The President of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Dr. Benedict Oramah, presented the prestigious “Founder of the Year 2023” award to the Group Managing Director of Dangote Industries Limited, Olakunle Alake.
The award ceremony took place in Accra, Ghana, and recognized Aliko Dangote, the President of Dangote Group, on Monday night.
Aliko Dangote received this esteemed accolade due to the successful establishment of his groundbreaking $19 billion petrochemicals plant, which currently stands as Africa’s largest refinery.
Representing Aliko Dangote, Olakunle Alake attended the event in Ghana and graciously accepted the award on his behalf.
A statement issued by the organisers of the award stated that: “The Pan-African Business and Development Awards were designed to celebrate and recognise the excellence of outstanding organisations and individuals within the African business and finance sectors.
“The evening recognised some leaders in African business, and Aliko Dangote (GCON) won the Afreximbank Founder of the Year in recognition of his extraordinary achievements building one of Africa’s leading industrial groups with a truly pan-African footprint. This comes on the back of the recent official opening of his $19bn petrochemicals plant and Africa’s largest refinery, which received substantial support from Afreximbank.
“Two other greats of industry, the Zimbabwean Strive Masiyiwa and the Togolese Koffi Gervais Djondo were also recognised for their outstanding contributions to African business and industry. Masiyiwa is the founder of Liquid Intelligent Technologies, which has the largest network of fibre optic cables on the continent, Cassava Technologies, and Econet, the largest telecoms and mobile payment operator in Zimbabwe. Djondo helped found Ecobank, the leading African group in terms of footprint, as well as regional airline Asky.”
The telecoms operator MTN and Egyptian business ElSewedy were also acknowledged with Special Recognition awards, as stated.
MTN received recognition for its significant contributions to transforming the telecoms sector in Africa, while ElSewedy was acknowledged for its pivotal role in the development of Africa’s infrastructure sector.
ElSewedy and Afreximbank have fostered a strong partnership, leading to the group’s emergence as a true continental champion. They are also part of a consortium comprising African banks and private sector companies that are collectively engaged in constructing the multi-billion dollar Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project in Tanzania.
In the category of Financial Institutions of the Year, three banks were honored for their outstanding performance. The National Bank of Egypt, First Bank of Nigeria, and Coris Bank, a prominent regional player in West Africa that originated in Burkina Faso, were selected based on their extensive utilization of trade finance facilities.