Today actually makes it two full decades of Globalcom’s revolutionary Glo brand and its notable strides towards the democratisation of telecom services in Nigeria as a game-changer brand. Its entrance as opposed to the first two years of GSM in the Nigerian market, brought about a recalibration of the market in favour of the populace.
The earlier operators in the first two years thrived on the principles of sellers’ market ideas. The Glo brand, it was, the brand that altered the scale in favour of the consumers. Today, customers across all networks, still enjoy that one single defining move that tilted the scale in favour of the consumers.
The coming of the Global System of Mobile communication into the Nigerian market precisely on August 6, 2001 spelled the dealt knell for the monopoly enjoyed by the almighty state-owned NITEL. Good, the monopoly was dismantled but the telecommunication service largely remained unattainable to the vast Nigerian population.
This status quo was not to change until about 2 years later. The market leader had creamed out courtesy, the first-mover advantage, the juiciest part of the market. The competition similarly had gleaned the market, leaving most of the population as unreached and mere aspirers to joining the GSM train, no thanks to huge acquisition costs and ungodly per-minute billing method practiced by the early players.
In a statement issued on Monday in Lagos, Globacom gleefully announced it had been “two decades of transforming the telecommunications landscape, fulfilling dreams, and positively affecting the lives of millions of Nigerians”.
“Globacom had since 2003 remained committed to providing its customers with world-class communications and digital services through constant deployment of latest technologies in line with the corporate promise to build a robust fully integrated ICT network infrastructure that would consistently deliver value to its esteemed customers”.
Arguably so, Glo has been at the forefront of revolutionary changes in the telecommunication sector in Nigeria.
The most striking was its introductory strategy hatched deliberately to pull the rug from under the feet of the early commers. Thereafter, things never remained the same, the market graph was altered for good and in favour of the consumers.
Prior to Glo’s bullish entry, early birds (players) had made the market believe that per-second billing was totally impossible until after the first five years of GSM in Nigeria. For those who were not born or too young to understand what played out then, a call that lasted minute and a few seconds is charged up to the next minute and the players were enjoying the largesse so much with relish and style. It simply means, if your call ended at I min. 3 seconds, you are charged two minutes at almost N60 per minute.
Instead of joining the bandwagon to further fleece the consumers, Glo to the contrary confirmed the “impossible” is after all, “possible”. And so its defining entry pivoted on per-second billing. The consumer pays for exactly what he consumes. Surprisingly, heaven did not cave in on the operators!
In the same vein, the Glo brand crashed the cost of acquiring SIM cards in the country from about N25,000 to just about N200. Today, in most cases, SIM cards are given next to nothing.
Prominent among other innovations Glo pioneered in Nigeria are Blackberry, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Magic Plus, Glo Direct, Glo Fonepals, Africhat, Glo Mobile Internet, GloFleetmanager, M-Banking and Glo Mobile Office.
Glo also claimed to be the first to launch 2.5G, 3G and 4G LTE networks while these may be contestable, it is on record that the brand singlehandedly built an international submarine cable, Glo 1 to connect West Africa directly to the United Kingdom and the rest of the world.
It also connects 12 nations in the West African sub-region, including some of them that are landlocked.
Glo1 is credited with crashing the cost of internet services and is today the preferred cable system by global OTT providers. It connects thousands of kilometres of national fibre to all parts of Nigeria.
“As we celebrate our achievements these past twenty years, we wish to acknowledge that Globacom’s huge success is a result of the support of millions of Nigerians. We wish to thank them for their love and patronage and for the unprecedented confidence they have consistently shown in the company”, the anniversary statement noted.
Also acknowledging the role of the customers, Globacom restated its commitment to the provision of world-class communications and digital services in line with the corporate promise it made at launch to build a world-class communications and technology infrastructure that would consistently deliver value to its esteemed customers.
“We will remain a catalyst for socio-economic empowerment not only in Nigeria but also in Africa. We will continue to invest massively in new technologies to exceed customer expectations,” the statement concluded.
The network which currently has over 61 million subscribers claimed its massive investments in technology, the array of value-added services; and its strong and unique marketing initiatives have made it the “first choice network for millions of subscribers”.
Led by bullish business mogul, Otunba Mike Adenuga Jnr as Chairman, the coming of Glo albeit late turned a blessing to Nigeria and the Nigerians. “Undoubtedly, Adenuga’s foray into the telecommunication business was a triumph of bull-ruggedness, resolute determination, and resolve over the serial intrigues that more often than none dot the fast-moving encircling sharks and crocodile-infested business landscape in which one must look before one leap, lest one becomes prey to ravenous predators out there”, wrote Funso Arogundade in one of his pieces on the Globacom Chairman.
The two-year interregnum between the first set of licensees and the actualization of the Globacom license proved one determined Nigerian with immeasurable power of possibility against all odds. “The battle he had to fight valiantly before he could ultimately win the licence to operate Globacom is a manifest testimony of his legendary well-acknowledged never-say-die spirit of resiliency and bullish character that has empowered him to always lead his all-conquering force onto battle that seldom takes captives”, Arogundade further analysed, reminiscing on the early days of Glo.
Leading from the front as always, Adenuga has ensured the Glo brand emerged the authentic Nigeria telecoms brand and Nigeria’s export to other nations. Aside from Nigeria, its country of origin, Glo operates in Republic of Benin, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. More possibly in the pipeline as the next 20 years commences.
The latest NCC’s statistics as at June showed that MTN, which is the largest operator by subscriber number, pulled down the total industry database with a 925,925 decline in its subscriptions. Airtel also goes south with a 337,036 decline in its subscriptions database in the same month to arrive at 60.2 million in June while MTN maintains the lead with 84.6 million subscriptions.
On the other hand, Glo recorded a 179,851 increase in subscriptions in the month to maintain its position as the second-largest operator by subscriber number in June 2023 with a total subscriptions of 61.3 million.
Such is the bullish and fighting spirit of the Glo brand. Within the last 20 years of operation, the “Chairman”, in-house brand team, and agencies have passionately driven and nurtured the brand to reflect his passion for success as an indigenous African multinational brand of repute, operating beyond the shores of the country.
The positioning for the game-changer has been deliberate and evolution carefully planned to endear it to the market. From its initial market entry, “Glo with Pride” unveiled as a launch board in 2003 an emotional patriotic appeal for Nigerians to take pride in the only truly Nigerian brand in the market. The brand later transitioned into “Rule your world”. This era hinges on functional appeal as it urges subscribers to take control of their destinies based on what they can achieve using the brand. On the brand’s 10th anniversary a decade ago, the brand owners thought it wise to break all barriers and inhibitions to dreams and subscribers aspirations thus the “Unlimited” pay-off tag was introduced. This infers that with Glo, subscribers can realise their dreams and achieve infinite possibilities.
Its marketing has been strategic, fueled by in-house creative team working with some of the best creative agencies locally and internationally. Kudos to Glo’s current roster creative agency, X3M Ideas. The Lagos, Nigeria’s multinational awards-winning agency is doing amazing wonders with the Glo brand.
The brand in the past worked with SO&U Saatchi, DDB Lagos, LTC/JWT and a couple of others from South Africa. All have contributed in no small measure to building an iconic Nigerian nay African brand.
To date the Chairman, fairy tale has it that he still sits on the final creative works before they are exposed! Such is “The Bull’s” notoriety as a stickler for excellence, to ensuring that the brand is represented or presented in the best possible way and light.
Nurtured by these deft hands, the Glo brand in the last 20 years has garnered both local and international awards and recognition as testaments to its striking strides and consistent growth as an authentic Nigerian brand of pride. No wonder the customer-centric brand, continues to record positive growth in subscriptions at the expense of other top players who often than not shed “weight” or observe negative growth in subscriptions base.
Happy anniversary and congratulations to the game-changer, hard-fighting authentic Nigerian brand, Glo, and the Globacom family as the brand continues to make bestride the African landscape and beyond like a colossus as the chapter of another two decades opens.
