was driven by a passion to project the name of Nigeria globally through exceptional flight services.

From seven aircraft and five routes at launch in 2014, he said Air Peace had increased its fleet to 24 aircraft and taken its flight operations to 12 domestic and four regional destinations.
 Iwarah said the airline was set to broaden its regional route network with the addition of Monrovia (Liberia), Lome (Togo) and Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire) in the next few weeks.
 He assured that the airline, which recently set a record as the first Nigerian carrier to acquire a Boeing 777 aircraft for its long-haul operations, would soon prove the mettle of the country on the global aviation scenes with the launch of its Houston, London, Guangzhou-China, Dubai, Sharjah, Mumbai and Johannesburg services.

Mr. Chris Iwarah commended NIPR for rewarding merit, assuring that the awards would spur Air Peace and its crew to further raise the bar of service in the nation’s aviation industry.

Winners Of The Asian Banker – West Africa Awards 2018

Winners have emerged in the Asian Banker – West Africa Awards 2018.

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) and its two affiliate countries – Nigeria and Ghana – have emerged winners in three strategic categories of The Asian Banker – West Africa Awards 2018.

The annual awards saw ETI winning the Best Financial Inclusion Initiative Application or Programme with its innovative Xpress Account, while Ecobank Nigeria carted home the Best Transaction Bank in Nigeria, West Africa award. Ecobank Ghana also won in the Best Transaction Bank in Ghana, West Africa category.

ALAT by Wema Bank, won the Best Digital Bank in Africa; the Best Wealth Management Bank in Nigeria went to Standard Chartered Bank while the Best Mobile Payment Service and The Digital Wallet of the Year went to Guaranty Trust Bank, among others.

According to the Chairman, The Asian Banker, Emmanuel Daniel at the Asian Banker – West Africa Awards 2018 ceremony in Lagos:

“These awards are the most rigorous, prestigious and transparent awards programme for financial technology, retail banking and transaction banking in West Africa today. We recognize the deepening and increasing maturity and sophistication of the industry in this region.

Ecobank’s aggressive digital push produced a first innovative mobile payments solution, the Masterpass QR with MasterCard to push financial inclusion in Nigeria through its new, smart, card-less, contactless and cashless payment solution. This bank also launched an integrated electronic banking platform that has on-boarded four million customers within a short space of time”.

In his comment, Charles Kie, Managing Director, Ecobank Nigeria thanked the Asian Banker Award Team for painstakingly creating an opportunity to celebrate hard work by members of the banking community.

Represented by Korede Demola-Adeniyi, Group Head, Personal Banking, the Ecobank Managing Director stated:

“We are using digital technology to combat many of the financial inclusion barriers faced by those on the continent.

I use this opportunity to dedicate this awards to all hard working staff of the Ecobank Group, who have tirelessly worked to see the success of the bank. And also to all Africans who believe in us and have continued to encourage our efforts by adopting our products”.

Keystone Bank Wins 2018 Global Impact Leadership Award In Women Entrepreneurs Empowerment Category

Keystone Bank Limited at the 2018 Global Impact Leadership Award has been awarded the Best Bank In Women Entrepreneurs Empowerment Category held In New York, USA.
The award, the organisers noted is in recognition of Keystone Bank’s leadership role as in expanding access to funds for women entrepreneurs in Nigeria and the rest of Africa where it operates.This feat they further said has brought about unprecedented growth to the business sector and by extension, the nation’s economy and that of Africa.

Footwear Academy Wins Proudly Made in Aba Hackathon Challenge [2018]

Footwear Academy, a footwear training firm has won the maiden edition of the Proudly Made in Aba Hackathon Challenge, designed to proffer solutions to challenges currently faced by Aba entrepreneurs, especially in the finished leather, garment and steel fabricating clusters.

Using modern equipment and technology, Footwear Academy won the challenge by providing a solution to upgrading the skills of Aba shoemakers, to enable them to improve the quality of their products.

The Co-founder, Footwear Academy, Bentley Chukwuemeka, stated that their plan was to introduce Aba shoemakers to modern technology, to enable them to speed up production.

Bentley Chukwuemeka said Footwear Academy also intended to reduce its period of apprenticeship from five years to six months.

The hackathon challenge had the Footwear Academy coming first position with $50,000; Clintonel Technology, which came second, received a cash prize of $30,000; and Ogwugo Technologies, coming third, got $20,000.

Clintonel Technology introduced a solution to digitalise and automate the metal fabrication process in Aba, through Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing, while Ogwugo technologies introduced an online marketing platform, designed to handle trade activities between buyers and sellers in broad categories.

The technology, according to the Co-Founder, Clintonel Technology, Tochukwu Chukwueke, will help shoe manufacturers and metal fabricators in Aba reduce production cost, increase production speed, multiply production volume, improve finishing and generate more revenue.

The Co-founder, Ogwogo.com, Chima Abafor, explained that the firm was offering a dynamic platform built from scratch to adapt to modern e-commerce technology, as well as e-commerce problems.

According to the Programme Manager, West African Office, Ford Foundation, Professor Paul Nwulu, the Proudly Made in Aba Hackathon Challenge was organised to find ways of using technology and innovative ideas to help influence the lives of shoemakers, fabricators and garment makers in Aba.

Professor Nwulu explained that they received 400 entries, out of which 10 best ideas were selected for the final, and from which the judges further picked the best three as winners.

NIPOST Awarded 2018 WSIS Prize In E-Employment Category

The Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) has been awarded the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 2018 Prize in the category of e-Employment for the NIPOST Address Verification System (NIPOST AVS).

Post Master General Bisi Adegbuyi received the Award at the WSIS Forum 2018 in Geneva, marking the 15th anniversary of the World Summit on the Information Society Forum.

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Access Bank Plc Wins 2018 Euromoney ‘Commercial Banking Capabilities’ Award

Access Bank Plc has emerged winner of the best ‘Commercial Banking Capabilities’ award in Nigeria by Euromoney for the year 2018.

The award was presented to the bank’s Group Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, at the Euromoney Private Banking Awards 2018, which held at the Landmark in Marylebone, London. Access Bank Plc in the 2017 edition of the award category finished in 4th position.

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