Dere Awosika Appointed As Access Bank Chairman

pharmacy

The management and board of Access Bank Plc has appointed Dr (Mrs) Ajoritsedere Josephine Awosika, as its new chairman, in line with the robust leadership succession plan of the organisation.

It was reported that the financial institution announced the appointment of Awosika on Monday, as its incumbent chairman, Mosun Belo-Olusuga, is set to retire 8 January 2020, following her completion of the maximum 12-year term limit allowed by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Code of Corporate Governance for Banks and Discount Houses.

Owing to the confidence reposed in Awosika by the management of Access Bank, it stated that she has been appointed as the new chairman to lead the board in the next phase of the bank’s transformation into becoming ‘Africa’s Gateway to the World’.

Dr Awosika joined the board in April 2013 as an independent non-executive director and has been the chairman and vice-chairman of the Board Credit and Finance Committee and the Board Audit Committee respectively in addition to membership of other board committees.

An accomplished administrator and public health expert with over three decades of experience in public sector governance, she was the pioneer National Coordinator/Chief Executive of the National Programme on Immunisation,  she was also at various times, the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministries of Internal Affairs, Science & Technology and Power.

Although her innovative skill catapulted her beyond the circumference of the health sector, but her profile shows that Dr Awosika has a vast working experience in the healthcare sector, beginning as an intern at the General Hospital, Benin City. She also worked at the S.I.M. Hospital/Plateau Hospital, Jos, and the Military Hospital, Lagos.

She was a Senior Pharmacist-in-Charge at the Military Hospital, Benin City; and Research Pharmacist at St. Mary’s Hospital, Bradford, United Kingdom (while attending an in-service training). She equally had stints in practical attachment at Whipp Cross Hospital and Barnett Hospital, London. She later worked as a Clinical Pharmacist at Base Hospital (former Military Hospital), Yaba, where she disengaged at Directorate level.

She has to her credit various publications and paper presentations in her professional field.

She is a Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) and the National Institute of Directors. She is also a member of the Great Britain Clinical Pharmacists Forum. She is a recipient of several honours and awards, including Member of the Federal Republic (MFR), the Distinguished Vocational Service Award of Rotaract District 9130 Nigeria of Rotary International; the ECOWAS Community Service Gold Award by Intra-Continental Media Networks; and the Distinguished Pharmacist Award by the Lagos branch of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria.

The management and staff of Pharmanews Limited join her families and friends to wish her a successful tenure in her new position.