African ICT Foundation Rebrands, Seeks Nomination for New Board of Trustee

As part of its rebranding and re-engineering process, which began few months ago, the African ICT Foundation has begun the search for a new Board of Trustee to position the Foundation to meet its key objective beginning for 2019.

African ICT Foundation is an independent not-for-profit, and non-partisan empowerment and educational organisation whose mission is to formulate, evaluate, and promote policy solutions that accelerate innovations and boost productivity to spur growth, opportunity and progress in the ICT ecosystem Africa.

According to statement issued in Lagos, South West Nigeria, by the Executive Secretary of the Foundation, Mr. Emmanuel Bassey, the African ICT Foundation was established in 2009 to discover new opportunities in ICT that will have positive impact on the African economy, tackle attended challenges, and avoid potential pitfalls.

He disclosed that a key aspect of the rebranding is the inauguration of a new Board of Trustee to drive the affairs of the Foundation in the coming years, saying that the Foundation is rebranding for effective delivering of its objective hence the need for a new board.”

He said: “At inception it had as its board member: Dr. Samuel I. Ikiddeh – NNPC as Chairman, Engr. Emmanuel E. Ekuwem-Phd –Teledom group,(now SSG to the Akwa Ibom State government) . Engr. Lanre Ajayi – Former ATCON President and Pinet Informatics Ltd. CEO, Mr. Aliyu D. Ibrahim – (NCC), Dr. Olufunsho Olusanya, Rector,D S Adegbenro Ict Polytechnic Polytechnic, Itori Ogun state(Former ICT gateway Polytechnic, tori Ogun State) and Rev. Oke Omezi, Legal Practitioner and Pastor of the Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM).

Mr. Usman A. Rufai, Faculty of Science, Computer science Department ,University of Lagos, and Prof. Effiong Johnson- University of Uyo.

Bassey explained that the Foundation is poised towards providing policymakers in the continent with high-quality information, analysis, and recommendations they can trust.

While expressing confidence of the new Board of Trustee to meet the objectives of the Foundation, he promised that in all ramifications, it will adhere to a high standard of research integrity with an internal code of ethics grounded in analytical rigor, policy pragmatism, and independence from external direction or bias.

He stated that Africans can nominate respected ICT personalities who have made their mark and creating impact in Africa’s ICT ecosystem by visiting the Foundation’s website:africanictfoundation.org.

The Foundation, according to him, “will be led by a board of experts in the ICT industry in Africa and African descent that are internationally recognized in policy issues and have recognised footprint in the industry.”

He said the board will be a team of policy analysts and fellows includes authors and recognised experts in the fields of telecommunications, public policy advocacy, economics, tax policy, trade, privacy, cyber-security, and life sciences, among many others.

The board will run the Foundation through a secretariat based in Nigeria with other offices in Africa.

Upon inauguration of the board, which shall consist of the Chairman of the Board/President, Vice Chair/Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and representatives of other African countries, the board shall elect its officials.

Source: NigeriaCommunicationsWeek

MTN Executives to Resign as Telco Battles FG Fines

There are strong indications that some executives of MTN Group will exit the telecom firm in the next few months as the company battles to resolve its issues with the Nigerian government over the reparation and payment of tax claims worth $10.1 billion.

Bloomberg said quoted people familiar with the matter as saying Mr Herman Singh, chief innovation officer of MTN, is expected to resign to establish his own tech venture.

If this eventually happens, the exit of Mr Singh will come as Babak Fouladi, chief technology officer prepares to join Dutch telecommunications firm, KPN NV, in a similar role next week.

MTN confirmed Fouladi’s departure, which was announced by Rotterdam-based KPN earlier this month. Singh declined to comment.

The executives are leaving after a three-year period of considerable turmoil at MTN. A shock $5.2 billion fine in Nigeria in 2015 embroiled MTN in 10 months of negotiations and prompted a management overhaul. Then earlier this year, authorities in the West African nation announced another round of multi-billion-dollar demands.

The stock has halved over the period, valuing the carrier at 169 billion rand ($12.2 billion). That’s even as demand for data services in Africa booms and MTN expands in fast-growing services such as mobile money. The company agreed to a partnership with Orange SA last week to ease payments across the continent.
The shares declined a further 2 percent on Tuesday to 88 rand as of 1.13 p.m. in Johannesburg, the steepest fall in a week.

Rob Shuter, MTN chief executive officer was hired from Vodafone Group Plc two years ago in the wake of the first Nigeria penalty, which was eventually settled for about $1 billion.
Fouladi was lured from the same company later that year. Singh, formerly with MTN’s crosstown rival Vodacom Group Ltd., was appointed in 2015.

Stephen Van Coller, another high-ranking executive, left MTN at the end of August to take the helm of technology firm EOH Holdings Ltd. Originally hired as head of mergers and acquisitions, the former investment banker was moved to run digital services before quitting less than two years into his tenure.
MTN’s latest dispute with Nigerian authorities is over an allegation the company illegally transferred $8.1 billion out of the country and owes $2 billion in back taxes. While the transaction matter looks close to being wrapped up, with Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele saying he’s on “the verge” of announcing an amicable resolution, the taxation claim is still outstanding.

Other headaches for MTN include problems extracting cash from Iran, its third-biggest market, after U.S. President Donald Trump reinstated sanctions against the country. The carrier has also come under pressure to list country units on local stock exchanges, with Uganda the latest to link a share sale to license renewals.

Source: NigerianCommunicationWeeks