One of Nigeria’s leading CSD brands, 7Up, has announced Oreoluwa Agunbiade as the winner of the 7Up Harvard Business School Scholarship for 2023, making the Nigerian scholar the 13th torchbearer of this distinguished scholarship program, which was inaugurated in 2010.
The announcement, which was made at SBC’s head office in Ijora, Lagos, is a testament to the commitment of 7Up towards empowering and inspiring Nigerians by fully funding one young Nigerian to study at the Harvard Business School, United States. Notably, the scholarship is exclusively reserved for individuals who have been admitted to Harvard Business School for their MBA pursuits but are unable to fund it.
Commending this extraordinary initiative, Segun Ogunleye, the GM Marketing at SBC, spoke on the genesis of the 7Up Harvard Business School Scholarship, saying
7up HBSS was conceived and started in 2010 by the visionary Chairman of SBC, Faysal El-Khalil, to mark the 50th anniversary of the company. Mr. Thurston said that, due to the commitment of SBC ever since, the scholarship stands as a testament to the desire to nurture a vanguard of Nigerian leaders, thereby raising youths that will raise the bar of transformational leadership in Nigeria.
Norden proceeded to highlight the trailblazing accomplishments of past winners, who are also rendering invaluable contributions to the society. Among these winners are Olujimi Williams (2012), Mayowa Kuyoro (2013), Oluwasola Olaniyan (2014), Bankole Makanjuola (2015), Chidozie Ibekwe (2016), Ahmed Alimi (2017), Olunma Izejiobi (2018), Uzoma Anyanwa (2019), Abdul-Rahman Buhari (2020), Desayo Ajisegiri (2021), and Dafi Rogers-Halliday (2022).
On his part, the Managing Director of SBC, Ziad Maalouf, said
“Excellence, diversity, and inclusion are the keys for SBC; hence, the company takes immense pride in welcoming Oreoluwa Agunbiade as one of the 7UP Harvard Business School awardeesWe are sure that she will preserve the legacy of diligence and excellence, a hallmark of the winners of this prestigious scholarship at one of the world’s eminent business institutions. It is her dedication towards giving back to the society that informed her selection as the winner for 2023. We ardently anticipate the great work she will do after studying at Harvard.”
Maalouf added that,
“Aside from 7Up Harvard Business School, SBC has several people-centric initiatives to further convey its readiness towards supporting the Nigerian Youth.Among these commendable endeavours are the Pepsi Football Academy, an enduring fount of emerging football prodigies; the bestowal of vital community amenities such as boreholes; the provision of educational resources including books and laboratory equipment to secondary schools; the generous disbursement of scholarships to financially constrained students, both at the post-primary and tertiary levels; and steadfast support for campaigns dedicated to cancer and cholera awareness.”
In an address, Agunbiade extended her gratitude to the Seven-Up Bottling Company for giving her the privilege of actualizing her lifelong aspiration of acquiring knowledge at Harvard. Pledging to channel the education and training she is poised to receive into a dynamic force for women’s empowerment, Oreoluwa revealed that her vision is to establish an impactful fund aimed at nurturing female-led enterprises across the African continent.
Seven-Up Bottling Company continues to inspire and enable young Nigerian leaders with global leadership training from Harvard Business School who will eventually come back to inspire other leaders, thereby causing a great transformation in the country and Africa at large.
-Bellanaija
