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There are billions of people in the world, but it’s only a tiny fraction that are billionaires. These are the people who have created phenomenally successful businesses and changed the world in significant ways. One of these privileged few is Nigerian-born business magnate, Dr. Mike Agbolade Adenuga Jnr. Of course, Adenuga has his own peculiar quirk —a special kind of primal energy— which formed a big component of his successes: love for the people. That’s his own winning formula. For the mogul, whose business affairs are well talked about but which only a few have an insight into, his charity begins from the African continent. The exceptionally private but busy man spends most of his time in the quietude of his ultra-luxurious Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos Villa creating wealth as well as helping humanity to live a very good life.
Just like legendary American auto tycoon Henry Ford, who revolutionised the auto industry and built a car brand for the great multitude both in the United States and the world at large, Adenuga is on the same path in the telecoms industry with his Globacom brand —a company he launched in 2003. In retrospect, nothing could have been more prescient as he has in the last 19 years been known more as a disruptor who revolutionised the telecoms sector by introducing per second billing from the get-go of Globacom operations and the crashing of the costs of acquiring SIM cards. When he threw his hat into the telecom ring, Adenuga seemed clear that it was to be in the service of the common people who had been denied access to quality telecom services.
The people-oriented businessman had committed enormous investments into the Glo Cable One, a multi-billion naira optic fibre submarine cable project that was to turn Glo into a household name in Nigeria and earned the company the sobriquet, Grandmaster of Data. Globacom, in 2018, commenced work on its Glo2 project —with the building of a second national backbone infrastructure from Lagos to the southern part of Nigeria. It will have 12 Terabit capacity per second, spanning 850km, providing last-mile connectivity to businesses and oil companies in the Southern part of the country and beyond. Most of these investments are geared towards helping ordinary Nigerians and other telecoms consumers.
The Globacom founder is arguably one of the few biggest contemporary philanthropists on the continent. He is as generous, collaborative and lovable as he is innovative and brilliant. It is a known fact that Globacom also supports various poverty reduction initiatives of the government, and partnered various state governments to provide call centre packages for unemployed youths. There is no gainsaying that the mogul has a large heart and loves to see others succeed. He has an innate belief that behind every success story are others helping to make it happen. And that’s why Adenuga unrestrainedly redistributed most of his money like he did recently. Early this April, the Guru doled out over N1 billion to dozens of Glo dealers and business partners who have worked assiduously to make the network the darling of subscribers across the country. The billionaire gave out the money during an exquisite dealer appreciation gala dinner held in Lagos. Globacom has also been promoting Nigeria’s rich culture and investing annually billions of naira in the entertainment industry by using local as well as global stars with Nigerian ancestry for endorsement.
