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Adenuga Emerges Africa's Best Telecoms Entrepreneur

This Day
15 August 2007

Chairman of the Mike Adenuga Group of Companies, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr. has been named the African Telecoms Entrepreneur of the year for his courageous and rapid investment in the telecoms sector.

A statement made available to THISDAY disclosed that the recognition was given over the weekend at the 2007 maiden African Telecoms Award event held in Lagos and witnessed by eminent Africans like Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, former president of The Gambia, Mr. Dauda Jawara and eminent professor of African History, Prof. Molefe Kete Asante.

At the event which also featured the 2007 edition of the Nigerian Telecom Awards, Globacom's Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Jameel Mohamed received the Telecom personality of the Year, Glo BlackBerry was adjudged the product of the year and Globacom received the West African Telecom Company of the Year. According to the African Telecoms Entreprenuer of the Year's citation for the award, "Mike Adenuga is admired for his courage and never-say-die attitude."

It may be recalled that Adenuga won his first telecoms license in 2001, but the frequency allocated to him and his Communication Investment Limited (CIL) was encumbered by litigations and eventually, the Government reallocated the frequency. CIL had paid the initial US $20 million non-refundable deposit for the bidding and Adenuga lost the money.

According to the citation, "Adenuga saw a new window of opportunity in the National Operator License which was going to give him the GSM license, (which he had earlier lost through CIL), a fixed and fixed-wireless license, a gateway license and an online license. He went for it and won. But his competitors had gone miles ahead; again, the attribute of courage came in. He plunged in and is currently dictating the pace and the tenor of the game in many areas of operation"

Globacom, won the West African Telecoms Company of the Year, having recently won a licence in Benin Republic, and is currently prospecting for same in Ghana . The company was praised for its backbone deployment along the West Coast of Africa to the United Kingdom, a facility which, on completion, will drop tariffs and improve total communications connectivity in the sub-region.

The Nigerian Telecoms Award, which debuted three years ago, is an annual event; and attendees at this year's event have adjudged it as the biggest so far. On the other hand, the African Awards is the first so far to be held in the country. The Board of the awards is chaired by Amb. Segun Olusola and has eminent Nigerians like ex- governor Alhaji Abubakar Rimi as members.

Copyright © 2007 This Day

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