2012 Tutu Fellow Dr Amy Jadesimi has been named Africa's Young CEO of the Year. Amy is the Managing Director and CEO of LADOL, short for a half billion USD port development infrastructure project at Lagos, Nigeria. The acronym stands for Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base and is an industrial free zone with a logistics base in the shipyard. Amy's plans go beyond just infrastructure development, however. She is working towards transforming the area into more than just an industrial area, rather, she wants it to be an economic zone that sustainably creates jobs and business opportunities in the area.
She points out that the shipyard is the largest fabrication and integration shipyard in west Africa with the largest crane capacity on the continent. This gives the port an advantage of being a hub of choice for not just west Africa but the entire continent. If the project were to pursue sustainable job creation as an economic zone, the gain could be $12 trillion.
At the ceremony, which took place in Abidjan, Amy accepted the award and said she shared it with the company, which, she said, had been able to accomplish a great deal over the past decade and a half. She also said that she thought it was important for women to have examples of strong women who are role models.
The Young CEO trophy is awarded to a CEO under 45 who leads an African business that shows great promise by the Africa CEO Forum. Criteria incude being African; growth over the past two years; a strong economic, social and environmental contribution; and the individual should be someone with great potential for further growth. More than 200 companies, investors and CEOs have been nominated over the past five years, embodying the vitality of Africa’s economy. The awards ceremony took place during the Africa CEO Forum dinner in March 2018, in Abidjan.
Cover picture: Dr Amy Jadesimi is in green.
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