There is a popular saying that “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a step”. This is very true of VDT Communications. Staying afloat and growing for 20years amidst all the challenges in our economy and business environment is worthy of celebrating. This is also in line with our tradition of marking our anniversary every 5years. We had big celebrations during our 5^th, 10^thand 15^thanniversaries. However, this 20th anniversary celebration is moderate owing to the effects of the covid-19 and the spike in insecurity at several parts of Nigeria as we have our personnel and customers spread across the country.

VDT Communications commenced this journey in mid 2001; that is 20years ago with a handful of personnel. Today, amidst all the challenges, we have grown in leaps and bounds to become one of the leading broadband communications service providers in Nigeria renowned for providing consistently premium quality services.

Today, our service provision is nationwide with 143 Points of Presence (POPs) and counting across every state in Nigeria and FCT, Abuja. With this spread, we are closer to our customers. This has helped us to offer prompt and high quality service support to delight our customers nationwide.

VDT Communications operates one of the most advanced telecommunications networks in the country. Our Network infrastructure design is structured towards providing a broad range of end-to-end efficient and reliable IP-based (data and voice communications) services while building a long term, trusted partnership with our various Customers.

The Services provided by VDT include:Enterprise connectivity (Longhaul and metro) and Corporate Internet to all parts of Nigeria via national carrier backbone. Retail Service; 4G LTE Broadband internet service; SME and APN Services among others. VDT Communications successfully scaled our service infrastructure to 99.9%uptime since 2015. We now generally guarantee 99.999% service availability through the use of multiple carrier trunks while maintaining low latency.

In 2013, VDT Communications, a customer-centric company, took it’s passion for quality service to a world class level by earning her first International Standard (ISO) certification; ISO 9001:2008. Later followed with ISO 20000-1:2011 in 2014, becoming the first certified telecom company in West and Central Africa for excellent IT service management. Both certifications have now been upgraded to the latest versions; ISO 9001:2015in 2017 and ISO 20000-1:2018in 2020 respectively.

In 2014, VDT led the Bitflux consortium that won the 2.3GHz spectrum license in what was widely considered in the media as the “David & Goliath”auction bid as the final bid was between the then unknown startup – Bitflux Communications and the second national carrier, Globalcom. In October the same year, a new corporate identitywas launched.

In 2016, VDT successfully extended herretail service, VDT 4G LTE Advancedinternet to cover the metropolis in Lagos and launched officially in 2018 with commercial service roll-out andgrowing coverage, thereby giving members of the general public an opportunity to enjoy her premium quality service.

In 2018, VDT rolled-out the Adaptive Private Network (APN) and the SME Service called VDT SMEmpower to provide services and to give Small and Medium Enterprises across Nigeria the opportunity to accelerate their businesses with premium and reliable internet services.

VDT provides services to about 95% of banks and 80% of insurance companies in Nigeria as well as leading multi-national companies, government agencies and blue-chip companies across various sectors of the Nigeria economy.

VDT is also a winner of several awards including “Most Outstanding Broadband Company of the Decade” 2010-2020 and “Most Outstanding 4G Lte Provider of the Year 2020” by Africa Digital Awards, “Broadband Company of the Year”, 2018, 2017 and 2015, “Corporate Internet Provider of the Year” 2019, 2018 and 2017,“Bandwidth Company of the Year”, 2016, by Beacon of ICT Awards, NTITA Awards among others.

In Learning and Development Benchmark Survey conducted by Digital Jewels Limited which involved over 100 corporate organizations, VDT Communications was named amongst the five (5) best organizationsin Nigeria that promotes Learning and Development among her staff. VDT relentlessly pursues a productive Learning and Development policies for her staff across different cadres.

In the area of Corporate Social Responsibility, VDT offers free training annually to graduates in her Modular Trainee Engineers Programto increase the employability of our engineering graduates. VDT also engages in other CSR activities aimed at developing the Nigerian Telecom and ICT industry in general and giving back to the society. Among these include loyal sponsorship of the following events annually without fail for many years now: Digital Africa Conference and Exhibition, Nigerian Insurance Association Chief Information Officers [NIA CIO] Conference, International Girls in ICT Dayamong several others.

VDT Communications also collaborated with USPF since 2016to establish and operate Cyber Cafés in twelve (12) remote/under-served locations in the Countryto facilitate broadband penetration to the underserved population.

As we mark our 20^thanniversary, we look back with pride and thank God almighty for all that we have been able to achieve even in the midst of tough challenges.

We might not have reached the symbolic 1000 miles yet, however, we have come very far from where we started. With all this in place coupled with continual innovation and development, the stage is set for VDT to continue to play the leading role in the Nigeria telecom industry and provide premium quality service to our customers. This is imperative even as major revolutions in the telecommunication industry like the 5G, IoT, AI and the Big Data etc. unfold in our presence.

We therefore look forward to the future with great optimism for tremendous growth and limitless possibilities.

Once again, thank you for responding to our invitation.

May I also use this opportunity to officially thank all the past and current members of the board of Directors, management and staff of VDT for the journey so far, and wish us all, a happy 20^th anniversary.

Thank you.