General
AXA Mansard Sweeps Prestigious Awards at 2024 CIPM HR Oscars
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The 2024 Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) HR Oscars held in Abuja recently saw AXA Mansard as one of the biggest winners.
The leading insurance firm was recognised for Best HR Practice (Insurance Category), Employee Engagement, and Internal Communications Initiative.
Also, the member of the AXA Group was the second runner-up overall in Nigeria for the 2024 HR Best Practice Award.
According to the Chief Client Officer of AXA Mansard, Ms Rashidat Adebisi, the awards underscore AXA Mansard’s unwavering commitment to fostering an engaging, stimulating, and progressive workplace for its people.
She remarked further that the company believes that living out its customer-first value should begin with a positive employee experience. AXA’s HR policies and practices are thus deliberately tailored to be people-oriented.
“We are convinced that when we care for our employees, they will care for our customers, and everybody wins. The customers win, the employees are fulfilled, the society is better, and the marketplace prospers”, she said.
“So, to be awarded three awards by a prestigious human capital institution such as CIPM is something we take seriously. It is a confirmation that our people philosophy is in tune with the realities of today’s workforce requirements.
“I congratulate our HR team for consistently embodying our Employee Value Proposition. I understand the dedication and precision involved in achieving each of these awards, so winning three in a single year is a clear testament to the great work we are doing for our employees.
“This achievement not only solidifies our position as an industry leader but also reaffirms our commitment to being a people-oriented, role-model organization,” she added.
Also, the General Counsel and Human Resources Director of AXA Mansard, Ms Omowunmi Mabel Adewusi, noted that the awards are another testament to the organization’s HR best practices and their real impact on the employee’s total well-being.
“These awards underscore that our Dare and Care philosophy is a driving force within our organisation. Being recognized as the company with the Best HR Practice within the insurance sector—and across multiple industries in Nigeria—is a significant accomplishment.
“This recognition reflects the bold, forward-thinking policies and initiatives we have put in place to ensure our employees are engaged, productive, and find purpose in their work each day.
“For example, our AXA We Care program offers employees benefits such as menstrual leave, paternity leave, psychological assistance, caregiver leave, maternity leave, teleconsultation services, free medical check-ups, minimum financial coverage in the case of cancer, and many more.
“We understand, for example, that women’s menstrual cycle is not what we are culturally tuned to discussing, especially with managers of the opposite sex. But it’s a key part of the women’s wellbeing, so what we have done is to ensure that women can take leave days if they need to during their monthly cycle.”
The CIPM promotes excellence in people management through value creation, optimisation of human potential, and standardization, as well as regulation of Human Resource Management.
The HR Oscars aims to identify best practices and recognize achievements. Its assessment for recognition is based on the demonstrated proof of positive business impact based on the change, initiative, program, or process improvement described in the submissions.
The AXA We Care programme is deployed under four main policy pillars;
Caregiver policy: This policy provides employees caring for immediate family members who require elder care or care due to a serious health condition and disability with up to five days of fully paid leave.
Domestic and sexual violence policy: AXA stands against domestic and sexual violence. For any employee impacted by such a situation, AXA commits to providing access to psychological support, specialist support services, flexible working arrangements, and five days of fully paid leave.
Parental policy: Besides the existing fully paid maternity leave for female employees, the We Care program provides an extended fully paid paternity leave for male employees for up to 10 working days. Additional leave and flexible working arrangements will be offered to support employees receiving and recovering from in-vitro fertilization or in the case of pregnancy loss.
Healthy You program: Launched in 2020, this health and wellbeing program provides AXA employees with benefits such as psychological assistance, teleconsultation services, medical check-ups, minimum financial coverage for cancer, and more. The program will expand further to include a supportive working environment for employees experiencing menstrual health conditions, menopause, or andropause.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has confirmed the collapse of five transmission towers along the Ikot Abasi–Eket 132kV Double Circuit Transmission Line.
This was attributed to severe acts of vandalism, as TCN disclosed that the structure collapsed after vandals removed critical structural bracing members.
The affected towers were N9, J4, N10, N11 and N12, the organisation said in a statement on Friday.
It explained that the extensive damage was discovered during a routine joint line patrol conducted on August 9, 2026, by TCN linesmen.
Further inspection revealed that structural members from seven additional towers along the same transmission corridor had also been removed and stolen. The towers, J3, N8, N13, N14, N15, N18 and N19, are now structurally compromised and pose a risk of further collapse.
TCN condemned this act of sabotage and reiterated its commitment to working hard to maintain a robust and reliable national grid.
The statement said that to mitigate the impact on electricity supply, the network has been reconfigured to prioritise supply to Ekim transmission station, leaving Ibom Power as the only station without supply.
TCN said it is mobilising an urgent intervention to complete the reconstruction of the affected sections of the line, with security agencies also notified to aid investigations and prevent further acts of vandalism along the line route.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Tajudeen Abbas, has urged all relevant government agencies to promptly initiate actions for the full implementation of the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency Act, 2026, following its signing into law by President Bola Tinubu.
The bill, sponsored by Speaker Abbas, was aimed at repealing the Nigerian Shippers’ Council Act, Cap. N133, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and establish the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency to ensure effective economic regulation of Nigerian ports while safeguarding the interests of shippers, service providers, and users of regulated port services. With the President’s assent, it has now been enacted as an Act of Parliament.
The legislation represents one of the landmark achievements of the 10th National Assembly. It reflects the Speaker’s commitment to legislative excellence, institutional reform, and sustainable economic growth, according to a press statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Speaker, Mr Musa Krishi.
The bill underwent a rigorous and inclusive legislative process, including extensive stakeholder consultations and a public hearing. It was passed by both Chambers of the National Assembly and subsequently assented to by the President.
The Act provides a robust legal and institutional framework to ensure effective economic regulation of Nigerian ports by fostering transparency, competitiveness, and efficiency in port operations; protecting the rights and interests of shippers, service providers, and other port users; and aligning Nigeria’s port regulatory system with global best practices, thereby enhancing the ease and cost-effectiveness of doing business.
Despite receiving presidential assent, the Act has yet to be fully operationalised.
He warned that any further delay would undermine the legislative intent of the reform, prolong the exposure of port users to arbitrary charges and operational inefficiencies, and deny the nation the anticipated benefits of increased revenue, improved trade facilitation, and stronger investor confidence in the marine and blue economy sector.
The Speaker urged the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, in collaboration with all relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government, to take the necessary administrative, institutional, and financial measures for the prompt implementation of the Act.
He said this should include the formal transition to, as well as operational empowerment of, the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency to discharge its statutory mandate effectively.
The full implementation of the Act is critical to unlocking the economic potential of Nigeria’s ports, reducing the cost of doing business, strengthening trade competitiveness, and positioning Nigeria as the leading maritime and logistics hub in West and Central Africa.
The statement noted that the Speaker reaffirmed the 10th House’s commitment to exercising the necessary legislative oversight to ensure this landmark legislation, along with others assented to by the President, is fully implemented and achieves its intended goals for the benefit of the Nigerian people.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Federal Ministry of Youth Development (FMYD), through the Nigerian Youth Academy (NiYA), has partnered with Cascador, a Nigeria-focused platform for growth-stage founders, to provide funding and support for the next generation of Nigerian youth entrepreneurs.
The announcement coincides with International Youth Day 2026, whose global theme this year — Different Contexts, Common Aspirations — calls on institutions to close the gap between young people’s circumstances and their opportunities. The pilot is an early step toward NiYA’s broader ambition to train and empower 7 million Nigerian youth within two years.
The NiYA and Cascador Founders Programme will begin with a pilot cohort of 20 early-stage Nigerian youth founders, including entrepreneurs without formal business registration or established financial records.
Over four weeks, participants will undergo intensive training focused on business fundamentals, investment readiness and pitch preparation. At the end of the programme, the eight top-performing founders will receive non-dilutive funding of up to N5 million each from Cascador, alongside an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution to help them structure, manage and scale their businesses.
The funding and support will be presented at a Pitch Day organised by NiYA and the Federal Ministry of Youth Development.
The Minister for Youth Development, Mr s Ayodele Olawande, said the partnership would enable NiYA to move beyond training by helping young people transform ideas into investable businesses and achieve sustainable economic participation through business preparation and access to capital.
“The pilot is deliberately designed to test a model that can go beyond one cohort. If young founders can be identified early, prepared properly, connected to credible capital and supported to build stronger business systems, then access to opportunity becomes less dependent on background or existing networks. That is the larger objective: to build a youth entrepreneurship ecosystem in which readiness, ideas and execution can increasingly determine who gets the opportunity to grow.”
The pilot will run in-person in Abuja with virtual touchpoints and 1:1 mentorship. All 20 graduates retain NiYA alumni status, with priority consideration for future opportunities.
NiYA and FMYD have already shown what real commitment to Nigeria’s youth looks like — the platforms, the reach, the ambition to train millions. What we’re building together now is the missing piece, a practical bridge from the ideation stage to real capital-readiness. When a Ministry so dedicated to its young people asked Cascador to help build that bridge, it was an easy decision,” said Trish Thomas, CEO of Cascador.
Ms Oyin Solebo, COO of Cascador and former Managing Director of the ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator, highlighted the partnership’s impact, saying, “This is what innovative capital deployment looks like: a government building real investment readiness at scale, and a partner meeting that foundational work with non-dilutive funding at exactly the moment it’s needed. Partnerships like this open doors that neither of us could open alone.”
