By Olayinka Ajayi
Mrs. Ibukun Awosika, the primary feminine Chairman of First Financial institution, is the Convener of African Market Dubai. On this interview, Awosika discusses her deep ardour for entrepreneurship and the way Africa can set up its place within the international financial system, amongst different subjects. Excerpts:
Trying again, what core values formed the girl you might be at this time?
My life and management have been anchored on a couple of non-negotiable values. These are ideas that have been cast in me through the years by way of expertise, conviction, and religion. They stem from the ideas I used to be raised with, the leanings and convictions I’ve embraced all through my journey, and the constant steerage of my religion and perception system. These values have formed the girl I’ve turn into, each determination I’ve made, each enterprise I’ve constructed, and each life I’ve touched.
They’re integrity, goal and worth creation. I’ve all the time believed that it’s doable to succeed with out chopping corners. Slicing corners was by no means an choice, and that conviction has sustained me throughout a long time of management. I’ve constructed my life and companies on doing what is true, not what is simple.
Additionally, I didn’t go into enterprise primarily to make revenue. I went in to resolve issues and create lasting worth. Objective provides that means to the work and retains you grounded by way of each season.
Understanding who I’m has helped me lead authentically and serve successfully. I ’ve all the time valued folks. You don’t succeed alone. Whether or not mentoring, constructing groups, or main organizations, I imagine in empowering others and creating house for everybody to thrive.
How do you steadiness your roles as a spouse, mom, enterprise chief and mentor?
My religion informs each determination: marriage, motherhood, management. I delegate and empower others; cash and folks working for me so I can attend to what really issues. I carry my true self into each room: household, enterprise, mentoring. Truthfully, I see my roles not as burdens to handle, however as expressions of goal. That’s how I present up absolutely as a spouse, mom, chief, and mentor.
However what function has mentorship performed in your journey?
Mentorship has been some of the defining and sacred components of my journey. I usually say that we’re not meant to stroll alone and I’ve been privileged to stroll beneath the knowledge and overlaying of people that didn’t solely train me, however confirmed me. Some have been formal mentors who sat with me by way of tough choices, others have been silent examples whose lives impressed me to rise. Their affect helped me keep away from sure pitfalls and supplied a sounding board that strengthened my convictions.
That is why I make investments deeply in others. When mentees attain out, I make time: I pay attention, pray and encourage them. I invite many into networks and cohorts. The 360 Government sequence and TIWLC are a few of such prolonged mentorship ecosystems. By way of them, ladies be taught to work collectively, give and obtain help from one another. That, to me, is mentoring in motion. When finished proper, mentorship won’t solely change a mentee’s life but additionally increase your personal goal and legacy.
What’s your strategy to risk-taking in enterprise?
Calculated obedience. That’s how I’d describe it. I don’t take dangers for the sake of being daring however I weigh them, I pray about them, I search counsel, and I transfer after I imagine it’s time.
Beginning The Chair Centre was a threat. Main First Financial institution as its first feminine Chairperson was a leap. However each step has been pushed by goal, not ego. I imagine while you take the suitable threat with the suitable coronary heart, backed by the suitable ideas, you place your self for transformational outcomes.
What drives your ardour for entrepreneurship and empowering others?
Entrepreneurship is greater than a way of livelihood, it’s a automobile of liberation. My entrepreneurial journey, from constructing The Chair Centre to sitting on quite a few esteemed company boards, has taught me that true empowerment occurs when folks imagine that their desires are legitimate and that they’re outfitted to pursue them. That’s why I’m keen about mentorship, and about policy-level interventions that take away boundaries. I don’t wish to achieve success alone. I wish to multiply success in others. Once I see somebody I as soon as mentored main their very own workforce or breaking boundaries of their trade, that’s after I know the work is really value it.
What impressed the African Market initiative?
I needed to create a platform that aggregates a effectively curated number of such African companies with export-ready merchandise of worldwide requirements, fostering financial transformation, accelerating intra-African commerce and driving job creation for our continent’s teeming youth inhabitants. Nonetheless, past commerce, one key goal of African Market is to alter the notion of African excellence and redefine the narrative of the ‘Africa story’ by way of our culturally wealthy product, innovation and craftmanship. Dubai, being a worldwide hub for commerce, tradition, and innovation, provided the perfect backdrop for this imaginative and prescient. However greater than the situation, it’s the center behind the Market that makes it completely different. It’s a name to motion, a declaration that we’re not ready to be invited to international conversations. We’re constructing our personal tables, and we’re inviting the world to come back see who we really are.
How does African Market Dubai 2025 goal to alter international perceptions of African companies and showcase African excellence?
For a lot too lengthy, the worldwide narrative round Africa has been one-dimensional, outlined by want, moderately than by capability; Help moderately than commerce. African Market Dubai 2025 is a deliberate response to that. African Market is a visible declaration that we’re creators of worth, not simply shoppers of help. It’s about giving our entrepreneurs a worldwide voice and market presence. When patrons, buyers, and stakeholders see the standard and innovation on show, they are going to start to interact with us on new phrases of dignity, excellence, and mutual worth. That’s the shift we’re catalyzing.
Our companies should not outlined by charity or survival, they’re outlined by creativity, resilience, and a relentless pursuit of excellence. By way of this platform, we’re main with high quality. We’re inserting premium, export-ready merchandise in entrance of discerning worldwide patrons, not with apology, however with delight.
From high-end vogue to cutting-edge tech, from agricultural innovation to cultural artistry, we’re telling the complete story of who we’re and what we carry. The aim is to not impress, however to appropriate. To shift the lens from help to commerce, from shortage to abundance, from uncooked potential to sophisticated efficiency. That is African excellence delivered with out compromise, with out dilution and with out the necessity for permission.
Have you ever fashioned any key partnerships with governments, commerce companies, or logistics firms in Africa and the Caribbean states for help of this initiative?
Sure, we’re at present in conversations with quite a few strategic companions, together with authorities our bodies, commerce companies and logistics firms. Whereas these conversations are nonetheless ongoing, the suggestions and curiosity so far, have been very constructive. We’re optimistic these partnerships will considerably contribute to the general success of this initiative.
How do you envision African Market contributing to a extra affluent future for African and Caribbean economies and diaspora communities?
This platform brings us collectively not simply to commerce items, however to commerce knowledge, tales, technique, and solidarity. Inclusion, for us, shouldn’t be ticking packing containers, it’s creating a brand new mannequin of prosperity that facilities our folks and empowers them to steer within the international financial system.
I see African Market as a seed that can develop right into a continent-wide mindset shift. When our entrepreneurs succeed globally, they rent domestically. When diaspora communities see themselves mirrored in international commerce areas, they make investments extra deliberately. When African and Caribbean companies collaborate, we transfer from remoted progress to collective affect. That is how we construct a future the place alternative isn’t restricted to geography however is prolonged by imaginative and prescient, connection, and intentional platforms like AMP.
How does this undertaking tie into your broader imaginative and prescient for African ladies and enterprise?
On the core of the whole lot I do whether or not in enterprise, management, or advocacy is a deep conviction that girls are highly effective brokers of transformation. I’ve seen it repeatedly: when a lady rises, she doesn’t rise alone, she brings her household, her group and sometimes a complete ecosystem alongside together with her. My broader imaginative and prescient has all the time been about unlocking that potential, creating constructions the place ladies should not simply collaborating, however main with confidence and competence. For too lengthy, African ladies have been boxed into small narratives, merchants, aspect hustlers, help roles. However the reality is, they’re visionaries, builders, and innovators, able to thriving on the highest ranges of worldwide enterprise.
African Market was designed with intentional inclusivity at its coronary heart. This platform showcases merchandise and elevates the folks behind them. We’ve made a deliberate effort to make sure women-led companies should not solely current however positioned for visibility, connection, and progress. I need African ladies to see themselves as rightful gamers in international commerce, decision-makers, exporters, job creators. The Market provides them a seat on the desk, the place their concepts, companies and brilliance may be seen, heard, and invested in, on a worldwide stage.
How would the platform make sure the genuine illustration and inclusion of African and Caribbean merchandise?
Authenticity is the muse of your entire African Market initiative. We’re deeply intentional about what we curate and the way we current it. This isn’t about placing African and Caribbean merchandise on show for the sake of visibility; it’s about showcasing the complete richness, depth, and excellence of our cultures in a approach that honors their origins. From vogue to meals, from wellness to expertise, each product that makes it into the Market is evaluated, effectively vetted for market readiness, cultural integrity and international competitiveness. We’re dedicated to making sure that what we put ahead is premium in high quality, dignified in presentation, and reflective of the brilliance that exists throughout our continent.
To do that effectively, we’re collaborating with cultural custodians, trade specialists, and native companions who perceive the nuance and historical past behind what we’re showcasing. We’re not eager about watered-down representations—we’re constructing a platform that enables the world to interact with our merchandise as they’re: modern, rooted, and world-class. Whether or not it’s the weave of indigenous loom cloth, the substances in a spice mix, or the design of a tech answer, we’re ensuring that the whole lot displays the true spirit of its origin. This strategy ensures that the African and Caribbean narrative shouldn’t be misplaced in translation however celebrated in its most genuine and compelling kind.
What number of companies and entrepreneurs are you hoping to attach or remodel by way of the platform?
We’re concentrating on over 200 export-ready SME manufacturers.
What’s your long-term imaginative and prescient for it, and the way do you intend to increase its international attain?
This inaugural version in November, will lay a basis for a second version November 2026 as proof of idea paving the best way for our long-term imaginative and prescient of a everlasting African Market in Dubai the place genuine and culturally wealthy African and Caribbean merchandise will likely be out there all 12 months spherical. Moreover, we are going to proceed to host these exhibitions yearly to draw new and modern manufacturers. The final word aim is sustainability, the place African and Caribbean companies thrive constantly in international markets.
What sort of affect do you anticipate this platform to have on the viability of export-ready African and Caribbean companies?
Visibility is step one, when the world sees you, it begins to worth you. However we’re going past consciousness to valuation. By way of strategic purchaser connections, funding matchmaking, and enterprise growth help, we’re equipping companies not simply to be seen, however to be scaled. Viability, on this sense, means long-term competitiveness—and that’s our aim.
What distinctive worth wouldn’t it provide that can distinguish it from different worldwide commerce platforms?
It’s greater than a commerce honest it’s a high-impact gateway to international enterprise. It’s a celebration of tradition, commerce, creativity, and connection in a approach that displays the richness of our continent and the Caribbean. We’re designing an expertise that’s immersive, academic, and transformative. It’ll embody B2B matchmaking, storytelling zones, innovation showcases, dwell demos and strategic networking that fosters actual offers and deep dialogue.
What recommendation would you give to younger African ladies looking for their voice in a loud world?
Be true to your self and guard your identification. Know who you might be in God and construct from there. The world will provide many scripts, however your energy lies in authenticity. Don’t look forward to permission—equip your self, discover your tribe, and rise. Your voice issues, and while you use it with knowledge, it modifications the whole lot.
What would you say is your largest legacy in company Nigeria up to now?
If I’m remembered for something, I hope it’s for being a door-opener, for exhibiting that excellence, character, and religion should not mutually unique in enterprise. Whether or not it was main as the primary feminine Chairperson of First Financial institution or championing inclusion in boardrooms, I hope my legacy is that I made house for others. Legacy, to me, shouldn’t be in monuments—it’s in lives modified. If generations after me can stroll taller, dream larger and imagine deeper due to one thing I did or stood for, then I’ve finished my half. My finish recreation in life is to die empty.
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