Nigerian Telecommunications giant, MTN has announced the appointment of Thrive Agric’s interim Chief Executive Officer, Adia Sowho as its first female Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). The announcement was made as the company celebrates 20 years in operation in Nigeria.
Making the announcement, Karl Toriola, CEO, MTN Nigeria said that the appointment follows the decision to ” localise its management team” with the appointment of two Nigerians to two key senior positions previously held by expatriates.
Before her appointment, Adia was named the interim CEO of Thrive Agric, an agriculture investment platform after the company faced renewed allegations of defaulting on payment of matured investments. She replaced co-founder, Uka Eje, who stepped down and became the Chief Operations Officer (COO), an arrangement the company claimed was designed to allow him to understudy the incoming Adia.
7 months after her appointment, the startup announced that it has paid all the returns it owed to crowd funders on its platform. This was a significant rebound from its beleaguered position just a year before.
Prior to the appointment at Thrive Agric, Adia Sowho was the VP for Growth at Migo (formerly Mines.io) in San Francisco, CA. She joined the team to act as the Managing Director for Migo’s Nigerian Office.
She has also worked at Etisalat Nigeria for more than 7 years where she held positions like Head, Strategy and Business Development, Head of Digital Media and Director, Digital Business.
Before then, she served as a consultant at Deloitte Consulting for about 2 years and Radio Frequency Engineer at US Cellular for about 7 years.
Adia holds a Bachelor degree in Electronics and Electrical Engineering with a major in Communications from the University of Sheffield, the United Kingdom and a Master of Business Administration from Kellogg School of Management with majors in Strategy, Analytical Consulting, Strategic Marketing and Entrepreneurship.
In the same vein, MTN Nigeria also announced the appointment of Shoyinka Shodunke as the Chief Information Officer (CIO). Shoyinka has about 20 years of consummate experience in similar roles.
He joined MTN Nigeria in 2001. He was the recipient of the CIO’s award for excellence for the design and implementation of the postpaid credit and payment management process that was adjudged best in class in Nigeria.
He was appointed the CIO of MTN Zambia in 2008. He moved on to MTN Uganda in 2011 where he served as General Manager. He returned to MTN Nigeria in 2012 as the General Manager IT Service Delivery and went on to become Acting CIO. He was moved to MTN Cameroun in 2016 as the first Chief Information Officer and then Chief Information Technology Officer.
Shoyinka Shodunke holds a Bachelor of Technology in Mathematics Statistic/Operations Research from the Federal University of Technology Yola, Nigeria, a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Northampton, United Kingdom