Ndukwe bags Pillar of Telecom in African award

The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Chukwuka Anene Ndukwe, has once again bagged another award, this time, the Pillar of Telecom in Africa prize.

The award which was bestowed on him at a special ceremony to climax the first edition of the West African Information Communications Technology (WAFICT) Congress 2009, which ended in Lagos recently, heralded the formal institution of the African Hall of Fame by IT & Telecom Digest.

The award ceremony, sponsored by 21st Century Technologies, Nigeria’s premier provider of multi-faceted telecom services, was an exclusive gathering of dignitaries from the Nigerian and international telecom sectors.

Encomiums were showered on EVC Ndukwe, for his astral performance in navigating Nigeria’s telecom sector to global reckoning; as subscriber base is currently estimated at 70 million, while foreign direct investment from 2001 till date has surpassed $12 billion.
Chief Executive Officer, Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation (CTO), Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, who graced the WAFICT sent in a special message for the award ceremony.
Spio-Garbrah in a text message read at the occasion, said, “Any award to Engr. Ernest Ndukwe by the Nigerian and African ICT community is most richly deserved.”

Also commenting, a Director of the Lagos Business School, Prof. Pat Utomi, describing Ndukwe as a friend, declaring that he was not surprised that he was being honoured for his exemplary work in turning around the nation’s telecoms sector.

“For me, it’s pure joy to watch what you have done at the NCC,” he noted, recalling a magazine feature on emerging CEO’s in the country, which included himself, asserting that Ndukwe had turned out to be the individual who had impacted the society the most of the lot.

Corporate Services Executive, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Wale Goodluck, said “With everybody talking about the success of the telecommunications industry and as somebody who has been here in the industry I can testify without any equivocation, that the biggest factor of the growth of this industry has been the regulatory certainty we have enjoyed in the industry.”

Disagreeing with the opinion that telecom operators were being favoured by the NCC, Goodluck revealed that there have been several occasions in which the MTN and regulators have disagreed and the regulator has even in the past penalized telecom operators.

“Looking at where we are going we have enjoyed a fantastic regulatory regime. It’s only in Nigeria when the analysts all over the world are talking about telecoms industry we don’t hear them using words like immature regulator, or nascent regulator and all the other things they use to write Africa down. When it comes to Nigeria the stability of the regulatory environment, the transparency of the regulatory environment has translated into our ability to source and attract funding as the best way for telecoms investment in Nigeria,” he said.

Emphasizing that from an operator’s point of view, “I would say that what we have witnessed in the last nine years, if we are able to translate it into other sectors of the economy, believe me, Nigeria would be completely out of the doldrums. The sky is the limit,” he declared.

Chief executive, 21st Century Technologies, Mr. Wale Ajisebutu, said, “I admire and identify with Ndukwe, because this is one hero that we must sing; and we must not be tired of showering praises upon him. If we do not applaud our heroes, no one will do this for us; and it will discourage others from performing heroic acts.”

Reacting to some of the comments, Ndukwe expressed surprise at the award as he had no inclination of his investiture into the African Telecom Hall of Fame and dedicated the award to the board and members of staff of the NCC.

He described the Commission as a government agency with a difference.

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