OUR PEOPLE
The Board of Trustees
Mr Jim Ovia CON
Chairman, Board of Trustees
Mr Jim Ovia CON is the founder and chairman of Zenith Bank Plc, West Africa’s largest bank. Zenith Bank is ranked 325th in the world (The Banker, Top 1000 World Banks, 2016) with over $16bn in assets and operations in international locations such as the UK, UASE, China. Ghana, Sierra Leone and the Gambia. In January 2017, Jim Ovia was appointed as a member of the World Economic Forum Community of Chairmen.
He has a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Louisiana, USA and a Bachelor’s degree (B.Sc) in Business Administration from Southern University, Louisiana, USA.
As part of his philanthropic efforts, Jim Ovia is one of the founding directors of the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In addition, he established the Jim Ovia foundation which has provided over 1,500 students with university scholarships to study Medicine, Information & Communication Technology, Engineering etc
Prof Hauwa Biu
Vice Chairperson (BOT)
Prof. Hauwa Biu is a professor of Curriculum and Instruction (Science) in the Department of Education, University of Maiduguri, Borno state, Nigeria. She obtained her B.Sc. Ed and M.Ed. from the University of Maiduguri and a doctorate from Kenyatta University in Kenya.
Prof. Biu is the Borno state coordinator of BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights and has been active in the Bring Back Our Girls campaign, liaising with the Chibok community, amongst others.
Her major areas of interest are the promotion of women/girl-child education, campaigns against early marriage and female genital mutilation as well as sensitisation on women in politics and development.
Dr Mariam Masha
Executive Secretary/CEO
Dr Masha is the Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on Humanitarian Interventions playing a strategic role in the plan of the Federal Government for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the North East zone affected by the Boko Haram insurgency. Prior to this, she served as the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) during which she led the Federal Government’s Recovery and Peace Building Assessment in collaboration with the World Bank and the European Union.
She is an Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellow as well as a Fellow of the Nigerian Leadership Institute. She graduated with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery from the University of Lagos, College of Medicine and has a Master’s degree in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
In addition, she has a Post Graduate diploma in Organisational Leadership from Said Business School, Oxford University and an Executive Masters in Conflict & Fragility Management from the Graduate Institute of International & Development Studies, Geneva.
Baba Hassan Kachalla
Trustee
Baba Hassan has acquired a wealth of professional experience spanning over four decades in sales and marketing as well as in management and supervision of products and services in various family businesses and corporate organisations. He holds the enviable record of establishing the first NAFDAC certified bottle water company in Borno state.Baba Hassan has acquired a wealth of professional experience spanning over four decades in sales and marketing as well as in management and supervision of products and services in various family businesses and corporate organisations. He holds the enviable record of establishing the first NAFDAC certified bottle water company in Borno state.
As a representative of Total Energy based in Lyon, France, Baba Hassan negotiated, imported and supervised the installation of 20 units of solar water pumping systems in Borno state, 10 units in Niger state and 6 units in Kwara state.
Baba Hassan Kachalla is a founding father of the Society for Prevention and Eradication of Tuberculosis in Nigeria where for 18 years he has participated actively to assist in the fight against the dreaded disease in various communities in the North East and the entire country.
Mrs Doris Yaro
Trustee
Mrs Doris Yaro has about 20 years’ worth of experience in providing fiscal, strategic and operations leadership. She has presented a series of papers on gender equality with focus on girl-child education, poverty eradication and the need for humanitarian aid/medical relief assistance for internally displaced persons and refugees at an international level. She has founded and currently manages an NGO which has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
This NGO provides yearly scholarships for more than 500 orphans and vulnerable children in primary and secondary schools. Furthermore, she has carried out a national campaign for Girl-Child education across the six geo-political zones which has led to an increase in enrolment rates in schools across the country.
NECT Staff
Dr Mariam Masha
Dolapo Adeoye
Sikiru Yekini
Strategic Partners
