Folashade Okoya Honoured for Years of Industry, Dedication

GLITZFOCUS

On Tuesday, October 11, businesswoman and youngest wife of billionaire industrialist, Folashade Noimat Okoya, will stand tall amongst the movers and shakers of the society as she adds another feather to her cap. Okoya is a recipient of the Member of the Order of the Niger (MON) award, which will be conferred on her during 2022 national honours awards organised by the federal government in Abuja. The latest achievement has proven that the style icon, whose business tentacles have continued to resonate across Africa hasn’t gone unnoticed, Funke Olaode reports.

The one-page letter from the office of the Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs is very clear and simply reads: Folashade Noimat Okoya: 2022 National Honours  Award Letters. “I have the honour to formally inform you that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, Muhammadu Buhari has approved the conferment of the National Honours on you, in the rank of MON (Member of the Order of the Niger).”

In the next 48 hours, Abuja the country capital will welcome dignitaries from all walks of life as 437 Nigerians who have made giant strides in their endeavours will receive national honours. Amongst them is Folashade Okoya, who is the Deputy Managing Director of Eleganza Industrial City Limited, and wife of Aare Rasaq Akanni Okoya, the Aare of Lagos and chairman/CEO of Eleganza Group of Companies.

That Okoya is a woman of many parts is an understatement.  She is beautiful, brilliant, industrious, hardworking, fashionable and a resourceful individual whose entrepreneurial spirit is unparalleled. With over 20 years  within the Eleganza conglomerate, she has learnt the ropes and has become  a business tycoon with administrative skills running the factory with multiple lines of productions.

Although providence plays some significant role in the affairs of humans, yet, as the Roman philosopher Lucius Seneca rightly observed, “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”.  Okoya’s meteoric rise within the Eleganza conglomerate  might seem providential; but it derives, primarily, from hard work. Her  strength lies in her tenacity, diligence, simplicity, and a mind that pays sufficient attention to detail.

Climbing the ladder of success to becoming a business magnate didn’t happen in one day. It was a gradual process of mentoring having learnt the ropes of business and administration under the watchful eyes of her industrialist husband, Alhaji Akanni Okoya. And  within a short period of time, she has become  a business tycoon because of her  vision and mission to transform the Eleganza  Industry, which she has pursued vigorously.

Today, she is the deputy managing director of the company. Certainly, Okoya was prepared and hit the ground running as soon as the leadership mantle fell on her with a decision to make a mark and to impact the nation.  She has performed wonderfully well. As a matter of fact, she did not have to explain. Her work as a brilliant business colossus  did the talking.

Okoya is a highly educated senior level manufacturing executive with specialisation  in Project Management, quality assurance, marketing, sales distribution, material/logistic human resources administration and management encompassing technology-based applications.  She also possesses strong ability to identify and understand customer’s needs, a team player with high understanding of team’s objectives, a self-starter who is always willing to learn, with high ability to under pressure with little or no supervision in a highly challenging competitive work environment.

Born in Lagos on April 25, 1977 into the family of the late Alhaji Taju and Alhaja Nimota Adeleye from ljebu Ode in Ogun State, the business magnate began her early education at St. Bernadette Nursery and Primary School Lagos after which she proceeded to Awori Comprehensive High School graduating in 1991. A well-grounded woman of substance proceeded to Lagos State Polytechnic, Isolo where she studied Banking and Finance. She capped it with a BSc in Sociology from University of Lagos, graduating in 2004. In 2014, she was honoured with Doctor of Science (honoris course) in Business Management and Corporate Leadership by the Senate of European American University.  The same year, she bagged the Most Valuable Business Executive of the year from the board of trustees and advisory council of International Centre for Corporate Leadership for African and Blacks in Diaspora and Accolade International Marketing Limited.

At various times, she has been bestowed with various awards and chieftaincy titles amongst are the Bewaji of Lagos, Otun Aare lyalaje of Ajiranland, Yeye Oge of Epe Land, Ajisewa of Oke-Ona Egba and Patron of Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria (FADAN).

She plunged herself into the many areas of business holding various positions as Managing Director of Eleganza Fashion Products Limited, Eleganza Cruise and Travels Limited, as well as a member Board of the Directors of Eleganza Group and RAO Investment Property Company Limited. Okoya’s steps to becoming a top grade business executive has been a classic example of a brain meeting opportunity. Her  talent endowments have been activated to peak performance by her responsibilities at Eleganza Groups.  She set a record in the company by producing over 300,000 cartons of the company’s flagship product in a month and consistently achieving over 100 percent  of monthly production target for over  five years , reducing the production of waste level and losses from over 2.5 per cent  to less than 0.5% without compromising Quality standards and GMP practices, reducing overall factory running and plant maintenance expenses by over 45% and at the same time maintaining high efficiency through strategic optimization.

As Okoya moves up the ladder, she has continually identified her responsibilities as helmswoman. She has successfully restructured the company’s organogram that led to an overwhelmingly effective performance. Actively motivated, the software development department to develop widely accepted accounting, human resources, and electronic filing software solutions thereby fundamentally increasing the company’s software productions, exceeded the company’s revenue target by over 50%, pioneered the establishment of an efficient product packaging, materials and warehousing processes and procedures achieving a zero level record of product theft.

Apart from meeting the needs of its  numerous customers across Nigeria and West African countries, Eleganza is also one of the biggest employers of labour. The company has over 3,000 workers thereby providing employment to the citizens of Lagos State and its environs. The company has the vision of being the foremost producer of various household items in Nigeria within the next decade. It also intends to commence the exportation of household items to all African Countries and beyond.

Although Eleganza, a family business, has been around for five decades, the new Eleganza Industrial City Limited is all encompassing churning out various products under one roof under the watchful of Oluwanishola damsel, Mrs. Folashade Okoya. 

The whole idea according to her is  to have household items in one compound. Not only that, “we want to be able to give Nigerians and the West African countries what we produce locally at an affordable price. One of the dreams of the Chairman, and my husband, Alhaji Rasaq Okoya is to see items being produced in the new industry become a household name.

“Our dream is to see Eleganza move from generation to generation and continue to touch lives. I want Nigerians and Africans to sit back and thank Eleganza for impacting their lives,” said Okoya during a recent encounter.

Okoya stepped into the Nigerian space as a pretty young woman. And within a few years she has continued to roar with a loud bang turning opportunity to prosperity.

Okoya has proven many times that you can be a wife, mother (having raised four grown up children), and fulfilling your calling career wise. She has ticked all the boxes positively.

As she mounts the podium come Tuesday to receive the Member of the Order of the Niger (MON) award, how does she feel being honoured by the motherland? Her response was quick. “I feel honoured and humbled. I believe I have paid my dues in the Nigerian manufacturing sector. This will motivate me to do more.” Did she see it coming? “I didn’t expect it, but if I have to judge what I do daily over the years, it’s long overdue,” she said.