The American Business Council, ABC, has elected Dipo Faulkner as the President of the country’s American Business Council, ABC, and Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Council.
The appointment of Faulkner, who is the General Manager of IBM West Africa, takes effect from 1st of August, 2019.
ABC is the voice of the United States, US, businesses in Nigeria and the affiliate of the US Chamber of Commerce. Since its inception in February 2007, the body has focused on four broad areas where it hopes its impact would be felt in the medium to long term development of Nigeria’s Education, Regulatory Reforms, Infrastructure and Capacity Building.
A statement by the body said Faulkner’s election fits perfectly into the overall aim of the Council given that IBM is at the forefront of capacity building and providing digital infrastructure to businesses across all sectors of the Nigerian Economy.
Speaking at the election, Faulkner thanked his peers for nominating him and assured members that he will continue with the laudable achievements of his predecessor and working alongside members of the Council, the US Embassy and partners in taking the Council to the next phase.
Dipo holds a Bachelors’ Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Lagos, and an Advanced Management Program Certificate from Institute de Empressa (IE), Madrid, Spain. Dipo is responsible for IBM’s overall business in West Africa with a focus on deploying IBM’s advanced technology capabilities in cognitive, cloud computing, big data and analytics, and mobile security to solve current and future needs of institutions in key economic sectors across the country.
He provides leadership for IBM’s relationships and corporate social initiatives in civil society, ICT and academic communities. With over 25 years of work experience, he was previously IBM’s Global Business Services lead for Central and amp; West Africa, where he was responsible for driving IBM’s Consulting Services Business within the region since joining IBM in 2013. Prior to joining IBM, he was a director at Accenture’s Nigeria Financial Services Operating Group.
A new Vice President was also elected in the person of Akinsowon Dawodu, the country CEO of Citibank Nigeria.
Working with the US mission and other partners, ABC drives trade and investment opportunities between Nigeria and the United States of America in the interest of its member companies and both countries. For this reason, ABC is an integral stakeholder in the on-going US-Nigeria Commercial Investment Dialogue which is envisioned to deepen trade-investment ties between the U.S. and Nigeria, and designed to foster sustained engagement between both governments on concrete issues of importance to the private sector.
The areas in focus are: infrastructure, agriculture, digital economy, investment and regulatory reforms.