Tony Ojobo Appointed as New President of African ICT Foundation

A new Board of Trustee has been announced for the African ICT Foundation with the former Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Tony Ojobo, appointed as the President.

The Foundation is an independent non-profit, non-partisan whose mission is to formulate, evaluate, and promote policy that accelerate innovation and boost productivity in Africa’s ICT/Telecoms industry

Ojobo who has spent close to 30 years of his public service career in the industry starting from the defunct NITEL is bringing his wealth of experience to rejig the Foundation and put it on its next growth stage that is expected to spur growth, opportunity, and progress in Africa’s ICT/Telecoms industry.

The ex-NCC image maker, who is now the Chairman of Kulturekode Hub has demonstrated a long history of working in the telecommunications industry, skilled in negotiation, business development, strategic planning, strategy, and public speaking and strong media and communication professional who has transverse a wide spectrum of the global ICT/Telecom landscape.

Ojobo, a Certified Regulation Specialist, Utility Regulations/ Telecom Regulations of the Institute of Public Private Partnership, Washington, DC, USA in his acceptance noted said “feel honoured to have been nominated for this assignment. The ICT ecosystem in Africa is in a state of emergency and all hands must be on deck to leverage technology for the advancement of our economies.”

Appointed alongside with Ojobo, is Dr. Ing Pierre-François Kamanou,   Franco-Cameroonian, Founder, GTS Network who has pioneered the development of GSM networks in the last 10 years as well as the development of mobile VAS solutions. Kamanou will serve as First Vice President/Regional Director for the Francophones Countries.

He called for regulators of the ICT and Digital sector in African countries, for the urgent establishment of a framework favourable to the introduction of a new type of local OTT Operator called MSPs, 20 years after the entry of ISPs and MNOs.

Robotic engineer, tech entrepreneur, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sens Orbit Nigeria and Soft Digital from the Republic of Benin, Ms. Racheal Orumor will join the Foundation as the 2nd Vice President/Country Director for the Republic of Benin.

In her letter of acceptance to serve on the BOT, she noted: “It is vital that we strive to promote scalable tech solutions. We cannot scale without having tech policies and recommendations by Africans and for the African continent.”

She added: “We need to take advantage of our exposure to recent technologies by creating policies which foster technology access to all Africans, saying that “As a young woman with quite a number of experiences on technological penetration and its use in African countries, I am convinced that my contributions will be valuable for future policies and recommendations.”

She said that she positive about the mission of Africa ICT foundation which is to “make information and communication technology more affordable and reachable for Africans.”

Announcing the new Board of Trustees for the Foundation in Lagos, out-going BoT President, Dr. Samuel I. Ikiddeh said the BoT, which will managed the Foundation through committee said the BoT has some of its best in ICT/Telecoms in Africa to rejig the Foundation for the growth of ICT/Telecoms industry in Africa.

He said that Senator Iyere Ihenyen an entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology enthusiasts who advises on information technology (IT) and intellectual property (IP) will serve as the Secretary General of the Foundation saying that in 2016, Senator Ihenyen completed a comprehensive data note on data protection and policy in Nigeria, available in over 100 countries.

Also in the BoT is the multiple award winner, and winner of the 2018 Canadian Excellence CEO, Engineer  Ikechukwu Nnamani, President/ CEO Medallion Communications Limited, Nigeria’s most vibrant interconnect who in his acceptance letter promised to  use his wealth of experience speedy development in the African sub-sector of ICT/Telecoms describing the appointment as a noble assignment

Dr. Anthony Nwosu, an ICT business consultant, CEO Astongate Consult who has a strong passion for the development of the ICT sector in Nigeria and has played key roles in ICT service delivery and advocacy in Nigeria was also appointed into the BoT.

He has served the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) in several capacities, and currently holds the position of 1st Vice President.

Also in the new BoT is the Oludare Omoniyi Akinbo, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Tishri InfoTech Ltd, a Cloud Technology Expert and Google Apps Partner, Como Mobile, ZipCloud and IX Web hosting Reseller.