Funso Aina, senior manager of external relations for MTN Nigeria, won the SABRE IN2 awards’ “Innovator of the Year” prize for branding.
Aina, a media and public relations specialist received the honor on March 23, 2023, during the PRovoke EMEA Summit in Gesellschaftshaus Palmengarten Frankfurt, Germany.
The SABRE IN2 awards honor outstanding work that exemplifies the PR profession’s expanding range, from content production to the process of leveraging data and analytics to inform, develop, and assess campaign results throughout the world.
Aina responded to the honor by saying that the achievement would serve as an example for him and other MTN employees.
“I am grateful for the recognition from SABRE and its dedication to acknowledging exceptional content produced by modern PR professionals.
“This award is inspiring for all of us at MTN; it emboldens our commitment to improving the media landscape and implementing our ‘Good Together’ initiative. I am convinced we still have feats to achieve in the industry, and with strategic thinking, we will cover even more grounds,” he stated.
Funso, a corporate communication expert with over 20 years of experience and a member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, won first place in the region of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). By the industry watchdog, NIPR, he was recognized as the “Most Influential Public Relations Professional in Nigeria” in 2022.
Funso Aina has worked in media, cultural diplomacy, and telecommunications for about 30 years. He possesses a wide range of skills and practical expertise in crisis management, public affairs, corporate communications, media relations, and public relations. He is a Fellow of the distinguished International Visiting Program (IVP) of the US Department of State and the British Commonwealth Press Union (CPU).
He worked as the British Council’s communications manager, the Punch newspaper’s chief correspondent, The Nation newspaper’s assistant editor, and Independent Communications Network Limited’s senior reporter before joining MTN Nigeria in 2009. Independent Communications Network Limited is the publisher of The News, Tempo magazines, and PM newspapers.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Ilorin in 1992 and a Master of International Relations (Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, 1998).