Nigeria’s leading total beverage company, Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited has been awarded “Most Outstanding Beverage Company in Women Development” for its creation of shared opportunity through its care and support for people and communities, especially in the area of women empowerment across Nigeria.

The corporate award of recognition was presented to the company at the Women in Marketing & Communications Annual Gala Night, held at the Landmark Centre, Lagos.

The WIMCA 2022 event also saw the individual recognition of the top 50 most influential women in marketing and communications in Nigeria.

Also at the event, three of Coca-Cola’s prestigious amazons : the Vice President, Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability, Africa, Patricia Obozuwa, Marketing Director, Coca-Cola Company,Bunmi Adeniba and Director, Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability, Coca-Cola Company, Nwamaka Onyemelukwe, were honoured for their professionalism and achievements in the marketing and communications industry.

Convener of the event, Joshua Ajayi explained that the conference, which was pioneered in 2014, has enabled the gathering of stakeholders in the marketing industry to discuss and set agendas on wide-ranging issues in the industry. 

He further emphasiswed the competitiveness of the award and the importance of recognizing these brands and their leading female executives for their remarkable heights.

Nwamaka, who received the “Most Outstanding Beverage Company in Women Empowerment” award on behalf of Coca-Cola, expressed delight at the recognition of the company’s sustainability efforts geared towards improving the lives of local communities through women empowerment. 

“The Coca-Cola Company alongside its Foundation is committed to creating opportunities in our communities and we are firmly rooted in the belief that women are key drivers of change in every society. This is why we set and surpassed our 5by20 goal in 2020 by 16.66%. We strive to ensure the wellbeing of communities and in doing this, we have significantly invested in women-centric projects across Nigeria,” she said.

Through its various women empowerment initiatives including the Catalyst for Change 1.0 and 2.0 Initiative and the EQUIP 60,000 programme the company from 2021 till date empowered over 83,928 women and youths across underserved communities in Nigeria.  

Other initiatives include: the Recycling Scheme for Women and Youth Empowerment (RESWAYE), Project Revive and its maternal and Neonatal healthcare initiative, Safe Birth Initiative (SBI).

Since 2014, WIMCA has been on the forefront  of gathering and ranking brands and their female brand and marketing communications professionals in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa while doubling as a mentorship platform for young female professionals in the communications industry.