Steve Evans, chief executive officer, Etisalat Nigeria has said that African mobile broadband market is growing at an incredibly fast rate and that the continent has demonstrated enormous appetite to use broadband to fire the kiln of production.
He quoted analysts as saying that if the success in the GSM services is anything to go by, a boom in broadband services in the continent is imminent.
“Already, the Federal Government of Nigeria is spearheading efforts at creating an enabling environment for the development of broadband in the country.
Evans stated this at the official prize presentation of winners in the ‘Etisalat Prize for Innovation award’ for the most innovative product/service and idea.
He said: according to a recent forecast conducted by Richard Hurst, senior analyst in Ovum’s Emerging Markets team, broadband users are predicted to hit approximately 277 million by 2015. That represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40 percent, from 2010 to 2015.
Evans said that, ‘in recognition of efforts made by the government to facilitate and promote mobile broadband in the country that last year we instituted and sponsored the ‘Etisalat Prize for Innovation award’ for the most innovative product/service and idea at the 2012 edition of the Africa Com conference in Cape Town, South Africa.
The reason for introducing this unique award category to the Africa Com lineup is to encourage and promote broadband adoption and usage in Nigeria and Africa in general’.
This sponsorship, he said is a unique one for us because of our desire to offer more to our customers beyond the business of telephony.
“We also realize that even though customers primarily want to enjoy the products and services on offer by Etisalat, they also want to know that we not only care for them, but also the wider environment in which we operate.”
The first prize of $25, 000 for the most innovative product or service was awarded to Mobile Maths Practice by Sinelimit represented by Olaseni Odebiyi while the second prize of $10,000 was awarded to iConnect Project by Future Software represented by Oyehmi Begho.