Safeguard, an antiseptic soap, from the stable of Procter&Gamble (P&G), has emerged The Industry’s Brand of the Month for the month of May, 2021.
The brand came top in an editorial judgment arrived at by the team of editors that served as panelists for shortlisting, picking and announcing the eventual winner of the draw put together by The Industry to encourage brands to be more socially responsible in their corporate focus.
The panelists said the corporate decision of P&G to stay glued to the COVID-19 safety precautions, despite the fact that the pandemic has been eased off considerably in the country and the rest of the world, won Safeguard the award.
Fronting through its anti-bacteria medicated soap idolized for being very tough on germs, P&G deployed a team of staff to strategic location across the city of Lagos to keep alive the culture of hand sanitizing and washing, as practised globally during harsh period of the pandemic.
While the economy of the world is bouncing back slowly though, medical experts warn of a more deadly variant of the terminal disease – COVID-19, and so all the precautions advised by health officials are expected to continue in schools, eateries, hotels, pubs and all public offices and places where more than ten people are expected to gather.
It is on this note that the judgment of the team of panelists found P&G’s Safeguard a timely corporate social intervention worth emulating.
Sola Adeduntan Wins CEO of the Month
Dr. Sola Adeduntan, MD/CEO, First Bank Ltd, has been declared winner of The Industry’s CEO of the month for the month of May.
Adeduntan, who was dramatically relieved of his job by the bank’s Board of Directors, but swiftly, the Godwin Emefiele-led Central Bank Nigeria (CBN), reinstated him.
While Adeduntan may not be the best bank chief in the country, he probably is the first to survive such administrative heists that haveswept many notable bank managers off office in the nation’s banking sector.
Do not forget the debacle in the banking sector that ended the career of bank executives like Hirastus Akingbola, Cecelia Ibru among others.
Adeduntan’s case is particularly interesting, for it happened in no other but the First Bank, arguably the oldest bank in Nigeria.
More so, that the Board of Directors that showed Adeduntan the exit door has also appointed another person to succeed him before the apex bank toppled the board’s decision.
The CBN was said to have argued that Adeduntan’s tenure was yet to expire, because bank MDs have a maximum of 10 years and that it was also not aware of any misconduct by the bank chief that warranted asking him to go home.
As the banking sector regulator, the CBN that approves appointments of banks’ MD/CEOs, found it quite unnecessary to interfere with matters of a bank like First Bank. For pulling through the administrative jigsaw, Adeduntan was adjudged by The Industry’s editorial verdict as the CEO of the Month for the month of May.
