3. Mike’s life and career
Mike Adenuga Junior (April 29, 1953) is the Nigerian Chairman Chief
Executive Officer of Globacom.
Adenuga's rise to wealth and accompanying fame is an interesting story.
His resolve to succeed against all odds started when, while in America, he
worked as a taxi driver and security guard to sustain himself in school.
Born on April 29, 1953, Michael Adeniyi Isola Adenuga had his secondary
school education at the Ibadan Grammar School, Ibadan, Oyo State,
before proceeding to the North-Western University in Oklahoma and Pace
University, New York, both in the United States where he studied business
administration.
4. Mike’s life and career (Contd)
Under the Obasanjo administration, Adenuga won the bid for a whopping $285 million.
He raised the money from Bank Paribas of Paris, paid the money but with a proviso,
stemming from the realization that the license he was given was being disputed in court.
Understandably, Adenuga wanted a positive assurance that he would not lose his $285
million if the court ruled in favor of the party that is in court. But Obasanjo would not buy
into Adenuga’s audacity of paying the money into an escrow account and giving a
condition. He got infuriated and characteristically vowed to teach the small boy a lesson.
A small boy whom he had always believed was fronting for the former President Ibrahim
Babangida, a man Obasanjo would rather keep at a safe distance and dine with a long
spoon. On that score, he simply revoked the license in a brazen show of a man in power
and drunk with power. To Obasanjo, putting a condition tantamount to not paying at all.
That was the way he saw it. That was the way he interpreted it.
At age 26, Adenuga had already become a millionaire with connections in high places.
With his unique flair for risks and sheer tenacity of purpose, in no time he started reaping
profits in billions. He owns Equatorial Trust Bank and Consolidated Oil, which carries
out crude oil drilling, refining and marketing.
5. Mike’s life and career (Contd)
His first shot into the consciousness of Nigerians was when his company,
Consolidated Oil became the first indigenous company to strike crude in
December1991. He recently made foray into the telecommunications sector. With his
Communications Investment Limited, CIL, he was issued a conditional license in 1999
and frequencies to operate the Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM). The
license was later revoked. Again, when in 2002, the government through the Nigerian
Communications Commission (NCC), organized new auction for the GSM license, the
CIL participated and was one of the four that won the bid. He paid the $20 million
mandatory deposit.
However, in the process of affecting the release of the balance payment of $265
million, the company was adjudged to have failed to pay within stipulated time. CIL
lost both the license and $20 million deposit. He later went on to bid for the Second
National Operator (SNO) license, and deposited another $20 million. This time, he
was lucky.
He won the bid in August 2002 through his Globacom Limited. The SNO has a wider
range of operations as Globacom has the right to operate as a national carrier, operate
digital mobile lines, serve as international gateway for telecommunications in the
country and operate fixed wireless access phones.
Adenuga's estate business and company shares traverse several countries in Western
Europe, North America and the Middle-East.
6. Mike’s Company info
Globacom Limited (or GLO) is a Nigerian multinational telecommunications
company headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. GLO is a privately owned telecommunications
carrier that started operations on 29 August 2003. It currently operates in four countries
in West Africa, namely Nigeria, Republic of Benin, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. As of June
2009, the company has employed more than 2,500 people worldwide.
GLO has an estimate of over 25 million subscribers (June 2009) and it is a 100 percent
Nigerian owned company. It has a reputation as one of the fastest growing multi-national
carriers in the world.
GLO is the first sole company to build an $800 million high-capacity fibre-optic
cable known as Glo-1. It has the first successful submarine cable from the United
Kingdom to Nigeria; and it has the potential to decrease telecommunications cost and
provide excess bandwidth to all the countries connected to the cable.
