Olajide: A financial manager’s strategic thinking that transformed Lipton Nigeria
Ensuring financial leadership in uncertain times is a major role of finance managers that cannot be ignored. If not for anything, it protects a business and accelerate its growth.
When global companies speak about the complexities of doing business in Africa, few challenges loom larger than foreign exchange (FX) volatility, inflationary pressure, and regulatory uncertainty.
Amid these challenges limiting businesses, most finance leaders are weathering the storm and ensuring better returns for stakeholders.
Amongst those that demonstrated how strategic thinking, disciplined execution, and bold financial stewardship cannot only protect a business but also accelerate its growth is John Olajide, who served as Country Finance Manager for Lipton Nigeria.
Olajide was appointed during a period of significant transition for the continent’s most prominent consumer goods companies.
His financial management leadership proved instrumental in transforming the company from a legacy division of a multinational into a high-performing standalone business, achieving record profitability despite one of the most volatile macro-economic climates in decades.
When Lipton Nigeria separated from Unilever, it faced daunting financial headwinds. Currency instability, foreign exchange scarcity, and rising input costs posed existential risks to operations and profitability.
Today, Lipton Nigeria stands as a stronger, more agile, and more profitable business — a testament to the vision, resilience, and strategic brilliance of the finance leader who helped steer it through one of the most challenging periods in its history.
Under Olajide leadership, Lipton Nigeria introduced rigorous financial governance practices, including advanced forecasting models, scenario-planning frameworks, and real-time performance dashboards. These tools empowered leadership teams with better decision-making capabilities, improved working-capital control, and strengthened overall financial resilience.
His focus on aligning operational decisions with financial outcomes fostered a performance-driven culture, allowing the company to respond swiftly to market changes while maintaining strong financial health.
As the company’s first finance head in its new independent structure, Olajide was entrusted with designing the financial foundation that would sustain the business beyond the shadow of its former parent company.
He built this foundation from the ground up — implementing governance frameworks, financial reporting standards, and liquidity strategies tailored to Nigeria’s economic realities. His leadership ensured that the company maintained operational stability during the critical transition period, positioning it for sustained growth.
One of Olajide most impactful contributions was the development of an innovative foreign exchange (FX) sourcing and risk-mitigation strategy that unlocked over $100 million in FX liquidity.
At a time when many manufacturers were forced to scale back operations due to severe foreign currency shortages, Olajide approach ensured uninterrupted access to imported raw materials and equipment.
By cultivating strategic partnerships with major financial institutions and designing robust treasury models, he insulated the business from FX shocks and allowed production to run at full capacity across five world-class factories producing soaps, detergents, savoury foods, tea, and toothpaste.
This strategic foresight was pivotal — it protected the company’s supply chain, safeguarded thousands of local jobs, and strengthened relationships with suppliers and distributors throughout the region.
Beyond managing risk, Olajide spearheaded a comprehensive profitability turnaround. Through a combination of margin optimisation, cost-efficiency programs, supplier renegotiations, and pricing strategy realignment, he increased the company’s gross margin from 28 percent in 2021 to over 40 percent by 2023 — one of the most dramatic improvements in the company’s history.
His financial strategy focused not only on cutting costs but also on unlocking structural value. By improving capital allocation, enhancing cost visibility, and aligning financial metrics with commercial priorities, John turned profitability into a strategic advantage, enabling the business to reinvest in innovation, capacity expansion, and market growth.
In a region where foreign exchange scarcity, inflation, and regulatory complexity often constrain business growth, his work demonstrates that with the right financial strategies, even the most volatile environments can become platforms for profitability and scale.
Olajide achievements in Nigeria represent more than corporate milestones — they reflect the transformative power of strategic finance leadership in emerging markets.
