Six Finalists Jostle for EY Entrepreneur Awards

Nume Ekeghe

The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards 2023 (EOY) West Africa is here again with six top entrepreneur finalists ready to vie for the top slot in the current edition of the global award event (West Africa edition), with the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo, as the Special Guest of Honour.

This year’s edition has four entrepreneurs competing 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. 

In a related development, the Life-Time Achievement Award will go to Rose Ada Okwechime, as a pioneer of primary mortgage bank in Nigeria. Until her retirement, Rose was the founding Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Abbey Mortgage Bank Plc, the premier and leading non-aligned primary mortgage bank in Nigeria. She will be honoured for being a frontline Mortgage Banker in the Nigeria’s financial landscape.

Senior Partner and Entrepreneur Of The Year Award leader for West Africa region, Ashish Bakhshi, while providing overview of the programme, said: “The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year award brings together some of the finest and most accomplished entrepreneurs, some of whom have grown to become global market leaders in their fields of play. The six shortlisted finalists will undergo the final stage of judging by an independent 5-member panel of entrepreneurs, some of whom were past winners of the award. They will assess the finalists through criteria such as their entrepreneurial spirit and leadership, financials, innovation, as well as community impact, among others. The overall winners in both categories will be announced at the Gala/Award dinner ceremony on Thursday, March 16.”