By Juliet Umeh

MTN Nigeria’s Senior Manager, External Relations, Mr. Funso Aina, has been announced “Innovator of the Year” in the brands category at the SABRE IN2 awards. 
The SABRE IN2 awards recognises excellent work that highlights the expanding scope of the public relations, PR profession, from content creation to the evaluation process using data and analytics to inform, enhance and evaluate campaign successes across the globe. Aina who is also one of Africa’s most decorated media and public relations professionals’ recognition was announced by Provoke Media recently.
The award was presented at the  PRovoke EMEA Summit in Gesellschaftshaus Palmengarten  Frankfurt, Germany.
CEO and Editor-in-Chief, PRovoke Media, Arun Sudhaman said: “The media and communications industry is in the age of convergence, with every discipline demonstrating decent impressions to be most valuable to organisations and agencies.
“The innovation SABRE awards recognise groundbreaking campaigns- having factual data analysis and implemented with the use of technology for evaluation by industry leaders. The award category spotlights professionals in agencies and brands that empower and enable reputation excellence within their organisations.”
Expressing satisfaction with the recognition,  Aina said: “I am grateful for the recognition from SABRE and its dedication to acknowledging exceptional content produced by modern PR professionals. This award is inspiring for all of us at MTN; it emboldens our commitment to improving the media landscape and implementing our ‘Good Together’ initiative.
“I am convinced we still have feats to achieve in the industry, and with strategic thinking, we will cover even more grounds.”

  Funso Aina has close to three decades of work experience in journalism, cultural diplomacy and telecommunications. He has various competencies and hands-on experience in public relations, corporate communications, media relations, public affairs and reputation and crisis management. He is a Fellow of the prestigious US State Department’s International Visitors Programme (IVP) and the British Commonwealth Press Union, CPU.
Before joining MTN Nigeria in 2009, he was Communications Manager of the British Council, Chief Correspondent at Punch newspapers, Assistant Editor with The Nation newspapers and Senior Reporter with Independent Communications Network Limited (ICNL), publishers of The News, Tempo magazines and PM newspapers.