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Nigeria’s Taylor resumes as Secretary General of CTO

By on September 18, 2015

Following the appointment of Mr. Shola Taylor, a Nigerian, as the next Secretary General/Chief Executive of the 54-member nation Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), some months ago, the Nigerian-born technocrat resumed work this Thursday.

Taylor’s appointment was announced in London, United Kingdom on June 16, 2015. He succeeded Prof. Tim Unwin whose tenure expired last night.

Taylor’s appointment and assumption of duty are coming a little over two weeks after another Nigerian, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina took over as President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Abidjan, Cote D ‘Ivoire.

The acting Executive Vice-Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, is the Chairman of CTO.

Taylor’s appointment is coming at a time that Nigeria is re-establishing its status in the comity of nations and the federal government has assured of its continued support for the CTO.

Danbatta equally congratulated Prof. Unwin for his contribution to the steady growth of CTO in the last few years.

The government particularly thanked member nations of the CTO for considering Nigeria and Taylor worthy of this appointment “and this is confidence renewed in our country,” according to Danbatta, who spoke from Nairobi, Kenya where he is attending the annual forum and council meeting with the theme: ‘Towards a Connected Commonwealth.’

Danbatta said that Taylor’s 35 years experience as a consummate and well groomed engineer would be put to bear on the activities of CTO and it is hoped that he would translate many of those pending decisions to actions in the days ahead, thereby taking the CTO to the next level, providing visionary leadership in the process.”

The Director, Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, said: “Before his appointment as the Secretary General of CTO, Taylor has been the Chief Executive of Kemilinks International, a global ICT Consultancy firm based in Lagos.”

A telecommunications engineer by training, he brings his over 35 years of global telecommunications experience in Information and Communications Technologies  (ICTs) with government and the private sector to CTO.

He has consulted for several blue chip companies in Nigeria and the global ICT communities. From 1994 -1999, Taylor served as Regional Director of Inmarsat. He also served as Space Technology coordinator for developing countries at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) from 1993 to1994. He had earlier served as Project Director at ITU from 1987 to 1993.

According to Danbatta, “Taylor has very rich experience that he will certainly impact positively on the CTO.”

 

[ThisDay]