Rasheed Akhigbe Named Among Top Winners of Business Growth Excellence Award at Techquest 2023

By Chineye Okenwa

Mr Rasheed Akhigbe has been named one of the winners of the Business Growth Excellence Award 2023, following the announcement of winners at the just-concluded Techquest International Innovation Award. He emerged as one of the top two recognised recipients in the category after being selected from a pool of 15 nominees and meeting all judging criteria for the 2023 award cycle.

The Business Growth Excellence Award recognises professionals who deliver measurable business growth through structured leadership, people strategy, and sustainable execution. Akhigbe’s selection reflects a career record that places people leadership at the centre of organisational performance and long-term growth.

Up to 2023, Akhigbe has built a professional profile defined by depth in human resources leadership within large, multi-layered organisations. His work consistently positioned people strategy as a core business discipline rather than a support function. Across progressive leadership roles, he operated as a strategic partner to senior leaders, translating business priorities into practical workforce actions that improved execution, engagement, and accountability.

Rather than focusing on isolated interventions, his approach emphasised systems and structure. Talent acquisition, development, performance management, and rewards were treated as interconnected levers that needed to work together to support business objectives. This perspective shaped much of his impact and formed the foundation for the recognition received at Techquest.

A significant part of Akhigbe’s work involved leading large-scale hiring and onboarding initiatives during periods of organisational growth and change. His focus extended beyond filling roles to ensuring that new employees were effectively integrated into the organisation. Structured onboarding frameworks were introduced to clarify expectations early, accelerate productivity, and reduce early-stage disengagement.

Retention was addressed through deliberate reward and recognition programs designed to reinforce fairness, consistency, and alignment with performance expectations. These programs strengthened trust across the workforce and supported stability, particularly in complex operating environments where uncertainty could undermine morale.

Alongside these efforts, Akhigbe introduced development frameworks supporting both entry-level and senior professionals. These frameworks provided clearer pathways for growth and leadership readiness, ensuring that capability development kept pace with organisational needs.

A defining feature of Akhigbe’s leadership has been his focus on performance clarity. In large organisations, inconsistent expectations and unclear accountability often limit execution quality. His work addressed this challenge by building clear role definitions, core competencies, and performance standards applied consistently across teams.

By working closely with managers, he helped embed performance management practices that encouraged ongoing feedback and objective assessment. This approach strengthened leadership capability and enabled more constructive performance conversations, supporting both individual development and organisational outcomes.

The result was a shift toward greater accountability and predictability in how work was delivered, a factor that weighed strongly in the award assessment process.

Beyond steady-state operations, Akhigbe developed strong experience in change leadership. He supported organisations through periods of transformation, integration, and operational redesign, where people risks often sit alongside strategic opportunity.

His role involved working with leaders and managers to navigate employee relations matters, improve communication, and ensure compliance while maintaining trust across the workforce. His approach balanced structure with empathy, recognising that sustainable change requires both clear direction and attention to people impact.

This ability to manage change without eroding engagement or confidence was another element that distinguished his professional record during the period under review.

Akhigbe’s work up to 2023 is also marked by a consistent use of data and practical metrics to inform decision-making. Rather than relying on assumptions, he encouraged leadership teams to use evidence to guide workforce strategy.

By tracking indicators such as retention patterns, quality of hire, and workforce effectiveness, he helped leaders better understand the impact of people decisions on business outcomes. These insights supported more informed planning, sharper execution, and improved accountability.

The judging panel noted that this data-informed approach strengthened the credibility of people strategy at leadership level and contributed directly to measurable business results.

The Business Growth Excellence Award recognises professionals whose work demonstrates a clear link between leadership practice and sustainable growth. Akhigbe’s emergence as one of the top two winners from 15 nominees reflects strong alignment with these criteria.

His professional record up to 2023 shows a consistent ability to design and implement people systems that support execution discipline, leadership effectiveness, and workforce resilience. Growth, in this context, was not treated as a short-term outcome but as the result of deliberate, repeatable leadership practices.

The award recognition positions Akhigbe among a select group of professionals whose work illustrates how structured people strategy can serve as a foundation for long-term organisational performance.

Being named a winner at the Techquest International Innovation Award places Akhigbe within a broader pan-African conversation about leadership and growth. As organisations across the continent scale, adapt, and compete, the role of people leadership continues to gain prominence.

For corporate executives, founders, and policymakers, his profile offers a practical reference point. It highlights how human resources, when approached with discipline and strategic intent, can move beyond administration to become a driver of execution and sustainable growth.

While the Business Growth Excellence Award recognises work completed up to 2023, it also underscores the continued relevance of structured leadership and people strategy in shaping future outcomes. The principles reflected in Akhigbe’s career remain central to organisations seeking stability, scalability, and long-term value.

The Techquest International Innovation Award continues to serve as a credible platform for recognising professionals whose work delivers measurable impact across Africa’s business and innovation ecosystem. By highlighting leaders such as Rasheed Akhigbe, Techquest reinforces the importance of disciplined execution and people-centred growth.

Innovators, founders, and business leaders are encouraged to participate in the 2024 edition of the Techquest International Innovation Award, as the platform continues its role in documenting and celebrating excellence that drives progress across the continent.