Margaret Obiageli Olele is currently the Chief Executive Officer/Executive Secretary of the American Business Council, where she works to facilitate trade and investments between Nigeria and the United States. Prior to this role, she was the Corporate Affairs Director for Pfizer in Nigeria, Ghana, East Africa & Southern African Markets responsible for all public affairs and communication engagements in over 15 countries and represented Pfizer on the Board of Directors of the American Business Council.
Margaret has over 30 years’ experience in the food and pharmaceutical industries. She worked at Ajinomoto for about 17 years, and in July 2010 joined Pfizer as an Associate Director, Public Affairs and Communication and by 2012 became a Director in the same role. Margaret later had add-on roles at Pfizer including Director, Tenders and Institutions and Director, Health and Value and utilised her experience in public affairs to provide fresh insights into the opportunities around the tender business in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia.
Margaret was the first ES of the MSG Association, the first Female VP Technical Committee of the Association of Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Employers (AFBTE), and has been on a number of government committees. She has also served the government in various capacities, including as a member of the National Codex Committee at the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON). She is also a Fellow of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), and was a member of the Advertising Standards Panel Ethics and Vetting Committee of APCON. Margaret is an adjunct faculty at the School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University teaching brand strategy and communication, and seats on the Advisory Board of the Sickle Cell Aid Foundation.
She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Literature from the University of Benin; a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of Ibadan Nigeria; a Post Graduate Diploma in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos, and a Master of Science degree in Mass Communication specializing in Public Relations and Advertising from the same university. She trained at the British Standard Institute, United Kingdom as an internal auditor for Quality Management Systems ISO 9001:2000, as well as Environmental Management Systems ISO 1800.
In this interview, Margaret covers the nature of corporate communications, as well as the trade and investment relationship between Nigeria and the United States.
You have degrees in mass communication, and you are known for your expertise in corporate communications. What attracted you to this field of work?
The reality about the time I went to school was that you were expected to read law or medicine, and in a few cases engineering if inclined to sciences, but strangely, none of these were my areas of interest.
As a person, I am highly creative so studying the arts was a natural choice and law at the time was the preferred course of study. However, I did not feel that the legal profession could accommodate that level of creativity. The perceived rigidity of a profession guided by what had happened over 50 years ago by way of judicial precedents did not sound attractive to me.
I wanted to tell stories or share information in the way that people would not just have knowledge but would remember those things. This was my initial motivation for going into communication. Interestingly, at the time, there were just two schools that offered mass communication in Nigeria and there was a parochial perception of a communications career. It was thought to relate only to either journalism or broadcasting. So, I went on to obtain degrees in English, literature, as well as mass communication.
Fast forward to the future, I teach brand strategy and communication at Pan-Atlantic University, and I am a Fellow of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria. I also had an interesting career working in the first private broadcasting company in Nigeria, creating and marketing programmes. I set up the public relations and advert department of a popular Japanese seasoning company, and drove communication for a US pharmaceutical company in sub-Saharan Africa.
You spent three decades in the food and pharmaceutical industries. What were the challenges of these industries and what were the great rewards?
Strangely, the challenges then are still the same in terms of what you see today. There are issues of regulatory inconsistencies and policy overlaps considering the many regulatory bodies in both industries like the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, the Consumer Protection Council, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control and a host of others. There has always been confusion about who works on what area and who to go to for what. The overlaps in roles and responsibilities create blurred administrative lines.
Also, there are the federal and state overlaps, for example, in dealing with the Environmental Protection Agency, having to determine if an environmental impact analysis would be done at the federal or the state level. There is also the bit about port congestions, lack of clarity around HS Codes, and custom tariff concerns.
Notwithstanding these challenges, there are market opportunities in these industries. The fast-moving consumer goods industry thrives in a country with a growing population just as we have in Nigeria. There are also incentives for setting up manufacturing factories in the country like the pioneer status which relieves players in designated industries from the payment of Companies Income Tax in their formative years among other tax incentives. There are also trade groups like the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, the Association of Nigerian Representatives of Overseas Pharmaceutical Manufacturers among others that exist to engage the government to get right outcomes.
Talking about the rewards of working in this space from a communications and public affairs perspective, I was able to build strong relationships and a great network of people working in that space, and the knowledge that I was impacting lives positively in terms of health and nutrition was fulfilling. The understanding of how delicate health issues are has helped me in taking serious decisions when it comes to issues around healthcare and there is little or no margin at all allowed for mistakes. I also developed a keen sense of empathy.
You are now the CEO and Executive Secretary of the American Business Council. Can you comment on the trade and investment relationship between the United States and Nigeria?
We always say that the US government and US companies are here for the long haul, and that the US and Nigeria are natural trading partners. There are US companies that have been operating in Nigeria before the 1960s and that are still doing business in the country. This shows that there is a positive perception of Nigeria as a place to do business and a healthy appetite for such activities.
So, in terms of US government support in Nigeria, we have organisations like the USAID (United States Agency for International Development), the USTDA (United States Trade and Development Agency) that have funded a lot of feasibility studies around critical sectors that are of keen interest. In 2018, the American Business Council began hosting the Commercial Investment Dialogue, which is an ongoing dialogue between the US government and the Nigerian government on technology, the creative economy, infrastructure, regulatory reforms, and others.
Private sector advocacy groups like the American Business Council support the implementation of key investment projects by US companies using dialogue as an effective tool. This support helped Kimberly-Clark navigate bottlenecks and challenges in setting up its factory here in Nigeria.
US companies have also been incredibly supportive in the healthcare sector through the provision of state-of-the-art medical equipment for healthcare facilities and more recently, the provision of vaccines by Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer.
The Biden-Harris administration is very keen on promoting bilateral relations between the United States and the African continent. We see this in the recent economic diplomacy visit of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the Biden-Harris Administration, Akunna Cook and the Acting Chief Operating Officer of Prosper Africa, Leslie Marbury to Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Namibia.
We at the American Business Council have conducted an annual Economic Impact Survey for the past five years to show the impact of US Companies on the Nigerian economy. Survey results have shown an increased interest of American companies under the Biden-Harris administration. We recently hosted an annual event for MSMEs called the ABC MSME Mixer in partnership with the Enterprise Development Centre of the Pan-Atlantic University geared towards encouraging the participation of American MSMEs in Nigeria.
Notable also is the growth in the number of US franchise companies in Nigeria, the latest one being Burger King, and the growth in the corporate membership of the American Business Council which has doubled since 2017.
So, there is indeed great interest in the country and great prospects as well in terms of US-Nigeria bilateral relations.
For Nigerian entrepreneurs seeking to break into the US market and global markets, what advice can you give them?
First, there are structured platforms that can be used as leverage to see what opportunities exist in the US market. For franchise opportunities, the US Department of Commerce and the American Business Council are great resource organisations.
For export to the US, it is important to understand existing opportunities, product specifications, and legal requirements for export purposes.
Another interesting point to note is the importance of the established credibility of the organisation. Having a Dun and Bradstreet Number can help with this.
We at the American Business Council are always happy to share advisory on the subject. Our job largely involves driving trade and investment opportunities for US companies wanting to do business and seek partners as well as create an enabling business environment for them by working with partners in private and public sector. We also hope that the public would take advantage of training programmes that the American Business Council will be starting off with the Lagos Business School about US trade.
In your opinion, what are the current opportunities and challenges for women who seek to find success in the world of corporate communications?
A question around challenges about finding work, public communication or talent should be approached from a more human perspective not a woman perspective. So, it is humankind, not womankind.
For me you must have the right understanding and resources. Intellectual resources to be able to understand what the career is about and what opportunities exist. You then need to make the relevant calls and become deliberate about building yourself in that space.
There is also immense value in mentorship. One should look into structured mentorship organisations or networks that match mentees with mentors within specific careers like communications.
Communication will always remain relevant even with modern technology whether in terms of digital content creation, storytelling, social media management and the list goes on.
Anyone interested in working in this space should try their best to enhance their prospects through existing learning opportunities, mentorships, and if necessary, learning a new language if one has cross-border career dreams.
Does work-life balance exist in the fast-paced corporate world? How have you been able to balance your personal and professional lives?
My daughter always says that every human being has a 3D existence. Every aspect of this 3D existence must be fed for life to be fulfilling. My 3D existence as a human consists of my personal, professional, and family life. I do my best to be available for activities within the three. With my children, I create time for Parent-Teacher Association meetings, inter-house sports, family holidays, etc. I find it particularly important to be a friend to my children so they can share thoughts with me and I with them. This makes them better off in terms of being able to raise the next generation we need to move forward. This part of life should be enjoyed and should not be seen as a job.
I remember when I was going to have my son and my Deputy Managing Director at the time said that the company had to look for a new Public Relations and Advert Manager because I was going to start making excuses to be absent from work. I felt really challenged and made a point to prove that I was better than anybody, man, or woman, notwithstanding that I was a new mother. I came back to work after having my children. I was incredibly lucky to have had a mother who was a professional and who worked until she retired. She was there to help look after the children when I had business trips. She is my model, you could say.
It is important to identify the components of your 3D existence and feed them all. This will help you achieve balance across the board.
Looking back on your career, would you have done anything differently? And what advice do you have for your younger self?
I stayed in an organisation for close to 17 years playing distinct roles. In hindsight, maybe I should have moved on after the first ten years. Women tend to stay longer in organisations not just because an organisation is doing well or the remuneration but also because of a splendid work environment. However, I have no regrets.
On the question about some advice to my younger self, someone asked me this question during the International Women’s Day celebration in 2019 and my response then is still the same – I will advise my younger self to be exactly who I am today.
Having dealt with a myriad of challenges along the way, internal office politics etc., to navigate and succeed, do not be a different person, just be who you are. This might not be the same for everyone, but it worked out well for me.
What do you take pride in?
That is an exceptionally good question. I take pride in my children being individuals who know what they are doing and can succeed in their own spaces. I take pride in my Christian faith which has taught me ethics and values that I hold dearly in the way I engage and interact with people and in the way I do business. I take pride in being able to say that I have worked with people and have taught students who I see doing very well in their different spaces. I have seen some of my direct reports become country managers and successful directors. I take pride in the relationships that I have built during my professional journey. I take pride in being able to support investments in Nigeria and Nigeria’s overall economic growth.