Telecoms giant MTN has reported the arrangement of Thrive Agric’s CEO, Adia Sowho as its first female Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). The announcement was made as the organization commends 20 years in activity in Nigeria.
Karl Toriola, CEO, MTN Nigeria said that the appointment follows the choice to ” localise its management team” and if you recall, this has been a pattern lately with the telecom company. Many top positions in MTN Nigerian used to be occupied by expatriates.
Prior to her recent appointment to the MTN leadership team, Adia was named the interim CEO of Thrive Agric, one of the many agricultural investment platforms. Her appointment to the CEO position came as allegations of non payment of mature investments made the news. She replaced Uka Eje one of the founders of the company who became the COO of the startup.
Seven months later, the startup reported that it has paid every one of the profits it owed to crowd funders on the platform. As expected, her reputation jumped and now it has paid off with a big appointment.
Before Thrive Agric, Adia Sowho was the VP for Growth at Migo (formerly Mines.io) in San Francisco, California. She joined the team to act as the Managing Director for Migo’s ( a fintech company) Nigerian Office
She has also worked at Etisalat Nigeria for more than 7 years where she held positions like Head, Strategy and Business Development, Head of Digital Media and Director, Digital Business.
Before then, she served as a consultant at Deloitte Consulting for about 2 years and Radio Frequency Engineer at US Cellular for about 7 years.
Adia holds a Bachelor degree in Electronics and Electrical Engineering with a major in Communications from the University of Sheffield, the United Kingdom and a Master of Business Administration from Kellogg School of Management with majors in Strategy, Analytical Consulting, Strategic Marketing and Entrepreneurship.