The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has elected Juhel Nigeria Limited Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ifeanyi Eric Okoye, as its 12th president, placing an experienced pharmaceutical industry executive at the helm of the association representing the country’s manufacturing sector.
Okoye emerged as president at MAN’s 54th Annual General Meeting, held at the Lagos Oriental Hotel on Wednesday, 7 October 2026. He succeeds Otunba Francis Meshioye, who completed his four-year tenure.
The Brandspur Brand News desk reports that Okoye’s appointment brings decades of experience in pharmaceutical manufacturing and association leadership to the position, at a time when the performance of Nigerian manufacturers remains closely tied to production costs, investment and the wider business environment.
Okoye founded Juhel Nigeria Limited in 1987 and built the company into an indigenous pharmaceutical manufacturer headquartered in Enugu. Its operations expanded over the years, with syrup and capsule production added in 2001 before the opening of a major parenteral manufacturing facility in Awka, Anambra State, in 2010.
His academic background is in pharmacy and pharmaceutical technology. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, before obtaining master’s and doctoral degrees in Pharmaceutical Technology and Industrial Pharmacy from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He graduated as the best student in his class.
Beyond his business career, Okoye has held several positions within MAN. He chaired the association’s branches covering Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi states between 1998 and 2005, then served as vice-president from 2006 to 2010.
His public-sector experience includes membership of the Governing Council of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria from 2009 to 2022 and participation in the Ministerial Committee on the Establishment of World-Class Hospitals and Diagnostic Centres between 2013 and 2015.
Okoye is a Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and an alumnus of Harvard Business School in the United States. He also holds the national honour of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic, conferred on him in 2012, and is a member of the National Institute following his participation in programmes at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies in Kuru, Plateau State.
His election places a pharmaceutical manufacturer with longstanding experience in industrial production and organised business leadership at the head of MAN, an association whose members operate across Nigeria’s manufacturing industries.
