- Awardees to be celebrated on November 19, says Utomi
President of the Republic of Zambia, Hakainde Hichilema and the President of the Egypt-based Afrexim Bank, Professor Benedict Okey Oramah were among very eminent personalities named as winners of the Zik Prize in Leadership Awards.
The three other personalities who will be awarded Zik Prize for Leadership in various cadres are; the Governor of Edo State, Mr Godwin Obaseki, the Chairman of SIFAX Group, Dr Taiwo Afolabi and former First Lady of Kebbi State, Hajiya Aisha Atiku Baguda.
The Zik’s Prize for Africa Leadership Awards, is organised yearly by the Public Policy Research and Analysis Centre (PPRAC).
In a statement by the Chairman of the Nomination Committee of PPRAC’s Zik Prize for Leadership Awards, Prof. Pat Utomi, the advisory board would be conferring the prestigious awards on these eminent personalities on Sunday, November 19, at the Eko Convention Centre.
Since it was instituted in 1995 by PPRAC, in honour of the first President of Nigeria, the late Rt. Honourable Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, the awards has always been conferred on outstanding leadership on the African Continent and in the Diaspora as a mark of recognition and encouragement.
Held every year, it was put on hold last year as a mark of respect following the passage of two members of the Advisory Board; Prince Emeka Obasi erstwhile Executive Secretary and Prof George Obiozor, in March and December, 2022. The reason, this edition is a combination of winners across year 2021 and 2022.
Utomi further acknowledged and saluted fellow Board members who over the past 27 years have shown uncommon zeal and commitment to building and encouraging true leadership across the continent, and journalists for their unflinching and peerless support.
Utomi said across the African continent, the issue of leadership remains a critical challenge in our body polity. “We fully understand
this and thus remain committed to this noble venture of encouraging and nurturing the most beneficial leadership that can be found on the continent as an embodiment of the leadership values of the Great Zik of Africa in whose honour this award was instituted.”
The awardees and their corresponding categories according to Utomi are; Zik Prize in Political Leadership, which goes to the President of Republic of Zambia, Hakainde Hichilema.
He said in a continent plagued by leadership challenges, Hichilema has distinguished himself as a great shining light, not only to his Southern Africa nation, Zambia, but the black race.
He said the 61-year old Zambian farmer, businessman turned politician is an example in sheer doggedness and perseverance, haven contested five previous presidential elections between 2006 and 2016, before emerging victorious at the 6th time in 2021.
Despite inheriting an economy dangerously spiraling out of control and prevailing global challenges, H.E Hichilema, he said, has in two years remarkably halted the slide and ushered Zambia’s economy back to the path of growth, restored long-term debt sustainability and reinvigorated the economy, making it one of the fastest growing economies on the continent.
“Zambia today, is ranked the eighth most competitive country in Africa on the Global Competitiveness Index and in its recently released report, Forbes Magazine, had ranked Zambia, the seventh best country with the ease of doing business among 54 African countries.
Hichilema’s leadership construct and political sagacity has marked him out as an outstanding political leader.
The Year 2021/2022 Zik Prize in Professional Leadership on the other hand, goes to Professor Benedict Okey Oramah, President AFREXIM Bank. Professor Benedict Okey Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) since 2015, is currently serving a second 5 year term.
Utomi said Oramah remarkably piloted Africa’s premier multilateral financial institution to deliver on its mandate of boosting economic expansion in Africa by financing and promoting intra-inter-and-extra-African trade and accelerating industrialisation in the continent.
A key promoter of AfCFTA as Africa’s pathway to industralisation, Oramah, the selection committee chairman said, championed the introduction of a Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) that was adopted by the African Union (AU) to underpin the implementation of the AfCFTA. He also led the onboarding of 500 of the continent’s 600 regulated commercial banks into its Afreximbank Trade Finance Facility (AFTRAF) placing it in the vortex of the most extensive bank messaging network on the continent. The bank is also working with the AU and the AfCFTA Secretariat to develop an Adjustment Facility to support countries in effectively participating in the AfCFTA.
Similarly, the scale of the bank’s intervention in support of African countries at times of global crisis is unprecedented.
In 2020, it introduced the Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility (PATIMFA) with disbursed funds at more than US$7 billion and in year 2022, the Ukraine Crisis Adjustment Trade Financing Programme for Africa (UKAFPA), a US$ 4 billion programme of credit facilities to manage the impacts of the Ukraine crisis on African economies and businesses.
Prof Oramah is a global public speaker, prolific writer and subject matter expert on African Trade and finance. He has authored Chapters in several books and written over 40 professional/scholarly articles on African economic, trade and trade finance issues.
In the area of Good Governance, the Year 2021/2022 Zik Prize was awarded to H.E. Godwin Obaseki, Executive Governor of Edo State.
A financial and administrative guru, Obaseki, the committee Chairman said has brought his wealth of experience in the private sector to bear in addressing the issues of governance in Edo State. In the past seven years, his Make Edo Greater Again (MEGA) Agenda has accomplished tremendous success in public administration, repositioning the civil service and the transformation of the state’s failing education sector.
By implementing wide scale transformation projects, particularly the deployment of cutting edge technology in training and equipping Edo teachers with modern skills to deliver sound and qualitative teaching, The EdoBest project success has inspired Lagos to create the EkoExcel scheme.
Similarly, he is recognised for his Health reforms, industralisation schemes and digitisation of the state through the construction of over 2,000km of fibre optic connections to link every Local Government Area.
Edo state is the most economic friendly state as Certificates-of-Occupancy are processed under 30 days for both individuals and businesses, a feat not yet replicated elsewhere.
Dr. Taiwo Afolabi, Chairman, SIFAX Group who won the Zik Prize in Entrepreneurial Leadership is a serial entrepreneur, a business behemoth with diversified interests in maritime, tourism and hospitality, energy, aviation, oil and gas, haulage and logistics.
While many businessmen are hesitant to invest in the nation’s murky and unpredictable business waters, Afolabi’s indomitable and diehard nature continue to pitch against obstacles and this has helped him to succeed in ventures where others before him had failed.
From being a trailblazer, his brainchild, SIFAX Group has in just over three decades become a household brand in the country, especially in the maritime, hospitality, haulage and logistics industries. Notably, his massive investments in Nigeria’s terminal operations, especially its off-dock solutions, have positively affected the industry and catalysed economic growth.
In the Humanitarian Leadership segment, Year 2021/2022 Zik Prize was won by former First Lady of Kebbi State Hajiya Aisha Atiku Baguda.
Hajia Bagudu is a consummate humanist and philanthropist, who has over the last 14 years been a ‘hope giver,’’ to thousands of otherwise hopeless citizens.
She has since 2009 set up the Mass Literacy for Less Privileged and Almajiri Initiative (MALLPAI), an NGO that has quietly been enhancing the quality of life of Nigerians by supporting and empowering initiatives that improve access to health, education and agricultural opportunities.
MALLPAI has invested extensively in the return of out of school children to school and promoting girl-child education. It continues to empower indigent women and vulnerable groups in the country from its offices in six states (Kebbi, Kaduna, Kano, Edo, Delta and Lagos) and the FCT, Abuja, where it has its headquarters.
Hajia Atiku Bagudu remains at the forefront of the economic empowerment of women and children as a platform for sustainable socio-economic development of the country.
Past recipients of the Zik Prize include notable leaders like; President J.J. Rawlings, President Nwalimu Julius Nyerere, Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, President Sam Nujoma, Dr. Nelson Mandela, President Yoweri Muzeveni, President John Agyekum Kufuor, Dr Pius Okigbo, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, late Otunba Subomi Balogun, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Alhaji Ahmed Joda and President, African Development Bank (ADB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina.