Meet GES Delegate: Adia Sowho
- Name: Adia Sowho
- Twitter handle: @adiaspeaks
- Country of Origin: Nigeria
- Organization Name: Etisalat Nigeria
- Organization Website: www.etisalat.com.ng
Brief Description of Organizatio: Etisalat Nigeria is a mobile telecommunications company that commenced operations in Nigeria in October 2008 and has quickly grown to 22 million subscribers today. To date, Etisalat Nigeria has won several industry awards for its innovation and quality service delivery — Brand of the Year, Fast Growing GSM Company of the Year, Best Marketing Company, Most Innovative Corporate Social Responsibility Company, Friendliest Tariff Mobile Operator and Best Telecoms Customer Service among others.
What is the next big step you hope to help your organization reach? With the emergence of the digital economy, mobile telcos have to reinvent their business to include products beyond minutes and megabytes. This means becoming an enabler of digital business in other industries with competencies that telcos have already acquired. This represents a major change to the traditional business and my job as the Director of Digital Business at Etisalat Nigeria makes me responsible for developing these next-generation ‘products’.
What has been your biggest obstacle as an entrepreneur? Even though I work in a multi-national organization, describing my team as entrepreneurial is quite accurate. We develop innovative product with entrepreneurs and as such have to behave more like them in order to enable partnership. Now, the fact remains that I work in a multi-national organization which works with a completely different set of people, processes, pace and systems. Bridging this gap between my organization and my entrepreneurial partners has been the biggest challenge.
What advice would you give other emerging entrepreneurs? Understand your partner, have empathy. And if you’re really lucky, you will get the same at the telco — we are under pressure too. Mobile telcos are major enablers of digital business, which in Nigeria’s emerging economy is even more critical because of the absence of traditional systems and business infrastructure.
