Several multiple awards were won at the first Nigeria Tech Innovation & Telecom Awards 2017 (NTITA) in Lagos, South West Nigeria by the Nigerian Communications Commission, its Executive Vice Chairman, Prof Umar Danbatta and several telecommunications companies drawn from all sectors of the industry.
Danbatta won the Telecoms Man of the Year and the NCC won the Consumer Project Initiative of the year, while the Former Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Engr. Ernest Ndukwe got the Life Time Achievers Award, an event well attended by all key stakeholders including the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Segun Ogunsanyo whose company won the CSR Initiative of Airtel Nigeria at the even which was organised by the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) to reward telecos contribution to the growth of the industry in Nigeria.
MTN Nigeria won the LTE Provider of the Year as well as the Customer Experience of the Year while Airtel besides the CSR Initiative of the Year also won the Telecoms Marketing Campaign of the year.
Medallion Communication owned by Mr. Ikechukwu Nnamani carted away two awards, Telecoms Solution Company of the year, Interconnect Provider of the year, Vodacom Business Nigeria went home with two awards, Telecoms Business Award, Enterprise Sector, IHS was named the Tower Company and the Telecoms Infrastructure Company of the year while Rack Centre won the Cloud Company of the year.
In his opening remark, the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, who chaired the event disclosed that the year 2017 was dedicated to the consumer to improve quality services in the industry adding that industry has achieved a great milestone since it activated the consumer campaign.
Welcoming his guest, the President of ATCON, Mr. Teniola Olusola said it is the expectation that the award would foster healthy competition in the Nigerian telecom industry saying noting that it was for some government institutions, telecom and IT companies that have led innovation and creativity in the last few years in order to reposition the efficiency of the industry.
He noted that this innovation has impacted positively on the products and services being rendered by all these organisations and ATCON thought the only way to encourage further innovation in the industry was to reward those who are not resting on their oars but striving to make a difference in the sector.
According to him the award would drive further investment into the sector stressing that it is believed that the adoption of creativity and innovation would automatically lead to further investment in the sector both locally and internationally.
He added that new innovations require further investments for its continuity and ATCON plans to use this reward system in the form of giving awards to establishments who see innovation as a key driver of the industry and are acknowledged and motivated to do more.
Olusola while describing the ATCON award as the most authoritative and recognised awards in the industry said: “if we decide to ignore the contribution that our sector has made to the development of Nigeria by not recognising the actors that made it possible what we are saying invariably is that we are ungrateful to their concerted efforts in changing the story of our industry by the Nigerian government.”
Isaiah Erhiawarien, West Africa
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