By Prince Osuagwu

Association of Telecommu-nications Companies of Nigeria, ATCON, recently, unveiled 100 leading telecom and Information and Communications Technology personalities in Nigeria for their contributions to the growth and development of Nigeria’s telecommunications sector.

To formally unveil the 365-page book in Lagos were high personalities in the telecom sector such as the Minister of Communications Technology, Chief Adebayo Shittu, and the man who piloted the affairs of the industry when the telecom revolution took off, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe.

Dr. Mike Adenuja Jnr.

The first heroes of Nigeria’s telecom as celebrated in the book were Globacom and its founder, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr. According to the publication, Globacom since inception has pioneered a long list of innovations, which have helped to shape the telecommunications sector.

The honours have attracted commendations from several Nigerians who feel that more of such could encourage more growth in the sector.

Among those who welcomed  ATCON’s gesture included a value added service provider, Mr Johnson Ehummadu.”I was at the ATCON event where Globacom and others were unveiled as heroes of Nigerian telecom development. That is the right way to go.

Motivations such as that will spur more growth in the sector. It was fascinating to see Nigeria take such initiative which can only be seen in developed worlds. It shows we are growing fast. Glo and its chairman deserve their honours because they set the stage for the competition which has become the hallmark of the sector’s growth today,” he added.

In his remarks, the Minister of Communications, Chief Shittu, said all the personalities whose contributions have taken telecom to its present position deserved the awards. He said: “Thanks to God I was posted to the ICT industry. If I wasn’t posted to the ministry, I would have missed a life-time opportunity. The ICT sector has contributed over $32 billion in FDI in a decade; no industry has done that for the country. In no distant time, we will have forgotten about oil.”

“Considering how fast the industry is evolving, another book may be necessary in another few years to document the efforts of new catalysts of growth and development. Until then, Globacom, Airtel and the rest of the heroes celebrated in the current book, can bask in well deserved glory for jobs well done,” he adeed.

Some of the outstanding contributions of Globacom to the telecom sector were highlighted. These include the introduction of per second method of billing.

That singular act alone is credited with rapid stimulation of competition in the sector, with the concomitant explosion of highly competitive telecom service offerings from the operators who were eager to outdo each other in pleasing consumers. That feat attracted accolades at the time because efforts of telecom consumers to get pre-existing operators to introduce per second billing were abortive as the operators said it was not feasible at the time. The billing system made it much easier for Nigerians to get value for money by paying for only the exact time spent on calls, the book stated.

The book further documented that Globacom crashed the cost of GSM SIM and tariff from N20,000 and N50 per minute respectively to as low as N200 and 5 kobo per second, thus helping to aggressively boost telephone penetration in the country.

Other early revolutionary products pioneered by Globacom in Nigeria included Blackberry, vehicle tracking, mobile internet, mobile banking, multimedia messaging service (MMS), in-flight roaming services, voice SMS, Magic Plus and Text2email, among others.

The book also documented Globacom as the first and the only operator so far with a wholly-owned submarine cable, Glo-1, linking Europe and America to West Africa to ensure the availability of bandwidth to enterprise customers in West Africa. It was the first to launch 4G-LTE network in 33 cities in Nigeria in 2016.

Recently, the company scored another first by introducing the novel concept of creating a dedicated path in its 4G LTE network for enterprise customers.

The operator provides a range of data connectivity solutions ranging from simple mobile broadband products to complex managed networking IT solutions. The company delivers the connectivity needs of large wholesale carriers and medium to large businesses in Nigeria and West Africa.

Globacom’s consistency in the area of innovative offerings has earned it laurels from far and near in the last 15 years. Recently, the brand Glo was ranked the fourth most admired African brand in the 2018 ranking of brands in Africa by  Brand Africa, an independent non-profit organisation committed to promoting business excellence on the continent.

The propelling force behind the company’s giant strides has been its founder, Dr. Adenuga, who has consistently proven to be an inexhaustible reservoir of revolutionary ideas that have kept competitors in the sector on their toes. His indefatigable efforts in revolutionising the Nigerian telecoms industry have earned him awards both locally and internationally, the most recent being the  Commandeur de la Legion d’Honneur, CLH, personally bestowed on him by President Emmanuel Macron of France.  Little wonder the quintessential entrepreneur occupies the most prominent placement in the esteemed publication.