ATCON: Emoekpere Emerges as President, Rudman VP

Emma Okonji

After two years of running the affairs of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), the association, on Tuesday, held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) and National Executive Council (NEC) elections, where it dissolved the former NEC, led by its former President, Ikechukwu Nnamani, to pave way for a new NEC that emerged after the election.

The election was conducted by a constituted electoral body, made up of the Head of Regulatory Affairs at IHS Towers, Mr. Damian Udeh as Chairman and the Executive Secretary of ATCON, Mr. Ajibola Olude as Secretary.

Speaking after the election, both Emoekpere and Rudman expressed satisfaction over the conduct of the election and pledged their commitments to lead the association through team work in the next two years.

Emoekpere who commended the immediate past president of ATCON for operating a single term of two years, promised to also operate a single term of two years, before handing over to another elected president.

Disturbed by the negative effect of brain drain, where those with special technology skills are leaving the country in search of better living condition, Emoekpere said the new ATCON NEC would tackle the issue to redirect the thinking of Nigerians who are still planning to leave the country. According to him, ATCON will work with organisations to re-design incentive package and training for staff that will make them remain on their jobs.

In the area of funding, Emoekpere said ATCON NEC would push for single-digit interest rates from financial institutions and investments companies that will make funds available to ATCON members to drive projects that would benefit Nigerians.  

In the area of advocacy, Emoekpere promised to build on the advocacy programmes of the past NEC and engage more with industry stakeholders to key into the vision of ATCON in the area of local content development.