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Seven Years of Telecoms Revolution, What The
Future Holds for Nigeria
Tell Magazine, Special Publication, July 7,
2008
Abdulrahman Abiola Odunowo
CEO, Private Networks Nigeria
Is this man truly the Beethoven of Nigeria’s
telecoms business?
Consider: Abdulrahman Odunowo started his
company in 1995, six years before the GSM
revolution and a difficult time to convince
the late General Sani Abacha junta to grant
a telecom license to a company from the
South- west. He pioneered the build, operate
and transfer, BOT, model in the country by
financing the entire roll-out and opeartions
of Econet Wireless in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti
State, and Ilorin, Kwara State, for 36
months before handling over to the operator.
His company Private Networks Nigeria, PNN,
was the first to introduce SMS vending of
airtime in 2002 with multiple franchise
shops from operators. Currently at the
forefront of integrated maintenance services
in Nigeria, PNN has experienced tremendous
growth and expanded four subsidiaries within
a decade; sales and distribution,
infrastructure development; value added
services and vendor support services.
Nonetheless, Odunowo’s fecundity, borne out
of continual and artful innovation in every
aspect of his business, has fostered
profound changes in the Nigerian telecoms
industry.
Also the company's roll-out plan of 300
retail outlets nationwide before the end of
2009 is indeed breathtaking. At the moment,
no one has that broad swath of retail
business in the industry. He says the
greatest challenge to delivering quality
service is the dearth of highly skilled
capacity in the country. “That is why we are
partnering with institutions to initiate
engineering training programmes that will
help Nigeria bridge the digital divide,” he
noted.
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