Airtel Africa, telecommunications provider in Africa with its stock trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX), emerged as a major winner at the inaugural edition of the ICAN-NGX Awards, carting away the Most Outstanding in Financial Reporting and the overall gold across all categories, amidst other nominations.

These honors were announced at a special ceremony held last Friday, at the NGX headquarters in Lagos.

Organized by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) in collaboration with NGX Regulation Limited (NGX RegCo), the awards recognized excellence in corporate reporting among the top 30 most capitalized companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange for the 2022 financial reporting year.

Airtel Africa stood out among other nominees in the areas of Financial Reporting, Corporate Governance, and Sustainability Reporting.

In the highly competitive Financial Reporting Category, Airtel Africa was recognized as Most Outstanding, edging out industry giants such as Dangote Cement Plc, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, Seplat Energy Plc, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, and Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc.

Speaking on the awards, Group Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Carl Cruz, expressed gratitude for the awards while restating the organization’s enduring commitment to promoting transparency and accountability for the benefit of all stakeholders.

“At Airtel, we strive to set the benchmark for excellence in financial reporting and corporate reporting, and these awards validate our efforts in this regard. We have been deliberate in maintaining a painstaking dedication to transparency for the sake of our shareholders, which is also how we keep our promises to our shareholders,” he said.

Airtel Africa also received the Gold Award in the Corporate Reporting Category. This award, according to Mr. Cruz, underscored Airtel’s culture of fair business practices.

“Today’s recognition reminds us to keep upholding the fundamental principles of integrity, accountability, and ethical conduct across all facets of its operations,” he noted.

In his remarks at the award ceremony, the Chief Executive Officer, NGX Regulation Limited, Mr. Olufemi Shobanjo, stressed the significance of the award, highlighted the importance of transparency and accountability in building a more productive market environment.

“It is noteworthy that integrity is an important drive in ensuring a successful business. In this vein, the Corporate Reporting Award underscores our collective commitment to fostering a capital market that operates on principles of transparency, integrity, and excellence,” he said.

While sharing this positive sentiment regarding the awards, Innocent Okwuosa, the 59th President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), expressed optimism about the future of corporate reporting in the country.

“As sustainability evolves and with Nigeria adopting IFRS S1 and S2 of International Sustainability Standard Board (ISSB),” he said, “it is expected that the corporate reporting in Nigeria will get better and better.”

Airtel Africa remains committed to promoting accountability, transparency, and sustainability in its operations.

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says it has temporarily suspended the issuance of new licenses in some categories.

The commission said the categories included interconnect exchange license, mobile virtual network operator license and value added service aggregator license.

Reuben Mouka, director of Public Affairs, NCC,  in a statement in Abuja on Friday, said the commission acted in line with its powers under the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) 2003.

“This temporary suspension is necessary to enable the commission to conduct a thorough review of several key areas within these categories, including the current level of competition, market saturation and current market dynamics.

“The public is invited to note that during the suspension period commencing on May 17, new application for the aforementioned licenses will not be accepted.

“This is without prejudice to pending applications before the commission will be considered on their merits.

“Any enquiry or clarification in respect of this suspension notice should be forwarded to: [email protected],” NCC said.

The vulnerability of East Africa’s countries was starkly revealed once again in the aftermath of the damage inflicted upon an undersea cable, leading to widespread internet outages across the region.

According to Business Day Africa, this incident marks the third cable cut this year, plunging millions of users in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda into a state of connectivity limbo.

The disruption caused by the severance of two vital submarine cables- the East Africa Submarine System (EASSy) and Seacom, resulted in significant delays in internet access, so much so that operations at the US embassy in Dar es Salaam had to be suspended.

EASSy spans a staggering 10,000 kilometres along the eastern coast of Africa, boasting nine landing stations strategically positioned in Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Comoros, Madagascar, Mozambique, and South Africa.

Tanzania bore the brunt of the outage, experiencing the most severe disruptions, as evidenced by data from the Internet Outage Tracker, compelling the embassy to halt its services for a period of two days.

This latest incident follows a series of challenges earlier this year when connectivity in East Africa was hampered by damage sustained by three submarine cables traversing the Red Sea.

Internet users in East Africa have been grappling with intermittent connections since Sunday, May 12, 2024.

The International Cable Protection Committee attributes the damage to a probable encounter with the anchor of a cargo ship, allegedly targeted by the Yemen-based Houthi rebel group.

However, repair efforts have been impeded by ongoing tensions surrounding access rights to the affected waters.

Commenting on the situation, Bright Simons, research lead at the IMANI Center for Policy and Education in Ghana, lamented the lack of a comprehensive regional framework for telecom emergencies in East Africa, according to SemaFor news.

He noted that despite the region’s advanced regional integration initiatives, similar to those seen in the Southern African Customs Union and Francophone units, the absence of such mechanisms has left operators scrambling to establish ad hoc cross-border arrangements.