• File Photo: Anthony Chiejina

PRovoke Media has again recognized the Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer, Dangote Group, Anthony Chiejina, among the most powerful communications leaders in the world, in its prestigious 2025 Influence 100.

The recognition marks Chiejina’s fifth consecutive appearance on the global ranking, having previously been listed in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, a rare distinction that underscores both consistency and sustained global relevance.

According to PRovoke Media, the 2025 Influence 100 identifies the most impactful senior communications, corporate affairs and marketing executives worldwide.

It emphasised that Chiejina’s inclusion reflects his central role in shaping the reputation of Dangote Group, Africa’s largest industrial conglomerate.

It notes that for over 15 years, Chiejina has overseen corporate communications across the group’s diverse portfolio, spanning cement, agriculture, energy, manufacturing and consumer goods.

His stewardship has been instrumental in positioning Dangote as the continent’s most admired indigenous company and a symbol of African industrial ambition.

According to the publication, under Chiejina’s leadership, the group’s communications function has navigated complex regulatory environments, major industrial expansions and heightened global attention, particularly as Dangote deepens its footprint across Africa and advances sustainability and energy security initiatives.

” As group head of corporate communications, he oversees external and internal reputation across multiple sectors spanning cement, agriculture, energy and consumer goods, and has helped steer the brand’s continued recognition as the most admired indigenous company on the continent,” it said.

His continued presence places him among an elite group of in-house communicators whose judgement, influence and strategic insight shape corporate reputation at the highest level

According to the publication, under Chiejina’s leadership, the group’s communications function has navigated complex regulatory environments, major industrial expansions and heightened global attention, particularly as Dangote deepens its footprint across Africa and advances sustainability and energy security initiatives.

Meanwhile, the 2025 Influence 100 includes 28 new entrants, alongside several high profile re entries by senior communications leaders who have since taken on expanded global roles.

These include Michael Stewart, who moved from PwC to Unilever; Michael Gonda, from McDonald’s to Nike; and Sandy Rodriguez, also from McDonald’s to Eli Lilly.

This year’s list reflects a powerful cross section of communications leadership from some of the world’s most influential organisations, including Walmart, Apple, Shell, Microsoft, Nvidia, Nissan, Coca Cola, Google, Lufthansa, MTN, Emirates, Ford, Marriott, Tencent and Reliance Industries among others.

In total, 20 countries are represented, highlighting the global reach and strategic importance of senior in house communications leadership.

Gender representation remains strong, with 58 women and 42 men featured, sustaining a female majority for the second consecutive year.

Photo: UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan. Credit: UNCTAD

UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) says a new metrics for measuring countries progress beyond GDP, will be launched during the upcoming UN General Assembly in the spring of 2026.

Accordingly , a High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP, mandated by the UN’s landmark Pact for the Future has been tasked with developing recommendations for a set of universally relevant indicators that countries can own and use to guide policy.

UNCTAD serves as co-secretariat to the “Beyond GDP” expert group, alongside other entities including the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the UN Development Programme.

This initiative stems from the urgent need for measures of progress that enable more balanced and integrated pursuit of sustainable development.

GDP does not capture progress in well-being, equity, inclusiveness or sustainability – and it was designed as a measure of economic activity.

“Our approach will emphasize how better well-being and its drivers, such as health, social capital and the quality of the environment, are not only good for societal welfare but also contribute in an integral way to economic prosperity,” the interim report argues.

The “Beyond GDP” agenda, increasingly gaining traction among UN member countries, is about complementing traditional economic measures, rather than replacing them.

To do so, five principles are important.

First, countries need to look at more than GDP to gauge material well-being more accurately.Second, it takes more than income to capture all aspects of well-being.

Third, when addressing inequality and exclusion it’s necessary to look beyond average figures.

Fourth, the need to think in the long term, to ensure economic, environmental, social and institutional sustainability for future generations.

In addition, well-being is interconnected across countries in today’s world.

This makes cooperation all the more crucial, in setting global norms of measurement, unlimited to specific countries or regions.

• An oil-themed mural in Caracas, Venezuela

Crude oil prices edged lower Sunday, as the overthrow of President Nicolas Maduro by the Trump administration has cast deep uncertainty over oil-rich Venezuela.

Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC, sits on the largest proven crude oil reserves in the world at 303 billion barrels or about 17% of the global total, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

CNBC reports that U.S. crude oil fell 31 cents, or 0.54%, to $57.01 per barrel. Global benchmark Brent fell 22 cents, or 0.36%, to $60.53 per barrel.

President Donald Trump made it clear Saturday that U.S. investment in Venezuela’s oil sector is a key objective of the regime change operation that ousted Maduro.

“We’re going to have our huge United States oil companies — the biggest anywhere in the world — go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure,” Trump said in a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.

The president said Saturday that the U.S. embargo of Venezuelan oil remains in place.