Ernest Ojelum gets MVP scholarship @NNPC/Shell Cup

ITREALMS:

One of the most outstanding players in the 2017 edition of the annual NNPC/Shell Cup, Ernest Ojelum, has won an International Summer School Scholarship to the United Kingdom, reports ITRealms.

This coming with a reception to welcome Ernest and the other Most Valuable Player in the 2017 finals, Iyobor Arase has returned after a weeklong training tour in The Netherlands.

Ernest of Henson Demonstration School in Benin City will be joining other international scholars at the University of Sussex later in the year in an all-expense paid programme.

Announcing the scholarship award on Monday in Lagos, General Manger External Relations of Shell Nigeria, Mr. Igo Weli, described the emergence of Ernest as the outcome of a painstaking process involving the partner University of Sussex and Henson Demonstration School. “We are delighted that our new partnership with the University of Sussex has brought a whole new excitement and incentive to the NNPC/Shell Cup to validate our belief that education and football can go hand-in-hand.”

Reinforcing this defining principle behind the 20-year old tournament, Group General Manager of National Petroleum Investment Services (NAPIMS), Mr. Roland Ewubare, expressed excitement at the yearly improvement to the tournament which he said has made the NNPC/Shell Cup a standard in youth sports competition.

“We are encouraged by the emerging partnerships with Feyenoord and University of Sussex that have changed the whole motivations around the tournament, making it a household name in every part of Nigeria,” said Ewubare who was represented by the Deputy Manager, Community Relations of Public Affairs Department of NAPIMS, Ms. Julie Utang.

An elated Ernest described the NNPC/Shell Cup experience as overwhelming. “From the announcement of my name as one of the most valuable players at the finals in 2017, the transformation to my life and world of experience I’ve been exposed to by NNPC and Shell are far beyond my expectations. Sometimes I think perhaps I’m dreaming.”

Ernest’s father, Mr. Humphrey Ojelum, echoed similar surprise noting that youths stand a better chance of success in sports with a solid foundation in education as being promoted by NNPC and Shell.

Also speaking, Iyobor charged youths to hold firm to education while pursuing other interests particularly sports. “If I had been out of school, I’m not sure I would have had this early opportunity of training tour in The Netherlands, among other benefits I’ve received from being part of the NNPC/Shell Cup.”

The 2017 edition of the leading youth football tournament started in May 2017 with the preliminary matches involving some 54,000 students from 2,750 secondary schools across Nigeria competing for honours.

At the finals played at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, on July 4, 2017, the Henson boys defeated their counterparts from Holy Ghost College, Owerri, Imo State by 2:0 to emerge champions of the 19 th edition of the 20-year-old tournament.

Admin/GEE

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Breakfast with CEO: NITRA to host Ernest Akinlola, ntel CEO

ITREALMS:

The Nigeria Information Technology Reporters’ Association (NITRA) has confirmed the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of ntel, Mr. Ernest Akinlola, as the special guest at the March edition of its monthly interactive programme with ICT companies’ CEOs tagged ‘Breakfast With The CEO’ reports ITRealms.

The event being hosted by NITRA, an interest group within the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), has been slated for Friday, March 9 is expected to hold in Lagos.

ITRealms recalled that after several years of failed attempts to sell the Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) to core investors by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), the agency eventually sold NITEL to NatCom Development & Investment Limited, trading as ntel, in 2015, through a guided liquidation process, after the unbundling of the state-owned telecommunications firm.

Touted as Nigeria’s most revolutionary telecommunications company which provides 4G LTE Advanced network that delivers superfast call-connect times, crystal clear Voice over LTE and extraordinarily high Internet access speed, ntel at inception aimed to redefine the Nigerian telecommunications landscape and enrich the lives of Nigerians by delivering the most advanced communications technology across the largest possible network coverage in the most effective, valuable and satisfying manner.

Although ntel is currently live in three of Nigeria’s largest commercial cities: Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, there are already plans in motion to expand to more cities and meet its projected coverage of 85% of mobile broadband spending within 3 years and about 95% within 5 years.

Akinlola, whose appointment late September 2018, to succeed Kamar Abass, ntel’s pioneer chief executive officer, was seen in some quarters as a test of his managerial expertise to turn around ntel and reposition the company for competition.

Described as a well-educated, widely-travelled and vastly experienced in the field of telecommunications, Akinlola holds a degree in economics, and is a Chartered Accountant and fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. He also holds an MBA from Manchester Business School, and has worked in pharmaceuticals, packaging and delivery, telecoms and consulting firms.

Akinlola as head of department, led the assessment and subsequent launch of Virgin Mobile UK on the One 2 One network, which proved to be the pioneering Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) at the time.

Following One 2 One’s acquisition by T-Mobile, Akinlola was a key member on the integration team, leading on commercial strategy and growing the wholesale side of the business to launch several MVNO’s focused on specific customer segments.

He was an integral member of the team charged with executing Virgin Mobile’s $1.5 billion IPO. Many senior roles followed including leading the transformational roll out of T-Mobile’s store retail programme.

Akinlola was subsequently headhunted as COO by Lycamobile, the world’s largest international MVNO, to lead its European strategy, successfully expanding into 10 countries including UK, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands and Spain within two years.

Following his notable successes in Europe, he focused on Nigeria’s telecoms sector and was approached to lead a major marketing drive for the former Etisalat, now 9mobile, the 4th entrant in a highly competitive telecoms market. As marketing director, he spearheaded a range of initiatives that took the former Etisalat from the fourth ranked operator to the second, in terms of Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).

Analysts see the task before Akinlola as huge given the fact that the company has a system in place that seems not appealing to customers who wanted to feel more of the impact of ntel at the grassroots level.

The NITRA Breakfast meeting with the CEO, therefore, offers Akinlola an excellent opportunity to showcase some of ntel’s achievements, challenges and plans for the year as well as how he plans to tackle the tasks ahead of him before the largest gathering of ICT journalists drawn from the print, electronic and online platforms.

Nonye Dom/GEE

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