By Bisi Bamishe
Bode Opadokun has been honoured with the prestigious 2023 CEO Today Africa Award.
The CEO Today Africa Awards celebrate exceptional leaders who are revolutionizing the business landscape in Africa. This prestigious award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, achieved remarkable success and made significant contributions to their industries.
Bode Opadokun is an accomplished business leader and insurance mogul with a remarkable track record in the financial services sector and the Managing Director/CEO of Sanlam General Insurance Nigeria Limited.
Opadokun, emerging as the winner of this esteemed accolade, solidifies his position as a prominent figure in the African business community.
The selection process for the CEO Today Africa Awards is rigorous and comprehensive. A panel of industry experts carefully evaluates the nominees based on a range of criteria, including leadership skills, financial performance, innovation, strategic vision, and industry impact. The winners are chosen based on their exceptional achievements and their ability to inspire and lead their teams to success.
Opadokun is an insightful and versatile insurance professional with over three decades’ work of experience in underwriting, marketing and executive managerial experience. His areas of expertise include general business and special risks, as well as agricultural insurance. Opadokun’s dedication to fostering a culture of innovation and creativity has resulted in the development of disruptive products and services in the Nigerian insurance industry.
His forward-thinking approach has allowed him to stay ahead of the curve and drive success for himself and the organizations he leads. He led the Sanlam General Insurance business to be the first insurance company in Nigeria to use a dynamic USSD Code to resolve a motor insurance claim in less than 40 minutes. This service is tagged, Code of Confidence. With a dial of *1056# on your phone, you can resolve your motor insurance claims in a few minutes.
While receiving the award, Opadokun said: “I am deeply honoured and humbled to receive the 2023 CEO Today Africa Awards. Opadokun thanked everyone and dedicated the award to the staff members of Sanlam General Insurance who have been making the organization thrive. Other notable winners of the award from Nigeria are the CEO, First Pension Custodian, Oloruntimilehin George, and the CEO, BUA Cement, Yusuf Haliru Binju.
Sanlam Nigeria, formerly FBN Insurance and FBN General Insurance, comprising Sanlam Life Insurance Nigeria Limited and Sanlam General Insurance Nigeria Limited, is Nigeria’s fastest-growing insurance company with multiple awards and recognitions including 4-time World Finance Life Insurance Company of the Year among others. With a presence in over 66 locations, the brand is easily one of the most retail-driven insurers in Nigeria boasting a sales force of over 3000 sales champions and strong user-friendly technological support to ensure on-the-spot policy uptake.
Sanlam Nigeria is a member of the Sanlam Pan Africa (SPA), a truly pan-African brand with a rich history and heritage founded in 1918 as a life insurance company. Headquartered in South Africa, the brand has grown to become Africa’s largest non-banking financial services group, with a strong presence in 33 countries on the African continent including Nigeria, and a niche presence in India, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and Australia. Indeed, Sanlam operates in 8 out of the 10 largest economies in Africa, with over 154,000 employees globally, delivering superior value to customers, shareholders and the broader society.