Amina Oyagbola is a Corporate Director and former Human Resources and Corporate Services Executive at MTN Nigeria Communications Limited. With over 30 years’ experience, her career spans legal consulting, banking and finance, oil and gas and telecommunications. She is the Managing Consultant of AKMS Consulting Ltd (Business Advisory and management Consultants), a partner in Oyagbola Chambers and a Chevening Scholar. She obtained her undergraduate law degree from Ahmadu Bello University, her master’s in law from Trinity College, Cambridge University and her MBA from Lancaster University. She is also an alumnus of INSEAD, London Business School, IMD and Harvard Business School (Executive Education).
She started her career as a legal practitioner in the Chambers of late Chief FRA Williams and received a black table lifetime achievement award. She set up the legal department in the then Crystal Bank before moving to UBA as Head Legal where she transformed the legal department. She moved on to Head the Human Capital Management Division and subsequently set up the Private Banking Division as head. She joined Shell Petroleum Development Company to develop a new function as Head, HR Strategy, Standards and Business Planning. She joined MTN Nigeria, Africa’s leading telecommunications provider in Africa and the Middle East in 2004 as Corporate Services Executive and Corporate spokesperson.
During her 12-year tenure as a member of MTN Nigeria’s leadership team, she contributed notably to the company’s extraordinary growth and development. She had oversight over Legal, regulatory, company secretariat and corporate communications as Corporate services Executive. She was pioneer Director of the MTN Foundation and ensured its growth into one of the most notable CSI Institutions in Nigeria. She led a strategic transformation in the HR Function to improve business performance as HR Executive, with the company becoming the 1st company in Nigeria to be accredited with the International Investors in People Gold Standard in May 2015 and winning several other awards. She was also nominated as HR person of the year in 2015 by People Magazine. She served on the MTN Group Strategy Committee, and on the board of MTN Spacetel Benin Board, Chairing the Audit and Risk Committee of the Board. In Dec 2015, during a period of an unprecedented regulatory crisis, she was called upon to lead the legal, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs functions in addition to her HR responsibility towards an amicable resolution of the dispute. She was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by HR People Magazine in 2019. She was in the same year, presented with an award from the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria for her immense contribution to the growth and development of the telecommunications sector.
She is a Fellow and Chair of The Africa Leadership Initiative – West Africa, a chapter of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Member Nigerian Bar association, Member International Bar Association, Member CIPM and Chartered Fellow, CIPD UK. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, a Certified Ethics Officer, Chair, IoD Ethics Committee and former Vice Chair of the IoD Women Directors Development Committee. She is a Director, IOD Centre for Corporate Governance and a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants and a member of International Coaching Federation. A passionate advocate for diversity and inclusiveness. She is the Founder and Chairperson of WISCAR (Women in Successful Careers), a not-for-profit, gender empowerment and strategic mentoring and leadership initiative for professional career women. She is married to Bayo Oyagbola and they are blessed with 3 adult children.
