2020 FATE Awards Announcement (copy 01)

Dear ,We are happy to announce the awardees of the 2020 FATE Foundation Annual Awards. The award categories are FATE Model Entrepreneur Award (FME), FATE Alumni Model Entrepreneur Award (FAME), SME Journalist Award, Volunteer Faculty of the year, Volunteer Advisor of the year, Volunteer Mentor of the year, and Volunteer Content Contributor of the year.

FATE MODEL ENTREPRENEUR AWARD (FME) AWARD

Tayo OviosuFounder and Group CEO, Paga

The FATE Model Entrepreneur (FME) Award is to recognize and celebrate ethical Nigerian men and women who have successfully established a fast-growing business, created employment as well as contributing to the fostering of other businesses in the country.Tayo Oviosu founded Paga, a mobile payments company in 2009 to enable universal access to financial services for Nigerians with the vision that the ubiquity of mobile phones can be leveraged to bring financial services to all Africans. The Company received its operating license from the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2011. The Company now has over 17,458,431 customers and had processed over $6.6 billion transactions as of the end of 2019. The company is seen as one of the most successful financial services companies in the country working in partnership with select Banks, Microfinance institutions, and all Mobile Network Operators. Tayo is the youngest FME awardee. His entrepreneurial journey in building Paga is truly admirable and we commend the significant impact he has made in building Paga to become a world-class institution in the financial space, create jobs and also significantly impact the growth of other businesses and sectors.

FATE ALUMNI MODEL ENTREPRENEUR (FAME) AWARD 

Adetola AdebowaleFounder, Wapa Apparel Manufacturing Ltd

The FATE Alumni Model Entrepreneur (FAME) Award is a yearly honour in recognition of an alumni member (graduate) of FATE Foundation who has built a successful business with high integrity standards and has consistently inspired and supported other entrepreneurs as an active FATE Foundation volunteer (e.g Facilitator, Mentor, Consultant) as they build their own businesses.Adetola is an alumnus of the FATE Foundation Aspiring Entrepreneurs Programme (AEP 34 Class of 2010) and the Emerging Entrepreneurs 24 class of 2019. He is the Lead Tailoring Consultant of Wapa Apparel Manufacturing Company. He started his fashion business in 2006 with NGN12,500. Adetola developed the business plan for his business from FATE Foundation and has since grown his business from a single employee to 26 full-time staff.  He won a business plan competition for NGN20million which helped him expand his product line and establish his sewing factory in Ogba, Lagos. Adetola Adebowale is one of our go-to volunteers for business plan development classes. He serves as a teacher, mentor and business consultant to several of our aspiring entrepreneurs. He was the business advisor who worked with Seun Sangoleye from our scaleup programme and won this year’s Global Pitch Competition for Nutrition Businesses.

SME JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR AWARD

Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr. "CFA"Co-Founder, Techbuild.africa

The SME Journalist of the Year Award is given to an SME Journalist who has showcased the Nigerian MSME/Entrepreneurship space by telling the story of Nigerian entrepreneurs while also providing insights into opportunities and challenges within the ecosystem.  Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr., popularly called CFA, is a multi-award-winning media professional visible in some of Nigeria's most respected broadcast, print, and digital platforms. In developing and producing high-quality weekly content, CFA demonstrates his passion for helping entrepreneurs and professionals connect the dots leveraging digital technology to either grow their businesses and/or advance their careers. He has conducted over 250 interviews on his weekly TV show, Tech Trends on Channels Television, and written over 400 articles on the weekly column (ICT Clinic) in the Punch Newspaper. CFA engages individuals and organisations across the technology landscape and beyond on trending and important issues.CFA is constantly breaking ground as he is leveraging SME emgagement with technology. His platform techbuild.africa was most recently repositioned to further deepen the startup ecosystem on the African continent. 

VOLUNTEER FACULTY OF THE YEAR AWARD

Adebambo AdebowaleFormer Head of Business Development, Mitsubishi Corporation Nigeria

The Volunteer Faculty Award is one we give every year to celebrate a volunteer faculty member who has invested significant amount of time and resources in teaching and guiding our entrepreneurs as they build their businesses.Bambo Adebowale was the former Head of Business Development at Mitsubishi Corporation Nigeria where he had oversight for Mitsubishi’s interests and relationships in Nigeria and Ghana, across a range of products and services including commodity and plastics trading, fertilizers, compressors, and agro-allied goods and services. He is a council member at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and is the chairman of the Automobile Group. Bambo is a committed individual for empowerment and SME growth. He has been a volunteer lecturer on entrepreneurship and is a trustee and director of an empowerment NGO. This award was given in particular recognition of his role as the Emerging Entrepreneurship Programme (EEP) 26 Course Director. Bambo joined the faculty of FATE Foundation in 2003 and has since been a mentor, faculty, and trainer to the Aspiring Entrepreneurship Programme (AEP) and EEP classes. 

VOLUNTEER ADVISOR OF THE YEAR AWARD

Olumide LawsonExecutive Director, Sahel Capital Partners

The  Volunteer Advisor Award is one we give every year to celebrate one of our volunteer advisors and consultants who has invested significant amount of time and resources providing business and growth advisory support to our entrepreneurs as they build their businesses.Olumide is the Executive Director at Sahel Agribusiness Managers, a private equity and advisory firm focused primarily in agribusiness in Nigeria. Olumide began his career in the Commercial Banking Group of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc. Since mid-2013, Olumide has been one of the fund managers and a member of the investment committee of FAFIN (Fund for Agricultural Finance in Nigeria), an agriculture-focused investment fund sponsored by the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and several international development finance institutions. Olumide holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®) and the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA®) designations and an Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA). This award is being given in particular recognition of his role as an Advisor during our 2020 ScaleUp Agribusiness programme. 

VOLUNTEER MENTOR OF THE YEAR AWARD

Pat DiakuCEO, Oakhill Business Consults

The Volunteer Mentor Award is one we give every year to celebrate our volunteer mentors who consistently inspire and support our entrepreneurs in building their own businesses.  Pat is the CEO of Oakhill Business Consults, a company she birthed to help young entrepreneurs acquire relevant business skills and grow their businesses by building systems and structures that ensure business profitability and sustainability. Pat is a very passionate Social Entrepreneur and the Co-founder of The Family Tree House Initiative; an NGO that works with teenagers and youth in various Nigerian schools with a mission to raise the next generation of leaders that would change the trajectory of our society. She mentors this community of young people to develop and imbibe the right values, build their leadership competencies, and encouraging them to drive the required change in nation-building by tackling the social, economic, and cultural issues currently besieging our nation.  Pat is recognized as she has given many hours of her time to mentor entrepreneurs across different programs in FATE Foundation

VOLUNTEER CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR

Busola Boyle-KomolafeFounder & Director of Research,Versa Research

The Volunteer Content Contributor Award is one we give every year to celebrate a volunteer content contributor who has invested significant amount of time and resources in supporting our content development needs.   Busola Boyle-Komolafe is a Data Analyst, Market Researcher and Consumer Behaviour Specialist with over 8 years experience planning, designing and conducting research in Finance, Real Estate, FMCG, Healthcare, Education, Retail, Sustainability and Telecommunication sectors. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Health Studies, a Research Analyst Post Graduate Degree and Masters Degree in Market Research and Consumer Behaviour from IE Business School. Having studied, lived and worked on 3 different continents, she is knowledgeable in 4 languages.This award is being given in particular recognition of her content contribution role for the msmehub.org platform.

For more information about the awards, please send an email to [email protected]