The immediate past Chairman of Southwest-owned strategic investment and asset management firm, Odu’a Investment Company Limited, Segun Aina, has expressed optimism that the strides made during his leadership of the Board have placed the company firmly on the path to achieving its long-term goals.
Aina spoke on the sidelines of OICL’s 40th Annual General Meeting in Lagos where he enumerated some of the key achievements of the company over the last two years.
According to him, the company has successfully navigated through some monumental challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic to emerge better and stronger.
He said, “I knew that the first thing to do is that, one has to transform the company from the position it was at the time to a new position. My expectation was that this was going to be real hard work and that I had to devote a lot of time and attention to leading the board in achieving the kind of mandate that we were given when we were appointed.
Prior to our joining, the former board was dissolved based on certain issues. For about a month, the company did not have a board until we came. There was nobody to hand over to us. I knew that it was going to be hard work, but I also knew that it is human beings that change things, especially when you are determined.”
Aina also hailed the South-west governors, who are the patrons of the company, for the foresight of constituting a board of directors with enterprising ideas that have driven the firm’s strategic five-year plan.
He added, “We all had a common purpose – the growth and development of this company. We see it as an opportunity, as a great privilege to be invited to even serve on the board, as for me to serve as the chairman, it was a great privilege, and we did our best.
“With the people that we had on the ground and the support of the government, we were able to move the company from where we met it about two years ago to a level where people are now hearing a lot of good things about Odu’a, to a level that we are now linking up more with international partners who are looking at us as potential partners.”
Earlier, during the AGM, Aina had announced that the company recorded a 102 per cent growth in its operating profit for the year, ended 2021.
