Adia Sowho

Adia Sowho

Adia Sowho is a global executive with experience spanning the technology, telecommunications, and finance sectors. She was recently appointed the first-ever female Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of MTN Nigeria, following the telecom’s decision to localise its management team. In her new role, she will be responsible for marketing the brand and developing products. Adia Sowho brings to MTN, several years of expertise in commerce, strategic business planning and digital infrastructure.

Before her appointment, Adia was named the interim Chief Executive Officer of Thrive Agric, an agriculture investment platform, following the company’s payment default on matured investments. She replaced co-founder, Uka Eje, who stepped down and became the Chief Operations Officer (COO). 

Seven months into her appointment, the startup announced its payment of matured investments to crowd funders on its platform. This marked a significant development since Adia assumed the leadership position of the company.

Adia’s educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from the University of Sheffield, UK, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. 

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Adia’s over 20 years of experience includes different positions across major industries. She started her career in 2001 as a Radio Frequency Engineer at the United States Cellular Corporation in America and joined Deloitte Consulting LLP in Chicago as Management Consultant in 2007. Adia later joined Etisalat (now 9mobile), where she served in various leadership capacities as Head of Strategy and Business Development, Head of Digital Media, and Director for Digital Business from March 2010 to January 2018. 

While at Etisalat, she created the 23 million-subscriber business’ suite of mobile digital products and services across mobile financial services, advertising, content, and APIs. She further expanded her partner base and served as the primary point-of-contact for Google and Facebook partnerships. After Etisalat, Adia was appointed first, as Managing Director of the Nigerian unit of the San Francisco-based company Migo, and later as Vice-President, Growth between 2018 and 2020. At Migo, she grew the company’s user base up to one million users and led its expansion to Brazil.

As well as her professional career, Adia supports Africa’s tech ecosystem as a startup mentor and speaker, working with various Africa-focused Venture Capital firms to better prepare their portfolios for scale. She has built a reputation for being a problem solver within Nigeria’s business, technology, and media scenes. Adia is currently working to change the technology culture in Nigeria and inspire more young women to take up careers in the industry.

She currently serves on the board of Hover Developer Services and Sankore Investments.