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World Wide Web Foundation names Nigeria’s former ICT Minister, Omobola Johnson to its board
Dr. Omobola Johnson |
| Omobola Olubusola Johnson (born 28 June 1963) is a Nigerian technocrat and the Honorary Chairperson of the global Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI). She is also a former Minister of Communication Technology in the cabinet of President Goodluck Jonathan. |
Honorary Chairperson, Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) - Incumbent
Assumed office
Dr. Omobola Johnson, was minister of Information and communication in Nigeria (2011 – 2015)
Personal details
Born: 28 June 1963 (age 55)
Alma mater
University of Manchester
King's College London
Cranfield University
Education
She was educated at the International School Ibadan and the University of Manchester (BEng, Electrical and Electronic Engineering) and King's College London (MSc, Digital Electronics). She has a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) from Cranfield University.
Career
Prior to her Ministerial appointment she was country managing director for Accenture, Nigeria. She had worked with Accenture since 1985 when it was Andersen Consulting. Johnson is the pioneer head of the country's communication technology ministry, which was created as part of the transformation agenda of the Nigerian government.
Johnson co-founded a women's organization, WIMBIZ in 2001. She has earned several public commendation since taking up her first government assignment as minister in 2011. This is following the numerous achievements of her ministry notably among which is the launch of the NigComSat-IR Satellite. This has helped to complement the country's efforts at fibre connectivity and the provision of greater bandwidth. The ministry under her watch has also deployed more than 700 personal computers to secondary schools in the first phase of School Access Programme (SAP) while about 193 tertiary institutions in the country now have internet access in the Tertiary Institution Access Programme ( TIAP) and 146 communities have access to Community Communication Centers deployed around the country.
Other achievements of the ministry under Johnson include:
A collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria to drive digital and financial inclusion using the Post Office infrastructure; 10Gbs Fibre optic Network to connect Nigerian Universities to wider research and education universe, in partnership with the NUC, World Bank and TetFund; Facilitating e-Government drive with over 86,000 email addresses deployed for Government use on the .gov.ng domain names, and 250 websites hosted on .gov.ng platform as well as 382 MDAs connected in Abuja and other parts of the country; Creating the enabling environment for local development of iPad-equivalent tablets; Signing of an MoU with Nokia to establish a lab in Nigeria to support the domestic mobile software industry; Inauguration of the National Council on Information Communication Technology with state / FCT Commissioner of ICT as members.
On 30 May 2013, Omobola presented the Nigerian National Broadband Plan for 2013 to 2018 to President Goodluck Jonathan. Following a minor cabinet reshuffle In September 2013 by President Goodluck Jonathan, she was given an extra task of supervising the operations of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.
Omobola is currently a non-executive director of Guinness Nigeria PLC and Chairperson of Custodian and Allied Insurance Limited.
External Links- Profiling Omobola Johnson’s 4 Years as Nigeria’s ICT Minister
- Nigeria’s Former ICT Minister, Dr. Omobola Johnson is now a Venture Capitalist
- Alliance for Affordable Internet appoints Omobola Johnson as its Honorary Chairperson
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Dr. Johnson Formally remarked for describing herself as a technocrat rather than a politician, Mrs. Johnson holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Manchester; a Masters degree in Digital Electronics from King’s College, London; and a PhD from Cranfield University. |
techpoint.africa Published a post on Dr. Omobola Johnson. Written by:
VICTOR EKWEALOR
After a 3-year tenure as an Honorary Chairperson of the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) where she provided guidance and advocacy to help drive down internet costs, Dr. Omobola Johnson is joining the World Wide Web Foundation as a board member.
The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) — a global coalition, led by the Web Foundation, working to make broadband affordable for all.
While the World Wide Web Foundation was founded in 2009 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee to ‘advance the open web as a public good and a basic right.
A part of an official statement by the A4AI reads;
“As the second Honorary Chair of A4AI — a role she assumed on September 1, 2015 — Omobola has provided invaluable policy guidance and has led high-level advocacy efforts to drive down the cost of internet. In that time, both A4AI’s membership and its international profile have grown, and the Alliance has achieved important policy victories, including the adoption of the ‘1 for 2’ affordability target by Nigeria, Ghana, ECOWAS and the UN Broadband Commission.”
In her 4-year tenure as Nigeria’s ICT minister, Dr. Omobola Johnson made tremendous strides in the ICT and technology spaces that have revolutionized Nigeria to a large extent.
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| On Saturday, she formally announced it via her own Twitter handle. |
"So honoured to be asked to join the Web FOUNDATION Board. Looking forward to contributing to making all of the web available to all of the people," the tweet read.
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