The Chartered Institute of Directors Nigeria (CIoDN) has lost one of its past Presidents, Emmanuel Ijewere.
He died in the early hours of Friday, Dec 29, 2023, at the age of 77.
The Director General/Chief Executive Officer, Bamidele Alimi, announced his passing in a statement.
He said Ijewere was the sixth president of the institute from 1999 – 2001.
He said during his tenure as president, Ijewere improved the corporate visibility of the Institute putting it on a deserving pedestal as the premier membership organisation in Nigeria.
According to him, it was under his leadership that the headquarters of the institute moved to Ikoyi in Lagos, where it is still located to date.
Alimi described Ijewere as one of Nigeria’s most prominent businessmen, who had a wide range of interests and experience in banking, finance, and agriculture.
He was also a past President of ICAN and the Nigerian Red Cross.
Born in 1946, Ijewere studied in Lagos, Ijebu-Ode, Cameroon, and the United Kingdom (UK).
He began his accounting career in 1965 working at Coopers & Lybrand, and later established Ijewere & Co., a chartered accountancy firm in Nigeria, in 1979. Ijewere also served as chairman and director in many companies, including Best Foods Group, Emson, Nigeria Agribusiness Group, Drum Resources Nigeria Limited, Apel Capital & Trust Limited, Countrywide Direct Mortgage Company, Kerildbert Holdings, Computer Warehouse Group (CWG), Gemini Pharmaceuticals, among others.
He was the pioneer chairman of the Agriculture and Food Security Commission and also the director of the defunct modified value-added tax committee in 1993.
He was a member of the National Economic Forum (NEF), the International Investment Council (HIIC), and the Agricultural Transformation Implementation Council (ATIC), under the chairmanship of ex-President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and also served as a resource person on agriculture to the transition committee of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Until his death, Ijewere was the President of the Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NAGB), the umbrella organisation for Nigerian agriculture.
