Meet more of our visionary speakers redefining the future of work at MWAC

Silk Ugwu Ogbu  

Associate Professor, Management Communication, Lagos Business School 

Silk Ugwu Ogbu is an associate professor and consultant with extensive teaching and research interests in management and communication.

He obtained his first degree, a B.Sc. in Political Science, from the University of Calabar in Nigeria. Since then, he has earned three Master’s degrees and three Doctorate degrees in the following fields and specialisations: political science (international relations), marketing (public relations), and public administration (human resources management).

His many research and consulting interests cover the areas of management communication, political communication, conflict resolution, negotiations, marketing strategies, leadership strategies, public communication, development communication, branding and brand management, stakeholder engagement, and relationship management.

Before joining academia, he was the managing director and CEO of five companies across Nigeria’s private and public sectors. He has over 25 years of top managerial experience and consults extensively in the industry in his many areas of expertise. He teaches at the Lagos Business School, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria.

Silk will be speaking on the topic "Leading in the Age of Remote Work: Effective Leadership for Dispersed Teams" at a masterclass session in the executive lounge. Want to be part of that session? Get your executive

Rachael Onoja  

Head of Operations, AltSchool Africa 

Rachael Onoja is the Head of Operations at AltSchool Africa. Passionate about providing access to opportunities for people through learning and career management programmes, she advocates for equal, quality, and accessible education. She is driven by the need to ensure that every African has access to future-proof, marketable skills.

She has made great strides in her work with the Pipeline by TalentQL programme, empowering intermediate software engineers to become world-class engineers. Several graduates of the programme have received salaries that are 5-8 times higher than their previous salaries.

She successfully led the launch and execution of multiple cohorts of the diploma programmes at AltSchool Africa across three schools. In her previous role at Decagon, she led developer placement activities, and at the Andela Learning Community, she managed all of North-East Nigeria and some East African communities.

In addition to supporting businesses in delivering skills empowerment value to their stakeholders, she has volunteered for communities such as Women Techmakers, Google Developers Group, and Developer Circles from Meta.

Rachael will be speaking at the session tagged "Preparing Africa's youth for the jobs of tomorrow."

Chikodi Ukaiwe 

CEO, Salad Africa 

Chikodi Ukaiwe is an impact-focused entrepreneur looking to accelerate Africa’s economic growth via technology and financial inclusion, with a particular focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their employees.

Chikodi began his career in banking, which served as his introduction to the world of finance and technology, but it wasn’t until he delved into the world of e-commerce, where he was fortunate enough to work closely with merchants, startups, and other small businesses, playing pivotal roles in companies like Jumia and Konga, that he understood the glaring gap in access to financial services and productivity tools that burdened Nigerian businesses and the everyday Nigerians that work for them.

In response to this pressing demand, Chikodi founded Salad Africa in 2022, providing financial services and benefits to Africa’s workforce. Salad empowers African workers with tools to access, save, and manage money and enables their SME employers with software to pay salaries and manage employees.

He will be speaking at the panel session on the general stage titled "Harnessing technology for a healthier workplace."