Umar Hashidu is the Managing Director of Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KAEDC) after serving as an administrator by in the company during Administration under the Order of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission. He served as the acting Managing Director of the North-East Development Commission (NEDC), the interventionist agency setup for the recovery, stabilisation and development of North-Eastern Nigeria ravaged by the Boko Haram Insurgency. Prior to that he doubled as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Quest Electricity Nigeria Limited, the core investor of Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC) and the operating company, YEDC. Prior to this, he was a World Bank and UKNIAF consultant and the Head of Strategy and Corporate Performance of one of the largest electricity distribution companies in Nigeria. His experience spans several industries including Finance, Management Consultancy, Energy and Research. Umar is an experienced business strategist, a researcher, a consulting practitioner and was a tutor at the Centre for Innovation and Enterprise at Warwick Business School. As the Head of Strategy in Kano DisCo, Umar was responsible for charting the strategic focus of the company, corporate wide performance and responsible for high level negotiations especially Power Purchase Contracts, energy invoicing, verification of energy bills by the Market Operator and payments to market participants by NBET.
Prior to becoming the Head of Strategy, his passion for inculcating a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation as a means of creating prosperity and employment for the next generation drove him to teach International Perspective on Entrepreneurship and Innovation in High Tech Firms to university students. His penchant for teaching made him volunteer to teach at a local school in Coventry as an undergraduate student and to be selected as part of Warwick in Africa education programme to teach in South Africa in conjunction with Witwatersrand University. This has enabled Umar to understand the need to teach students to be inventive to foster entrepreneurship and growth especially in the African continent. Umar has put research into practice by setting up a business process outsourcing firm to provide service to Nigerian firms that lack the skills set and expertise so that they can compete in the global market. Straddling between Europe and Africa has given Umar a nuanced and global perspective on knowledge, innovation, technology transfer and entrepreneurship and the role of governments/leadership in providing a framework to unleash untapped human potential.
Umar in his research, education, and travels has acquired team-building skills, which he put into practice in setting up a firm and winning a multi-million-dollar consultancy engagement, as well as mentoring young entrepreneurs through Warwick Ventures; strong communications and analytical skills which he employs in various spheres of life. Umar currently serves as the Group Head, Planning and Strategy of Nice Corporate Services, an emerging conglomerate and a consultant to the energy and extractive team of the World Bank; he holds a BEng in Systems Engineering and an MSc in International Technology Management both from Warwick University, UK. Umar’s doctoral studies is focused on Management with expertise in strategy, policy and organisational design and development.
