Prof. Muhammad Abubakar, managing director, Galaxy Backbone was at this year’s Beacon of ICT Awards held on July 24, 2021 received Nigeria CommunicationsWeek ‘Man of the Year’ award.
According to Ken Nwogbo, managing director, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, organisers of the BoICT Lectur/Awards, “ Prof. Abubakar emerged as our ‘Man of the Year’ through a transparent online voting process opened to stakeholders in ICT where over one million votes were cast and Prof. Abubakar came tops.
“The emergence of Prof. Muhammad Abubakar is a testament of his immersed contributions to the growth and development of information and communications technology since he became the chief executive officer of Galaxy Backbone.
“Under the leadership of Professor Muhammad Abubakar, GBB rose up to the challenge of the time by putting in place virtual interaction platforms to facilitate communication and collaboration in government from the Federal Executive level to intra-MDA levels. Connectivity was provided at the residence of key government officers to ensure seamless interaction during lockdown and movement restrictions required to manage COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
With respect to the operation efficiency of Galaxy Backbone, Prof. Abubakar spearheaded many initiatives to drive improvement, promote agility, cut costs, and improve the quality of services. From technical and financial effectiveness to human resources and capability development, a number of initiatives were implemented to better position GBB.
He is also driving many initiatives that will promote collaboration and partnership with all stakeholders which include Government institutions, MDA customers, suppliers and channel partners.
In the first year of Professor Muhammad Abubakar, a lot of historic achievements have been made and a foundation set for growth of the organization to better position it to deliver value in line with its mandate and Government strategic direction and priorities.
To set the direction for Galaxy Backbone for the next five years, the management of Galaxy Backbone under the leadership of Prof. Muhammad Abubakar has developed Galaxy 3.0 – a Strategic Business Plan to set goals to be achieved on annual basis for the next five years.
The Business Plan was underpinned by the mandate of Galaxy Backbone and key strategic policies of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
The Strategic Business plan identifies activities required for GBB to improve in the delivery of its mandate, support the attainment of the objectives of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP), and Nigerian eGovernment Masterplan amongst others.
It also lays down strategy to engage the MDAs to better support the attainment of their mandates while also identifying strategy for collaborating with technology partners to deliver value.
The Business Plan will help Galaxy play its roles in the achievement of the policies of the Government as prioritized and laid down by the Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy.
The Plan also focuses on ensuring that critical national ICT infrastructure that Government has invested in is optimized to provide value to Government MDAs, Private Sector players, citizens, and underserved communities whilst also ensuring GBB sweats the assets and makes meaningful return on investments.
The Man Prof. Muhmmad Abubakar
Professor Abubakar has over two decades of working experience spanning the academia, oil and gas exploration research, development and innovation institutions. He is a strategic thinker with strong leadership and management skill. He has an impressive exposure to global best practice in the field of energy. Muhammad is a Professor of Petroleum Geosciences.
Prior to his appointment as MD/CE, he was the Executive Director and a Principal start-up for the establishment and development of the National Centre for Petroleum Research and Development of the Energy Commission of Nigeria, where he spearheaded a cross-cutting edge research that developed the conceptual exploration model deployed in the successful oil and gas exploration in the frontier basin of the Northeast Nigeria. He was also a Research Consultant to NNPC on oil and gas exploration.
Muhammad hails from Gombe State. He is an alumnus of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi (where he obtained B.Tech. in Applied Geology, M.Sc. in Sedimentology/Petroleum Geology and Ph.D. in Sedimentology/Petroleum Geology), German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and was a recipient of several awards that included National University Commission’s (NUC’s) best Ph.D. thesis award in physical sciences from all Nigeria Universities.
He has attended several information and Communication (ICT) training programs including basic Cisco Academy Networking certification, several local and international programs in leadership and strategic management, as well as many sustainable development trainings in the field of energy.