Telecommunications gaint, Globacom has emerged as the most distinguished sponsor of the West African Information Communications Technology (Wafict) Congress 2010. Globacom clinched the highest category, Platinum, thereby maintaining a feat it achieved last year when sponsored Wafict in the same category.
With this, the high calibre speakers, delegates and guests to the Congress and its sister W.Afri.Tel Exhibition both of which are holding simultaneously from June 1 – 3, 2010 at the ultra-modern Expo Centre of the Eko Hotels and Suites, Lagos, would be treated to the splendour and grand orange green and white colours of the operator.
By this action, Globacom has once more exhibited its commitment to the growth and leadership role of the Nigerian sector for the West Africa sub-region and indeed the company’s and that of its Chairman, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr’s own vision to build Africa’s biggest and best telecommunications company.
Wafict Congress 2010 is organised by Africa’s foremost ICT magazine, IT & Telecom Digest, which is also the sole Nigeria Agent for W.Afri.Tel. as earlier announced, the Wafict Congress 2010 is expected to attract some of the most sophisticated line up of international speakers and participants from across the sub-region and other parts of the world. Wafict 2010 is being co-hosted with the London, UK-based Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO).
This year’s event is further strengthened with the collaborative arrangement between IT & Telecom Digest and the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) and it promises to be a first of its kind three-day discussion and interactive sessions on the theme: Moving West Africa Forward: Policy and Technology Imperatives – Trends, Potentials & Challenges.
Globacom tells a story about the African dream seeing that the company joined the race in Africa’s leading telecom market two years behind the first licensees had begun operations, and determined to make the difference, it launched out with innovative and life changing products and pricing method that has since then altered the face of the telecom industry not only in Nigeria but in the entire Black race; and it continues to sustain this tempo.
And to confirm this pan Africanist vision of its founder, Globacom has since deployed its services into other West African countries and is presently in the Republic of Benin, in Ghana and has commenced plans to change the face of competition in Cote d’Ivoire. And this drive is further given impetus with the company’s launch of its Glo 1 submarine cable system which is a first in the world by a private company.
Following on the steps of Globacom are two other Nigerian leading ICT companies and pride of Africa in their own sphere – Zinox Technologies, which is the Gold sponsor and Phase 3 Telecoms as Bronze category sponsor.
Zinox Technologies Limited, Nigeria’s IT identity and manufacturers of Nigeria’s First Internationally Certified Branded Computers, is presently rated the largest IT group in sub-Saharan African and its computer is rated the second largest selling computer brand in Nigeria (IDC Rating) and is the largest partner for both Intel and Microsoft in Sub Saharan Africa.
Recently, Zinox Computers launched a most robust E -Learning suite in Africa and rated number one by World e-Library with over 750,000 books, the company has been the promoter of Digital Knowledge Democracy Project across Africa, among other pioneering efforts at knowledge promotion.
Zinox recently deployed e -learning suite with 100 laptops and internet facility in each of the select 120 secondary schools in Nigeria in a major national e- project sponsored by the Universal Service Provision Fund, USPF.
Its Chairman, Chief Leo-Stan Ekeh, who is very passionate about ICT penetration, usage and uptake in Africa, was said to have welcome the opportunity to be a part of Wafict Congress 2010, promising to make a formal statement before the event. “We will storm Wafict and W.Afri.Tel this year, and I can assure you the story will never be the same again,” he was said to have briefly hinted.
On the other hand, Bronze category sponsor and leading provider of transmission and IP services Phase 3 in less than its six years in operation has proven that with a strong vision and passion, a Nigerian company can bring the West Africa sub-region under one umbrella, especially in the development of enduring ICT infrastructure.
Hence, Phase 3 under the direction of its chief executive, Mr. Stanley Jegede, has expanded its network to cover the Republic of Benin and Togo thus making its network the longest and first regional terrestrial fibre network provider, linking Nigeria to the Republic of Benin and Togo, with potential for connections to Ghana and Burkina Faso from Togo.
This infrastructure targets existing regional telecommunication service providers currently operating in these countries, as well as the transmission needs of operators who plan to interconnect with operators in Togo and Benin. This also positions Phase3 as the infrastructure provider for the distribution of broadband services to various locations in these countries.
Phase3’s aerial infrastructure in Nigeria is deployed on the 330kV and 132kV high voltage lines; whilst aerial infrastructure in Togo and Benin are deployed on 161kV high voltage lines.
Reacting to these developmenst, Editor-in-Chief of IT & Telecom Digest, Mr. Mkpe Abang, applauded Globacom’s dedication and steadfast loyalty to national programmes which has further elevated the national pride. He pointed out that Globacom’s entry into the Nigerian telecommunications industry has not only altered the rate of growth of the industry but it has created and continue to create a new culture of patriotism.
According to Abang, this “company has continued to demonstrate its foresightedness, passion for the Nigerian dream and has made of no value the often talked about daunting challenges in doing business in the sub-region.”
He goes further to describe the three companies that have so far taken up sponsorship of WAFICT as: “These are companies that believe, like our magazine, that an African can be the best in the world in spite of the often unfavourable categorizations of the continent as a backward continent. Consistently, companies like these have given us hope to continue to attract the best in the world into our economy and that is what development and growth entails.”
He expressed the organisers’ appreciation of these three even as he was optimistic that more companies which have shown interest in the programme would join the train before the commencement of the events.