Organisers say their choice for the awards rest on CEOs they feel have gone above and beyond in their field and deserve to be recognised for their achievements based entirely on merit, rather than popularity or company size as found with other awards programmes.
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Founder and Executive Director of OrderPaper, Oke Epia, has emerged as the Most Influential Think Tank CEO in Nigeria, according to CEO Monthly Magazine, a United Kingdom-based Business-to-Business global media organisation.
Epia, a Civic Tech Leader, Public Policy Advisor and Strategic Communications Expert parades vast experience in governance, parliamentary monitoring, media relations, stakeholder relationship management, capacity building and advocacy.
Having founded OrderPaper Nigeria in 2015, the platform has evolved into the country’s premier and pre-eminent policy think-tank and legislative interface, bridging the gap between people and parliament in Africa’s most populous nation.
With extensive impact in the public policy space, including extractive sector reform advocacy over the past decade, Epia has grown OrderPaper into a formidable and leading parliament-focused organisation regarded by its teeming public as the ACT of Parliament being built on Authority, Confidentiality and Trust.
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OrderPaper started off by providing exclusive and niche reportage of Nigeria’s National Assembly and evolved over time to dedicated legislative accountability offerings anchored on annual performance appraisals of the 469-member bicameral legislature.
Epia conceptualised and led the vibrant and ebullient team at OrderPaper to develop and deploy the novel and unprecedented Most Valuable Parliamentarian (MVP) Hall of Fame recognition and awards programme for deserving members of the National Assembly.
The MVP Hall of Fame initiative, which is in furtherance of OrderPaper‘s contributions to legislative strengthening and promotion of improved service delivery in the National Assembly, aims at identifying and sustaining a distinct class of legislators who are performance-driven, excellence-inspired, and public-spirited.
Strides by OrderPaper has attracted interests from across the continent and beyond, with the organisation being the lead and secretariat for the Nigeria Network of Parliamentary Monitoring Organisations (PMOs); and implementing projects for several international development partners, donor agencies and private sector entities.
Epia has just been nominated into Nigeria’s National Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a global co-creation initiative run by governments, civil society and private sector that is focused on promoting broad-based governance reforms and democratic development.
A communication from the Most Influential CEO Awards organisers said Epia was identified and selected for the honour, having distinguished himself in providing remarkable leadership direction to OrderPaper.
On the criteria used for arriving at the choice of the award, the communication explained the rigorous processes that led to Epia’s emergence as recipient:
“We spend a number of months looking over publicly available sources (company websites & directories, industry journals, press releases etc) in order to identify key professionals who are not only relevant to our circulation in terms of the industry that they fall into and where they’re based, but who the team feel have gone above and beyond in their field and deserve to be recognised for their achievements based entirely on merit rather than popularity or company size as we find with other awards programmes.”
CEO Magazine is a monthly digital magazine targeting C-level executives and key decision makers worldwide and which offers a string of awards programmes “designed to showcase the hard work of businesses from every market and every region.” It is an AI Global Media publication with platforms on web, social media and dedicated newsletter services reaching audiences across the world.
Speaking on the award, Epia expressed surprise and delight at the recognition. “Coming from the blues by a reputed organisation based out of the UK which never contacted me prior to the award gives me a sense of fulfilment that the modest efforts we make at OrderPaper to provide thankless public services are not unnoticed afterall.”
The think-tank founder dedicated the award to the board, management and colleagues “who work tirelessly to get us to the place of pride where we are and are primed to make the brand soar higher into the skies of greater achievements in the future.”
