The Nigeria Information Technology Reporters’
Association (NITRA) has confirmed the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer
of ntel, Mr. Ernest Akinlola, as the special guest at the March edition of its
monthly interactive programme with ICT companies’ CEOs tagged ‘Breakfast
With The CEO’ reports ITRealms.
The event being hosted by NITRA, an interest group
within the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), has been slated for Friday,
March 9 is expected to hold in Lagos.
ITRealms recalled that after several years of
failed attempts to sell the Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) to core
investors by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), the agency eventually sold
NITEL to NatCom Development & Investment Limited, trading as ntel, in 2015,
through a guided liquidation process, after the unbundling of the state-owned
telecommunications firm.
Touted as Nigeria’s most revolutionary
telecommunications company which provides 4G LTE Advanced network that delivers
superfast call-connect times, crystal clear Voice over LTE and extraordinarily
high Internet access speed, ntel at inception aimed to redefine the Nigerian
telecommunications landscape and enrich the lives of Nigerians by delivering
the most advanced communications technology across the largest possible network
coverage in the most effective, valuable and satisfying manner.
Although ntel is currently live in three of
Nigeria’s largest commercial cities: Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, there are
already plans in motion to expand to more cities and meet its projected
coverage of 85% of mobile broadband spending within 3
years and about 95% within 5
years.
Akinlola, whose appointment late September
2018, to succeed Kamar Abass, ntel’s pioneer chief executive officer, was seen
in some quarters as a test of his managerial expertise to turn around ntel and
reposition the company for competition.
Described as a well-educated, widely-travelled
and vastly experienced in the field of telecommunications, Akinlola holds a
degree in economics, and is a Chartered Accountant and fellow of the
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. He also holds an MBA from Manchester
Business School, and has worked in pharmaceuticals, packaging and delivery,
telecoms and consulting firms.
Akinlola as head of department, led the
assessment and subsequent launch of Virgin Mobile UK on the One 2 One network,
which proved to be the pioneering Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) at the
time.
Following One 2 One’s acquisition by T-Mobile,
Akinlola was a key member on the integration team, leading on commercial
strategy and growing the wholesale side of the business to launch several
MVNO’s focused on specific customer segments.
He was an integral member of the team charged
with executing Virgin Mobile’s $1.5 billion IPO. Many senior roles followed
including leading the transformational roll out of T-Mobile’s store retail programme.
Akinlola was subsequently headhunted as COO by
Lycamobile, the world’s largest international MVNO, to lead its European
strategy, successfully expanding into 10 countries including UK, Belgium,
Germany, Netherlands and Spain within two years.
Following his notable successes in Europe, he
focused on Nigeria’s telecoms sector and was approached to lead a major
marketing drive for the former Etisalat, now 9mobile, the 4th entrant in a
highly competitive telecoms market. As marketing director, he spearheaded a
range of initiatives that took the former Etisalat from the fourth ranked
operator to the second, in terms of Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).
Analysts see the task before Akinlola as huge
given the fact that the company has a system in place that seems not appealing
to customers who wanted to feel more of the impact of ntel at the grassroots
level.
The NITRA Breakfast meeting with the CEO,
therefore, offers Akinlola an excellent opportunity to showcase some of ntel’s
achievements, challenges and plans for the year as well as how he plans to
tackle the tasks ahead of him before the largest gathering of ICT journalists
drawn from the print, electronic and online platforms.
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