Airtel to Host CNN’s Zakaria, top Nigerians in Night of Influence

Airtel Nigeria, telecommunications services provider, said it plans to host select influential personalities at a high profile event that will feature Fareed Zakaria, renowned journalist, internationally acclaimed author and host of popular Fareed Zakaria’s GPS on CNN.

The event tagged, Airtel’s Night of Influence, is a distinct platform that will provide a great networking opportunity to prominent international personalities, very successful Nigerians and the Airtel brand.

 It will hold on Sunday, November 18th  at the prestigious Eko Hotel & Suites in Victoria Island, Lagos.

Zakaria, who has confirmed to speak on the theme: Africa’s Political Economy: The Challenge of Leadership, will bring on hand rich insights into the continent’s economy and its interactions with the global socio-economic and political landscape.

About 500 influential men and women drawn from both the private and public sectors within and outside Nigeria as well as top politicians and government officials will be attending the event.

Speaking on the initiative, Rajan Swaroop, chief executive officer and managing director of Airtel Nigeria, said the company is committed to providing significant forums for interactions and creating credible platforms to improve the quality of leadership in Nigeria and Africa through dialogue.

“The Night of Influence will deepen the interface between our brand and the cream of Nigerian society whose decisions and activities influence, to a large extent, the trend of fashion, lifestyle, and indeed socio-economic development of the country,” Swaroop said.

Zakaria is an Indian-American journalist and author. From 2000 to 2010, he was a columnist for Newsweek and editor of Newsweek International. In 2010, he became editor-at-large of Time Magazine.

He is the host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS. He is also a frequent commentator and author on issues related to international relations, trade and American foreign policy.

Zakaria attended the Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai.

He received a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University, where he was president of the Yale Political Union, editor-in-chief of the Yale Political Monthly, a member of the Scroll and Key society, and a member of the Party of the Right. He later earned a Doctor of Philosophy in political science from Harvard University in 1993, where he studied under Samuel P. Huntington and Stanley Hoffmann, as well as international relations theorist Robert Keohane.