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This vibrant Nigerian businessman has been the bedrock and sustainer of so many Nigerians through his business. He is an icon to be emulated and celebrated as he came, saw and conquered in the Entrepreneurial sphere, so he truly deserves some accolades.
Oba Otudeko is an Accountant, Industrialist, Founder and CEO of Honeywell group. He is also the chairman of FBN Holding Plc, Founder of the Oba Otudeko Foundation and Recipient of the prestigious National Honour of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR). So many responsibilities for a man!
Otudeko was born and bred in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria into an influential family. He received education from notable tertiary institution and proceeded to Leeds College of Commerce Leeds (now merged with Leeds Beckett University.) Yorkshire, United Kingdom to study Accounting. Otudeko is a professional Chartered Banker, Chartered Accountant and also a Chartered Corporate Secretary.
Otudeko had worked in the erstwhile Cooperative Bank, Ibadan bank for 23 years and slowly but steadily climbed up the ranks. He eventually became the General Manager and acting Chief Executive Officer of the erstwhile Cooperative Bank, Ibadan. After he retired in 1983, Otudeko started his own business named Honeywell Group. The group is essentially a trading establishment but with time it grew and stretched into Telecommunication, Infrastructure, Real Estate and Financial Services. Honeywell Group originally began as a trading establishment that majored in importing and marketing commodities between the Northern and Southern region of Nigeria and even expanded into the West African sub-region, especially Ghana. The group has now grown to become a conglomerate with tentacles in many diverse sectors like- foods and agro-allied, real estate, infrastructure, energy and services.
The Honeywell Group expresses itself through 10 operating companies namely: Honeywell Flour Mills Plc, HOGL Energy Limited, Pivot Engineering Company Limited, UragaReal Estate, Anchorage Leisures and Pavilion Technology Limited. Others are Broadview Engineering, Hudson Power Limited, Uraga Power Solutions Limited and Honeywell Energy Resources International Limited.
Apart from being a successful entrepreneur, Otudeko is also a philanthropist. In 2003, He established the Oba Otudeko Foundation, a private, independent, not-for-profit institution that is “committed to programmes aimed at ensuring that Nigeria keeps pace in the technologies and competencies that will define the twenty-first century and beyond, through people empowerment, capacity and institutions building. The Foundation has four focus areas, namely: Education, Health, Environment, and Public Enlightenment; in addition, OOF also provides grants and material donations to other Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and worthy social causes. OOF is convinced that the continuing chronic shortage of human and institutional capacity presents a major constraint to economic growth, poverty reduction and sustainable development in Nigeria and other sub-Saharan African countries.
Notable contributions of the Foundation include institution of a Central Administration Building for the Olabisi Onabanjo University; donation of the Honeywell Auditorium to Lagos Business School (Pan-Atlantic University); donation of an Administrative Block to All Saints’ College, Edun Village, Ibadan; donation of a Students’ Cafeteria to Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State; endowment of the Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.He also donates to religious and other worthy social courses.
Otudeko has received several national and international awards in recognition for the wonderful works has done. In 2016, he emerged winner of the African Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of the Year award at the Africa CEOs’ Forum, in Abidjan. The previous year, 2015, Otudeko was voted Leadership Newspaper Business Person of the Year. Earlier in 2009, Otudeko was conferred with Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the ThisDay Awards, while Silverbird Television conferred on him, the Extraordinary Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. Furthermore, in recognition of his contributions to the nation’s economic growth, Otudeko was awarded the following national honours: Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) in 2011, Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) in 2002 and the Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) in 2000. Other recognitions include Honorary Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) from Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye; Honorary Doctor of Science in Banking and Finance from Crescent University, Abeokuta, Ogun State; Honorary Doctorate Degree from Baze University, Abuja; and Honorary Doctorate Degree from Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo Town, Oyo State; Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the second time at theThisDay Awards in 2012 and Ernst & Young (EL) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.
Oba Otudeko has not stopped in his bid to improve the lives of people in his country.
We celebrate this great icon!
