Excellence meets opportunity as a brilliant quartet of Sahara Group employees commence a four-week London Business School development course under the framework of the Sahara Leadership Program (SLP), the energy conglomerate’s initiative for empowering its future business leaders.
A statement by the energy conglomerate said the SLP is a bespoke program designed to identify, develop and empower select employees for senior leadership roles within Sahara Group as the organisation continues to expand across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
Sahara Group’s delegation to the LBS Accelerated Development Programme include: Adetowun Adekoya, Joke Olatunji, Chineze Nnama and Jessica Akintade. The modules will cover: A journey of self-awareness, The financial Equation, Strategy and Innovation, Delivering Customer Value, Effective Decision-Making and Leading Organisational Change.
According to Sahara Group’s Head of Human Resources, Ivie Imasogie-Adigun, the Sahara Leadership Program, in addition to other learning platforms, is an expression of Sahara’s commitment to capacity building and fostering an environment that promotes learning, innovation and excellence. “For us at Sahara, learning is a vital talent development strategy as we continue to expand our operations globally. We are deliberate about creating sustainable learning opportunities that equip our employees for global competitiveness in all our businesses,” she said.
Adetowun, Industrial Chemist and Head, Energy Audit at Ikeja Electric, an affiliate of the Sahara Power Group, said he was delighted at his selection and was looking forward to applying knowledge gained from the training to his current and future roles in the business.
“The Sahara Leadership Program presents an opportunity for developing leadership capacity that can help sustain the growth of the business and even chart new frontiers for the Sahara Group. I am soaking in the mindset change and more importantly, realising that there are great opportunities ahead in my exciting journey at Sahara.”
Joke Olatunji, Senior Business Analyst at Sahara Group holds degrees in Mathematics and Statistics as well as Actuarial Science from the University of Lagos. She described the SLP selection process as “very intensive, gruelling and disruptive,” adding that she hoped to ultimately become a “transformational leader with a reputation for spearheading business expansion and mentoring younger colleagues in line with the Sahara Brand’s practice of institutionalising learning.”
A Legal Manager at Sahara Group, Chineze Nnama holds a law degree from the University of Hertfordshire and an LLM from University College London. Chineze said the SLP was an “an amazing learning platform” for grooming effective leaders. “I am confident that at the end of the Sahara Leadership Program I will be equipped to function as a resourceful business leader across different markets.”
Jessica Akintade, HR Business Partner for Sahara’s Africa Businesses, is a graduate of Psychology from Obafemi Awolowo University. Post the SLP training, Jessica is looking forward to “expanding her tentacles” into various aspects of Sahara Group operations in Upstream, Downstream, Midstream, Power and Infrastructure sectors. “From classroom learning experiences with experts from different fields at Sahara to a thrilling opportunity for further training at the prestigious London Business School, the whole experience has honestly been unbelievable,” she stated.