Odunayo Sanya

Executive Director, MTN Foundation

Odunayo Sanya has 24 years of postgraduate work experience in the Education, Banking, Development and Telecommunication sectors in Nigeria. She currently serves as the Executive Secretary, MTN Nigeria Foundation. In this role, she leads the team to deliver on strategic projects in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals, National priorities and the Company’s CSR objectives. Prior to this, Odunayo Served as General Manager Planning & Customer Management. She joined MTN Nigeria in 2005, and has overseen various customer experience initiatives which have contributed to the creation of a differentiated customer experience for MTN customers.

Odunayo is knowledgeable in Customer Experience Management, Business Process Outsourcing, Customer Intelligence (analytics), Contact Center Management, Billing Services, Retail Management, Operations Management, Collections and Credit Management. She is adept at conceptualizing and implementing innovative customer –centric practices and procedures to improve efficiency within an organization.

An Alum of the Lagos Business School (SMP 27) and the IMD (Switzerland), she has attended executive trainings at the Harvard Business School and Cornell University. Odunayo holds a first degree in Political Science from the University of Abuja where she graduated with a second-class upper division.

She is an Author, a Certified Coach, Speaker and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team. Odunayo has presented papers at the IIR Telecoms loyalty & Churn conferences in Berlin and Nice (France). A DDI (Development Dimensions International) certified Facilitator and a Maxwell DISC certified Trainer. She is also a mentor on the platform of WISCAR (Women in Successful Careers).

In 2019, Odunayo received the Marketing World ‘Customer Service Thought Leader Award’ in Accra, Ghana. She was the 2019 Global Leadership Program Speaker at the Coventry University in the United Kingdom.

A sought-after speaker and Facilitator, Odunayo is passionate about Leadership, Nation Building, Youth and Women Empowerment. Her book ‘The alphabets of leadership for young minds’ is listed in the United States Library of Congress. Odunayo is the convener of the ‘Thrive Circle’ a mentorship platform which she describes as her ‘pandemic story.’ The Thrive Circle is a platform for individuals seeking growth.