Ndukwe Inducted into Legends of Tech Hall of Fame

The need to cushion the effect of economic meltdown through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tool was the focus of a ground breaking debate  tagged “ An Evening with Tech Legends” hosted by Technology Africa.
But the induction of Ernest Ndukwe, executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) added flavour to the night filled with outpouring of emotions.
At Lagoon Restaurant, venue of this year’s annual event, were leading lights in the nation ICT industry; among them Ndukwe, Ibrahim Tizhe, president of the computers professionals Registration council of Nigeria (CPN) and also chairman of the occasion, Chief Leo Stan Ekeh, chairman Zinox Technologies, Dr Emmanuel Ekuwem, president of the Association Of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (Atcon), Florence Seriki, group managing director, Omatek PLC, Tim Akano, Managing Director New Horizon, Gbenga Adebayo, president of the Association of licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (Alton), Shola Birkersteth, general manager Chams City, among others. Also in attendance were heads of ICT from Oceanic Bank, Zenith bank, AfriBank, First bank and ICT professionals and business men among others
Flagging the event open chairman of the occasion,  Tihze, said that contrary to claims from sources late in 2008 and earlier on in the year, events have shown that Nigeria was in the throng of the meltdown. He buttressed his point with the current increase in exchange rates and the tightening of credit. The global economic meltdown has touched down here in Nigeria , he posited.
There were also contributions from Adebayo of Alton who spoke on power, infrastructure support and security as a means of addressing economic meltdown. Other contributions came from Seriki, Shola Birkersteth, Tim Akano and Dr. Ekuwem who emphasized the need for innovations, co-location, outsourcing and the need to fast-track the on-going efforts by the Federal Government at improving the power supply from the national grid and that there should be zero duty on generators and dedicated supply of diesel from refineries.
The high point of the event came when the organizers announced the election of Ndukwe into the Legend of Technology Hall of fame.
According to Don Pedro Aganbi, managing consultant of Technology Africa and organizers of the event said that the “Tech Legends hall of fame” is designed to celebrate hi-tech revolutionaries, trail blazers, men and women who are at the forefront of technology development in the country.
A documentary Ndukwe before the induction into the Tech Legends Hall of Fame, said that he is a man who gazed into the future that was almost bleak. Oil was the in thing, after displacing Agriculture to become the major mainstay of the Nigerian Economy. Poor teledencity and almost a non existent technological growth in a sector driven by the moribund national carrier, NITEL compounded the matter making the hope of rising to the occasion through ICT, unthinkable. Yet he reposed trust, confidence and exhibited unbelievable patriotism to fatherland.
Conferring the honour, chairman of the occasion, Tizhe described the Tech legends as those who had caused change and engineer revolution and obviously, a peep into their technological lives actually reveal legendary exploits of men who took risk to launch Nigeria into the comity of knowledge based nations.
It is however clear that Nigeria cannot celebrate the advances recorded in the ICT sphere without acknowledging the contributions of Ndukwe,
Ndukwe has over the years emerged as the face of GSM in Nigeria through his transparent handling of the regulatory affairs of the telecoms sector.
Since February of 2001when he supervised the auctioning of GSM licenses in the country, he has conducted the affairs of the regulatory functions of the commission in such a way that other countries in Africa now come to Nigeria to understudy the regulatory processes that has seen the sector emerge as the largest in Africa ‘s Legend of Technology” where great minds proffered solution and discussed the way forward for the good of our industry and indeed Nigeria, the CPN boss said.
He promised that CPN would continue to support and encourage every forward looking bodies and organizations and identify with fora like An Evening with Nigeria‘s Legend of Technology that will promote Information Technology development and advancement in Nigeria.