Leadership Crisis Hits Globacom As CEO, Ahmad Farroukh, Steps Down

A fresh leadership crisis is currently brewing at Globacom, one of the telecommunications companies in Nigeria.

This is as the chief executive officer of the company, Ahmed Farroukh, has resigned from his position.

According to reports, Ahmad Farroukh, was hired by Globacom in October 2024 to address its shortfalls in its subscriber base, falling by 69.20 percent in six months to 19.15 million in September from 62.19 million in March 2024.

However, according to a report by TechCabal, Farroukh’s sudden exit, is not unconnected with challenges within Globacom’s organizational structure. He has reportedly been struggling to align his management style with Globacom’s centralised operational structure, heavily influenced by founder, Mike Adenuga.

“Mike Adenuga has historically maintained tight control over operations, with minimal separation between his business interests and Globacom’s management. This centralised approach may have conflicted with Farroukh’s experience in more structured organisations, leading to his early exit”, TechCabal added.

This leadership crisis comes at a particularly challenging time for Globacom. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) recently punished Globacom for not properly registering over 40 million of their customers’ ID numbers. Because of this mistake, Globacom lost more than half of its customers, and now it controls only 12% of Nigeria’s phone market—much less than its competitors, MTN and Airtel.

Moving forward, Globacom faces two critical challenges: finding a new CEO capable of navigating Nigeria’s competitive telecommunications market and reforming its internal structure to attract and retain top industry talent.

Prior to joining Globacom, Farroukh had stints at MTN and Smile Communications.

Although Globacom has not issued any statement on the development, a top-level executive at the NCC confirmed Farroukh’s exit.