Demonstrating its prowess in crisis management, corporate strategy, and technological innovation, QNET is setting new standards for excellence in Direct Selling.

This year, QNET was honoured with the following recognitions:

Silver Award for Best Corporate Strategy – An endorsement for QNET’s Fingreen financial literacy programme that has been rolled out in three countries over the last 18 months and has helped over 7000 people, including college students, home makers, street vendors, and female small traders, with the tools they need to take charge of their financial future.

Silver Award for Best Use of Technology  – An important recognition for QNET’s QBuzz Blog, an innovative platform that leverages technology to foster community engagement and provide insightful company and industry content. 

Bronze Award for Best Crisis Management Strategy – Celebrating the success of the “Truth About QNET” campaign, which effectively navigated the company through challenging times with transparency and integrity.

The PR Awards, renowned for highlighting the best in the PR and communications sector across South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, saw entries from the most prominent brands and organisations in the region.

An independent panel of senior industry experts from leading brands selected this year’s winners, underscoring the credibility and prestige of the awards.

Trevor Kuna, chief transformation & reputation officer at QNET, expressed his enthusiasm: “We are profoundly honored by the recognition at the PR Awards 2024, which reflects our unwavering dedication to excellence, innovative strategies, and our commitment to providing outstanding value to our customers. These awards are a testament to the hard work and ingenuity of our team, and they motivate us to continue setting new benchmarks in the industry.”

QNET’s success at the PR Awards is not just a celebration of its achievements but also a promise to its stakeholders of its dedication to excellence and innovation. As the company looks forward to future challenges and opportunities, it remains committed to upholding the highest standards of quality and service in the industry.

Addressing an audience of industry experts, Mr. Adeniran shed light on the pivotal role of public relations practitioners in fostering an understanding of goodwill as a fundamental corporate investment.

During his remarks on the panel ‘Brand PR, Corporate Communications and the Bottom Line on Day 2 of the conference, Mr. Femi Adeniran emphasized,

“The duty of PR practitioners is to ensure that organizations understand that goodwill is a necessity that has a direct impact on the value of a business. It sits as a bucket of value. After establishing that, it is our responsibility as PR professionals to fill up this bucket through communication, stakeholder management, relationship building, and it’s from this bucket that organizations draw the fuel to propel their businesses forward”.

The panel, moderated by Victoria Uwadoka, lead, Corporate Communications, Public Affairs, and Sustainability at Nestle Nigeria; also had General Manager, Marketing and Corporate Communications, Coscharis Group, Abiona Babarinde; as a participant.

Other panelists were Lead, Public Relations, 9 Mobile, Chineze Amanfo; and Group Head, Media Operations, Strategic Communications and Events at Aiteo, Matthew Ndiana-Abasi.

The discussion further explored the benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives and their alignment with a brand’s core values.

Babarinde noted that while marketing is for branding, PR is for earning public trust and loyalty.

Adeniran provided a practical example of Airtel’s demonstration of goodwill building, citing the telecom giant’s investment in digital education for public schools.

“At Airtel, our core business is about connectivity and this naturally translates into a strong focus on digital education. One of these digital education initiatives is our partnership with UNICEF. Under this initiative, Airtel Africa has pledged over 50 million dollars to facilitate the connection. We have provided connection to digital learning platforms to 920 public schools in Nigeria. To date, we have positively impacted over 600,000 children, with our sights set on expanding this initiative to encompass an additional 500 schools before the end of this year,” he said.

Mr. Adeniran’s insights underscored the imperative for organizations to integrate CSR initiatives aligned with their core business values, thereby fostering sustainable growth while concurrently enriching communities.

The speakers delved into a range of pivotal sub-topics integral to improving business profitability through a strategic deployment of public relations, including measurement and evaluation, the handshake between public relations and marketing, and an intelligent use of technology.