Honours will not cease coming the way of Oye Ekiti, Ekiti State-born industrial giant and Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Spectra Industries Limited, Mr Durodola Omolewa Kuteyi, in view of his numerous contributions to humanity.
So, it was not surprising when he was honoured by the Centre for Values Leadership (CVL) on Wednesday, 21st June, 2023 at CVL Building, 6 Balarabe Musa Crescent, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Durodola Kuteyi has unflinching interest in food processing and packaging, SME development, and establishment of packaging centre for SME industrial cluster among others.
The honour was the highpoint of CVL’s 60th Leadership Tribute Colloquium with the theme, “Moving from consumption to production: The challenges”, which had a former Director General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LOC), Mr Muda Yusuf; and Executive Chairman Nadigo Communication Limited, Mr Ade Ogidan as panelists.
Mr Durodola Omolewa Kuteyi and
Princess ‘Layo Bakare-Okeowo were honoured with awards by CVL at the event.
With this Kuteyi and Bakare-Okeowo joined the long list of distinguished and eminent past Nigerian honourees that include the late Head of Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan; Nigeria’s former Vice President, Dr Alex Ekwueme; and boardroom guru, Dr Christopher Kolade.
Past honorees also included former VC, University of Benin, Prof Grace Alele-Williams; former Secretary General, Commonwealth, Chief Emaka Anyaoku; the late Lagos State Governor, Alhaji Lateef Jakande; businesswoman, Chief Mrs Olutoyin Olakunrin; Alhaji Ahmed Joda; Emeritus Prof. Oladipo Akinkugbe; Prof Anya G Anya; and Chief Mrs Olufolake Solanke SAN; among others.
Speaking about how his interest in food processing and production began, Kuteyi said, I was born in Oye Ekiti on May 16, 1952. I gained admission into the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) for my Preliminary Studies in Industrial Chemistry, after that, I needed to move forward.
“I had a friend then whose sister was in Food Technology Department and I read through the course to see what it was all about and I saw that I was interested in it after my friend advised I studied it. That was how I changed to study Food Technology.
“Right there at the department, we started making one food product after another like Yoghurt etc. I graduated in 1977, had my compulsory one year national service (NYSC) in Kano and I worked in NAFDAC from 1978 to 1982.
“The major highlights are where we have been in the last 41 years and that is into production of which we started with as makers of plantain chips to now that we are producing many products the latest of which is Dark Chocolate”.
