Two of Nigeria’s public and private sector leaders, Francis Anatogu, Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Public Sector Matters and Funke Opeke, founder and CEO of MainOne, will lead webinar discussions on the topic, “The risks and rewards of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area” on Sunday, 21 March 2021.
The online event is the ninth edition of the Leadership Excellence for National Development (LEND) Webinar and Podcast Series convened by the JCI Nigeria Senate Association, a body of distinguished Nigerian professionals from all sectors of society who are lifetime members of the Junior Chamber International Inc., a global nonprofit nongovernmental organization focused on transforming young citizens into active and responsible leaders with global skillsets and capabilities.
“This ninth LEND webinar will be our very first online thought leadership event of 2021, and with only one African nation yet to ratify the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement which took effect on January 1, 2021, discussing the risks and rewards of the emerging continental free trade area is timely,” remarked Ms. Nneka Itabor, Chairperson of the JCI Nigeria Senate Association.
“As Special Guest Speaker and Esteemed Discussant respectively Mr. Francis Anatogu and Ms. Funke Opeke are the ideal persons to help shape our discourse on Nigeria’s role and relevance in the pan-African trade environment,” Itabor said.
While Opeke, a distinguished entrepreneur, engineer, business strategist, and leader, is well on course to establishing a pan-African and global footprint, taking MainOne’s service offerings into regional and international markets across Africa and Europe, Anatogu’s contributions to nation-building are equally monumental as attested to by his professional trajectory and public service credentials promoting partnerships and mobilizing Nigerian businesses for intra-African trade opportunities. Anatogu is also the Secretary of Nigeria’s National Action Committee on the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.
Conceptualized in early 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic began to paralyze social and economic activities around the world, the LEND webinar and podcast series is a collegial platform, a think tank for ideas and knowledge management to achieve policy action and positive outcomes for nation-building.
To date, eight 90-minute editions of the LEND webinars on a range of topics have been convened, attracting cumulatively over 1,500 speakers and participants, mostly high net worth individuals, public, private, and nonprofit sectors leaders from Africa and the Middle East, Europe, and North America.