Elite Business Africa Network honors Leo Stan Ekeh as Entrepreneur of the Year

Leo Stan Ekeh, Chairman, Zinox Group, has been honored as the Entrepreneur of the Year, 2013, by the Nigeria Business Elite Awards. The honor was bestowed on him last weekend at the Civic Center, Victoria Island, Lagos, before top government functionaries, captains of industry, celebrities and the media. The Awards which honored distinguished companies and personalities in the private and public sectors pitched three highly successful business men in the Entrepreneur of the Year category.

Nominated for the Entrepreneur of the Year were Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, commodities manufacturer and merchant, and President of the Nigeria Stock Exchange; Leo Stan Ekeh, Chairman, Zinox Group, Africa’s most integrated ICT firm – computer manufacturers, advanced systems integrators, digital power solutions specialists, biometric solutions and e-books and e-education specialists – and Director, Nigeria Economic Summit Group; Alhaji Abdul Mutallab, former Managing Director, Nigerian Arab Bank, Former Chairman, First Bank of Nigeria and Chairman Jaiz Bank.

Presenting the Award, Entrepreneur of the Year 2013, to Leo Stan Ekeh, the NEBA noted the pioneering role that he was playing in the IT sector from compu-graphics and desktop publishing to cloud and bandwidth management. The citation noted the fact that his innovations in the ICT market were not based on a profit motif but on the need to structure a market that has the potential to catalyze national development. In particular, mention was made of his can do it spirit that helped in no small measure in deepening the democratic experience in Nigeria – the supply of 12,000 laptops in 2 weeks and 130,000 DDC Machines in 6 weeks to salvage the 2006 and 2011 Voters’ registration exercises respectively. Describing him as a quintessential entrepreneur, NEBA noted that the Zinox Group that started modestly in 1987 as a reseller for Apple computers is today a conglomerate with many subsidiaries, each of them Number 1, in PC manufacturing, ICT solutions and distribution, support and engineering, and telecoms.

Commenting on the Award, Leo Stan Ekeh, Chairman, Zinox Group, thanked the Elite Business Africa Network for naming him the Entrepreneur of Year 2013. He dedicated the Award to his staff in Nigeria and overseas saying that the innovations for which he has been honored were often conceptualized and executed by them. Mr. Ekeh pledged his commitment to narrowing the gap between the developed world and Africa through the domestication of appropriate technology. He urged Africans to shun the preference for foreign goods in order to grow a strong industrial base for Africa.

Elite Business Africa Network (EBAN), organizers of NEBA, is a business advocacy group, comprising dedicatedly integrity-driven entrepreneurs and professionals with focus on the African business environment.

The aim of the Elite Business Africa Network (EBAN) include the following – policy framework development towards qualitative and sustainable global business integration in Africa, a propagation of business professionalism, innovation, adherence to corporate governance, probity, excellence and global best practices across Africa.