It unclear where Ms Quist, who has been at the helm of affairs since 2014, will be heading to.

There were earlier reports that Tigo’s current MD, Ms. Roshi Motman, is likely to be named as the MD of the new entity to be created following the merger of Airtel and Tigo.

[contextly_sidebar id=”MsfJPYOWcbwN4GIlCKNIEuahP10SgCRK”]The National Communications Authority (NCA),  early last week announced it had given approval for the merger between Airtel and Tigo to proceed with the merger subject to some conditions.

A statement from the NCA and copied to Citi Business News indicated that, the merger will result in an entity which will be the second largest mobile network operator in the country.

The merger, which was first announced in March this year, required the regulator to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the application and the regulatory ecosystem.

The latest development brings to an end months of speculation about her role as CEO of Airtel Ghana, once the planned merger between the company and Tigo Ghana are concluded.

A short note to her followers on her Facebook page @lucyquistofficial, and her website www.lucyquist.com confirmed her planned exit.

Portions of her note read “ After almost three and a half year of leading the amazing team at Airtel Ghana, the time is right for me to move on to the next chapter. It has been a truly remarkable journey and I thank each and everyone of you for your support, encouragement and business partnership over the course of my stewardship. We are proud of our achievements. Particularly, I want to thank all those who have been part of the many initiatives I have led over the last few years to empower young people and every young person who works with me for that matter. Notably the Evolve with STEM and the Bold New Normal initiatives. I look forward to empowering more young people even as I continue my professional journey. Together we will create the Bold New Normal of prosperity for our country and continent”.

Lucy Quist’s period at Airtel Ghana

Lucy Quist joined Airtel Ghana in 2014 as the first Ghanaian female CEO of a major multinational telecom company.

During her tenure, she successfully led her team to re-position and transform Airtel Ghana into one of the fastest growing telecom companies in the country, as well as the industry leader in data and digital innovation, and the most loved telecom brand in the daily lives of Ghanaians.

She is credited with leading the launch of breakthrough initiatives for Airtel Ghana, including the introduction of bespoke sub brands and value propositions for customers – such as  Airtel Premier, the telecom industry’s first ever sub brand that provides telecom and lifestyle solutions for High Value customers.

She also led the creation of Airtel’s Data Business – building a specific sub brand to grow the data side of the business – resulting in a significant growth in customer and revenue market share for data.

Airtel’s Data Business became the conduit for digital inclusion, and some of the most remarkable innovations in the data and internet service provider space within the Ghanaian telecom industry.

Personal achievements

Mrs. Quist has been recognized by several reputable organisations– Corporate Leadership Award (Ghana Legacy Honours 2017), Telecom CEO of the Year (Ghana ICT and Telecoms Award 2016), CSR CEO of the year (Ghana CSR Excellence Awards 2016) and CIMG Marketing Woman of the year (2014).

She is on the Board of many distinguished local and international organisations including the International Board for African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), Petra Trust Company Ltd, the Business Environment Enabling Programme under the UK Department of International Development (DFID), the Climate Innovation Center Ghana and The Exploratory among others.

She is a founding member of the Executive Women Network, a non-profit organization of women in senior management and executive positions committed to inspiring, empowering and supporting women executives to succeed and become influential both locally and internationally.

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By:  Vivian Kai Lokko/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

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She spoke at the African Internship Academy as part of her Bold New Normal Tour; an initiative to engage and empower young people to challenge the status quo and take bold steps to create a prosperous future for themselves and for the rest of Africa.

Her talk focused on how African millennials can thrive in an ever changing global landscape – whether they choose to pursue a career or venture into entrepreneurship. Lucy Quist touched on the areas of technology, globalization and consistent self-improvement as crucial elements that will enable young Africans to make positive impact at all levels.

She highlighted the trends in global and local employment and encouraged young people to appreciate the changes taking place as they plan their careers. She said “You live in a connected world where your competition is not the guy sitting next to you, for you the human factor or your competition could be someone sitting in Canada, the UK or Australia. The human factor is bridged and access to a job is no longer dependent on location. Increasingly you will find people who are able to do your job remotely. That is a real fact and challenge which means over time your career will face competitive pressure that is not local.”

“Some of the jobs we have today will be eroded, sometimes by technology but mostly by someone else who has found a more efficient way of doing and delivering it over the internet. Globally, people are paying attention to trends including skillsets required for jobs in Africa in the next decade. You cannot afford to be left out of this conversation. As young people, you need to position yourselves to take advantage of the current and future opportunities by staying relevant and informed,” she concluded.

Leslie Addae, co-founder of the Africa Internship Academy – the hosting organisation for this event- commented on the talk saying, “Having Lucy at the Internship House to speak on Careers with our fellows was a good opportunity for our fellows to have a better appreciation of the skill set they need to succeed in the work place.”

“At Africa Internship Academy, we provide work-readiness training for the students and graduates. The training covers the basics of work life, time management, communications and language skills, computer skills, budgeting and many other skills needed to be successful in your job”, he concluded.

The Bold New Normal is a new way of thinking that Lucy Quist advocates for. The Bold New Normal Tour is a series of interactive sessions focusing on empowering young entrepreneurial minds to take bold steps away from the norm and to create prosperity for themselves, their country and for Africa.

The third event under this tour was held at the Africa Internship Academy, a self-sustaining social enterprise that prepares students and connects leading African employers with diverse qualified talents.

The events under this tour will be held at key locations where Lucy Quist can meet and interact with young entrepreneurial minds.

–

Credit: Airtel Ghana

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She shared her thoughts and insights on the impact young entrepreneurs can make on the continent through scalable businesses during talk session at Workshed as part of The Bold New Normal Tour.

The multiple award winning business leader, was emphatic on the role and the potential of businesses, and for that matter entrepreneurs in building economies.

As part of her opening statement during the hour-long interaction, she succinctly stated that, “Throughout time, one thing that is certain is that economies have been built by businesses. Somehow, in our part of the world we have come to this expectation that government will build our economies and countries for us, they don’t. Work outputs create prosperity, government alone cannot do that.”

She posited that the responsibility of government was to provide an enabling environment for businesses to thrive. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand are to take advantage of the policies, laws and local conditions to build relevant businesses that will grow the economy and bring prosperity to people.

After challenging the perception on the role of government, Lucy Quist went on to challenge all entrepreneurs to have a better appreciation of their environment, industries and economies if they are to build businesses that make real economic impact.

“If we are going to be the architects of a more prosperous continent, we need to understand what is going on around us. We need to have relevant numbers at our finger tips as we plan our businesses and think of how we are going to make them grow on a much larger scale to fit into the bigger picture.”

She cited the growth of the services sector and decline of the Agric and Industry sectors in Ghana as examples of local situations that entrepreneurs can consider in creating businesses that will fill the gaps in the economy.

“We have gaps that we need to fill and we need our young minds to think about how we can make these other sectors (agriculture and industry) grow to create prosperity for our people”.

The session at Workshed was also an opportunity to discuss how young entrepreneurs can start and grow scalable businesses through a model that outlives them, creates prosperity for more people and breaks boundaries. Lucy Quist also encouraged entrepreneurs within the same industry to collaborate and push for policies that will bring about growth within their space. The discussions were based on The Bold New Normal; an idea Lucy Quist shares in her TedxEuston Talk in 2016.

Speaking on the event, Andrew Bimpong a co-founder of Workshed, hosts of the event, stated that, “Lucy touched on pertinent ideas about the entrepreneurship journey, the entrepreneurship space and doing business in Ghana at large. Through the key insights she shared we have come to understand that for startups to have a voice in a country like Ghana, it is better we come together to form strong collaborations that will advocate for the right posture from government.

Certainly, the Bold New Normal is the way forward for the African Entrepreneur and we at Workshed are proud to be a part of this move.”

Under The Bold New Normal, Lucy Quist advocates for Africans to take bold actions towards African prosperity. She believes that with a change in the visions, language and mindset of its people, Africa can take bold actions to create prosperity for itself.

The Bold New Normal Tour is a series of interactive speaking sessions with Lucy Quist. The talks focus on how young entrepreneurial minds can take bold steps away from the norm and create prosperity for themselves, their country and continent.

The first session was held at Workshed, a co-working space for young entrepreneurs located in Spintex, Accra that dedicates itself to enabling the growth of business.

The events under this tour will be held at key locations where Lucy Quist can meet and interact with young entrepreneurial minds.
–

Source

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A couple weeks ago, I had the honor of attending a historic event organised by the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications to welcome the new Minister for Communications and the new Director-General of the National Communications Authority (NCA). I have always been impressed by the many successful ‘firsts’ (albeit remaining challenges) chalked by Ghana’s telecom sector – one of the first in Africa to

I have always been impressed by the many successful ‘firsts’ (albeit remaining challenges) chalked by Ghana’s telecom sector – one of the first in Africa to liberalise and introduce competition, connect to the internet, launch the1stcellular mobile network in Sub-Saharan Africa etc.

But at that moment it dawned on me that in addition to Ghana appointing its first female Communications Minister, 3 out of the 4 CEOs of the largest Mobile Operators in Ghana are Women!Even more, the Heads of Google Ghana, and Internet Solutions, one of the leading Internet Service Providers (ISP)in the country, are also Women!

Ghana has certainly come a long way – and perhaps has added another ‘first’ to its credentials of a nearly all female team that is driving the next generation of transformation in the telecom and IT sector-the strong technical and legal teams behind them are also women!I remember distinct periods in the mid-90s when despite my role as Coordinator of the government’s telecom reform initiative, I was consistently asked if I would take the notes or bring in the coffee at almost every meeting. Back then I was among a sprinkling of women professionals in the sector. Before the push to liberalize the telecommunications sector, access to any form of telecommunications service was limited to the rich and elite. In fact, there were fewer cellphones in all of Africa combined than there were in Manhattan alone – with mobile penetration estimated at around 0.2%!

Back then I was among a sprinkling of women professionals in the sector. Before the push to liberalise the telecommunications sector, access to any form of telecommunications service was limited to the rich and elite. In fact, there were fewer cell phones in all of Africa combined than there were in Manhattan alone – with mobile penetration estimated at around 0.2%!

I remember distinct periods in the mid-90s when despite my role as Coordinator of the government’s telecom reform initiative, I was consistently asked if I would take the notes or bring in the coffee at almost every meeting. Back then I was among a sprinkling of women professionals in the sector. Before the push to liberalise the telecommunications sector, access to any form of telecommunications service was limited to the rich and elite. In fact, there were fewer cell phones in all of Africa combined than there were in Manhattan alone – with mobile penetration estimated at around 0.2%!

Before the push to liberalise the telecommunications sector, access to any form of telecommunications service was limited to the rich and elite. In fact, there were fewer cell phones in all of Africa combined than there were in Manhattan alone – with mobile penetration estimated at around 0.2%!

Today I stand proud that that value has increased by a factor of 500-fold in Ghana alone. Ghana’s mobile penetration rate today is now well over 100%, and these women (and men) are making enormous efforts to make access to both mobile and Internetmore inclusive. I am honored to have been part of this incredible community of women who have pushed to close connectivity gaps in Africa, and are changing the world through technology.

Here is how these 6 amazing womenare blazing the trail and demonstratingto our younger women that when you are persistently bold, you can force change:

Honorable Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Ghana’s New Minister for Communicationsis no stranger to the telecom sector.Her rich professional background includes positions as Managing Director of WESTEL formerly Ghana’s national fixed line operator (now Airtel), and Director of Vodafone Ghana Company Limited Ghana’s second largest telecommunications service provider by number of subscribers. She is a women’s rights activist and a parliamentarian representing the Ablekuma West constituency.

Ms. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful served as Managing Consultant with N. U. Consult– which provides legal, governance and gender consulting services. She is a member of various organisations including the Ghana Bar Association, the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), the Women in Law andDevelopment in Africa (WILDAF), and the African Women Lawyers Association (AWLA). Ms. Owusu-Ekuful is a Barrister/Solicitor by profession and holds an LLB from the University of Ghana and a Masters in Conflict Peace and Security from the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center where she was adjudged the overall best student in 2015.

Lucy Quist: She is the CEO of Airtel Ghana. Since taking over the helm of affairs at Airtel Ghana in 2014, as the first Ghanaian woman to lead a multinational telecom company, Lucy has successfully repositioned the company into the fastest growing telecom brand, growing customer market share for both voice and data.

She has a clear strategic focus on driving data and digital services as the communication platform of the future and was recently featured on BBC’s Power Women series as one of the top business women driving transformational change in Africa.Lucy is an international business leader and a technology professional who advocates for greater participation of young people in STEM for development.

She personally leads #EvolveWithSTEM, Airtel Ghana’s initiative to encourage young people to participate in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Alongside her outstanding commercial achievements, she has also led Airtel Ghana to win more than 20 prestigious awards.

Lucy studied at the University of East London, graduating with a first-class honors degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. She also holds an MBA from INSEAD in France. Lucy has been recognized over the years for her transformational and inspirational leadership, her exceptional strategic marketing insights, selfless dedication to growing people and her unrelenting championing of causes that are shaping the lives of young people.

Notable among these are – CIMG Marketing Woman of the year (2014), Telecom CEO of the Year (Ghana ICT and Telecoms Award 2016) and CSR CEO of the year (Ghana CSR Excellence Awards 2016).

Roshi Motman: CEO of Tigo joined the company in April 2014, after almost ten years with various companies within the Kinnevik Group, a key investor in Millicom, one of the leading telecommunications powerhouses across Sub-Saharan Africa.

In Tele2, a Swedish-based telecom company, she progressed in a variety of management roles including, product development and management, sales and customer operations. Prior to that, she was responsible for the development of mobile entertainment at Modern Times Group (MTG), the parent company of the Viasat Television Network. She studied Electrical Engineering and Business Development at Chalmers University in Göteborg, Sweden and has an outstanding record of developing people and businesses.

Under her leadership, Tigo Ghana has seen remarkable operational and financial transformation -aggressive network expansion, massive service delivery improvements, increased subscriber growth, improved profitability and a refreshed brand. She has also championed several livelihood empowerment programmes through Tigo’s Corporate Social Responsibility wing. Her outstanding leadership has been recognised on various prestigious platforms including recognition as the CEO of the Year at the 2015 Africacom Awards in Cape Town.

Her outstanding leadership has been recognised on various prestigious platforms including recognition as the CEO of the Year at the 2015 Africacom Awards in Cape Town.

Yolanda Zoleka Cuba is a transformational and accomplished business leader, who is highly regarded across the African continent. Her career extends over several reputable industries including general industrials and resources, telecommunications and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG).

She is an accomplished professional in Corporate Finance and Strategy.Yolanda joined Vodafone Ghana as Chief Executive Officer in June 2016 from Vodacom Group in South Africa, where she was the Director of Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions across five markets (South Africa, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Lesotho).

She previously served as Executive Director of Strategy and Business Support at the South African Breweries Limited (SAB), a subsidiary of SABMiller. Prior to that, she was CEO of Mvelaphanda Group, where she was one of the youngest Chief Executive Officers of a JSE-listed company at the age of 29.She has held various positions as non-executive director of JSE-listed companies including Life Healthcare, Avusa Media and Steinhoff International amongst others. She is also a member of the Nelson Mandela Investment and Endowment Committee. She is the longest serving board member

She is also a member of the Nelson Mandela Investment and Endowment Committee. She is the longest serving board member on the Barclays Africa Group, where she has been a board member since 2006. In 2008, Yolanda was selected as one of the Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum and named as one of the “20 Youngest Powerful Women in Africa” by Forbes Magazine in 2011. In 2015, she was also

In 2015, she was also recognized by France’s Institut Choiseul as one of theTop 200 leaders in Africa.In Ghana, her vision is for Vodafone to drive the digital revolution of Ghana through inclusive innovation and ensuring that no one is left behind digitally. She believes that technology is key to unlocking the potential of societies, especially in countries such as Ghana.She holds degrees in Statistics and Accounting from the Universities of Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal. She is also an alumnus of the INSEAD International Executive Program and holds a Masters of Commerce (Finance Management) degree from the University of Pretoria.She is passionate about education for all youth, and women in particular. In this regard, she spearheads a foundation that provides university education bursaries for deserving

She believes that technology is key to unlocking the potential of societies, especially in countries such as Ghana.She holds degrees in Statistics and Accounting from the Universities of Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal. She is also an alumnus of the INSEAD International Executive Program and holds a Masters of Commerce (Finance Management) degree from the University of Pretoria.She is passionate about education for all youth, and women in particular. In this regard, she spearheads a foundation that provides university education bursaries for deserving

In this regard, she spearheads a foundation that provides university education bursaries for deserving underprivileged youth in South Africa seeking to further their studies in Mathematics, Science and Commerce. She has also been an eager mentor to young professionals in different industries.

Estelle Akofio-Sowah is the Country Manager of Google Ghana. She has over 14 years of experience in the internet and business development industry in Ghana, including as the Managing Director of BusyInternet, Africa’s hugely successful internet startup, leading a team of 80 professionals in delivering IT-enabled services to an average of 1000 clients per day.

Highlights of her leadership include launching Busy’s award winning ISP, implementing the Ghanaian chapter of the World Bank Incubator program and launching and promoting various Google products and programs aimed at making the internet an integral and relevant part of people’s lives.

Estelle majored in Economics and Development Studies at the University of Sussex. Her contributions to the internet sector and commitment to excellence earned her selection as a 2008 Fellow of the African Leadership Initiative.

Yvette Adounvo Atekpe has been the Regional Managing Director of Internet Solutions since 2008.

Yvette has been in the telecommunications and information technology sector for over 20 years.  She has been involved in establishing world-class customer service teams for ICT organizations in Africa during her time working in the sector.

Ms. Atekpe has served on several Boards including the Ghana Internet Service Providers Association (GISPA).  She was a member of the National Communication Planning Committee that drafted Ghana’s 1999 Communications Policy and was a member of the Communications Committee on Girls in technology.

Yvette AdounvoAtekpe currently chairs the board of Internet Solutions Ghana, and serves as Director on the boards of Dimension Data West Africa and Internet Solutions Mozambique. She was awarded the ICT Woman of the Year 2014 and Industry Personality of the Year 2016 at the Ghana Telecom Awards.Yvette has an undergraduate degree in Sociology from the University of Ghana, with a focus on Law and Philosophy.

She also holds an MBA (Marketing), a CBA from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, and a PGD in Marketing of Services from the Maastricht School of Management in Netherlands.

Two decades ago, to have the key verticals in the communications and technology sector in Ghana run by women would have been unheard of. These women have not only challenged expectations but actively advocate for inclusive development and access in their respective industries. While, I would not want the celebrations of theirs and many achievements by other women across Ghana to be limited to today, this International Women’s day is a reminder that we have come a long way.Ayekoo.

As part of the Women’s History Month, I will continue to highlight the many wonderful, smart women in the sector who are transforming lives and driving inclusive growth.

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By: Mavis Ampah Sintim-Misa

(CEO of STINSAD Consult & former World Bank Africa Regional Coordinator and Lead ICT Policy Specialist.)

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Ghanaian hip life musician, Ayigbe Edem, who is one of celebrities who were signed by Nigerian mobile telecommunication company, Globacom (Glo) as its ambassador has revealed to Razz Newspaper that he will renew his Glo contract on condition.

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