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Leo Stan Ekeh and the Price for Success

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By Adesh Kalpesh

Recently, there has been a sudden burst of corporate blackmail aimed at one of Africa’s most illustrious entrepreneurs, Leo Stan Ekeh.

Leo Stan Ekeh and the Price for Success

Leo Stan Ekeh

Most appalling is the pettiness and clear lack of intelligence displayed by the clique of blackmailers and their hirelings.

It got me thinking about how much premium Africans place on their brightest and best, especially those who by sheer dint of hard work, tenacity, courage to dare the odds, have chiselled their way from the lowest nadir of their enterprise to the top of it.

Leo Stan, as he’s simply called, is in this class of rare African achievers. And he did it in the mentally-engaging and knowledge-demanding Information Communications Technology, ICT, turf.

I knew Leo Stan decades back in his undergraduate days at the Panjab University, Chandigarh, one of the oldest universities in India established since 1882.

At that time, there was a sizeable sprinkling of African students in India and Panjab University was no exception.

I had a good number of Africans at that time as friends and acquaintances. But young Leo Stan was special. He was gregarious, affable and outgoing.

It was easy to notice him in a crowd: rangy and endowed with gift of presence. Besides his imposing height, you could tell from the manner he got going with the cosmopolitan university community that he’s cut out for the big stage.

Most people knew him as Leo Stan; only a few knew his full name, Leonard Stanley Ekeh.

He was a man on a mission whose genial and studious disposition tells you he was not there just to add to the number.

The quest for knowledge and a burning desire for self-discovery drove him into the hallway of adventure. He soon distinguished himself both socially and academically to earn the respect of fellow Africans and recognition from the university authorities.

In no time, he was leader of the African students’ contingent in Panjab and instantly became their voice in the university community.

At that time, India had already become the breeding ground for outliers. Graduates from Indian universities got straight employment at Microsoft, Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange and other top corporations across the United States and Europe.

Some others got straight into entrepreneurship and made a success of it.

Such was the high profile of Indian universities noted for their lavish infusion of numerate skills into their curriculum.

It was therefore no surprise to me when many years after, the name Leo Stan became a household name in Africa ICT ecosystem.

The man I once knew as a restless, zesty African student has turned his energy to creating values, creating wealth and jobs for many.

Rather, what has come to me and perhaps others who knew him and have followed his life’s odyssey from India to United Kingdom and back to Africa, as a surprise is the desperation by his own people to pull down the man who gave Africa a voice in the global ICT space, an area where India has become a global force. India has created tech billionaires in this century.

The Shiv Nadar family, Azim Premj family, Jay Chaudhry, Byju Raveendran among others make up this list of worthy Indians. Some of these entrepreneurs just like Leo Stan and many others across the world built their businesses from the scratch. Indians can tell their story.

They praise them for their industry and stellar example. They don’t blackmail them for being successful or try to pull them down.

These tech entrepreneurs play critical roles as enablers of India economy. For this, the government and the people protect them. This is what is lacking in Africa.

Those who show capacity to create wealth through entrepreneurship are often left to the vagaries of jealous competitors and atrocious blackmail from those who are failing and even those who have failed in their businesses.

Trying to link Leo Stan and any of the companies associated with his name to unhealthy corporate governance smacks of desperation and primitive show of disrespect for a man whose collateral is integrity.

Any African who plays big in the Africa ICT marketplace knows that without integrity, you cannot have as much as a handshake with global brands like Microsoft, Apple, HP, Samsung, among others.

It’s the nature of ICT. Here, the game is not measured by the depth of your pocket.

It’s a function of trust, your capacity to make your word your bond. This must reflect on how much of technical competence you have, enough to keep your technology and service ready, functional and available.

Leo Stan had long established all this and it’s to his credit that Microsoft, Samsung, HP, Apple and others have not only established strong technical presence in Nigeria which has led to knowledge transfer to young Nigerian techies, but has also created thousands of direct and indirect jobs across different demographics and human resource cadres.

So, why blackmail such a man? Why try to pull him down just because he has succeeded where many failed?

Success is not served on a platter. For a man who has built a world-class African brand, Zinox, as a counterfoil to the dominance of exotic brands, national and continental garlands ought to be his reward, not a blizzard of unintelligent blackmail.

At the twilight of last year, President Muhammadu Buhari conferred the prestigious National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) award on Leo Stan, Oba Otudeko, Aliko Dangote, Tony Elumelu and other distinguished Nigerians.

This is how to reward your best. India has similar reward system, a roll call of national honours.

It’s to encourage those who have helped to build the society through industry, service and philanthropy.

Shiv Nadar, for instance, holds the Padma Bhushan award for “distinguished service of a high order”. Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in India.

My long stay in Africa has exposed me to the treachery in corporate Africa. Corporate blackmail is everywhere in the world but it’s how institutions of government handle it that makes all the difference.

African governments must do more to protect their shining stars in entrepreneurship.

In spite of the rash of blackmail against Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon and other mega-corporations., the US government still finds a way to protect them just so they will keep them going and protect millions of jobs allied to them.

Nigerian government must strive at all times to protect the likes of Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Tony Elumelu, Leo Stan Ekeh, Oba Otudeko and others. These are genuine African brands who have shattered all ceilings and erased all stereotypes about the capacity of Africans to do great things.

Hilary Hinton, more popularly known as Zig Ziglar, the American inspirational author and salesman, once made a poignant statement which should be a soothing balm for successful people.

He said: “You do not pay the price of success, you enjoy the price of success.”

Leo Stan and all those who have been and are being blackmailed should ‘enjoy’ the discomfort of blackmail while it lasts. As we say in India, let the problem build you, not break you.

 

  • Mr. Kalpesh writes from Accra, Ghana

 

 


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Nigeria CommunicationsWeek believes that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. So since 2007, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and how they affect lives.

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GSK to Slash Cost of Malaria Jab to Less than $5

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The manufacturers of the world’s first malaria vaccine are set to slash the price by more than half by 2028 to less than$5 per dose.

GSK to Slash Cost of Malaria Jab to Less than $5

The manufacturers of the shot, known as RTS,S, said a phased reduction in cost would begin immediately, with an ultimate aim to reduce the price to less than $5.

The announcement could hardly come at a more critical moment.

Gavi, a major vaccination initiative which funds immunisations in the world’s poorest countries, is facing a major budget crunch.

In Brussels on Wednesday, Gavi’s replenishment event raised $9 billion to fund immunisation programmes over the next five years. While this sounds like a huge sum, it’s significantly less than the $11.9bn the group had been aiming for.

Governments around the world are cutting development spending dramatically.

The UK, for instance, cut its contribution to Gavi by 40 per cent in real terms, telling The Telegraph it was prioritising defence, while the US has pledged nothing at all.

Though America previously gave Gavi roughly $300m a year, the country’s new health secretary claimed without evidence that the organisation was ignoring vaccine safety.

The announcement from the British pharmaceutical giant GSK and Indian drugmaker Bharat Biotech will therefore be a relief to those trying to balance the books.

In a statement the companies said the price reduction demonstrated their “commitment to Gavi”, and was “driven by process improvements, expanded production capacity, cost-effective manufacturing, and minimal profit margins”.

By the time the price has fallen to below $5 per dose, a technology transfer agreement means Bharat will have taken over production, though GSK will continue to supply the adjuvant piece of the shot.

“For us, this is more than a cooperation, it’s a promise,” said Dr Krishna Ella, executive chairman of Bharat Biotech International Limited.

“By joining forces with GSK, and working closely with Gavi, and the WHO [World Health Organization], we are taking a real step toward closing the gap between vaccine supply and the urgent needs of children at risk of malaria.”

Each year, malaria still kills 500,000 people – the vast majority of them children aged five and under in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to WHO estimates, cases and deaths fell significantly between 2000 and 2015, but progress has since stalled.

Some have high hopes that RTS,S, as well as another vaccine called R21 developed by Oxford University, could prove critical in efforts to turn the tide.

In clinical trials, RTS,S reduced hospitalisations for severe malaria by 30 per cent.

But critics say the shot is too expensive and not as effective as existing tools, such as bed nets and antimalarials.

The reduction in price will bring it more in line with the cost of R21, which is priced at around $4 per dose.

Yet the cost will still add up, as both jabs require multiple shots. For RTS,S, this means four doses – the first three doses are given monthly, starting around five months of age, while the fourth dose is administered 15-18 months later.

Both jabs “provide reasonable short term efficacy – over about a year – so are a useful addition to other measures,” said Professor Nick White, a professor at the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit who specialises in malaria.

“In the past GSK had limited production capacity – one of the reasons the R21 was developed. So reducing the price will be good and the two comparable vaccines can fight it out in the market place.”

A spokesperson for Gavi said the alliance’s goal is to “create sustainable demand backed by predictable financing so that companies – like GSK and Bharat – can continue investing in technology transfer and other efficiencies that bring down costs, thus making critical vaccines more available and affordable.

GSK’s decision to lower its prices, the spokesperson added, is “an important step for the global malaria vaccination programme, and our ability to make this lifesaving tool more widely available to those who need it the most”.

Gavi plans to help fund RTS,S in 12 African countries by the end of this year.

Previously, GSK has said it will supply up to 18 million vaccine doses between 2023 and the end of this year.

The company plans to supply 15 million doses annually from 2026-2028, a spokesperson told Reuters.


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Rack Centre Signs Collocation Deal with TelCables Nigeria

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Rack Centre, West Africa’s Tier III carrier- and cloud-neutral data centre, has struck a collocation agreement with TelCables Nigeria, an Angola Cables subsidiary.

TelCables Nigeria is delivering its high-capacity network and cloud infrastructure, as well as four international subsea cable systems (SACS, MONET, SEBRAS, and EllaLink), directly into Rack Centre’s regional carrier ecosystem as part of the agreement.

According to Angola Cables, the move provides reliable, low-latency south-bound routes to Europe, the Americas, and Latin America, reducing the danger of future cable disruptions along West Africa’s coast and enabling next-generation cloud services across the continent.

“Our unique Africa – to – Latin America route via SACS, combined with MONET, SEBRAS and EllaLink, gives customers the lowest – latency paths to the Americas and Europe,” said Fernando Fernandes, CEO of TelCables Nigeria.

“Businesses in latency sensitive sectors: financial services, content delivery and real-time communications will experience faster transactions, reduced lag and an enhanced user experience.

“By hosting at Rack Centre we also localise Clouds2Africa resources, price them in naira, and remove expensive ingress/egress charges or FX exposure.”

Rack Centre said its 13.5MW data centre campus designed with its recently launched LGS2 facility that delivers a design PUE of 1.35 and powered from sustainable energy sources, already hosts 70+ carriers, ISPs and network operators.

Lars Johannisson, CEO of Rack Centre, commented: “Adding a global operator of Angola Cables’ calibre through TelCables Nigeria dramatically deepens our connectivity fabric.

“We can now offer 99.95 % SLA routes to more destinations, enabling enterprises, governments and cloud providers to meet performance and data-residency requirements while keeping traffic local.”

 


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Lagos Plastic Ban: MAN Warns of Job Losses, Closure of Businesses

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Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has expressed concerns over the impending ban on Single-Use Plastics (SUPs) by the Lagos State Ministry of Environment.

Lagos Plastic Ban:  MAN Warns of Job Losses, Closure of Businesses

It warned that it could lead to job losses and  and lead to economic, operational, and social consequences for manufacturers, traders, recyclers, and end users.

Segun Ajayi-Kadir, director general, MAN, in a statement called on the Lagos State government to reconsider the ban, citing a lack of credible data and stakeholder engagement.

According to Ajayi-Kadir, a recent study revealed that 100% of manufacturers surveyed expressed fears of job losses and workforce restructuring if the ban is implemented.

He said, “A recent MAN-supported study evaluating the possible impacts of the Lagos State SUPs ban revealed significant adverse economic, operational, and social implications across the value chain, from manufacturers to wholesalers, traders, and end users. It has been noted that only poor and developing countries often tilt towards plastic ban as a strategy to combat environmental problems.

“A hundred percent of the manufacturers consulted expressed concern over a ban-induced workforce restructuring. Thus, several jobs will be lost in the industry if this ban were to be implemented.

“It is noteworthy to mention that there is no form of arrangement for social protection for the employees who will lose their livelihoods as a result of this ban.

“Also, there has been no form of social dialogue on the part of the government with these workers or the industry on the potential job losses.”

According to him, findings showed that 89% of operators in the plastic value chain rely on SUPs as their primary source of income with no alternative source of livelihoods, over 75% of end users, including SMEs, depend on plastic packaging with no affordable or practical alternatives, and  93% of dealers, many of whom are women, reported no prior information or social support mechanisms to cushion the impact.

Ajayi-Kadir emphasised that banning SUPs would not resolve pollution issues but merely substitute one problem for another, especially without scalable alternatives or infrastructure to support the transition.

He urged the government to focus on improving waste management infrastructure and promoting recycling, rather than imposing bans.

 

 


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