How Airtel’s Ogunsanya became only black FTSE 100 CEO

That Nigerians are making giant strides in literally every field of human endeavor across the globe is no longer a subject for debate. What is perhaps uncertain is how they are bringing their individual professional exploits to bear on the development of the country.

There is, however, one man whose track record of excellent performance is not only firmly rooted in his motherland, Nigeria, but also making waves and transforming lives across Africa. Dr. Segun Ogunsanya, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa (since 2021) is not the first black CEO of a FTSE 100 company, but he is currently the only one, according to Raconteur, a U.K.-based publication for professionals and business leaders. What makes this even more remarkable is that it’s happening in a world where the leadership of global institutions is heavily skewed against blacks, nay Africans, even as the world has turned “diversity” into a buzzword.

Airtel Africa Plc, in 2019, carried out a dual listing in the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX) and on January 31, 2022, under the leadership of Dr. Ogunsanya, joined the exclusive club of FTSE100 companies. The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, otherwise known as FTSE100 (Footsie, informally) is an index of the top 100 UK listed companies by market value.

A 1989 graduate of Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ogunsanya is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Chartered Accountants. His more than 25 years’ business management experience spans across banking, consumer goods and telecommunications. Before joining Airtel in 2013, he held leadership roles at Coca-Cola in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya, all as Chief Executive Officer. He was also Managing Director of Nigerian Bottling Company (Coca-Cola Hellenic-owned) as well as Group Head of Retail Banking Operations at Ecobank Transnational Inc, covering 28 countries in Africa. In September 2021, he was named Africa Business Leader of the year, the same year he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Tai Solarin University of Education, Nigeria.

An astute Leader and recognised Manager, Ogunsanya is famous for turning businesses around. With specific reference to Airtel Nigeria, Ogunsanya, within one year of becoming its CEO, turned the loss-making business to a PAT (Profit After Tax) positive entity. In his 8 years of leading the Nigerian subsidiary, he delivered consistent year on year growth in all indices. Today, the once fledgling Nigerian operation contributes almost half of the performance (subscribers, revenue and profits) of the Airtel Africa group, lending more credence to the saying that when Nigeria sneezes, Africa catches a cold. Mercifully, Nigeria has never really sneezed, in a manner of speaking, even with the deleterious impact of Covid-19, hence the steady growth of the African business.

No doubt, Nigeria was the most important reason the Indian business mogul, Sunil Bharti Mittal, who is the founder and Chairman of Airtel Africa, did not pack up and leave the continent like others before him. Equally, there is no doubt Ogunsanya’s remarkable and excellent performance leading the Nigerian subsidiary must have strongly recommended him for the continental job, when the position became available.

Announcing his appointment as the Group CEO of Airtel Africa to succeed India’s Ragunath Mandava, the Chairman stated, “Ogunsanya has displayed significant drive and energy in turning around the Nigerian business by focusing on network modernisation, distribution and operational efficiency. We are delighted to appoint him as the group’s next chief executive.”

In the next few weeks, the full-year results of Airtel Africa plc for the 2022/23 trading year will be announced. The pandemic may have been declared over but the devastating impact it had on manufacturing and supply chain has been incalculable. Airtel Africa and indeed the telecommunications industry have been registering growth, regardless. So, high expectations are in order.

As we await the jury mid-May, it must be stated that Mr. Ogunsanya has already registered a couple of major accomplishments away from revenues, customer numbers and profitability. He launched Airtel Africa Sustainability Strategy, which boldly captures, amongst others, the organisation’s pathway to Net-zero, financial and digital inclusion, Diversity and Inclusion as well as and Social Investment. He is also driving the implementation of the $57m 5-year partnership between Airtel Africa and UNICEF to connect no fewer than a million Africa children to online digital education. To Ogunsanya, “for an organisation to be great, it first must be good. We do have GSM and Mobile Money licenses to trade, but what we do in the communities we operate gives us the social license to continue to trade.”

Internally, he recently launched an initiative tagged Women4Tech aimed at rallying tech-minded female employees to challenge themselves with imaginative solutions which can leapfrog not only Airtel Africa but the technology industry in the continent. A strong believer in diversity and inclusion, Ogunsanya is unapologetic in his commitment to creating more opportunities for women to rise to their full potentials without necessarily lowering the standards.

As the only black CEO of a FTSE 100, it is probably a moral burden on Ogunsanya to ensure he delivers on his promise of enthroning diversity and inclusion in Airtel Africa, being himself an “example” of diversity, more or less. Ogunsanya is 57.