As the Shakespearean saying goes, some are born great; some achieve greatness while some have greatness thrust upon them. But another reality in today’s world is that only those who work for greatness achieve it and upon what they have achieved, more can be thrust on them. For a woman that has distinguished herself in hard work and diligence for great results, nothing else should be expected as a reward but a climb higher on the ladder of greatness.
And that aptly captures the person of Mrs Amina Oyagbola who recently added another cap of Head of Regulatory and Corporate Affairs to her existing one as the Head of Human Resources for the largest telecommunications company in Nigeria, MTN.
A highly skilled corporate executive and versatile business leader with over 28 years’ experience working in various sectors of the economy including, legal consulting, banking and finance, oil and gas, telecommunications and business administration, Oyagbola is an experienced leader and effective communicator, stakeholder manager and motivator, adept at creating innovative business solutions to complex problems, establishing and reengineering company processes to achieve excellent results and creating an enabling environment to attract, develop and retain top talent and human capital required for business growth and success.
She possesses a high degree of cross-cultural sensitivity and an international outlook with a proven ability to lead and motivate teams to create value, perform and implement change whilst retaining the discipline and exactitude to establish and operate within the strict reporting timelines and constraints to achieve desired outcomes.
Oyagbola has extensive experience in the banking and oil industry and is a member of several associations, including the International Bar Association, the Nigerian Bar Association, Oxford and Cambridge Club, and the Nigeria Institute of Management. She has an LL.B (Hons) from Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria, an LL.M from Cambridge University and an MBA from Lancaster University Management School UK, after receiving a Chevening Scholarship from the British Council. She is a Chartered Fellow of CIPD UK and a member of the Society for Human Resource Management USA. She is the Founder of WISCAR (Women in Successful Careers) a not-for-profit, gender empowerment and mentoring initiative for professional career women. She is a Fellow and Country Director of The Africa Leadership Initiative West Africa.
In 2008, Oyagbola was redeployed to head the Human Resource Division of MTN Nigeria to drive change and transformation and position MTN Nigeria as an Employer of Choice, where she has been responsible for the over 5000 staff including permanent, expatriate and contract staff. She is also responsible for the Reward and Compensation philosophy and ensuring its competitiveness and sustainability and alignment with MTN Group; organizational development and effectiveness, cost leadership and headcount management; learning and development, talent management, performance management, employee services and strategic business partnering and attraction and recruitment. Within 12 months of her leadership at the Human Resources Department of MTN, she succeeded with her team in transforming HR by introducing the HR Service Delivery Model (3 Box Model) and thereby positioning HR as a strategic business partner whilst bringing to the fore the importance of technology as a key enabler to improve business performance. Improving staff engagement levels was also an area of focus in view of the correlation between staff engagement levels and business results. All staff engagement platforms/channels were used to best effect. The results of those efforts became evident in the attainment of 100 per cent staff participation of the Group cultural surveys, increase in the staff satisfaction index from 65 to 77 exceeding all MTN Group benchmarks and comparable to Global IT companies and sustained company performance. For that, MTN Nigeria was awarded the HR best practice Award by CIPM (Chartered Institute of Personnel Management Nigeria) in October 2014. MTNN is also one of 6 finalists in the 2015 International IIP Awards and was recognised with the IIP Gold Level Accreditation in June 2015.
With such sterling performance over the years, it was not surprising that the MTN Group found her worthy to combine Human Resources portfolio with Corporate and Regulatory Affairs. While there is no doubt she is capable of performing well in both capacities to realise the goals of the company, Oyagbola remains a model of excellence for all women in Nigeria and Africa at large.