The Chief Executive Officer of the National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO), Mr Hanan Abdul-Wahab was among 11 African personalities whose works in varied fields of endeavors were recognised at the 11th ALM Persons of the Year Awards Investiture ceremony in Mauritius over the weekend.

The African Leadership Magazine (ALM) Persons of the Year Awards is Africa’s premier vote-based endorsement, reserved annually for the leading Africans who are contributing towards promoting the continent’s progress, and positively altering Africa’s perceived negative image.

The annual event also provides a platform for honouring people-centered leadership and Africans that are pursuing a pan-African agenda in their chosen fields of endeavour.

This year’s event celebrated what organisers described as the continent’s merchants of hope, ready to lead an army of change agents and reformers, to build an Africa that works for everyone.

For his transformative works at NAFCO since 2017 as well as his contribution towards the fight against post-harvest losses, Hanan Abdul-Wahab was decorated with the African Agricultural Development Champion Award by the President of Sierra Leone, Dr. Julius Maada Bio, who himself emerged the winner of the topmost honour, the African of the Year 2022 Award.

Both men were also inducted into the African Leadership Council.

Other award winners included the Namibian Minister for Trade and Industrialisation, Lucia Iipumbu and the Chief of Defense Staff of the Gambian Armed Forces, Yankuba Drammeh.

The ALM promotes innovation, entrepreneurship and development in Africa, which hardly finds placement in the mainstream media, and celebrates exemplary leadership and individuals who have contributed, across diverse spectrums of society, to shaping the global perception and growth story of the African continent, as well as re-positioning the African continent.

Since his appointment in 2017, Hanan Abdul-Wahab is known to have transformed what was almost a dormant company after it secured the mandate to preside over the food supply component of the Free Senior High School Programme.

Under the auspices of the Free SHS programme, the company served as a major off-taker for fifteen food commodities produced and processed locally by Ghanaian farmers and processors, a situation that has contributed greatly to the reduction in post-harvest losses.

He is also credited with expanding the company to all 16 regions from 3 regions operational prior to his appointment.

President Maada Bio who spoke on “ Re-imagining opportunities in a turbulent time” paid glowing tribute to Africans working under difficult circumstances to ensure the continent’s breakthrough.