Folio Communications unveils new Board, names ex-DG VON as chairman

Folio Communications Limited has unveiled a seven-member Board of Directors with a former Director General of Voice of Nigeria, VON, Mr Sam Worlu as its new Chairman.

This followed the stepping down last week of Mr. Fidelis Anosike who had been the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the company from inception.

Other members of the Board are Barr. Noel Anosike, Mr Mohammed Ciroma, Dr Victor Alaofin, Mrs Chioma Okigbo and Mrs Chiamaka Igwe as well as the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of Folio Communications Limited, Mr Aliu Akoshile who has been in the saddle since May last year.

The new Chairman, Mr Sam Ogbonda Worlu is a First Class Honours graduate of the University of Port Harcourt and had served Nigeria in various critical and strategic positions and has received various meritorious awards for outstanding performance in service to the Nigerian state.

He served as the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON) under former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration from March 4, 2015 to February 15, 2016.

Between 2007 and 2009, he was the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President in charge of matters related to the National Economic Council, the National Council on Privatisation, Inter-Party Consultative Forum/Committee, the Steering Council of the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP), among sundry duties.

Earlier in his career, Worlu was the Minister-Plenipotentiary, Embassy of Nigeria, Rome, Italy from 2005 to 2007 (In charge of Information and Culture), having served in the same Embassy as Minister Counsellor from 2003 to 2005.

Before this time, Worlu was the Speech Writer and Head Public Relations, Office of the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from the beginning of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, 1999 to 2003.

He was a member of the National Economic Council’s Technical Committee on Modalities for the Management of Excess Crude Revenue.

It was the outcome of the work of this Committee that gave rise to the establishment of the Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund (NSWF).

He was a member/Secretary of the National Economic Council’s Committee on Remittances to the Federation Account from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and the Nigerian Customs Service as well as Member/Secretary of the National Economic Council Committee on the National Gas Master Plan.

For four times, Worlu was a Delegate to the ECOWAS Initiative on Peace in Liberia from 1995 to 1998 and was a Presidential Mission Coordinator (PMC) for the President’s State Visit to Turkey in February 2011.

He has been decorated and honoured with dozens of awards including: the Director General’s Award for Exemplary Service, 2002; Director General’s Award for Dedication, Discipline and Courage, 2003; Special Presidential Commendation for Meritorious Service to Motherland (2011), among several others.

The Executive Vice-Chairman of FCL Board, Noel Anosike is also an accomplished Abuja-based businessman and legal practitioner with almost 20 years post-bar experience in corporate law practice.

Aside being the Team lead and Principal Partner of the Law Elias Mordi and Co, Mr. Noel is also a lead Partner in Al-Nox Solicitors.

He is also the Group Managing Director of the Folio Group Companies where he oversees the day-to-day activities of the Group both in Lagos and Abuja.

Also appointed to the Board is Mr. Mohammed Ciroma, a seasoned administrator, law graduate, banker, financial consultant and a technocrat with specialties cutting across the fields of Finance, Journalism, Information Technology and Public/Private Sector Reforms.

He is the Managing Director/Chief Executive of Four Core Technology Solutions Ltd, Mr. Mohammed Ciroma.

He has done a lot of work in the areas of Policy Formulation and Implementation, Program Development and Execution and Organizational Strategy.

Ciroma’s 25 years plus career has seen him work at top management and decision making levels.

Some of the notable roles held by Mr. Ciroma over the years include: Chief Executive/Managing Director-Four Core Technology Solutions (A Multi-Million Dollar Technology Company serving as local partners to some of the major global technology brands like Google, Oracle, Hewlett Packard, Intel and Microsoft).

He was also the General Manager-SW Global Solutions, one of Nigerian’s foremost software technology solutions providers with pioneering projects Digital Drivers Project, Automation of Nigeria Immigrations.

Ciroma also served as the Managing Director/CEO – Daily Times of Nigeria PLC and chief change officer for the national newspaper with a mandate to revitalize the ailing publisher.

Similarly, he was the Group Executive Director/Deputy Managing Director of ThisDay Newspapers, in charge of the day to day operations of the entire Newspaper group, managed the financials and administrative needs of the company, served as executive member of the board, led the expansion and personnel development for the group, instituted policies and guidelines for the newspaper’s operations and management.

Dr Victor Alaofin, another newly appointed non-executive director of FCL is an accomplished strategy consultant who has played a significant role in the implementation of Banking reforms in Nigeria and has led total enterprise transformation projects and built new business models for several players, many of which have gone on to achieve phenomenal successes as a result of his consulting efforts.

He obtained a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the University of Ibadan and completed a PhD in Economic Policy Analysis from the CAU, Kiel, Germany in 1999. He has attended training courses in the USA, UK.

Alaofin brings on board deep skills and experience in designing human performance management systems, having successfully designed and implemented same at 4 blue-chip players in Banking and Oil & Gas.

He was a key player in the creation of the e-payment industry in Nigeria as well as led the introduction of the online EFT-POS system into Nigeria and built the largest EFT-POS merchant acquisition network for card payments.

He was also a lead player in the application of online technology for SME development in Nigeria, having built the fastest data collection system in the history of Nigeria for an SME online directory.

He has worked in multicultural environments in Nigeria, Germany and France and able to build cohesive teams and focus them on current objectives.

Alaofin is a deeply engaging & passionate speaker/trainer in Management, HRM, Leadership, Strategy & Economic Development topics.

Chioma Adaobi Okigbo, another non-executive director of FML is a 1987 graduate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. She obtained a B.Sc in Economics. Other formal education has come in the form of various courses attended in the course of her career. She is a pioneer alumnus of the INSEAD management program, Transition to General Management (2012).

Okigbo is the founder and CEO of Modd Management Company Limited (MODD), an investment management and administrative company with Assets under Management of over N45billion, which was grown from scratch.

MODD was founded in August 2016 to manage investments on behalf of clients and provide a single view of all their investment assets

Okigbo is also the founder of Body Beautiful FLP, a marketing company that partners with a 42-year old US company focused in the high-growth healthcare and wellness sector.

Prior to setting up these companies, Okigbo worked in Asset & Resource Management Holding Company (ARM) Limited for 16 years and held the Managing Director role for two of their businesses over a 7-year period.

She worked as the Managing Director of the Asset Management business for over five years, providing strategic direction and business development for the company and then as pioneer Managing Director for the Financial Advisory business, which was created as a distribution platform for all retail products of the Group.

She also worked in Guaranty Trust Bank Plc from May 1995 and left in 2000 as a Deputy Manager.

Besides, she served on the boards of several companies while at ARM and currently serves on the boards of MODD Management Company Ltd, PPC Nigeria Limited, Real Estate Unite & Mzuzah Africa. She is also a Trustee on several non-profit boards as she remains passionate about giving back to the community.

Chiamaka Igwe, one of the Board’s member has a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs and Diplomacy from the prestigious Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia, USA. She is also an alumnus of University of the Arts London.

Igwe has tremendous managerial work experience. She is the Executive Director of Ace Facades and provides counsel to the firm. She worked in the travel and tourism industry for 8 years as one of the directors at ACI Travels and Tours Ltd. She is married with children.

Aliu Akoshile was appointed the MD/Editor-in-Chief of Folio Communication Limited in May 2019.

He has acquired a wealth of experience spanning over thirty years across sectors and made remarkable impacts in journalism, banking, brand marketing and management excellence.

In his capacity as Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, he shoulders the historic responsibility of restoring the lost glory of an authoritative media brand that was reputed to be one of the largest conglomerates in West Africa.

Before now, he had spent nearly 11 years manning the entire revenue portfolio of DAILY TRUST newspaper where he deployed creative business strategies that contributed to the company’s enviable growth and profitability year-on-year.

He started his journalism career as an intern with SUNDAY TIMES newspaper in 1986 and was a senior correspondent with CITIZEN magazine from 1992 to 1994. He was the pioneer Lagos Bureau Chief and Assistant Editor of DAILY TRUST (then Weekly Trust) from 1999 to 2001.

In the trajectory of his journalism career in 2001, he ventured into banking where he served for about seven years and led the remarkable transformation of the comatose Nigeria Universal Bank (NUB) into International Bank Limited (now a legacy bank of FCMB).

He has also served on the Board of ABC Transport Plc for seven years during which period he was chairman of the board committee on governance and establishment. Before then, he worked with Fayusuf Holdings, a conglomerate that includes Vascaust Communications, Fayusuf Press, and VGC Communication and rose to the position of General Manager.

He also recorded tremendous accomplishments in social engagement and volunteering. For ten years, he served as Secretary to the Jury for African of the Year, a pan-African award project, chaired by H.E., Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim, former Prime Minister of Tanzania. He served extra one year under the chairmanship of H.E., Mr. Festus Mogae, former President of Botswana, and attended all meetings of the committee in capital cities across Africa.

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He holds a B.Sc. honours degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos (1987) and M.Sc. degree in International Relations & Strategic Studies from the University of Jos (1993).

He has attended professional management training at the Lagos Business School and executive leadership programme on strategic management at the University of Oxford, UK, and Howard University School of Business, Washington DC.

He is a member of International Press Institute (IPI) and has attended the global summit of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) as well as annual events of the African Media Forum (AMF). He is also a member of Nigerian Institute of Management, NIM (Chartered); Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, NIPR; and a registered practitioner of advertising certified by APCON.

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