Residence Lagos, Nigeria | Name Meka Olowola | |
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Full Name Niyi Meka Olowola Born 4 February 1972 (age 52) ( 1972-02-04 ) Kogi State, Nigeria Occupation Brand Management Strategist, Integrated Marketing Communications Specialist People also search for Nicholas Ugbane, Ahmed Tijani Ahmed, Ibrahim Idris | ||
Niyi Meka Olowola (born 4 February 1972) is one of the leading communications specialists in Africa. Meka serves as Managing Partner, Zenera Consulting Limited, an essential communications firm providing expert counsel on a wide range of investor relations and reputation management services. Meka is also the Executive Chairman of BuzzDigital, a social media and digital marketing company offering specialised digital brand management with local know-how to clients across the spectrum.
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Meka is a major exponent of sustainability in Africa. He advocates that an expanded culture of social responsibility and ethical action by government, individuals and corporate bodies is at the heart of the panacea to current economic challenges and negative realities in Africa. CSR-in-Action, a non-profit, one-stop platform for the promotion and unification of Corporate and Collective Social Responsibility in West Africa, where he is Board member, remains a major vehicle of expression of passion for him. Meka has been instrumental to the firm's successful hosting of the annual Sustainability in the Extractive Industries (SITEI) Conference, which is endorsed and attended by industry captains, policy makers, civil society, students and other key players in the Extractive Industries.
Meka is passionate about sustainability and devotes his time to organisations, platforms and causes that promote the concept in Africa. Besides his membership of the Board of CSR-in-Action, Meka is also a Board member of Talent Afrique Network, a youth talent development initiative; and member, Care Organisation Public Enlightenment (C.O.P.E.), a breast cancer awareness network. Early on during his NYSC service year in Gombe State, Meka philanthropy/volunteering instincts had been honed, winning two awards for outstanding humanitarian services as an HIV/AIDS Reduction Advocacy volunteer across northern Nigeria.
Personal life and education
Meka Niyi Olowola was born in Kogi State. He had his secondary education at the Federal Government College, Ogbomosho, Oyo State. He studied Physiology at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna, graduating top of his class in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science degree.
Meka has attended several local and international professional trainings and developmental programmes that have further sharpened and reinforced his occupational skills, awareness and knowledge to play more impactful roles in a twenty first century setting. Among his many professional certificates include Competency Based Interviewing (Propel, 2011), Competency Based Interviewing (KPMG, 2008), Managing Personal Career (KPMG, 2008), Finance for Non-Finance Managers (HCDC, 2006), and Managing Corporate Affairs Functions (LBS, 2006)
His other professional development certifications are:
Meka's love for impacting youths sees him teaching in the teenage department of the The Elevation Church, he enjoys poetry and has written a few poems including Diva and Mid-Morning Miracle. he is an avid golfer and has won a collection of prestigious tournaments. His trophy cabinet has over 20 trophies that includes:
Work experience
Meka’s almost 20 years cross-functional experience in the communications field has afforded him the opportunity to be a major player in the success story of several organisations; building brands, managing reputations, conceptualising award winning campaigns, and advocating the principles and ethics of sustainability.
Meka’s multifaceted work experience straddles Public Relations, Banking, and Oil and Gas. As a certified Crisis Communications and Change Management expert (Colorado State University ), he is a much sought-after Trainer and Management Consultant and has facilitated several workshops on branding, media, crisis and stakeholder communications.
Appointments
In 2012, Meka was appointed by the Honorable Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy to the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a Member of the Special Subcommittee on Nigeria’s Hosting of the World Economic Forum on Africa in 2014.
He is a member of the Board of CSR-in-Action, a non-profit, one-stop platform for the promotion and unification of Corporate and Collective Social Responsibility in West Africa. He was recently one of only two black African speakers at the prestigious Global China Business Meeting in The Hague, organised by Horasis.
Meka is a faculty board member of ValueConcepts Kenya, a training firm that provides manpower development services to the East African region.
In 2014, he was appointed to the faculty of Mara Mentors of the Mara Group where he lives another passion, mentoring youths on professional development, particularly on brands management.
He was recently invited to join the board of the Nigeria-Zimbabwe Chamber of Commerce.
Career
Meka has had significant career successes and achievements, crisscrossing some high profile organisations, particularly at Oando Plc and Zenera Consulting where he serves as Managing Partner. He doubles as the Executive Chairman of BuzzDigital, a young and vibrant firm rapidly gaining mind and market share in the digital media/marketing space with an African niche.
Within two years of managing the continuously growing operations at Zenera and BuzzDigital, Meka has led a couple of groundbreaking goals objectives for some client portfolios on Investment Relations, Branding and Strategic Media Management, including:
At Oando Plc – sub-Saharan Africa's leading indigenous integrated energy group with investments across the entire energy value chain – Meka worked for a decade, between 2003 and 2013. Oando is listed on the Nigerian, Johannesburg and Toronto Stock Exchanges.
He joined Oando the Corporate Communications department of Oando in 2003 and steadily worked his way to promotion in 2007 as Head, Corporate Communications. In these positions, Meka creditably discharged his core responsibility of supporting revenue generation through results-oriented strategic brand communication and trade management interventions. He worked closely with business development leads across the group to deliver on annual business objectives, and was responsible for image and reputation management, external/internal relationship management, media relations, investor/financial communications, and crisis management for the group and its subsidiaries.
Meka was further responsible for representing and projecting the interest of Oando brand locally and internationally; acted as the company spokesperson and frontline representative on all external relations and engagements.