With several years of professional experience in the power sector, Joyce Awojoodu continues to push boundaries and rewrite the narrative of Africa.
Born and raised in Washington D.C. USA, Awojoodu nurtured a dream to create a purely African brand with exceptional international standards that can compete effectively on a global rank. This passion has seen the power lady scale enviable heights in her career. Her first opportunity was with Constellation Energy, a Fortune 100 company in the United States.
At the age of 23 she started a successful energy brokerage firm focused on the supply of energy across four states in the USA, before returning to Nigeria to pursue her dream of contributing to the reformation of the Nigerian power sector, to achieve a stable and reliable power supply for the citizenry. Her first port of entry was the Nigerian Renewable Energy Research and Development Team at the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) where she created policies for incentivizing renewable energy investment for the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Awojoodu was also the Technical Assistant on Research, Analysis and Informatics (Performance Monitoring) to the Honourable Minister of Power, actively working on the reform and privatization of Nigeria’s power sector. As the curator of the Abuja Global Shapers Hub, she led the Abuja Global Shapers Community on several community initiatives focused on education, youth unemployment and entrepreneurship.
In July 2015, the leading lady launched a luxury botanically-based product line and spa clinic in Lagos, Nigeria. The brand, ORÍKÌ, which caters to both men and women, utilizes a plethora of raw materials and natural ingredients to create a leading luxury brand, which has today burgeoned into an amazing behemoth. ORÍKÌ fuses natural and scientific research to create extraordinary personal care products which are botanically based, rich in extracts, vitamins, minerals and proteins.
The range of 32 products is for the ORÍKÌ woman and man and covers the full spectrum of serums, moisturizers, body wash, exfoliants, cleansers, treatments, masks and more, with natural resources sourced around the world, and mainly from the Continent of Africa.
She tells her story, just as she enjoys it: “I have always been passionate about entrepreneurship; from a young age I acquired the nickname Ms. CEO because of my interest to constantly explore various opportunities and monetize them. Beyond that I am convinced that one of the major contributors to propelling the growth of Africa and narrating Africa’s success story is the rise of entrepreneurs. Prior to focusing on the development of ORÍKÌ Group full time, I was working in the public sector as power sector consultant on the Honourable Minister of Power’s Team. As I mentioned earlier, although I have always been an entrepreneur, my career was always in the power sector leveraging my background in energy economics.”-leading ladies Africa
Joycee Awojoodu has a dream- to be a mass employer of labour in growth markets. And you can tell that she is well on her way to actualizing that dream. One sure way she hopes to achieve this is, on the wings of her company- REDESOL dedicated to making an impact on the Continent by investing in the resource potential across various sectors. Awojoodu is a recipient of several awards and recognitions. Just recently, she was nominated for The Future Awards Prize in Public Service, 2013.
To the young and aspiring she says,
“Pursue your passions with fervour and don’t let fear cripple you. The power that propels you should be your dreams and not the fear of failure or the obstacles ahead. You were destined for greatness, so value yourself, invest in your life and actualize your dreams and never ever forget that faith is key!”
