Jobs/Appointments
WIMCA Tasks Female Professionals on Career Advancement
By Ahmed Rahma
An agenda has been set for the female marketing professionals in Nigeria, who intend to advance their careers.
This outline was set at the prestigious Women in Marketing and Communications Conference/Awards (WIMCA) held on November 13, 2020.
The special edition themed Generation equality; imperatives of gender inclusion for the growth of brands and marketing communications had various experts and leaders in the Nigerian marketing communication industry as participant and resource persons who dissected the subject of the occasion.
“The theme of the International Women’s Day (IWD) celebration commemorated every March has always informed the theme of WIMCA and this year was no different,” the convener of WIMCA 2020, Mr Joshua Ajayi, explained while welcoming participants to the event.
He revealed that this year’s WIMCA topic was to explore how women can navigate through the tough terrain to shatter the glass ceilings to attain their potential professionally, especially in the Industrial Management Consulting (IMC) industry.
“As usual, women continue to encounter challenges when it comes to advancing in the workplace—and in many facets of society.
“Some of these challenges include Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs), the issue of equal remuneration or equal pay, a bias which is an issue women continue to deal with at the place of work, and advocacy, among others,” he explained further.
The Group Managing Director of GDM, Mr Victor Afolabi, who was the keynote speaker of the conference, admonished brand custodians and marketers to always ensure that women are always made the fore focus of marketing strategies as they are economically empowered to make purchase decisions.
“According to research, globally, women control over $20 trillion of the total consumer spend as they wield an influence of over 80 per cent in buying decisions.
“They spend more time than men daily, making economic decisions for their families — from consumer goods to services. These women hold crucial purchasing power. In fact, 50% of products marketed to men are purchased by women,” he noted.
The event also featured two highly interactive panel discussions which had some of the best minds in the industry as panellists.
The first, which was geared towards providing a mentorship platform for young and prospective professionals as well as igniting the potential in women towards attaining enviable heights in marketing and management, was titled Leveraging Data Science for Effective Engagement of Female Consumers.
The session had the event keynote speaker joined by Director of Marketing and Communications, SSA, Mastercard (virtual presence), Ifeoma Dozie, the Executive Director of Marketing, Hs Media Group, Dr Tola Elatuyi, and the Founder/CEO of Kucheza Gaming, Bukola Akingbade as the session moderator.
“Data analytics helps marketers in understanding what happened in the past. It helps you understand the ‘why, what, when, where and how’ of consumers actions in the past.
“With this information, you are better informed and know where the gaps are and of course where the opportunities are. Data science, on the other hand, is predictive data.
“Meaning it is a kind of data that tells you if a customer bought this item, they are likely to purchase this other item. With data science which is predictive, marketers are able to think of product management and innovation.
“It shapes the way the brand thinks, the way we are communicating and the way we are packaging products even to the way we put our products on the shelves,” Dr Elatuyi mentioned while explaining the relationship between data analytics and data science in relations to marketing.
On her part, Ifeoma Dozie decried the dearth of women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, especially cybersecurity and artificial intelligence during her response to the moderator’s question on the place of digital in marketing to women and how Mastercard is engaging the female consumers in this digital age.
She, however, added that, “MasterCard is cultivating young tech enthusiasts as parts of our signature platform called Girls for Tech.
“This is a fun and engaging curriculum built around global science and mathematics. And we have made a commitment to reach 1 million girls globally by 2025 with this programme.
“Our second step is at the product stage, by creating the right solution. We asked ourselves, “are our products and services meeting the actual needs of women? Do we have insights that can help us incorporate women’s experiences into the design and innovation process?
“As a payment technology leader with global insights, we have invested significantly in understanding women’s financial priorities and mapping out these priorities across different stages.
“So, we are committed to designing and developing a world with both women and men in mind; because creating a better world for women creates limitless opportunities and possibilities for us all.”
At the second session moderated by the Customer Marketing & Commercial Manager of Coca-Cola Company, Pheobe Dami-Asolo, Ayodele Otujinrin of Godrej Consumer Products Limited who spoke on the theme Each For Equal: Navigating Through Tough Terrains, explained that beyond the workplace, there are internal factors from the family as well as the society that make it hard for women to go far professionally.
She advised that for women to advance in their careers, they need to be more aspirational beyond the need to get married and raise a family.
“We need to rise up to battle out our challenges. Women need to be more aspirational. Personally, my upbringing was different as the daughter of a single mother. Like Kamala Harris who says she eats ‘No’ for breakfast, I have had to find my way competing with every other person on an equal pedestal.” She further advised women to better themselves by going for training among other things.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Mr Shu’aibu Shehu Aliyu as the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF).
Mr Aliyu, a professor, is to replace Mr Ahmed Galadima Aminu, who recently resigned to participate in the 2027 governorship election in Adamawa State.
In a statement by a spokesperson to the President, Mr Bayo Onanuga, on Thursday, it was disclosed that the appointment of Mr Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz as the chief executive of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has been renewed for a second and final term.
These appointments are said to take effect immediately.
Professor Aliyu, the new PTDF helmsman, is a distinguished academic and seasoned administrator with extensive experience in research, education, and institutional leadership. His appointment underscores the President’s commitment to strengthening key institutions in the petroleum sector and advancing capacity development for Nigeria’s energy industry.
“The President expects him to leverage his wealth of experience to reposition the PTDF for greater impact in human capital development, innovation, and strategic support for the oil and gas sector in line with national priorities.
“President Tinubu renewed Engineer Abdulaziz’s appointment following a comprehensive assessment of his performance and leadership of the nation’s transmission network.
“Under his stewardship, TCN has recorded notable improvements in grid stability, transmission capacity expansion, and system modernisation, reinforcing its critical role in Nigeria’s electricity value chain.
“Engr. Abdulaziz brings over three decades of experience in the power sector and has also strengthened regional electricity integration through his leadership in the West African Power Pool (WAPP).
“President Tinubu urges both appointees to discharge their responsibilities with diligence, integrity, and a strong sense of national service,” the statement said.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited saw its workforce rise by 12.2 per cent to 6,247 at the end of 2025 from 5,566 in the corresponding period of 2024, according to its latest employee data.
The state oil firm stated that its employees increased by 14.3 per cent from 5,495 recorded at the end of the first quarter of 2025 to 6,280 at the end of the second quarter of 2025.
Its staff strength, however, dropped by 0.11 per cent to 6,273 workers in the third quarter of 2025 and further shrank by 0.41 per cent to 6,247 in the last quarter of the year under review.
Giving a breakdown of its workforce in terms of gender, the NNPC disclosed that at the end of the fourth quarter, 5,044 employees, representing 80.7 per cent of its workforce, were males, while 1,203 employees, representing 19.3 per cent of its total workforce, were females.
Further breakdown revealed that Junior Staff 2 (JS 2) and Junior Staff 1 (JS1) cadres had one staff member and 175 staff members, respectively, at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, as against one staff and 187 staff members, respectively, recorded in the third quarter of 2025.
In addition, the Senior Staff Seven (SS7) cadre had 31 employees, remaining the same as in the previous quarter, while the SS6 cadre dropped to 1,010 staff, from 1,012 staff recorded at the end of the third quarter of 2025.
The SS5, SS4, SS3, SS2 and SS1 staff cadre recorded 1,076 staff, 164 staff, 389 staff, 471 staff and 1,829 staff, respectively, in the quarter under review, compared with 1,076 staff, 164 staff, 391 staff, 478 staff and 1,835 staff, respectively, recorded in the third quarter of 2025.
Management Six (M6) cadre had 695 staff in the second quarter of 2025, compared with 699 staff in the same category in the previous quarter, while M5, M4, M3, M2 and M1 cadres had 237 staff, 117 staff, 47 staff, seven staff and one staff respectively, compared with 243 staff, 116 staff, 44 staff, seven staff and one staff in the corresponding cadres in the third quarter of 2025.
Further analysis of the NNPC workforce across different cadres showed that JS2 and JS1 accounted for 0.02 per cent and 2.75 per cent of its total workforce, respectively, while SS7, SS6, SS5, SS4, SS3, SS2 and SS1 cadres accounted for 0.50 per cent, 16.17 per cent, 17.22 per cent, 2.63 per cent, 6.23 per cent, 7.54 per cent and 29.28 per cent of the state oil company’s total workforce, respectively.
In addition, NNPC’s M6, M5, M4, M3, M2 and M1 cadres accounted for 11.13 per cent, 3.79 per cent, 1.87 per cent, 0.75 per cent, 0.11 per cent and 0.02 per cent, respectively.
In general, the NNPC Limited noted that it had 173 employees in its junior staff category; 4,970 employees in its senior staff category, and 1,104 employees in its management category.
It also reported that in its middle management cadre, it has 932 employees, accounting for 14.92 per cent of its total workforce, while the top management cadre had 172 employees, accounting for 2.75 per cent of its total workforce.
By Adedapo Adesanya
President Bola Tinubu has appointed Mr Ibrahim Ida as Chairman of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
Mr Ida holds an MSc in Banking and Finance from the University of Ibadan (1983) and an LLB from the University of Abuja (2003). Before being elected to the Senate in 2017 to represent Katsina Central, he served as the Commissioner of Finance for Katsina State and as the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Civil Service.
His appointment comes as the CAC faces legislative scrutiny over its books. The commission is part of a group of agencies that the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommended zero allocation for the year 2026, for allegedly failing to account for public funds appropriated to them.
The committee, at an investigative hearing held in February, accused CAC and some other ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of shunning invitations to respond to audit queries contained in the Auditor-General for the Federation’s annual reports for 2020, 2021 and 2022.
It asked the National Assembly not to continue to appropriate public funds to institutions that disregard accountability mechanisms.
President Tinubu also nominated seven people to fill vacant commissioner positions at the National Population Commission (NPC) as Federal Commissioners to represent their respective states in the National Population Commission. The nominees are;
1. Kolawole Oladipupo Alabi – Ekiti State
2. Nasiru Mu’azu – Zamfara State
3. Usman Abubakar Tuggar – Bauchi State
4. Dr Isaka Alada Yahaya – Kwara State
5. Prof. Sadiq Isah Radda – Katsina State
6. Suleiman Umar – Jigawa State
7. Hon. Chiso Abdullahi Dattijo – Sokoto State
The appointments, which complement other Federal Commissioners already sworn in, are subject to confirmation by the National Assembly.
The President also appointed Mr Yusuf Mohammed of Kano State as Chairman of the Federal Polytechnic, Kaltungo, and confirmed the appointment of Mr Bala Mohammed Bello as his Special Adviser on Political Economy.
Mr Bello, from Kebbi State, holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and an MBA from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Before this appointment, he was a Deputy Governor at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). He also served as Executive Director (Corporate Services) at the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) from 2017 to 2022.
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