IT Industry-based CEOs make the highest percentage of the 2013-listed Nigerian CEOs

According to a report made available by NewsWire Nigeria, Ventures-Africa has just released her list of top 13 Nigerian CEOs in 2013. In this report, IT industry-based CEOs made the highest percentage with 30.7%. The next is  Banking with 23% and Media with 15.3%. Others are: Pharmaceuticals, Aviation, Manufacturing and Finance with 0.08% each.

The profiles of the IT industry-based CEO as reported by News Wire Nigeria are as follows:


Michael Ikpoki
MTN Nigeria
Industry: Information and Communication Technology
Michael Ikpoki achieved a landmark this year when he was appointed the CEO of MTN Nigeria, the first Nigerian to achieve this feat in MTN Group – the country’s largest mobile operator by subscriber. Ikpoki has been described as “A seasoned business executive, with an academic profile that includes General Management Programme at Harvard Business School; Sales, from INSEAD Business School; Finance and Analytics, from Lagos Business School and LLB from Rivers State University of Science and Technology.”
A pioneer staff of the company, Ikpoki joined the group as a Regulatory Advisor in 2001 after a six-year stint in the Legal Department of the Nigeria Communications Commisssion (NCC). He has formerly served as the company’s Director and CEO in Ghana after successfully running MTN Nigeria’s Sales and Distribution channel as its Executive from 2006.
According to US-based technology market research consultancy, International Data Corporation (IDC), in November, MTN Nigeria hold competitive edges to further unlock market potentials to remain profitable for its South African parent company, MTN Group – going by tariff innovation and other initiatives underway by the mobile phone network. With over 55 million active connections, MTN Nigeria under Ikpoki’s leadership continue to deliver a satisfactory performance, maintaining market share, even in the face of stiffer competition and regulations.

Funke Opeke
MainOne CEO
Industry: Information and Communication Technology
Ms Funke Opeke is the founder and CEO of Main One Cable Company, a Nigerian cable and communications service provider that built West Africa’s first privately owned high capacity cable submarine. An Electrical Engineering graduate of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife Nigeria, Ms Opeke has served as the Executive Director of Verizon Communications Wholesale Division.
Armed with a twenty-year career in the United States as a telecommunication executive, Opeke returned to Nigeria in 2005 as the Chief Technical Officer of MTN. She also served as an adviser to Transcorp on the acquisition of NITEL and briefly served as the interim Chief Operating Officer, NITEL after which she created Main One as a result of the dearth of infrastructure which forms a huge information and knowledge gap between Africa and the rest of the world. She creatively built Main One as a result of the non-existent internet services in the country at that time. She built Main One over a 2-year period, from inception with a total investment of $240 million financed entirely from African investors (The founding shareholders are called Main Street Technologies) plus $28 million contingency. Since her company began operations in 2010, Main One has transformed Nigerian and African broadband landscape.

Recently, her company began the building of a $25 million Tier III + data centre in Lagos which would be the largest of its kind in West Africa at 1,500 square metres with a 600 rack capacity as part of its growth strategy and vision to enhance infrastructure in its primary market – West Africa. Her efforts have been recognised over the years. Last year, she won the 2012 CNBC All Africa Businesswoman of the Year Award (AABLA) in Midrand, South Africa.

 

Florence Seriki
Omatek Ventures Plc
Industry: Information and Communication Technology
Engr. (Mrs.) Florence Seriki (MFR) is the Amazon behind Omatek Ventures Plc, a Nigerian computer manufacturing company known for its dedication in promoting, pioneering and manufacturing local content in the ICT sector of the continent. A graduate of Chemical Engineering from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Seriki’s Omatek company has succeeded in penetrating the Nigerian IT market with local manufacture of casing, mouse, key board and speakers. She is also credited with opening the first indigenous Computer Assembly plant in Nigeria and Ghana. Her company also holds a very enviable position as a market leader in the production and assembly of computers and related accessories. Seriki is a Fellow of notable associations both within and outside the shores of the Country, including the Nigerian Chemical Engineering Society and the Nigerian Computer Society. She also holds a master degree in Business Administration from the Lagos Business School.

Leo-Stan Ekeh
Zinox Group
Industry: Information and Communication Technology
Dr. Leonard Stanley Nnamdi Ekeh is the Chairman and CEO of the Nigerian ICT solutions giant, Zinox Group. He is recognized for playing a pivotal role in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development in the continent, but most especially, for his intuitive leadership and capacity to define market trends in the technology terrain. An Economics graduate from the Punjab University, India, the Imo state born industrialist pioneered IT distribution in West Africa through Technology Distributions Limited, TD, which has emerged the Number 1 ICT distribution company and the most decorated ICT Distributor in West Africa. Leo Stan Ekeh has a record of incisive entrepreneurship and his vision to Computerise Nigeria has rewritten the history of Information Technology in Africa. His first company, Task Systems Limited changed the face of media and multimedia houses in West Africa as it helped computerise 95 prcent of the Print Media, Publishing Houses and Advertising Agencies in Nigeria. Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh also pioneered IT Solutions in West Africa through his company ITEC Solutions Limited through which he has delivered the largest IT Solutions ever, from an indigenous firm, to the Nigerian Corporate Market. Through his company, Leo Stan has been able to introduce Nigeria’s First Internationally Certified computers which include innovative features like the Naira sign and a power supply designed to contain the erratic nature of power in Nigeria.
In October 2013, the company announced the production of its computer tablet line named Zipad. Ekeh was recently named Africa’s first Microsoft Global Partner Adviser, a position he said he would use to advance the objectives of the Digital Knowledge Democracy and create technology value for Africans. The Microsoft Global Advisor Committee is a committee of distinguished IT icons around the world who serve as feedback channel to Microsoft for business models and strategy for product rollout and meets two times every year. They also act as an advocacy group for customers and channel partners.
A Fellow of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Ekeh was also honoured as an icon of Hope by (erstwhile) President Olusegun Obasanjo, for his sustained entrepreneurial efforts in Information Technology. He was also recognised as the IT Personality of the Year 2011 among other accolades.

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