NatCom Development & Investment Limited (trading as ntel), yesterday introduced a key addition to its board with the emergence of elder statesman, accomplished businessman and respected philanthropist, General Theophilus Y Danjuma, as its chairman, following his significant investment into the network.
Danjuma takes over from Dr. Tunde Ayeni, who is now the vice chairman.
Other members of the board include Captain Idahosa Okunbo, Abiola Ayeni, Kasheem Shettima, Philip Chukwu, Kola Adesina, John Darlington, Dan Kunle, Babatunde Omotoba and Kamar Abass.
The new board chairman presided over his inaugural board meeting yesterday.
Ntel, in 2015, paid $252.52 million to acquire the assets of Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), Nigeria’s First National Operator (FNO) and in April, this year, began commercial operation on its mobile network with the launch of Nigeria’s first Fourth Generation (4G) Voice over Long Term evolution 4G (VoLTE) network, a combination of high speed voice and data broadband service.
Ntel, which acquired the Digital Mobile Licence (DML), Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) licence, Long Distance Licence as well as SAT3 International Submarine Cable infrastructure of the defunct NITEL, is Nigeria’s first 4G LTE-Advanced network providing superfast internet access that enables voice, data and video on demand.
Its network is built on the 900/1800 Mhz which are the best propagation frequencies for the deployment of 4G LTE technology.
Ntel’s bouquet of services cover national bandwidth, international voice termination, international bandwidth, mobile and fixed network. The network currently operates live in Lagos and Abuja and plans to extend its network to Port Harcourt and subsequently to other states, across multiple geo-political zones, in the second half of 2016.
The network runs on the 0804 numbering plan platform. It started commercial operations with bumper offers for early bird pioneers and data users.
Ntel’s 4G/LTE-Advance technology is built on the 900/1800MHz spectrum and delivers an unbeatable and game changing customer experience of high speed Internet access up to 230Mbps to enable a world of full mobile broadband experience that will transform both lives and livelihood. It has already laid 200 kilometres of fibre optic transmission cables in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt for seamless network connectivity and has also deployed LTE Advanced, the latest 4G technology with multi-antenna MIMO sites.
The new board chairman brings a wealth of experience to the Ntel team.
Fondly known as ‘the green general’ on account of his environmental activism, Danjuma has interests in oil and gas, banking and shipping.
A respected environmentalist and philanthropist, he was Chairman of Abuja Green Society and through his own Danjuma Foundation, established in 2009, passionately supports poverty alleviation, education and medical aid initiatives across Nigeria.
After retiring from an illustrious military career in 1979, he ventured into business and has chaired the boards of many blue chip companies. In 1979 he formed Nigeria America Line (NAL) which operated between Lagos and Santos in Brazil.
He also established COMET Shipping Agencies Nigeria Ltd in 1984 primarily to act as an agent for NAL. In 2009 Comet handled over 200 vessels at the ports of Lagos, Port Harcourt, Calabar and Warri. In 2005 NAL-COMET acquired a roll-in-roll-out port (RORO) in Lagos which makes it the largest independent port operators in Africa.
He is the chairman of South Atlantic Petroleum Limited (SAPETRO), a Nigerian oil exploration and production company he founded in 1995. SAPETRO produced its first oil (condensate) on 4 March 2009.
Danjuma’s SAPETRO, an upstream oil and gas exploration and production company owns a 15 per cent stake in the Akpo deepwater oil field alongside operator Total and China’s CNOOC. Prior to forming SAPETRO, General Danjuma spent seven years as the chairman of Agip Africa until 1995.
Theophilus Danjuma also has a stake in Notore Chemical Industries, a manufacturer of urea fertiliser. He is also chairman of TY Danjuma Foundation. It is believed that with his wealth of experience, he will steer Ntel, Nigeria’s latest mobile network to greater heights as Ntel navigates Nigeria’s competitive telecommunications market.
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