On the 6th of March, 2020, Olajumoke Adenowo was announced winner of Forbes Woman Africa Entrepreneur Award for 2020 at a glitzy event in Durban, South Africa. The Forbes Woman Africa Award recognizes remarkable women across the African continent who have made significant strides in their spheres of influence and serve as role models to young women.
Olajumoke’s recognition as the continent’s foremost female entrepreneur for the year is the culmination of a journey which started decades ago.
Olajumoke Olufunmilola Adenowo (born 16 October, 1968) is an Architect by profession. She is also an entrepreneur and philanthropist, a public speaker, radio host and author. CNN described her as “Africa’s Starchitect” and The Guardian (Nigeria) has described her as “the face of Architecture in Nigeria”; titles you’ll find exact.
In 1994, at the age of 25, Olajumoke founded AD Consulting – her own boutique architecture and interior design firm. Since its inception, AD Consulting has been involved in the design and construction of over 70 projects. These include Nigerian government buildings, private residences, healthcare facilities, industrial campuses, and corporate and financial institutions.
In parallel to founding AD Consulting, Olajumoke also founded and ran Advantage Energy, an Oil and Gas services firm. She is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a member of the African Leadership Network.
In 2018 she was recognised by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) as one of the inspirational women in architecture today. And in 2019, she was appointed a Visiting Professor at the Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM) in Germany. She was honored as a Laureate and a Guest Scientist at the Chair of Theory, History of Architecture and Art & Design arm of the university’s Department of Architecture. This program is established in collaboration with the Bavarian Ministry of Education.
Olajumoke has been featured in the architectural journal Architectural Record and has spoken at summits and conferences including the Global Women’s Forum and Harvard Business School (African Business Club). She hosts a radio show on a syndicated weekly program on Leadership – Voice of Change.
As an architect, Olajumoke Adenowo’s portfolio includes a host of multi-national and Nigerian clients including Coca-Cola, L’Oreal, The Nigerian Stock Exchange, Access Bank Plc and GT Bank. And as a public speaker, she has lectured on the arts, architecture, gender issues, women’s empowerment and entrepreneurial activities in Africa, and has been honored with numerous awards for her architecture and philanthropy. These include the Rare Gems Award in conjunction with the United Nations Information Centre and the Women’s Optimum Development Foundation (WODEF), for her work with women empowerment; the International Alliance for Women World of Difference 100 Award; the International Property Awards (Best Public Service Architecture, 2012); African Property Awards (Best Mixed-Use Architecture; Best Office Architecture and Best Public Service Architecture, 2013); IDEA Awards (Best Commercial Designer 2012; Best interior Architect 2013); The Ekiti State Merit Awards, 2014; IDEA Awards (Best Institutional Architect 2014) and the Cambridge African Society Award.
Olajumoke has several philanthropic ventures. She takes pride in her Nigerian heritage and champions the potential of young Nigerians. In 1999, she founded the Awesome Treasures Foundation (ATF), a philanthropy recognized by the United Nations and affiliated with the Edmond De Rothschild Family Philanthropy Platform, based in Lagos, Nigeria. The foundation has a mission to raise 1000 leaders by 2030 working especially women and young people.
The majority of her foundation’s programming focuses on disadvantaged women and children. ATF runs Camp Dawn, an educational camp, to address the education gap for inner-city kids. It also manages Awesome Princesses, caring for young girls from the slums of Lagos who are at risk of sexual abuse and HIV/AIDS, supplying medical screenings and educational intervention. Awesome Treasures closely mentors women for transnational leadership and entrepreneurship through vocational training, business classes and leadership training that takes place across Nigeria. In its first 15 years, 70,000 people have attended ATF leadership summits.
One might ask, “How does she do all of these?” “Where does her inspiration come from?”
During her acceptance speech at the award gala in Durban recently, Olajumoke said, “The family is the matrix of aspirations. My mother Prof. Olufunmilayo Oloruntimehin is a professor of Sociology and as a child, just watching her contribute value as she travelled the globe and handled her affairs competently, unwittingly gave me permission to aspire.”
“I thank Forbes Woman Africa. I am honoured. This is validating and encouraging and is an affirmation of the fact that one can do things right and still be celebrated,“ she said. “I stand on the shoulders of African female entrepreneurs who are committed to serving their families, communities, and the continent, those who strive daily to optimise their potential against all odds.”
Long before precociously starting her own company, Olajumoke had seen first-hand how a woman can hold her own in fields dominated by men. The Forbes’ award winner was quick to pay tribute to her mother as an inspirational influence on her life.
Olajumoke’s mother is an achiever in her own right, and it is no surprise that she is her daughter’s chief role model. Oloruntimehin graduated from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in 1966 with a BSc Hons in Sociology and later obtained her Masters degree at the University of Ibadan.
She worked at the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) in Ibadan, then started her career as a lecturer at the University of Ife which spanned over a period of 30 years from 1973 – 2003. This was a fruitful period in which she became one of the youngest and first female professors at Unife and the first alumni dean of the faculty of Social Sciences.
Oloruntimehin served as the first African executive member of the International Sociological Association (an Initiative of UNESCO) when at their summit in Uppsala, Sweden in 1978 at the age of 37, and was elected by her colleagues as vice president, a position never held before by an African.
She travelled extensively as a conference speaker of note and her plethora of academic publications, books and journals have been published globally by prestigious institutions such as Princeton University and translated into various languages.
Following in the footsteps of her mother in rising above barriers, Olajumoke has become a tremendous inspiration to us all with countless moves and wins.
“My parents forgot to tell me being a woman was a disability. By the time I left home and the world tried to tell me, it was too late.”
OLAJUMOKE ADENOWO
“Just by seeing my mother shine, she was giving me the permission, telling me without saying a word that a woman could aspire not just for a happy family but to also add value to her generation beyond the home front.“
An alumna of a number of prestigious institutions including the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Yale School of Management, IESE Business School, amongst others, and a member of the Institute of Chartered Arbitrators (UK) and a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, Olajumoke Adenowo’s trajectory in life is an example of how early influences create the lens by which children view their universe. Adenowo and her husband Olukorede are blessed with two young men. And as a Mother, Olajumoke believes that Mothers have a profound effect on their offspring and are models for their daughters. Without a word spoken, a daughter looks up to the closest example she has of her own gender and sees practical demonstrations of what is clearly possible and achievable.
We see Olajumoke Adenowo as a heap of inspiration; one that models hard-work, determination, gratitude, motherhood, and womanhood so flawlessly it makes one stand up from a lull of unintentionality. You are what you say you are, no one else speaks for you. You owe it to yourself to be the best there is.
What do you say you are?
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