Nigeria Elected as New Chair of the CTO

Nigeria Elected as New Chair of the CTO

Dhaka, 12 September 2014 - Nigeria has been elected as the new Chair of the Council and Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), taking over from Kenya. The election took place during the Organisation’s Annual Council Meeting held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 11 - 12 September 2014. "We are delighted and honoured to be elected to this position, and we look forward to working with all members to continue to guide Management in its ICT4D efforts", said Dr Eugene Juwah, Executive Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) who will assume this position on behalf of the West African country. Dr Juwah was previously 1st Vice-Chair of the CTO. He has over thirty years of experience in the IT and telecommunications sectors, including over 20 years of the above in top management-level positions. Appointed in July 2010 in his current position at the NCC, he championed the introduction of emergency communication services, mobile number portability, SIM card registrations and broadband access expansion in Nigeria. He takes over as Chairman of the CTO from Juma Kandie, Director for Human Capital and Administration at the Communications Authority of Kenya. "We are grateful for the trust members put on us over the past three years as Chair, and we will look forward to playing our role on the Executive Committee as Immediate Past Chair to support Nigeria", said Mr Kandie as he received acclamations from fellow member country representatives for the inclusive manner in which he led the Executive Committee. Also elected on the eight-member Executive Committee of the CTO: 1st Vice-Chair: Trinidad & Tobago, held by Cris Seecheran, Chief Executive Officer, Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad & Tobago 2nd Vice-Chair: Mauritius, held by Vimalen Reddi, Chairman, Information and Communication Technologies Authority, Mauritius Development Partners' Representative: Telecommunications Regulatory Board of Cameroon, held by Jean Louis Beh Mengue, General Manager Industry Partners' Representative: Telkom South Africa, held by Abigail Sono, International Business Development Manager. Members of the Executive Committee of the CTO are elected for one year. Kenya remains on the Executive Committee as Immediate Past Chair, together with Professor Tim Unwin as Secretary-General, both as non-elected members of the Committee. Botswana Telecommunications Corporation remains as the eighth member, as Chair of the Programme for Development & Training, the CTO's main professional ICT capacity development programme.