Biography & Career Of Omobola Johnson

3 years ago

Biography & Career Of Omobola Johnson

Omobola Olubusola Johnson is a Nigerian technocrat and the Honorary Chairperson of the global Alliance for Affordable Internet. She is also a former and first Minister of Communication Technology in the cabinet of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Biography

Omobola Olubusola Johnson was born on the 28th of June 1963, is a Nigerian technocrat and the Honorary Chairperson of the global Alliance for Affordable Internet and more so the a former and first Minister of Communication Technology.

Education

She was educated at the International School Ibadan. She has a Bachelor’s in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Manchester; a Master’s in Digital Electronics from King’s College London, and a Doctorate in Business Administration from the School of Management of Cranfield University.

Career

Prior to serving in the Nigerian government, she gained over 25 years of consulting experience with Accenture, including five years as Country Managing Director for Nigeria, working with companies in a variety of industries to transform them into more competitive and dynamic organizations. 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.

She co-founded a women’s organization, WIMBIZ in 2001.

She is Honorary Chair of the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) and a Senior Partner at TLcom Capital LLP. An engineer and experienced ICT professional, Dr Johnson previously served as Nigeria’s Minister of Communications Technology, where she focused on the launch and execution of Nigeria’s National Broadband Plan, and supported the development of the Nigerian technology industry, including the pioneering involvement of the government in a local venture capital fund and a network of start-up incubators.

Also, she is a Trustee of the World Economic Forum’s Future of the Internet Initiative, a Founding Chairperson and Trustee of Women in Management in Business, and serves on the board of a number of leading Nigerian and multinational corporations.

From 2011-2015, she served as Nigeria’s Minister of Communication, where she developed the country’s ambitious 2013-2018 National Broadband Plan, and worked more broadly to bring down the cost of internet access in Nigeria. During her time as Minister, the percentage of people online in Nigeria nearly doubled, growing from 24% of the population in 2010 to 43% in 2014. She has earned several public commendations 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.

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.