Our Woman Crush Wednesday, Barbara Ezeife is a marketing guru. She is the Marketing Head for Access Bank Plc‘s African subsidiaries, where she provides invaluable strategic marketing guidance to expand the firm’s retail and corporate ventures. Her responsibilities also encompass defining strategy and policy direction for internal and external communications, encompassing advertising, branding, and image management for Access Bank’s presence in Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Kenya, Mozambique, Angola, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Zambia.
Barbara is deeply passionate about creating beloved brands by harnessing the power of communication to inspire change through compelling storytelling, meaningful media, and stakeholder engagement. With over 15 years of experience in the financial services sector, her expertise spans various domains, including banking, fintech, asset management, trusteeship, pensions, insurance, stockbroking, real estate, hospitality, infrastructure finance, and private equity, catering to diverse customer segments.
Before her role at Access Bank, Barbara served as the Head of Marketing at FBNQuest Group, where she orchestrated marketing strategies to fortify the company’s brand and facilitate sustainable growth. Prior to that, she held the position of Head of Marketing at Asset & Resource Management Holding Company (ARM), leading brand adoption and marketing transformation initiatives to bolster the group’s brand presence in its operating markets. Notably, she spearheaded the development of ARM Financial Advisers, a digital financial services brand, and reinvented the group’s overarching brand identity while creating sub-brands to enhance competitiveness in the digital sphere. Barbara also managed ARM’s Pan-African brand awareness campaign and oversaw the successful launch of Mixta Africa in the Nigerian market, as well as its reinforcement in other markets such as Spain, Tunisia, Algeria, Senegal, Morocco, Mauritania, and Côte d’Ivoire.
Barbara holds a bachelor’s degree in financial services and business economics from Edinburgh Napier University and a master’s degree in strategic project planning from Heriot-Watt University, both in Scotland. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the United Kingdom and the Digital Marketing Institute in Ireland.
Beyond her professional career, Barbara is a dedicated advocate for the advancement of women, and volunteers as a mentor for The Comms Avenue, a platform that enhances the capacities and networks of communications professionals. In her free time, she plays the role of a taxi service for her children, savours a delicious plate of jollof rice, serves as a coffee sommelier, and occasionally indulges in her favourite television shows. Pride Magazine Nigeria celebrates Barbara Ezeife today as our Woman Crush Wednesday.