Mories Atoki, a former executive of the Nigerian offices of two of the Big 4 global financial and auditing services firms, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Ernst & Young (EY), has been headhunted by African Business Coalition for Health, a not-for-profit advocacy driven organisation, to join it as its chief executive officer (CEO).
Atoki worked in tax consulting and business development at EY for six years before joining PwC, where she worked as manager, tax; head of markets, communications and business development, and later as senior manager for sustainability, SDGs and climate change, for just over six years.
As a senior manager at PwC she pioneered and led the firm’s sustainability and climate change practice. In a statement issued by ABCHealth, Atoki is describe as having “an extensive track record in the field of development and as a recognized sustainability expert,” and a member of the Advisory Board of Partners for Review (P4R), a United Nations supported initiative to standardise sustainable development reporting.
She is an alumnus of both Harvard Business School (HBS) and London School of Business & Finance.
Founded by the Aliko Dangote Foundation and the Global Business Coalition for Health, Atoki’s appointed follows a unanimous agreement of the board of directors of African Business Coalition for Health, noted the statement.
“Mories’ appointment comes at a critical moment for ABCHealth. We have just finalized a rigorous strategic planning process aimed at transforming Africa’s Health landscape. Our theory of change now needs to be implemented and Mories has a mandate to successfully drive its implementation,” said Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, chairman, ABCHealth, and co-chairman, Global Business Coalition for Health (GBCHealth) while commenting on the appointment.
Zouera Youssoufou, CEO of Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) and a board member of ABCHealth, said of Atoki’s appointment as CEO: “Mories has a strong track record for execution; she has good communications skills and great leadership capabilities. Her understanding of Africa’s health landscape provides a balanced perspective in our organisation’s mandate of transforming the continent’s health landscape.”
Atoki said she was honoured and excited to lead ABCHealth, adding: “I believe that my appointment as the CEO of ABCHealth has come at a time when Africa clearly needs a strong convener of all stakeholders in Africa’s public and private sectors to facilitate deep partnerships and collaboration all with one end in sight – improving the continent’s health outcomes.”
The African Business Coalition is an African-led coalition of business leaders and companies to improve the health and wellbeing of the African population.
It was launched in February 2019 on the sidelines of the 32nd African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during the Africa Business Health Forum convened in partnership with UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) to mobilise leaders from governments and businesses towards improving Africa’s health outcomes.
According to the Coalition statement, ABCHealth is registered in Nigeria and has plans to expand to additional business hubs in Africa over the next three to five years. Its vision, it explained, is to create a unified African business community acting as a force for good, transforming workplace and community health through impactful health programmes, and shaping policy outcomes regionally and globally.
