Head of Ghana Operations at Inlaks Limited, an information technology firm, Dzifa Abodakpi, has been adjudged as the Most Outstanding Female IT Country Executive at the 3rd Feminine Achievements Awards, which came off in Accra.
A citation presented to her read: “Having overseen the sales and strategy functions at Global Solutions Ghana, now Inlaks Limited, your skills in negotiation, presentations and complex sales management with regards to computer hardware and software have proved second to none.
These skills, indeed, have been crucial to the success the company has had in expanding sales and market share to an increasingly astute and affluent clientele base. Indeed your sales and marketing strategies have proved invaluable in these regards and are a testimony to your exemplary professionalism,” it read.
Held under the theme “The Role of Women in Ghana’s Socio-economic Recovery”, the award was established to identify, publicly recognise and reward women whose personal and professional conduct have been exemplary and whose achievement have been outstanding.
In an interview with Ms. Abodakpi, she noted that despite her excitement for winning an award of this nature for the first time, she is challenged to do more, adding that what has brought her this far is humility, diligence and determination to learn.
“My adviceis to learn as much as you can from anyone. One of the things that really helped me was my apprenticeship. I got the opportunity to be mentored by a man, Femi Muraino, former Country Manager of Inlaks Limited, on this job.
He made it a point to bring out every potential in me just so I could maximise them.To all the women out there, you definitely need a mentor, man or woman. Just be humble and learn and once you are able to be a good student, eventually you’d become great,” she noted.
For someone who studied biochemistry in school and practised same in a few places, she realised early enough that “it wasn’t my thing because I like to be out there, meet people, talk to them and get along. So being a back office person just didn’t excite me enough.”
It was then the opportunity at Inlaks Ghana beckoned as a sales officer. “It was challenging because it is IT and I have never had the chance to do anything IT and I struggled initially but Femi made it a point to make sure he guided me every step of the way and that made it very easy for me.”
Ms. Abodakpi appreciated the work of the team and believes this award, which has come right in the middle of rebranding from Global Solutions to Inlaks, has come at the best time to boost the image of the new brand.
Dzifa is a self-motivated, results driven and a seasoned leader with many years of cognate experience in business leadership spanning industry verticals such as financial services, SMEs and Telcos across the West African Region.
She is the first Ghanaian Country Head for the Inlaks Ghana Operations (formerly Global Solutions Ltd).
Prior to her current role, she was the head of corporate sales and strategy for Global Solutions where she significantly contributed to the remarkable revenue growth of the company through client acquisition in Universal Banking, Microfinance, Infrastructure and Enterprise Solutions.
Dzifa holds a B.Sc Honors from the prestigious Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana and an MBA (in view) in Finance and Risk Management at the Business School Netherlands (BSN), Holland.
Dzifa has also taken courses in Human Capital Management (HCM), Strategic Management, Marketing and Corporate Governance.
Source:Myjoyonline