Airtel Nigeria has been extolled for its role in driving economic development and employment opportunities. The company got an award for its contributions to the economy and for creating employment opportunities across the country.

The encomiums were poured on the telecom giant at the colourful Businessday Next Bull award held on Friday at the Eko Hotel & suites. The awards follows an informal, proprietary survey on 1,000 respondents carried out by analysts from Businessday, a foremost Nigeria’s business and economy newspaper in collaboration with the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Several respondents identified Airtel Nigeria as a company whose stock they would like to own in their dream equity portfolio for long-term holding, if the choice was limited to only 10 companies.

Making the presentations, the duo of Frank Aigbogun and Oscar Onyema, Publisher/CEO of Businessday and CEO of the NSE respectively praised Airtel Nigeria for its role in driving economic development and employment opportunities saying Nigeria dearly needs success stories like Airtel to inspire young Nigerians who are growing up in a society with far too few role models.

“This country benefits when companies like Airtel are applauded because it represents a different narrative, a positive one, in contrast to those that have soiled our reputation. The Next Bull’s award was not to induce winners to embark on a premature IPO journey rather we hope that the awards will spark a fresh debate on which incentives and conditions companies like Airtel would like to see before giving an IPO serious consideration”.

In his response, Airtel CEO, Ogunsanya, commended the organisers, just as he dedicated the award to the company’s over 40 million customers, employees and other stakeholders.

•L-R: NSE CEO Oscar Oyema, Airtel CEO Ogunsanya and Businessday Publisher/CEO Frank Aigbogun