All Hands on Deck by Arunma Oteh Wins the 2025 BCA African Business Book of the Year.

Nigerian economist Arunma Oteh wins the BCA Business Book of the Year Award for her book All Hands on Deck: Unleash Prosperity through World-Class Capital Markets. The award was announced during a ceremony held at the Institute of Directors in London. She received a $10,000 cash prize and a trophy. The runners up, Bronwen Everill and Toni Kan, won $5,000 and $2500 respectively.

Oteh is a World Bank Treasurer and Director General of the Nigerian SEC. Her book, published by Rethink Press on January 14th, 2025 examines how capital markets serve as key enablers of sustainable wealth and lasting growth for organizations and nations worldwide. It urges entrepreneurs and leaders to prioritize transparency, effective systems, and innovation to ensure that both people and economies thrive.

The judging panel comprised leading figures in the African business space, all of whom had high praise for All Hands on Deck. The panel included Arnold Ekpe (Chairperson of BCA), Chris Ogbechie (former Dean of Lagos Business School), Terhas Berhe (Managing Director of Brand Communications), Omar Ben Yedder (Publisher of African Business and New African), and Anver Versi (Editor of New African and African Banker).

The BCA Business Book of the Year Award is now in its third year and is supported by BrandComms and African Business. Its mission is to authors who examine business in Africa.

Business writing is a thriving literary space, as evident in the 2025 shortlist, which featured biographies of business leaders, books on manufacturing, capital market reforms, intra-Africa travel, and even the economics of skit making.  Nonetheless, African business writing is an emergent field. In a press statement, Yedder hopes that “African business writing…could become as popular as African music and fiction.”

Congrats to Oteh and the runners up.