#49: Glo (Globacom) - How the private telecommunications company expanded across Nigeria & West Africa

Overview: Today we’re going to talk about Globacom - The Nigerian telecommunications company. We’ll explore the Globacom story across 5 areas:

Nigerian telco sector context

Globacom's early history

Globacom's telco & non-telco businesses

Globacom's potential exit options

Outlook

This episode was recorded on Apr 10, 2022

Companies discussed: Glo (Globacom), MTN, Airtel, NITEL (Nigerian Telecommunications Limited), Econet Wireless & 9mobile (Etisalat)

Business concepts discussed: Telecommunications (Telco) strategy, Mobile money, Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), Telco regulation, Celebrity advertising, Low-price telecoms strategy.

Conversation highlights:

(01:00) - Globacom background and why we’re talking about it

(07:40) - Globacom founding and spectrum auction

(20:30) - Mike Adenuga background

(30:20) - Globacom launch

(44:36) - Globacom African Expansion

(56:50) - Globacom core Telecom business

(1:07:58) - Globacom non-telco business

(1:19:50) - Competition and IPO / spinoff?

(1:29:48) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

(1:40:10) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

(1:46:30) - Recommendations & small wins

Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

Recommendation: Marc Andreessen Blog archive ebook. Aggregates some of Marc's posts from the late 2000s. Insightful and very funny

Small win: Hung out with my friend who was visiting from out of town (on a Wed night!)

Thanks to Ifunanya Chiegboka for helping me think about Glo Story

Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at [email protected]

Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at [email protected]

Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

Recommendation: Invest Like The Best with David Rubinstein, We Need A Standard Unit Of Measure For Risk & The Next Google | DKB

Small win: New whiteboard markers, changed the game. Good example of something small that changed the quality of my whiteboarding

Other content: Nigerian Songs Referencing Mike Adenuga, Wizkid, Davido, Sunny Ade etc in Globacom advert & MTN - I don port commercial

Investors, Operators, Entrepreneurs - We’d love to hear from you. Please email [email protected] to share feedback or propose topics you’d like to hear.