Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has emerged as Nigeria’s main thought chief, in accordance with the inaugural GREY Capital Index of 2026.
The index, revealed by Podhium, a Lagos-based repute rankings establishment, mentioned Okonjo-Iweala scored 91.2 out of 100 to rank first amongst 500 Nigerian leaders assessed throughout 25 sectors.
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Yemi Cardoso, got here second with 83.0 factors, whereas former president of the African Development Bank Group, Akinwunmi Adesina, ranked third with 81.0 factors.
President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote and the chairman of Heirs Holdings and founding father of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Tony Elumelu, ranked fourth and fifth with 78.6 and 77.4 factors, respectively.
The different leaders within the prime 10 are, Chairman of the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede; Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed; founding father of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia; founding father of Stanbic IBTC Bank, Atedo Peterside and the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi.
According to Podhium, the index assesses thought leadership based mostly on the depth, originality, attain and affect of concepts, utilizing 4 dimensions: development, repute, experience and yield.
The establishment mentioned greater than 3,000 names had been thought-about throughout the screening course of, with 867 leaders assessed earlier than 500 had been chosen for the ultimate ranking.
Only 10 leaders, representing two p.c of these ranked, attained the Apex Architect class, which requires a rating of at the least 75.
Another 64 leaders had been labeled as business authorities, whereas 426, representing 85.2 p.c, fell throughout the Ecosystem Shaper class.
Managing Director of Podhium, Obiora Tabansi Onyeaso mentioned, “Nigeria has never been short of thinkers in executive suits and the upper echelons of government. What has been missing is an instrument that can tell original, evidenced thought apart from the commentary that merely circulates and echoes what is discussed on stage.”
The report recognized a spot in thought leadership amongst Nigeria’s banking sector, noting that not one of the 37 ranked leaders within the business scored excessive sufficient to enter the Apex Architect class.
It attributed the development to what it described because the “latent penalty” confronted by professionals in regulated industries, the place talking overtly on sure points might carry skilled dangers.
The report famous that distinguished former banking executives, together with Jim Ovia, Aig-Imoukhuede and Atedo Peterside, have constructed platforms outdoors conventional banking by means of philanthropy, schooling and leadership growth.
International growth organisations recorded the best common rating amongst sectors with at the least 10 ranked leaders, with a mean of 52.2 factors.
This was larger than the 35.5 common recorded by the humanities, tradition and leisure sector.
The index additionally discovered that girls accounted for 222 of the five hundred ranked leaders, representing 44.4 p.c.
Two girls made the highest 10, with Okonjo-Iweala ranking first and Mohammed seventh. Women additionally accounted for 10 of the 36 leaders who scored at the least 0.90 on the index’s high quality verification measure.
However, their common last rating of 36.8 was under the 41.3 recorded by males.
Podhium attributed the hole partly to variations in entry to channels that carry larger weight within the ranking.
Onyeaso mentioned the restricted variety of leaders within the highest class mirrored a scarcity of institutional help for sustained mental manufacturing moderately than a scarcity of expertise.
“Ten Apex Architects in a country of 230 million people is not a talent deficit. It is an infrastructure deficit,” he mentioned.
He recognized the restricted variety of endowed educational chairs, funded assume tanks and platforms for sustained mental work as elements constraining thought leadership in Nigeria.
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