71 Hearty Cheers To The Guru, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr
THE man with the Midas touch, Dr. Michael Ishola Adenuga, GCON, is 71 years old; 71 years of outstanding accomplishments and unrivalled philanthropy.
Adenuga has always been an exceptional person. After schooling in the United States of America, he started running a family business, which by the age of 30 he had successfully re- packaged. It was after this that he quietly redirected his focus towards others strategic businesses which aided his movement into the nation’s league of top entrepreneurs.
His journey started from Ibadan Grammar School, in Oyo State, before moving to Northwestern State University, Oklahoma, in the U. S. for his first degree. He capped his American adventure with a Master’s degree at Pace University, New York, majoring in Business Administration. With ownership of two banks, Equatorial Trust and Devcom, Adenuga became a billionaire in his mid 30s. He then added oil and gas to his list of businesses in his early 40s with Conoil. After that, Globacom was birthed as his 50th birthday gift, thus moving to the nation’s telecoms industry in 2003.
When the Obasanjo administration in 2001 decided to offer GSM licences to businesses to operate, Adenuga’s Communications Investments Limited ( CIL) also bid for a licence but was not successful, thus losing $ 20 million. However, an undeterred guru was to return later and he got the bigger national carrier package which today is Globacom, the only indigenous GSM company operating in the country and forging ahead of competitors with operations in Ghana and Benin Republic.
By August 2003, Globacom rolled out services with a bang. Other networks, which started operations about two years earlier, had claimed that “per second billing” was impossible. Adenuga outwitted them convincingly with Glo making what they called impossible a possibility.
Thus, Glo entered the market in a grand style, offering Nigerians the elusive per second billing package, thereby forcing other networks to follow suit to the delight of millions of Nigerians.
By August this year, Globacom will be marking its 21st anniversary. It has remained the innovative network, in spite of rolling out its services two years after other networks had started operations. It recorded first in many areas including championing per second billing; first to implement 2.5 G network in Nigeria; first to implement 3G network in Nigeria; first to offer 4G LTE; first to offer Blackberry solutions in Nigeria and first to launch a submarine cable – GLO 1 – which provides efficient and fast broadband internet services.
Glo subscribers are fully connected to the network and are enjoying access to high quality products and affordable telecom services. In March 2024, the strength of Globacom and the massive power of its Glo 1 submarine cable were showcased when massive internet outages were reported in Nigeria and in some parts of Africa, following damage to international undersea cables supplying the country with connectivity.
According to reports, the damage affected major undersea cables near Abidjan in Côte d’ivoire and led to internet downtime across West and South African countries. Telecommunications companies and a number of banks in Nigeria, which relied on the affected cables for internet services, were affected by the outage which lasted for many days.
However, Glo 1, owned by Globacom, was not affected by the damage as data users, internet service providers and financial institutions, which run on Glo 1 continued to operate normally all though the period.
Industry analysts believe the sturdy nature and resilience of
Glo 1 International Submarine Cable is the reason the damage did not affect the cable.
Globacom has also remained socially responsible over the years. It has extensively supported the movie industry in Nigeria ( Nollywood), with most of the top actors appointed as Glo ambassadors. It has also sponsored several cultural festivals under its Corporate Social Responsibilities plan, which has resonated with people across the country. In addition to these are countless donations and support by Adenuga to different parts of the country, thus empowering Nigerians in different areas of human endeavour.
In the area of sports, Adenuga’s support was legendary. Apart from numerous sponsorships of the national team by Globacom and his personal donations, he also rewarded the Super Eagles team that won the African Cup of Nations in 2013 in South Africa with $ 1 million.
Adenuga also established the Glo Soccer Academy, which trained young footballers to kick- start their career in professional football. The finalists of the academy were trained in Dubai Soccer Academy and Manchester United Academy respectively. This is in addition to sponsorship of Golf tournaments known as Glo Golf Tour West Africa, which offered millions of naira to winners. There were also different editions of the Glo Marathon with outstanding prizes for winners.
All these and other achievements of Globacom rest squarely on the genius of the man, Dr. Mike Adenuga.
As he marks his 71st birthday, a big thanks to him for believing in Nigeria and investing heavily in the country. He has set the standard for young and upcoming Nigerians to believe in themselves and their country, making a bold statement that all things are possible through determination, focus and hard work.