Recently updated on January 14th, 2020 at 12:56 pm
The Africa-America Institute (AAI) has awarded the Co-Founder and Chairman of Zenith Bank Mr. Jim Ovia with the esteemed 2017 Business Leader Award.
The award was conferred on him on September 19, 2017 in New York, USA at the Institute’s 33rd Annual Awards Gala.
He was recognized for impacting hugely on enterprise and human resource development on the continent.
Mr. Jim Ovia, founding Group Managing Director and CEO of Zenith Bank, was honoured along with President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana (National Achievement); Nicole Amarteifio, (Leadership in African Media and Arts); and Bozoma Saint-John, Chief Brand Officer, UBER (Innovation & Technology) as Africa’s best.
Receiving the award Mr. Ovia said:
“Today I am very honored to be identified as one of the awardees of the AAI. I have always known over the years of mentoring and empowering a large number of people about 20,000 people today, one thing they appreciate most is not money, but recognition, so when AAI decide to honour people like myself, truly I prefer being honored than being given money.”
Mr. Ovia co- founded Zenith bank in 1990. He is currently the bank’s Group Chairman having served as MD and CEO of the bank for 20 years.
Jim Ovia is also the chairman of the board of trustees of James Hope College, a co- educational boarding school in Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria.
He was a member of the National Economic Management Team of Nigeria and he is a member of the Honorary International Investors’ Council.
Founded in 1953, The Africa-America Institute is a premier U.S.-based international organization dedicated to strengthening human capacity of Africans and promoting the continent’s development through higher education and skills training, convening activities, program implementation and management.
AAI raises funds to provide scholarships to smart and under-resourced students to attend top-performing African universities and develops programs that focus on increasing the skills of the next generation of African youth so that they become globally competitive.
AAI alumni are at the forefront of Africa’s public, non-profit, and private sectors.
