Seven Wonder Women Awards: Nominees for Women in Finance and Health and Wellness

This week we are announcing the second set of nominees, Women In Finance and Women In Health and Wellness. We’ve kept their descriptions (in brackets) deliberately brief, as many are multi-talented and their skills transcend a few sectors.

I have really enjoyed reading about each one of these women listed below – all with award-winning power, and congratulate them on their careers and the impact they are having in their given field. Please note, that they are listed in alphabetical order, not according to how many nominations they received.

For Finance, we took note of the women’s qualifications and outstanding careers in Finance, as well as those we viewed as barrier-breakers in this very competitive sector, coupled with their impact and the positive influence they have on other women.

Their performance and achievements have elevated the position of women in Finance and they have worked relentlessly to advance the cause of women in the top positions in Nigeria, either on a personal level, in support of other Women in Finance – or both. They have also contributed to increasing the financial inclusion of Nigeria’s women in the economy in general, for example, as a Mentor or, an Influencer, or even as an Investor.

The nominees in Health & Wellness are making a huge impact in this relatively new sector. “Health” captures the nominated MDs, whilst “wellness” captures non-medical practitioners, specialists who strive to create more awareness about all kinds of health issues and are trailblazers in the more recently-recognised areas of health, including mental health, or other forms of wellness (e.g. physical wellbeing and fitness).

Coupled with health, wellness plays an evermore important role in our lives, with “wellness” or “self-care” being described as the “word of 2017” by The Global Wellness Summit, which considers Feminist Wellness as one of the Global Wellness Trends of 2018.

We were also interested in hearing about the female leaders in Women’s Health issues (both qualified doctors and other certified professionals in this area), but we were only able to shortlist seven women in this category, based on those that were nominated and those that fulfilled the criteria.

These are women who have a proven track record of improving the quality of and access to Health & Wellness for people (both men and women) in Nigeria.

Women In Finance
Bola Adesola (Standard Chartered Bank MD/CEO)
Opunimi Akinkugbe (Bestman Games Founder)
Ibikun Awosika (First Bank Chairman)
Tomie Balogun (The Vestract Company Founder)
Funmi Ekundayo (STL Trustees MD/CEO)
Modupe Ladipo (Financial Inclusion Expert)
Bunmi Lawson (EFInA Director)
Oluwatosin Olaseinde (Money Africa)
Mosun Belo-Olusoga (Access Bank Chairman)
Toyin F Sanni (Emerging Africa Group CEO)

Women In Health and Wellness
Dr Ola Brown-Orekunrin (The Flying Doctors Nigeria Founder)
Dr Dorothy Jeff-Nnamani (Novo Health Africa Founder)
Elaine Okeke-Martin (Spa & Wellness Association Africa Founder)
Aderoju Ope-Ajayi (Dolphin Aquatic Centre & Swim School Founder)
Farida Sanusi (ICSPIN Founder)
Dr Alero Roberts (Senior Lecturer, College of Medicine UNILAG)
Oyinkan Talabi (Bodyworks Fitness Nigeria Founder)