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Nigeria’s leading business and economy newspaper, Businessday, in collaboration with the Nigerian Stock Exchange, has honoured Airtel Nigeria for its contributions to the economy and for creating employment opportunities across the country.
In a colourful ceremony held last Friday at the Eko Hotel & Suites, the publisher and CEO of Businessday, Frank Aigbogun, and the CEO of the NSE, Oscar Onyema, presented the award to Segun Ogunsanya, CEO/managing director of Airtel Nigeria.
In a citation in honour for Airtel, the organisers said, “Businessday particularly identifies with Airtel Nigeria for its role in driving economic development and employment opportunities. Nigeria dearly needs success stories like Airtel to inspire young Nigerians who are growing up in a society with far too few role models.
“This country benefits when companies like Airtel are applauded because it represents a different narrative, a positive one, in contrast to those that have soiled our reputation.”
The Businessday Next Bulls Awards follows an informal, proprietary survey carried out by Businessday analysts on 1,000 respondents. Several respondents identified Airtel Nigeria as a company whose stock they would like to own in their dream equity portfolio for long-term holding, if the choice was limited to only 10 companies.
Speaking at the award, Aigbogun said the goal of the Next Bull’s award was not to induce winners to embark on a premature IPO journey. Instead, Businessday and the NSE hope that the awards will spark a fresh debate on which incentives and conditions companies like Airtel would like to see before giving an IPO serious consideration.
In his response, Airtel CEO, Ogunsanya, commended the organisers, just as he dedicated the award to the company’s over 40 million customers, employees and other stakeholders.
