MALLAM SADIQ KASSIM, FNIPR, M.CIoD, DIRECTOR/GROUP HEAD – CORPOPRATE AFFAIRS, TROPICAL GENERAL INVESTMENTS GROUP Mallam Abubakar Sadiq Kassim was born in 1962 in the ancient commercial city of Kano in Kano State. He completed his academic pursuit at the Bayero University (BUK) Kano and graduated in 1983. His work experience spanned across the public (FMITI, NEPZA) and private (Kewalram-Chanrai Group, TGI Group) sectors in Marketing, Agriculture, Investment Promotion and Strategy for more than four decades. He has served the country in different capacities which include the following: Chairman, Federal Government Cotton Revolving Fund Management Committee (CRFMC); Vice Chairman, Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association (NTMA); Member, technical team of the Presidential Committee on Textile; Member, Cotton Development Committee; Member, Panel on the development of a Vegetable Oil Development Programme (VODEP); Member, Committee on the establishment of a Manufacturers’ Association for Vegetable Oil and later National Coordinator VEOPAN; National Expert & Consultant on Textile to UNIDO; Member, OSAN White Paper and Review committee on Oilseed sector in Nigeria; Member, study group on the activities of the multi-commodity companies; Member, agriculture and food security thematic group of the Vision 20:20:20. He was a member of the AFCFTA Nigeria Strategy work group. He currently serves on the Council of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), the Nigeria Agri-Business Group (NABG) Exco and Administrative Board and Council of the Nigerian Institute of Soil Science (NISS) representing the Agro-Allied sector of MAN, He was recently elected the President of the Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN) and chairs the implementation of the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative. Mallam Sadiq has attended several seminars, served as a resource person and also presented papers on a wide range of issues both within and outside the country. He is happily married with children.
Bala Muhammad
BRIEF PROFESSIONAL BIO Bala Muhammad is a professional writer, broadcaster and journalist. He has worked as radio producer and presenter at BBC World Service in London, and as correspondent of Deutsche Welle (DW) in Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria, with a stint at DW Headquarters in Cologne, Germany. For an unbroken 15 years (2006-2021), Bala wrote the Daily Trust Saturday Column (back page), and sat on the newspaper’s Editorial Board, and wrote some of the newspaper’s Editorials. He had also written for The Guardian (Lagos), the Triumph (Kano), Al Ahram Weekly (Cairo, Egypt), Impact International (London, UK), and Bala was one-time Press Secretary to former Nigeria’s Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and was pioneer Director General of Kano State Directorate of Societal Reorientation (A Daidaita Sahu), doubling as Special Adviser on Strategic Communication to one-time Kano State Governor Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau. BRIEF EDUCATIONAL BIO Bala Muhammad studied at Bayero University, Kano; the American University in Cairo, Egypt; the University of Westminster in London, UK; and the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. He had also studied AshShifa, Muwatta, Mudawwana and other books with his late father; Fiqhus Sunnah and other books with Shaikh Ibrahim Khalil; Nahw, Sarf, Ilmul Kalam etc with Shaikh Umar Sani Fagge; Mantiq with late Shaikh Ali Khalil Alkantara; among other scholars. He has also attended various professional courses in Nigeria and abroad, and speaks Hausa, English, Arabic, and basic French. BRIEF AREAS OF EXPERTISE Bala Muhammad is a communication professional with expertise in Training and Research; Media and Communication; Advertising and Public Relations; Events Management; Attitudinal Change Campaign, among other areas. He is a certified member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the African Council for Communication Education (ACCE), Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), among others. He has consulted for the World Bank, DFID, UNDP, ICRC, Adam Smith International, Government of Japan and others. He is widely-travelled, and enjoys reading, writing, mentoring and travelling. BRIEF COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTIONS Founding Secretary General, Jama’atul Wa’az wal Irshad Islami, Kano; Member Board of Trustees Kano LEADS; Member, Kano Concerned Citizens Initiative (KCCI); North West Ex-Officio at Bayero University Kano Alumni Association (BUKAA); Patron, Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN); among others. SOCIAL MEDIA LINKEDIN: www.linkedin.com/in/bala-muhammad-0784384
