The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has elected Dr Ifeanyi Eric Okoye, Chief Executive Officer of Juhel Nigeria Limited, as its 12th president.
Okoye was elected at the association’s 54th Annual General Meeting in Lagos, succeeding Otunba Francis Meshioye, who completed his four-year tenure.
Segun Ajayi-Kadir, MAN’s Director-General, announced the development in a statement issued over the weekend.
Okoye founded Juhel Nigeria Limited in 1987. The wholly indigenous pharmaceutical manufacturing company is headquartered in Enugu State and produces a range of pharmaceutical products.
The company moved to its permanent site in Emene, Enugu, in 2001, expanding its facilities to include syrup and capsule production. In 2010, it opened a major parenteral manufacturing facility in Awka, Anambra State.
Okoye holds a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, as well as a master’s degree and PhD in Pharmaceutical Technology and Industrial Pharmacy from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He graduated as the best student in his class.
He is a Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, an alumnus of Harvard Business School in the United States and a member of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Plateau State.
In 2012, he received the national honour of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR).
His previous public service roles include membership of the Governing Council of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria from 2009 to 2022 and the Ministerial Committee on the Establishment of World-Class Hospitals and Diagnostic Centres from 2013 to 2015.
Okoye also has a long history with MAN. Before his election as president, he served as chairman of the association’s Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi states branches from 1998 to 2005, and as vice-president from 2006 to 2010.
His election comes as Nigerian manufacturers continue to contend with high operating costs, infrastructure constraints and other challenges affecting domestic production.
