Ernest Akinola, the new MD and CEO of Nigerian 4G LTE firm Ntel, will head up the company’s innovation team to optimise service delivery.

Regarded as the pioneer of Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), Akinola also served as marketing director of 9Mobile. He helped Swazi Mobile in formulating a commercial strategic plan for the successful application for 4G VoLTE, 3G, 2G licenses in Swaziland.

According to Akinola, Ntel has tremendous untapped capabilities which can provide a steep change in customer experience for large enterprise, SMEs and consumers.

ITWeb Africa had earlier reported that Abass left the position on health grounds.

He was in charge of the company’s official launch and oversaw growth to about 100,000 data consumers within one year and across three cities.

Several months prior to his resignation, Abass told ITWeb Africa that there is impatience among Nigerian citizens for more efficient internet service, thus necessitating the need for a mass market service delivery approach.

"We are currently seeing just a fraction of the picture, there is going to be a fundamental shift as narrow band technology is yet to be overtaken by broadband," said Abass.

Akinola plans to build on Abass’ legacy.