The chief executive officer of NORD Automobile Nigeria Limited, Oluwatobi Ajayi, has expressed immense joy and gratitude at his unexpected recognition from LEADERSHIP Newspaper as CEO Manufacturer of the Year 2024, saying it will give him more courage to continue and strive for excellence.
LEADERSHIP Media Awards is an annual event used to recognise individuals, groups and organisations who have made contributions to Nigeria’s national development in different ways.
The management of LEADERSHIP Newspaper proudly presented Ajayi with the coveted CEO Manufacturer of the Year 2024 award in Lagos on Tuesday.
The NORD boss expressed his joy and gratitude for the unexpected recognition.
“I had no clue about this award,” he admitted, adding that he had no connections within the LEADERSHIP team that could have influenced the decision.
“This fact made the accolade all the more meaningful to me.
“This award shows that all my sleepless nights are being noticed. It gives me more courage to continue and strive for excellence,” he said.
Oluwatobi Ajayi is the chairman/CEO of NORD Automobiles Limited, one of the first Nigerian automobile brands and Africa’s premier automobile corporation.
Widely described as a creative and astute entrepreneur, Ajayi has carved a niche for himself in the business world as one of the most influential people in the Nigerian automobile industry, winning both local and international awards and recognition for his contributions to the automobile industry in Nigeria and Africa.
He was listed by Forbes as one of the most promising young entrepreneurs in Africa for 2018.
A graduate of Soil Sciences and Farm Mechanisation from Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ajayi started his career at Mercedes-Benz Nigeria where he did the mandatory National Youth Service. He quickly climbed the ladder to become the head of the division (vans) and later co-founded Jetvan, an authorised dealer of Mercedes-Benz.
From 2013 to 2015, he was able to grow the market share of Mercedes-Benz vans from less than 1% to 7%. In 2013, he won the Mercedes-Benz Best Sales Performance for Africa.
After his trip to Mercedes-Benz factories in Europe and Asia, he realised that with hard work and focus, he could build his own Nigerian global and reliable auto brand.
In April 2015, together with some investors, Tobi left Mercedes-Benz to concentrate fully on Jetvan Automobiles Limited. Via Jetvan, he took the Mercedes-Benz van sales and after-sales to the next level. He was at Jetvan as CEO until April 2018 when he left the company to enable him to focus on building his brand and company, Nord Automobile Limited. He now assembles his own elegant, reliable, durable, and cost-efficient vehicles that are as good as any vehicle in the world.
According to the latest valuation, Nord Automobile is worth a little over N4.2 billion.
Joshua is an alumnus of Lagos Business School (Pan Atlantic University) where he bagged his MBA. He also has a certificate from the IESE Business School, Spain, after concluding his Pan African EMBA Module. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Credit Administrators.
