The Chief of Staff to the Osun State governor, Dr Charles ’Diji Akinola, has been conferred with the 2022 Cocoa Lifetime Achievement Award.
The presentation of the award was made recently at the 2022 edition of the Nigerian Cocoa Awards held in Victoria Island, Lagos.
Organisers of the award, the Eti-Oni Development Group, said Dr Akinola was honoured on account of his tremendous personal contributions to the development of the cocoa industry in Nigeria.
The organisers said, “This award has been given in recognition of Dr. Akinola’s work over the last 27 years in the area of cocoa development during his time as the Country Director of Technoserve between 1993 and 1998, Founder/CEO of Enterprise for Development International (EfDI) between 1999 and 2008, Nigerian National Coordinator of the Sustainable Tree Crop Programme (STCP) – an innovative multi-agency, public-private sector effort involving the USAID and the chocolate industry in facilitating the improvement of smallholder agricultural systems focusing on cocoa and cashew in West Africa between 2001 and 2005.”
Dr Akinola’s work also pioneered the development of homegrown protocols for certification of organic cocoa as well as being the founding director, of Community Development Foundation (CDF), Nigeria’s premier wholesale development finance agency, and as the director-general of the Office of Economic Development and Partnerships and Team Leader in the Osun Rural Enterprise and Agriculture Programme from 2010 and 2018.”
While presenting the award on behalf of the Eti-Oni Development Group, Oba Dokun Thompson, the Oloni of Eti-Oni, noted that Dr Akinola was selected as the only lifetime achievement awardee on account of his immense, selfless and significant contributions to the cocoa industry.
Oba Thompson urged Akinola to do more to develop the local cocoa culture and economy in a manner that will subsequently transform cocoa-producing communities and bridge the gap with consumption regions.
The event, which was chaired by Her Royal Highness, Erelu Abiola Dosumu, Erelu Kuti IV of Lagos, brought together leading players in the cocoa industry in Nigeria and across the continent.
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