Mobile phone lines to hit 60 million in Nigeria by mid-2008 -IT & Telecom Digest Intelligence Report

3rd ICT Stakeholders Forum, holds June 9 as global giants, operators affirm interest in Africa's largest and fastest growing market.

Joshua’s journey…
In the Bible, the story is eloquently told of how the Almighty had called up one of the servants of Moses at the death of the latter, who led the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, to prepare to take over the leadership of the journey, which Moses began, into the Promised Land.

Joshua, in spite of receiving God’s assurances of direction and protection, must have wondered why the Almighty told him, three times, that despite these assurances he needed to be strong and of good courage.

Why would He Who has given you every assurance of support, protection and provision consistently remind you of the need to be courageous and strong? The Almighty is full of wisdom, He is infallible in all ways; certainly He knew the journey He had sent this untested young man would expose him to the most vicious of enemies, the most daring of empire seekers and even the most rebellious of soldiers.

Modernity is cool - in a cold sort of way

most big-city dwellers (especially the educated and the privileged, who are often tucked away in leafy suburbs) know too well, modern living is about communities that just do not commune and neighbourhoods devoid of neighbourliness. This is not to say that those in the lower echelons of modern society do not know these things.

Let me share with you my experience of one moment when modern living has been cool – in a cold sort of way.

Just a few weeks ago, before my family was forced to relocate from our suburban house to take up a three-week occupancy in a bed-and-breakfast accommodation (and I write this from the guest house), my family had grown used to a particular rhythm. Good music at home, good Nigerian cuisine, boisterous bike-riding by the children, and for me, sitting on any one of East London’s fabulous beaches in the evenings and watching the sun go down, occasional canoeing and fly-fishing.

One Wednesday, a few weeks ago, would have ended on that note, with a bit of that rhythm, except that someone in my house had not quite taken it to heart that the two-hour electricity “load-shedding” (power failure) in my suburb was scheduled to start at midday. As the regular reader would recall (“South Africa’s newsmaker of the moment,” IT & Telecom Digest, March 2008), load-shedding has, since the beginning of this year, become one of South Africa’s “quick-fix” approaches to forcing down electricity demand and stabilising an increasingly desperate power supply situation, while massive power plants are being built to significantly raise power supply from the current 40,000 megawatts.

“Those NITEL workers had the effrontery to go on strike and shut down SAT 3, our SAT 3, our national resource,

I mean, a property bought with federal government money, tax payers’ money; those workers, they must face the music. They must be punished and charged with economic sabotage. That is a national embarrassment. Can you imagine these people holding this country to ransom and making it impossible to reach the rest of the world? Who did they think they are?”

“Calm down. Why are you getting so worked up? What is the problem?”

“You have come again with your diplomatese. Are you telling me you were not aware that NITEL workers went on strike and shut down SAT 3?”

“Of course, I am aware. But that should not make you blow your top. Don’t they have a right, as a collective group, to ask for their due?”

Erastus Akingbola

women who have made change an integral part of their life have reached the pinnacle of their chosen career. So, this inevitable element of human existence came unto the Nigerian banking industry in 2004. And as expected, like a whirlwind, the Chukwuma Soludo banking reform swept most bankers off their feet and in the end, Nigeria’s banking industry became a shrunk but powerful number. Only the strongest survived.

The story of how 25 swallowed 89 banks is still being told and much more how a few young banks emerged as big and in some instances bigger than first generation banks before them. One of such banks that made it through the Soludo solution was Intercontinental Banks Plc.

This bank’s story is directly related to the steady and focused leadership style of Dr. Erastus B. O. Akingbola the Group Chief Executive of Intercontinental Bank Plc. For over 34 years, Dr. Akingbola has marched through the various banking turfs emerging as one of the nation’s most accomplished bankers and financial administrators.

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