THE Group Managing Director of Interswitch, Mr Mitchell Elegbe and Founder/Chief Analyst, Nairametrics Financial Advocate Limited,Mr Ugodre Obi-Chukwu, have won the Ernst & Young, EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2023 West Africa.
Elegbe, won the Master Category at the finalists Awards held on Thursday night at Eko Hotel Lagos and will represent West Africa in Monaco, France for the global EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award (WEOY) later in the year.
Obi-Chukwu of Nairametrics won the Emerging Category.
In his remark at the awards ceremony, Anthony Oputa, EY Regional Managing Partner, West Africa said: “In this year’s edition has four entrepreneurs that competed in the Master entrepreneur category, with one of them to emerge as the overall winner. In this category, we have the following shortlisted finalists: Uju Catherine Ifejika, Chairman/Founder, Britannia-U Limited, Mitchell Elegbe,Group Managing Director of Interswitch, Walter Akpani, Managing Director of Providus Bank, as well as Seleem Adegunwa, Managing Director, Rite Foods Nigeria Limited.
“The Emerging Entrepreneur Category, on the other hand, has Affiong Williams, Founder/CEO of Nature’s Bounty Health Products T/A ReelFruit and Ugodre Obi-Chukwu, Founder/Chief Analyst, Nairametrics Financial Advocate Limited. One of them will be crowned the overall winner today.
Continuing, he added: “Today, the WEOY programme spans more than 150 cities in 50 countries, which together represent more than 90% of the global economy.”
Also at the Awards, the Life-Time Achievement Award went to Rose Ada Okwechime, as a pioneer of primary mortgage bank in Nigeria.
In his remark at the Awards, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Richard Adeniyi Adebayo commended the six finalists for their outstanding performance in contributing to the growth and development of the country.
“I also commend EY for organising this Award and would invite it to join the federal government’s functional entrepreneurial ecosystem that supports innovation, business growth in the country.”
Speaking to journalists on the Awards, Ashish Bakhshi, Senior Partner at EY said: “The Awards has enjoyed international recognition for over past 30 years. EY started the Entrepreneur Of The Year awards programme in 1986 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the United States, and by 1987, it was held across 11 cities, and by 1993, the programme started to expand internationally.
“In 2000, EY went global and started the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award (WEOY). Held annually in Monaco, the WEOY country winners compete for the World Entrepreneur of the Year title.”
Commenting, Mr Elegbe said: “Nigerians have the capacity to do well. The challenges we are currently facing in the financial industry is as a result of brain drain the professionals are leaving but we will overcome it.”
Also speaking, Mr. Obi-Chukwu said:”Nairametrics was born out of hopelessnes, a period when there was stock market crashes. People thought we are joking but today we are being recognised. In every challenge there are some sort of opportunities to exploit.”
Source: Vanguard News Nigeria