Brands/Products
Badejo-Okusanya, Awosika, Others for 2021 The Industry Lifetime Awards
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
On Friday, April 2, 2021, four heavyweights in the integrated marketing communications (IMC) sector in Nigeria will be honoured with 2021 The Industry Lifetime awards.
The selected persons, according to a statement, would be conferred with the honour at this year The Industry Evening Summit to take place at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Ikeja in Lagos.
The awardees are the executive vice-chairman of Troyka Holdings, owners of Insight Redefini, Optimum Exposure, Halogen Security, Mr Feyijimi Awosika; the group managing director of CMC BCW, Mr Yomi Badejo-Okusanya; the group managing director of mediaReach OMD West and Central Africa, Mr Tolu Ogunkoya; and the group managing director of Oracle Experience, Mr Felix King Eiremiokhae.
The Industry Evening Summit has become a flagship platform that brings all the marketing and marketing communications professionals across the continent together annually.
According to the Chairman of the award committee, Mr Akin Adewakun, the honour for these deserving professionals is overdue, going by their antecedents in their chosen professions.
Mr Awosika, who has distinguished himself in creative advertising, has been a reference point in the industry for both older and younger professionals.
His professional career started early at the old Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) where he often worked in the newsroom as a vacation jobber. Upon graduation from the University of Lagos, he was posted back to the NBC for his service year and stayed on full-time for another 18 months as a senior sub-editor working mostly in radio.
For Mr Badejo-Okusanya, he is widely known to be one of the premier public relations practitioners in Nigeria with experience in the areas of Government Relations & Legislative Affairs, Perception Management, Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations and Crisis Communications.
He has handled corporate communication activities, issues, advocacy & crisis briefs, government and legislative relations; and public affairs management for high profile clients including the JAGAL Group, Airtel Nigeria, International Monetary Fund’s (IMF), British American Tobacco Nigeria, Transcorp, Renaissance Group, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Peugeot Nigeria Ltd, Shell, Virgin Nigeria.
On the part of Mr Ogunkoya, who is regarded as the pioneer in the media buying and selling industry, has led mediaReach OMD to an enviable height in the industry.
mediaReach OMD under his watch has won several accounts from MTN, Airtel, UAC Nigeria, and several other multinational brands.
Mr Eiremiokhae, who is regarded as a colossus in the experiential marketing industry, has significantly distinguished himself by orchestrated several mind-blowing activations such as Gulder Oceanliner club booster, Star Beer Eyoh Statutes, Gulder Create Cave, Peak Milk one million signature and Maggi First Lady activation among others.
The convener of the initiative, Mr Goddie Ofose, stated that the committee did a thorough job by selecting the best for this year.
Some of the high profile awards for the evening include Mr John Ugbe, the CEO of MultiChoice Nigeria for CEO of the Year; Casmir Ezeudu, chairman, Westgate Technologies for ICT Champion of the Year; Buchi Johnson, CIO Lilvera for Young IMC CEO of the Year; Stanbic IBTC Bank for Excellence in Promoting Gender-Based Empowerment, CACOVID- Best Private Sector Led Initiative, MultiChoice Nigeria for Excellence in Community Relations; Gboyega Akosile, the Chief Press Secretary to Lagos State Governor for Most Efficient Public Sector Spokesperson; and Anthony Chiejina, the Group Head, Corporate Communications, Dangote Group, for Most Efficient Private Sector Spokesperson.
Recall that in 2020, Lolu Akinwunmi, the former chairman of Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, (APCON) and the group managing director of Prima Garnet; Udeme Ufot, the former APCON Chairman and GMD of SO&U; and Nna’emeka Maduegbuna, the GMD of CandF were named The Industry Lifetime awards winners.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
An institutional investor, First Ally Capital, has strengthened a leading Nigerian financial technology company, Mathesis Analytics, to scale its proprietary credit decisioning infrastructure.
It made this possible by injecting fresh capital into the firm, which specialises in AI-powered credit decisioning infrastructure, an action that will directly support the growth and scaling of Mathesis’ core mission of providing the intelligence and infrastructure needed to bridge the credit gap for millions of unscored or underscored individuals across Nigeria.
With this investment, Mathesis will enable financial institutions to confidently assess and extend credit to borrowers who lack a formal credit history by leveraging an expanded pool of alternative behavioural and transactional data.
To date, Mathesis’ systems have supported more than 8 million loans for over 2 million unique borrowers in Nigeria, and the company is actively deploying its infrastructure to establish a growing pan-African footprint.
With the investment from First Ally Capital, Mathesis is well positioned to transform how the credit ecosystem operates, driving financial inclusion in partnership with lenders across the continent.
A significant barrier to credit access in Nigeria, which prides itself on being Africa’s largest economy, is data fragmentation. Borrowers frequently build positive financial behaviours across multiple digital platforms by repaying microfinance loans, saving through fintech wallets, or servicing Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) facilities.
However, under traditional credit infrastructure, these achievements remain invisible to new lenders.
Mathesis addresses this challenge through the concept of Personal Equity—the quantified expression of an individual’s financial behaviour aggregated across every institution with which they have transacted.
By translating these disparate signals into a precise, portable measure of creditworthiness, Mathesis creates a comprehensive credit identity that reflects the full breadth of a person’s financial life.
“True financial inclusion cannot be achieved in a vacuum; it requires structural collaboration in which lenders and fintech companies work as partners within the ecosystem.
“This investment from First Ally Capital validates our approach to reshaping credit infrastructure. By quantifying Personal Equity, we empower lenders to safely look beyond the constraints of formal credit histories and recognise a borrower’s true creditworthiness. This capital enables us to accelerate our pan-African expansion while maintaining the robust, institutional-grade infrastructure our partners rely on,” the chief executive of Mathesis Analytics, Winston Osuchukwu, stated.
On his part, the chief executive of First Ally Capital, Mr Ebenezer Olufowose, said, “At First Ally Capital, we pride ourselves on being a one-stop destination for financial solutions, offering a diverse portfolio of services ranging from investment banking and asset management to trusteeship, inclusive banking, and real estate.
“Our investment in Mathesis Analytics reflects our strong belief in the company’s vision and our commitment to supporting forward-thinking enterprises that deliver excellence.”
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The chief executive of Canal+ Africa, Mr David Mignot, has disclosed that MultiChoice is now fully integrated into the media group.
Mr Mignot disclosed this via a statement issued on Thursday, noting that this development marks a new phase in the evolution of one of Africa’s leading pay television operators.
He noted that the integration positions MultiChoice within a global media organisation with an extensive international footprint.
“MultiChoice is now a full subsidiary of a truly international media group operating in 70 countries. The group was founded in France, is listed in London and Johannesburg, and has a strong African presence with operations in more than 45 countries,” Mr Mignot said.
The statement underscores the scale of the combined business, highlighting Canal+’s global reach alongside its significant investments across Africa.
The completion of the transaction is expected to strengthen MultiChoice’s position in the African media and entertainment market by giving it access to the broader resources, expertise and international capabilities of the Canal+ Group, while reinforcing the group’s commitment to the continent.
MultiChoice operates across sub-Saharan Africa through platforms including DStv and GOtv, serving millions of subscribers with entertainment, sports and news content.
By Adedapo Adesanya
FoodCourt, a Nigerian cloud kitchen startup backed by Y Combinator, has suspended operations after months of unpaid salaries and mounting debts to vendors triggered a staff strike and forced the company to halt customer orders, according to a report by TechCabal.
The publication reported that customers first noticed on March 4 that they could no longer place orders through the FoodCourt app after the company disabled ordering as kitchen workers, delivery personnel and branch staff embarked on strike over unpaid wages. The company also owed outstanding payments to vendors.
By April 19, FoodCourt had temporarily shut its last operating branch after suspending activities across its Lagos and Abuja locations while seeking fresh funding and restructuring the business, according to the report.
The company’s chief executive, Mr Henry Nneji, said the decision to pause operations was not caused by a single issue but by a combination of operational, organisational and working-capital challenges.
“It’s important to clarify that the decision to pause operations wasn’t driven by one single issue. We reached a point where it became clear that continuing to patch those issues while operating wasn’t the right long-term decision,” he said.
“The objective is to build a stronger business than the one that existed before the suspension. We fully intend to bring FoodCourt back,” he added in an emailed response.
The company acknowledged outstanding obligations to employees, vendors, riders and service providers, but declined to disclose the number of affected workers or the total amount owed. It said efforts were underway to resolve the liabilities as part of its restructuring process.
It was also reported that the startup’s financial difficulties worsened after expansion into additional locations increased operating costs, while its cloud kitchen model came under pressure from rising labour, logistics, food and marketing expenses.
Despite the shutdown, Mr Nneji said FoodCourt intends to relaunch after completing its restructuring, adding that the company believes demand for its products remains strong.
Founded in 2021 by Henry Nneji and Paul Adokiye Iruene, FoodCourt operates cloud kitchens under multiple virtual restaurant brands through its consumer app. According to TechCabal, the startup had previously disclosed raising $1.7 million, delivering more than one million meals and reaching $4.3 million in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2024.
