Family, Friends Celebrate Bola Akingbade at 70

Activities marking the celebration of 70^th birthday of Mr Bola Akingbade, former Chief Marketing Officer of MTN Nigeria took place at Federal Palace Hotel on Sunday 16^th June, 2023, as family members and friends trouped to the venue to celebrate the astute marketing guru, who had traversed the marketing space with enormous footprints that have become reference points in the marketing landscape.

By exactly 5:30 pm family members and friends started arriving to celebrate the man of honour, intelligence, excellence and humility who many described as a gift from God.

At exactly 6:15pm when the event started, praises upon praised became the norm to show and thank Mr Akingbade for great accomplishments he achieved throughout his career, and how he has been impacting the lives of others.

It will be recalled that Mr Akingbade was the Marketing Director of Nigeria Breweries before he pitched tent with MTN Nigeria which was his last working place.

Bola Akingbade is one of the most decorated brand strategists and marketing icons in both the fast-moving consumer goods and telecom sectors of the corporate Nigeria whose achievements will remain indelible on sand of times.

Echoes From MTN Nigeria

Ugo Nwoye, Chief Customer Executive, MTN Nigeria described Mr Akingbade as a reference point who is taken in high esteem event after his retirement from the service of the company. According to her, Mr Akingbade came to MTN as an experienced Marketing Director to a company, which on the surface was number one and he quickly saw areas where MTN should do better and behave more as an agile FMCG company. He also imparted greatly in the life of those who worked with him. You come out wiser upon every interaction with him because he is a story teller. He taught through story telling. His experience was huge and impactful. The positioning that MTN has today has been in line with what Mr Akingbade put on the table in 2005 and that positioning is called Ambition 2025 Strategy. To him, “MTN should be an essential enabler of a modern and progressive rhythm of life.”

“This was in sync with a company that was connecting Nigerians, making sure that the impact is spelt out and more than 15 years after, that remains what MTN has tried to unpack. Bola Akingbade established new standards on what a company should be in a marketing environment.

For Bayo Adekanmbi, former chief marketing officer and former Chief innovation officer, MTN, “There is so much to say. Today, we are celebrating a living legend. We thank mama for being there in all the journeys; we are appreciative that you gave us Mr Akingbade who gave many of us who found expressions in our career through your mentoring and guidance.

“I joined another Telco outside Nigeria and in the course of my work across Africa, I have seen that some of the things that he did can be found in the methodologies of others. He is an intelligent man, and for those of us who are familiar with him we can testify that there is so much to learn from him, and anytime he had a pen and papers he would explain the framework, logics, principles, pathways, approaches that would enable you to gain market share.

Beyond intellectual boundaries is the emotional connection he has with people. From the cleaner, the gate keeper to officers, he is genuinely concerned about people.”

Family and Friends

Going memory lane, Prof Ajibola, a classmate of Akingbade at Federal Government College Ibadan, Oyo State and at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, Osun State, said “Akingbade is an intelligent person who relates with everyone, even with people who don’t relate with others.  At the University of Ife, he was very prominent that he became the hall chair of Awo Hall. Each time his old school mates meet and had to talk about old school mates, and when Bola Akingbade is mentioned, it is always that he has always been helpful in many ways to different people.

“Only last week, I met with somebody who said he has interacted with many marketing directors in the country, and that the only one who did not ask for money from him is Bola. He is a man of integrity and a shining example to many.”

For Bala Yesufu, a former staff of Nigerian Breweries, Bola Akingabde is a brilliant person, resourceful and very focused. He is a man of honour and integrity and these can be attested to by what many people have said about him.

Throughout the event, family members and well -wishers continued to heap praises upon him. For Dapo Adelegan, Mr Akingbade is a man of integrity who has impacted his life tremendously.

Under his leadership of the Marketing & Strategy Division, MTN Nigeria made significant strides. Key amongst the achievements of the Division includes playing a significant role in growing the market share from 45 percent in 2006 to over 50 percent at the end of 2011 and entrenching MTN’s position as the number one brand in Nigeria.

Under him, the Marketing & Strategy Division, contributed to the growth of subscriber numbers from 12.3 million in 2006 to 41.6 million by the end of the 2011 financial year, in spite of steep competition driven by frequent pricing changes and product innovation in the telecommunications industry. Undeniably, the success of all marketing initiatives during Akingbade’s tenure contributed to enhancing the MTN brand strength and sustaining the company’s leadership position in the Industry.

The graduate of Biochemical Engineering from the University of London is known to have done many progressive jobs for various corporate entities. Even in retirement, he is still glittering among family, friends and business associates.

In private practice, he established Brandville, a strategic pan-African partnership with BigTime Africa to offer innovative mobile marketing solutions to African mobile network operators.

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