Adenuga: 69 hearty cheers to the guru

The Quintessential businessman, the man with the midas touch, and an entrepreneur par excellence, Dr. Michael IsholaAdenuga, GCON is 69 years old. 69 years of success, great accomplishments and unquantifiable achievements. Happy Birthday to the Guru.

From the age of 26 when he made his first million running family business, Dr Mike Adenuga aka Guru has always been an exceptional person. By the time he moved to his early thirties, he had successfully transformed his family’s business and gradually but quietly entered the nation’s league of top entrepreneurs with utmost precision.

Welcome to the world of the iconic Nigerian billionaire who has successfully nurtured all his businesses cutting across all sectors of the economy to utmost success.

From Ibadan Grammar School, in Oyo State, Nigeria he moved to Northwestern State University, Oklahoma, in the United States for his fir degree. He also earned a Master’s degree at Pace University, New York, majoring in Business Administration. Adenuga moved to the top hierarchy of Nigeria’s business with the ownership of two banks: Equatorial Trust and Devcom in his mid thirties. By early forties he had conquered the nation’s oil industry and at the age of 50 he founded Globacom, thus berthing powerfully in the nation’s telecommunication industry.

In 2001, the Federal Government under President OlusegunObasanjo licensed three GSM network operators, namely MTN, Airtel (formerly Econet Wireless/V-Network/ Vmobile / Celtel /Zain / now Airtel) and MTel. It was not until 2002 that the fourth operator, Glo Mobile, was licensed as the country’s second National Carrier while in 2007, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)  introduced the unified licensing regime, granted 3G licences to four operators and also licensed Mubadala Development Company as the country’s fifth GSM Operator (it subsequently started operating under the name Etisalat now 9 mobile).

When the Obasanjo’s Administration in 2001 decided to offer GSM licences to businesses to operate, Dr Adenuga ‘s Communications Investments Limited (CIL) also bid for a licence but was not successful, thus losing $20m. However,  an undeterred Guru was to return later and he got the bigger national carrier package which today is Globacom, the only indigenous GSM Company operating in the country and forging ahead of competitors, with operations in Ghana and Benin Republic.

On 29th of August, 2003, Globacom rolled out services with a vision to be the market leading service provider in the country. The company from inception to date has demonstrated its commitment to creating value with its products and services, thus empowering millions of Nigerians in the process.

Glo under Adenuga’s astute leadership and guidance entered the market in a grand style, offering Nigerians the elusive per second billing package, thus  forcing other networks to follow suit to the delight of millions of Nigerians.

Other networks, which started operations about two years earlier, had claimed that “per second billing” was impossible.  Adenuga outwitted them convincingly with Glo making what they called impossible a possibility.

By next year, Globacom will be marking its 20th anniversary. So far it’ s been Globacom’s 18 years of  many firsts in the Nigerian Telecommunications Industry. It has remained the innovative network, in spite of rolling out its services two years after other networks have started operations. It recorded first in many areas including championing per second billing, first to implement 2.5 G network in Nigeria, first to implement 3G network in Nigeria, first to offer 4 G LTE, first to offer Blackberry solutions in Nigeria and first to launch of submarine cable (GLO 1) which provides efficient and fast broadband internet services.

With over fifty million subscribers including multinational corporations, decision makers in the public and private sector, students, artisans and those in rural communities connected to the network and enjoying access to high quality products and affordable telecom services, Glo remains a leader in the nation’s telecommunications industry.

Globacom has also remained socially responsible over the years. It extensively supported the movie Industry in Nigeria (Nollywood) and in Ghana (Ghollywood) with notable actors and actresses chosen as Glo Ambassadors. This move and many others had empowered African arts and culture.  The sponsorship of several cultural festivals in its areas of operation is another aspect of its Corporate Social Responsibilities which has resonated with the people. In addition to these are countless donations and support by Dr. Adenuga in different parts of the country, thus empowering Nigerians in different areas of human endeavour.

Globacom’s support has been outstanding. In Nigeria and Ghana, the company sponsored the national teams for many years as well as the League. The Supporters’ Clubs in both countries are also not left out. It is also remarkable that Glo sponsored the annual CAF Awards, which celebrates the best footballers and administrators in Africa, (male and female) for a decade. A period in which the profile of the award changed from a mere event to that of a major global sporting gala, attracting top personalities from different parts of the world.

Another outstanding gesture from the guru was in 2013 when he rewarded the Super Eagles who won the African Cup of Nations in South Africa with a whopping $1million and many more.

It was generally estimated that Dr.Adenuga spent over 25 billion to date to support sports in Nigeria since 2002. Former Sports Minister, late  BalaKa’oje  attested to Adenuga’s support for Nigerian Sports , when he said “National Telecommunications Company, Globacom’s Chairman, Dr. Mike Adenuga spent over N3 billion to sponsor the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the then Nigeria Premier League”.

Dr Adenuga also established the Glo Soccer Academy which trained young footballers to kick-start their career in professional football. The finalists of the academy were trained in Dubai Soccer Academy and Manchester United Academy respectively. This is In addition to sponsorship of Golf tournaments known as Glo Golf Tour West Africa which offered millions of naira to winners. There were also different editions of the Glo Marathon with outstanding prizes for winners.

In 2013, Globacom started the sponsorship of English Premier League live matches on Supersport, thus giving footballers in Nigeria and other parts of Africa the opportunity to watch live football matches and also follow their football clubs all through the season. The sponsorship of the matches is still running in 2021, 9 football seasons non –stop.

Dr. Adenuga intervened in virtually all the sectors? He has been very magnanimous and kind to sports in Nigeria and Africa.

Globacom, as Nigeria’s national telecom operator, has consistently brought innovation, quality service delivery and unequalled benefits to its subscribers in the past 18 years, under the able leadership of the Guru.

As the Guru marks his 69th Birthday, A big congratulations to you, Sir. Many more years on earth in good health. I say thank you for being a true Nigerian who believes in Nigeria by investing heavily in the country. The living legend has through Globacom made a bold statement that all things are possible through determination, focus and hard work. He has set the standard for young and upcoming Nigerians to believe in themselves and their country. No wonder President Buhari in his congratulatory message to Dr. Adenuga on his 69th birthday said “I commend Chief Michael Adenuga’s nationalistic and patriotic position of always putting Nigeria first in his investment options, expanding opportunities for employment and business in banking, telecoms, oil and more recently focusing on empowering younger generation in entrepreneurship”.

The Guru is also synonymous with surprises. He recently pulled another fast one when he signed  a business contract in Paris between Globacom, and Eutelsat, the French Satellite conglomerate. Many communities across the country without access to internet links will benefit immensely from VSAT/Satellite-based internet service and Satellite-based community Wifi internet service, courtesy of Globacom.

In addition, he doled out close to a billion Naira early April to further empower Globacom business partners from all parts of the country in a grand gala at Eko Hotel and Suites thus confirming President Buhari’ s assertion on his commitment to empowering Nigerians in entrepreneurship.

Happy Birthday to an entrepreneur par excellence and long live the billionaire with class and panache.

• Ladipo Emmanuel writes from Lagos.