General News
Collocation Reduces Operators’ Headaches- Onakomaiya
Mr. Gbenga Onakomaiya, chief commercial officer (CCO) of IHS, a company reputed for building and managing Nigeria’s Telecom Infrastructure with the highest quality at affordable cost. Onakomaiya has over a decade experience in the telecommunications industry and worked in Motophone where he handled finance and adminstrastion. A very unassuming and consummate salesman, he speaks with passion about collocation and sundry issue in this interview with emeka okafor.
Accident on Duty
Fortunately we have not experienced any casualty in our own case by the Grace of God and after that by the safety measures we put in place, we believe very much in safety procedures we adhere strictly to safety issues and quality issues and that is why we know we are also ISO certified. One of the requirements for ISO certification is to be safety conscious and we do not compromise it with regards to building of sites, we go to the minutest details to ensure that things are secured both for the community and for our staff. It saves a lot of money, because by the end of the day if you don’t do that you spend it ten times more than what you were to spend initially. We don’t compromise safety, if we do, may be our certificate will be withdrawn from ISO. It’s a continuous assessment they are always on our neck, we are always ready for them
Collocation
Economy of scale has shown that you have to do something about collocation. The operators themselves are now seeing the business angle in doing that in the sense that when you, for example you use $6000 dollar per month to maintain a site as a company when you have an option of paying $ 2000 a month sharing location .They are now seeing the economic sense in sharing infrastructure.
Initially, everybody wanted to provide services by themselves but now they are now seeing the economic sense because the sites are growing .It’s now much bigger for them to maintain .They need to digress themselves from these services and focus their attention on the core things they do. The competition has been wonderful and that is what has been keeping us going. We know there is competition and we strive to be the best in what we do because we do not want to be cluttered away, competition is the driving force we have, and without competition we will be relaxed. Since we know more competition is still coming we don’t want to lag behind. We have to make returns to our shareholders.
Problem of Touts and Youth Restiveness
It is very simple. There’s no place all over the world where you don’t have youth restiveness even in India. It is very rampant, but the way you manage it is very important. In IHS for instance, what we do is we have meetings with stakeholders, the community leaders, the youths and everybody. We call them and tell them that we are all stakeholders in the business and as such they should see themselves as part owners of the business and we tell them their benefits. You may be surprised that most of them don’t even know that there are benefits accruing to them. They believe the presence of any telecom project in their area is a national cake which they have to take their own share of but when you tell them the benefits of siting a base station in their community, that it can bring development to them either directly or indirectly because if there’s a base station in a community, there’s good network coverage in that community and you will have a lot of business centres being operated. One other thing we do is that right from the time of construction of any project; we involve the community where the project is located. We engage the local artisans and don’t hire them from outside. At the end of the day we engage two or three of them as security to man the cell site. Periodically, we engage the community in discussions to see how we can develop the community. Then we have conquered that aspect of youth restiveness because we believe in them and take them along in what we do, so they now feel we are part of them.
Leveraging on Shared Infrastructure
Oh very well. They have now seen the need and benefits of it in terms of taking the headache of maintaining, managing and monitoring the sites off them. They can now use their energy in other areas of service which they are providing. It also encourages shared expenses among two or three operators. This reduces the expenses they make and increases their profit which they can now divert in other areas.
Role in Corporate Social Responsibility
What we want to achieve very soon most companies or all the companies will be accessed not only by the profit they make but what they give back to the society. What social responsibility have you been able to do?. If you do not develop community the repercussion will be on you because you have to spend more on developing infrastructure or building infrastructure but if you develop a community you have less money to spend on accessing the community so we know by donating to them we are making things easier for us at the same time building a relationship with the community you are making the community to trust you and believe in what you do. Anytime you need anything, the community will be there to assist you.
State Government Tasking Operators to Share Infrastructure
I am hearing that for the first time that the state government is tasking telecom operators to encourage them to share infrastructure. It’s a welcome development if it is doing that, but then, as a matter of fact most operators have seen the benefits of sharing infrastructure and we are in discussions with some of them to take over their sites so that other operators who are not there yet can also collocate on the site. That is the kind of agreement we are making with them. We are not dismantling any site already built. The site that is already available can be acquired from the operators for us to manage it for them .More operators are coming in and they want coverage in certain areas so they can come in and make use of the base stations that are already in existence.
Capacity to Handle More Operators
IHS has the capacity to accommodate any new company that is coming in and as a matter of fact, we are building based on the imagination of what the future would be like, the number of operators that are coming in or envisaged to come in. We have sites that can take in at least four operators at a time. As a matter of fact, we have our equipment in the country now that can establish 500 sites and by the grace of God we should be building more 500 sites by the end of 2009. We should be commissioning 54 sites any time from now after NCC’s approval.
IHS and Stock Exchange
As you are aware we are through with our private placement and as a result we were given the go ahead to register our shares. We submitted our application to the Stock Exchange to be listed and you will be the first to hear that we have been given approval to list on the Stock Exchange and we will be listing any moment from now officially. We are public limited liability company now and we will be fully quoted so that people can buy our shares and that is why we want to improve and continue to improve for people to be able to have better result on their investments
Best Telecom Infrastructure Provider Award Expectations from IHS
It has given us operators the impetus to work harder and as a matter of fact we have won another award from another IT magazine, IT and Telecoms Digest. It’s a pleasant surprise and another challenge for us to keep on providing good quality service to every body in the industry.
Your Role in Miss Telecoms
We have the urged to encourage the youths. We sponsored the event and gave out the first prize and want to do more than that. The winner of Miss Telecoms will be involved in a campaign that will be announced very soon. The campaign will benefit the society because we want to campaign against environmental pollution.
Why Has IHS Suddenly Become Known
IHS has been in existence since 2001. We are about the first company that went into service delivery in the telecoms industry but we have been working silently because we believe in working and not talking. .We have built the highest number of sites in the industry. When you consider the total number of sites built so far IHS has built at least 30% of all the sites we have today and we believe in quality. It could be because more telecoms operators are coming in that people are beginning to know us but we have been working silently. We will continue to do our work silently but the public will be seeing what we are doing.
IHS Nigeria has partnered with the Osun State Government on Osun Teacher-Shift 2025, a programme aimed at transforming technical and vocational school teachers into digital-ready educators capable of driving innovation in classrooms.
The IHS Nigeria sponsored initiative, implemented by Focus Teens Foundation in collaboration with the Osun State Board of Technical and Vocational Education, targets about 200 teachers across the State’s nine technical colleges. The training will run in batches over a two-day period, with participants expected to acquire modern skills, and innovative teaching techniques.
Speaking at the opening ceremony which held in Osogbo yesterday, Titilope Oguntuga, Director of Sustainability at IHS Nigeria, explained that the project was developed to prepare teachers for the opportunities and challenges of a fast-evolving world.
She said, “Today is not just the launch of a programme — it is the beginning of a movement. This is more than training, it is a mindset shift. It is about rethinking how we prepare teachers, students, and our communities for the opportunities and challenges of a fast-evolving world.”
Oguntuga emphasised that teachers remain at the centre of national development but face increasing demands to inspire creativity, nurture innovation, and equip young people with practical and technology-driven skills.
She noted that the initiative also reflects IHS Nigeria’s four sustainability pillars — ethics and governance, environment and climate change, people and communities, and education and economic growth.
The IHS official said, “education remains the strongest catalyst for national development. But we cannot achieve this without empowering the people who will empower the next generation. With this programme, teachers and beneficiaries from the nine technical colleges will begin to think more innovatively and incorporate new systems that support STEM for the advancement of our nation.”
Oguntuga added that each school would be given routers with one year subscription.
Adedapo Ademola-Adesina, Special Adviser to the Governor on Technical and Vocational Education, noted that the State Government believes in private sector collaboration to achieve its goals for technical and vocational education, leading to the partnership with IHS Nigeria.
“We must begin by changing the mindset of our teachers. They are the ones who shape future leaders. That is why we tagged the program “Osun Teacher-Shift 2025” — shifting from the old ways to new digital teaching”, he said.
Also speaking, Sunday Eluwole, the Osun State Commissioner for Education, acknowledged that the training was both timely and necessary, saying; “this is the 21st century, and Nigeria cannot be left behind. Our schools, teachers, and classrooms must be digitalised. Teachers must first be trained in digital methods before they can pass the knowledge on to students.”
Eluwole added that Osun State, which has the highest number of technical colleges in the Country, is committed to making its schools models of digital and vocational learning.
Earlier, Muritala Jimoh, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, said that Osun State teachers are ready to shift. Jimoh noted that Governor Ademola Adeleke is prioritising teachers’ welfare in the state, hence their readiness to embrace the shift.
He called on teachers to reciprocate government’s efforts by making their minds flexible to change.
Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has directed all airlines operating in the country to ensure that passengers completely switch off their mobile phones during aircraft take-off and landing.
Michael Achimugu, director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, NCCA, disclosed the directive in a post on X on Tuesday.
He said the measure was part of a harmonisation of existing rules on the use of electronic devices onboard.
“Henceforth, the regulation per phones and other electronic devices in Nigeria has been unified: ALL PHONES MUST BE SWITCHED OFF DURING THE CRITICAL ASPECTS OF TAKE-OFF AND LANDING,” Achimugu wrote.
“All airlines must amend their security programmes to reflect this if different in their current programmes. No more airplane mode until regulations are reviewed to reflect evolving technological situations.”
The directive means that all airlines will have to adjust their operational manuals and cabin crew instructions to enforce the policy.
Reactions to the announcement have been mixed on social media, with some Nigerians questioning the relevance of the rule in light of advances in aircraft technology and onboard connectivity.
Sonny Echono, executive secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), has called on Nigerian tertiary institutions to urgently embrace technology in teaching, research, and administration, warning that billions of naira already invested in ICT infrastructure risk being wasted due to underutilization.
Echono made the call in Abuja, Nigeria while delivering remarks at a 2-Day Workshop on Blackboard/TERAS Adoption and Usage in Beneficiary Institutions, organized by TETFund for Registrars, Bursars, Directors of Academic Planning and ICT and Thesis Project Repository Managers of beneficiary institutions.
He lamented that despite TETFund’s early investment in digital learning platforms such as the Tertiary Education, Research, Applications and Services, TERAS, many universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education were still lagging behind in ICT adoption.
According to him, Nigeria’s rapidly growing population and limited availability of classrooms make technology the only viable pathway to expanding access to quality education.
“We are no longer confined to the four walls of classrooms. With just an android phone or a device, students should be able to access content, participate in learning, and acquire skills. There is no alternative to technology if we must prepare our youths for the opportunities ahead,” Echono said.
He decried the slow pace of transition to digital platforms in many institutions, some of which still send hardcopy requests to TETFund despite clear directives for e-submissions.
The TETFund boss stressed that robust and regularly updated institutional websites should be a minimum requirement in the digital age, describing many schools’ online presence as “embarrassingly outdated.”
Echono also cited the successes recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown when TETFund partnered states, the Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, and radio stations to broadcast WAEC syllabus-based lessons.
According to him, that year produced one of Nigeria’s best WAEC results, indicating the potential of technology to revolutionise learning.
He expressed concern that Nigeria now ranks 189th globally and 25th in Africa in education competitiveness, behind smaller countries like Rwanda and Mauritius that have leveraged ICT to transform their systems.
“Government has done its part by providing the infrastructure. But when equipment is procured and platforms created and they are not being used, that is the very definition of waste,” he warned.
The TETFund boss urged heads of institutions to champion the use of digital platforms like TERAS by lecturers and students, stressing that over time, more than half of TETFund’s education investments would have to go into ICT rather than physical infrastructure.
Echono also linked Nigeria’s underdevelopment to its failure to leverage technology in sectors such as oil, agriculture, and manufacturing, contrasting the country’s struggles with China’s rapid transformation through deliberate investment in knowledge and innovation.
“We can do the same if we decide to do the right thing. The right thing starts with our education system. The building block of every nation is knowledge,” he said.
He appealed to tertiary institutions to seize the opportunity, populate their websites with relevant data, and ensure students and staff are fully onboarded onto TERAS platform.
Earlier, Mr. Joseph Odo, director of ICT, TETFund, said interactive sessions at the workshop were designed to deepen understanding of the Fund’s digital platforms and improve collaboration among beneficiary institutions.
“This is part of our engagements with key stakeholders, registrars, librarians, ICT directors, repository managers, and academic planners, to ensure that everyone understands the interventions we are providing. The world is moving fast technology-wise, and we cannot afford to be left behind,” Odo said.
He explained that the sessions, which will hold across all six geopolitical zones, are focused on strengthening the use of TETFund-funded learning platforms, which aggregate data for planning and improve teaching, research, and learning outcomes.
Odo added that TERAS is evolving into “an educational lifestyle” that caters to students, lecturers, administrators, and even government planners.
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