In its usual style of acknowledging the efforts of women making impacts in different endeavors, MMS Woman of Fortune Hall of Fame(WoFHoF) initiative
has recognized some women of substance and recently inducted them into MMS Hall of Fame family.
Newsconnect reports that the tradition of WoFHoF had been to choose a day within the month of March or April to reemphasize the place of women in human creation, amplify their voices to create and push boundaries of opportunities.
In his welcome address, the Chief Executive Officer Of MMS WOFHOF Initiative Mr Kingsley Anaroke at the ‘2025 MMS ACCELERATED AMAZONS RECOGNITION AND MMS HALL OF FAMERS’ DAY TO MARK THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY’ said;
“The day and season avail us with the opportunity to discover The Amazons, who are jewels of special creation ornamented with excellent features in their cuddled endeavors as change agents and also celebrate the Hall of Famers, a set of phenomenal women who have seen it all in their chosen career trajectory by redefining standards and are giving back to the society as role-models and mentors in different capacities.
“Essentially, these attributes resonate with the spirit of goal 5 of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) which seeks women empowerment.
“This reinforces the theme of this year’s IWD which is: ACCELERATE ACTION a muse that has provided another moment of sober reflection on the struggles over decades on gender diversity and the quest for the elimination of the inhibitive streams of bias and stereotypes.
“We need to begin to accelerate action, hence the Human Resources Roundtable of today with the topic: “Learning, Leading and Driving Innovations Across Industries in Today’s Dynamic Socio-Economic Environment.’ We need to build capacity in women and for the industries.
“It is also in that spirit that we launched the MMS WoFHoF Co-operative Multi-purpose Society. It is a business, finance and investment management scheme for women and men too. It is membership based.”. He said
Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria Deputy General Manager Human Resources and Development Queen Ajayi (Mrs), who was inducted to the MMS hall of fame, among other things, shared her feelings with the new title.
“I feel excited. First of all i want to appreciate God, for the grace and enablement to be one of those to be decorated today. I feel so excited, i feel so challenged because of what we have heard today, we need to accelerate it.
“To whom much is given, much is expected. We need to inspire others. Because i know most of us were inspired by some people. It is our own time as well to ensure we draw other women closer , teaching and mentoring them networking and be resilience as women. We must be teachable and ability to impact others.
“We should let other people emulate the good things that we do. Inspiring them so that they can even do more than we are doing at the moment. I feel happy and privileged for the honour.
“I pray the organisers of this event will continue to grow, expand and be more impactful. God will indeed help them with whatever it will take that will make them to stand the test of time.
“When you appreciate people, you are encouraging them to do more. So i pray they will continue to increase in all ramifications so that this vision will not die but rather it will continue to grow from strength to strength”. She said
Otunba Frank Ogunojemite, APPFLON President said MMS has been using its platform to promote women, to alert them that they can do better than us.
In an interview with Newsmen at the event, he said;
“I want them to heed to advise of the woman that advised them to be polite with spending, it is a good message.
“God will continue to give the organiser the resources to promote women because the best is yet to come. They should be proactive and discipline with their spendings”.
Mrs Florence Nwagba, Public relations Practitioner and the Head of Public relations Nigeria ports authority, Lagos Ports Complex.
“Power is not given but taken, i think that is one of the key things i learnt from this seminar. We should not sit on our oars no matter the things you think you have achieved there is still room for improvement.
“I think it is just an idiosyncracy that women are the problem of women. You don’t take an isolated case and generalize it. I am full of joy, i am full of pride. It is quite informative and educative.
“It is a game change planer. It has changed mindset about everything about women. We learn so much, integrity, financial intelligence, empathy, so it is a good one, i must confess”. She said
In accelerating amazon’ action, she said
” You can trust me that i would bring what we have learnt here to bare starting with my immediate family, the office where i work and my community. There is need to accelerate action to go further from here”. Nwagba concluded.
Another inductee, Ada Theresa Onwouka, an ex banker with over 26 years experience shared her feelings with journalists at the event.
“I am into women empowerment, i have an NGO supporting people living with disability. What is our key lessons to today’s event ? Call to action. Women have been collating data over the years especially Nigeria, and there is no form of implementation and breaking it into smaller tasks.
“This is the time to get it done. It is not about equality for me. I am more into empowering a woman to be financially literate, also to be included.
“I am going to start from my community because they say Charity begins at home. In as much as i have been doing little women empowerment here and there, i am going to take it a much further up by trying to support women.
“Just like the keynote speaker said, we are taking it a top notch. Women out there should not stop learning, unlearning and relearning”. She Said.
The Chief medical director Susam hospital and general secretary Institute of Public Relations Dr Amadu Fatima Binta who was also inducted into MMS hall of fame said the new title would help her more. In an interview with journalists after her induction said;
“I feel elated, i feel recognized. I feel the work i have been doing is more recognized more and more. I feel this is going to help me more for what i have been doing.
“Women have been seeing to do a lot recently, especially with women empowerment programs. Recently MMS signed a communique with some bodies to stop women trafficking and slavery across the globe.
“In terms of women participation in intervention across the globe, women are actually doing a lot of things. Women demonstrating grit, resilience and having integrity.
“The challenges are numerous obviously and it is not something that we can easily overlook but with persistence with encouragement, and with dedication and straight focus we have been able to achieve this.
“That is also by seeking government impact in what we have been doing . The impact of citizens and the media can’t be overemphasized.
“The media helps to amplify the challenges, talk about the narratives , it makes the work better and better return to us”. Fatima said.
Virginia AB Obobo Nzeribe, an inductee who is one of the handlers of Apapa terminal sai;
“I feel really honoured and i want to thank the organisers of the show for giving us the privilege of showcasing us. We are grateful for what they have done”. She said.
The Keynote speaker Group Head Human Resources Sifax group Olukayode Alonge left the participants with six habits that he thought if participants took time to embed in their lives, they will make a lot of impacts.
Integrity, Proactiveness, responsibility , emotional intelligence, discipline beyond motivation, Grit Resilience and Courage.
“If you have integrity, there is nothing you don’t have that you will not eventually get. Everything starts with integrity. Secondly, is proactiveness. You can have integrity but if you are not proactive, you can still be suffering. You need to ask yourself who are you, where are you coming from, where are you going to and how can you get there ? What do you have that you need, what can you do with what you have. A lot of time people say they have brilliant ideas and just don’t have money. That is not a brilliant idea. The idea should start from lack of money. That is where it starts from. If money is not there, you don’t really have an idea”. He said.