Imagine Nigeria without Globacom

THIS title is absurd. I know. I was not going to use it, but I thought it up after I had put down my thoughts on celebrating Globacom at 20 years. Like a bolt out of the blues, Globacom happened on Nigeria’s telecommunications landscape on August 29, 2003, when its first commercial call was made. It was the realization of a major dream for many who were reeling under the exploitation of sharks who had entered the market earlier. My purpose here today is to celebrate the power and resilience that we have been endowed with as Nigerians, a power that has made friends and enemies for us among those who have chosen to either love or misunderstand us beyond our borders. It is also to celebrate an outstanding man who thrives on taking risks that would have snuffed life out of the best and most prepared of men. That man is Dr Mike Adenuga, the man who gave us Globacom and broke the shackles of orchestrated exploitation and well packaged financial emasculation on that historic day in August 2003.

The story is told of a staff member of one of the initial operators who sent a mail to his friends back home that “these Nigerians can talk”! I, however do not know if this was true or made up. What can’t be denied is the kind of evil that was visited on people during the era of 50 naira per minute call. It was an easy road to digging deep holes in peoples’ pockets. If you made a call of one minute and a few seconds, you paid for two minutes as those few second counted for one minute. Not a few commercial telephone operators were involved in fisticuffs with Nigerians eager to reach their loved ones but could not afford to purchase SIM cards for as much as N25,000 and the prevailing “palasa” (low quality) phones for such amount too! Newspapers wrote stories and feature articles on such terrible controversial transactions and the government could barely do anything to fight for the people until Globacom got its license. Now, getting a license when others were already controlling the market was more than enough to ensure that the company would just decorate its shelves with the license. Others got their licenses two years before then and had rolled out services in the major cities across the country before Globacom even dug the ground for its first base station.

It would have been demotivating to anyone. But it seemed such circumstance stirred something nationalistic in the man behind the vision of Globacom, Dr Mike Adenuga. He is known as the man who would never give up to the negatives that can erode even the confidence of the strong. Those who know the history of his sweat in the unpredictable world of business would easily recall his battle with all the elements in the way of Consolidated Oil striking the black gold after long and frustrating period of prospecting. The story had been told that if he had not persisted, his crude oil foray would have ended in bankruptcy as he had taken loans to get drilling equipment and experts from abroad to the creeks of Niger Delta. But he seems to possess a dictionary that doesn’t contain all the negative and demotivating words.

Quite a handful of other Nigerian businesses and individuals who equally got licence around the same time could not venture into the fray. Many sold off to foreign hands and were content with earning mere pittance. They simply didn’t have the heart to take risk. So, with Globacom, he was on a familiar terrain of taking risks. Indeed, he turned it into a laudable opportunity to make Nigeria and Nigerians proud that a Telecommunication behemoth could also be birthed by one man through a wholly Nigerian owned company. Curiously, despite the huge investment to get off the starting blocks and into the mainstream of the telecoms market, he was never attracted to joining the shylocks to extend the band of exploitation of the people, his people. Per minute call system was an easier and more financially rewarding option that any greedy businessman would have grabbed. He chose, instead, to bill Nigerians on a per second basis, eliminating the exploitative system that was already in place.

The news of that impending disruption unsettled the self-styled masters who were quick to remind Nigerians that the Globacom advertised per second billing was not going to be possible until another five years. I was one of the millions who were truly afraid of having to endure another five years of suffering if the per second billing promised by Glo would not be feasible again. It was a sigh of relief on August 29, 2003 when the company served us per second billing from the very first day. It was too good to be true! People started asking the early birds on the Glo network to confirm if it was true. Some didn’t believe until they saw call summaries that indicated precise billing. With that, Globacom also got Nigerians to purchase phones and pay in installment with airtime. From having to cough out as much as N50,000 before Globacom’s arrival, customers could walk into a Glo shop and come out with their own phones and Glo SIMs with less than N10,000. It was too good to be believed unless you experienced it.

The network has, over the last two decades, introduced several firsts in the telecommunications space. Globacom has made all the difference in terms of its focus on the people of Nigeria, disrupting and dismantling every monument of exploitation. It has over the years run mouth-watering promotions to reward and endear subscribers to itself and to create a bond of shared heritage with them. More than any other business in Nigeria, Adenuga’s Globacom has supported sports, Nollywood, Music and other major endeavours that connect with the passions of Nigerians. Such was the power and commitment of one man, to walk his talk. It was a singular episode that opened the door of opportunities for millions of Nigerians and businesses to get GSM lines with ease and to make calls at rates that would not plunge them into debts. Now, I imagine if Glo was never in the picture of Nigeria’s telecommunications landscape. Would others ever have adopted per second billing? Would they have lowered prices or jerked them up to control the market as monopolies usually enjoy doing? How many Nigerians in the depth of the bowels of the sprawling nation would have been able to afford SIM cards?

Today, there is no way to imagine what would have been happening if Nigeria didn’t have Globacom when the company was born two decades ago! It is for this that a grateful nation is pleased to rejoice with Globacom over its two decades of serving Nigerians and ensuring that their interests are well protected through offering the best telecommunications services at the most affordable rates. The next decade calls for more challenges for the company to ensure a deeper bond with the market in order to ensure that the country consolidates its emerging ICT and Fintech edge on the continent of Africa. It has been a blessing and has become a part of our pride! It will always be!