Soetan Launches Mentorship Initiative to Groom Female Leaders

The Managing Director of Arahas Global Oilfield Services, a Sahara Group company, Mrs. Folake Soetan, has launched a mentorship and leadership development initiative aimed at nurturing the next generation of female leaders and creating opportunities for young women to excel.

The initiative, known as The Folake Soetan Golden Circle Initiative, was unveiled in Lagos as part of activities marking Soetan’s 50th birthday, which is on November 5.

Its flagship programme, The Folake Soetan Leadership Fellowship (Golden Circle), will provide structured mentorship for female professionals, while its second pillar, Akoka to the World, will support students in the Department of Finance at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Soetan’s alma mater, through educational grants.

The multi-year initiative is designed to develop ethical and transformative female leaders while investing in promising young talent through mentorship, educational support and a structured system of knowledge transfer across generations.

Under its 12-month cascading mentorship model, the first phase, covering months one to six, will bring together 20 mid-level female professionals and emerging leaders aged between 25 and 40, known as the Golden 20. They will be mentored by 19 founding mentors, with monthly engagement sessions with Soetan.

In the second phase, covering months seven to 12, the 20 beneficiaries will extend the mentorship chain by guiding selected final-year students of the University of Lagos Department of Finance.

Explaining the motivation behind the initiative, Soetan said her experience as a beneficiary of mentorship and the support she had received from women who guided her career inspired her decision to establish a structured platform for developing others.

“At 50, I am reflecting on the women who lifted me — women who shared, who listened, who guided. I have been a beneficiary of mentorship, and privately, I have tried to do the same for younger women. The Golden Circle is my way of putting structure to that.

“We are 19 women pouring into 20, and those 20 will pour into the next generation from my alma mater. That is how we keep the chain moving,” she said.

The initiative’s vision is to develop ethical and transformative female leaders and invest in promising future talent through educational grants, creating a self-sustaining legacy of excellence, service and generational impact.

Its mission is to invest in women leaders and future talent through mentorship and educational grants, with the aim of creating a ripple effect of empowerment, achievement and service that will endure across generations.

The launch also featured a Legacy Voice message from the former Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria, Mrs. Ibukun Awosika, who is one of Soetan’s mentors.

Awosika underscored the importance of mentorship in leadership development, urging beneficiaries to extend the support they receive to others.

“Mentorship allows us to benefit from people who have gone ahead. Pay it forward. Let’s keep the chain moving,” she said.

The event, anchored by Oluwasola Obagbemi, featured the symbolic Golden Pairing, involving 20 women and 19 mentors, as well as the Golden Commitment, highlighting the initiative’s emphasis on shared responsibility and intergenerational mentorship.

The launch concluded with a toast led by the Chief Executive Officer of AT3 Resources, Mrs. Tosin Adefeko. The unveiling marks the beginning of a series of activities lined up to celebrate Soetan’s 50th birthday on November 5.

This post was originally published on this site