Nigeria sets Internet exchange record with 17 ISPs

OVER 17 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) listed for the take-off of the Nigerian Internet Exchange Point (NIXP), Nigeria is setting a record as the largest Internet exchange on the continent.

Chairman, Presidential Committee on NIXP, Mr. Ndukwe Kalu, disclosed this in an interview in Lagos and said that by end of November this year, the exchange must have concluded its primary acceptance testing which lasted for weeks.

He said that amidst some challenges that NIXP had, “we’re very confident that the exchange would be fully ready this November.”

According to him, the acceptance testing began over two weeks ago with about 17 ISPs in the Lagos area.

This, he said, was in addition to some of the big names in the Internet service provision in the country and Private Telephone Operators (PTOs) were also included.

“As a result, we expect that after the acceptance test that we would run for about one week, then we should be able to issue a public statement about the performance of the exchange that has been installed and upon which it would be fully up for our members and others to connect,” he asserted.

Pointing out that for the initial take off of the exchange, NIXP has concluded plans to start with the 17 ISPs.

“We are actually setting a record as the largest Internet exchange in Africa,” he declared.

Mr. Kalu who double as the chief executive of Amsco Telecom Nigeria Limited, lauded the government for an improved environment, saying “it is getting interesting, and very, very interesting at that and in the sense that it has been the reason for us at Amsco to have carved niches for ourselves in three areas.”

He also commended the government over the setting up of the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative (SABI).

According to him, SABI would boost the local content on the exchange, stressing that Internet is not an end and a network is not an end but a means to an end and the end really is the content.

“So the environment is looking very, very interesting and promising mainly because of policies that we see these opportunities and Nigeria is an enormous market,” he said.

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CANi suffers set back over funding

LACK of funding mechanism may stall the federal government’s Computer for All Nigerian Initiative, otherwise known as CANi.

This indication caved in following lamentations of some of the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) who are partnering with the federal government, who are currently seeking for financial support from the major component producers, namely the Microsoft and Intel Corporations respectively.

According to them, there has not been any form of special discount or price incentives from the two core foreign product manufacturers – Microsoft and Intel.

Just as speculation abound over the actual sponsors of CANi project in the country as some industry observers also have expressed fears over whom the real sponsors of the project are.

To some, Microsoft and Intel own the project and to another school of thought, it is the Federal Government of Nigeria.

However, commenting on the latest development, Managing Director, Omatek Computers, Mrs. Florence Sereki, confirmed to our correspondent that although both Microsoft and Intel promised to make some funds available to slash the cost of operating systems, and processors incorporated into every Personal Computer (PC).

As said by her, both foreign sponsors of CANi have failed to provide necessary funds to the local builders to market, promote and drive the initiative, instead they have assumed the marketing and promotion of the initiative themselves, mostly through their agents in CANi.

Also, she said the bankers are not helping matters as they are yet to reduce interest rates in enabling relevant funds for the continuity of the project.

“Unfortunately, Intel and Microsoft did not drop their prices on the Intel’s processors and Microsoft’s operating system for CANi,” she said.

CANi computers are to be sold for $300, about N45,000 for the least price and non-upgradeable category, but inadequate funding mechanism may force a price increase on the products.

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High speed 3G access for Celtel

Celtel Nigeria is partnering with LM Ericsson Nigeria Limited and Huawei Technologies Nigeria, in a trial launch of the first batch of its thrd generation mobile technology (3G) and High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) in the country.

The trial launch, which took place in Abuja, was to pave the way for the country to join the club of nations with access to higher mobile technology.

Attended by notables in the National Assembly lead by chairmen of the Communications Committees at both Senate and House of Representatives, the attendance included representations from the Federal Ministry of Communications, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigerian Investment Promotion Council, Nigerian Consumer Protection Council and the media to name a few.

Chief Commercial Officer at Celtel Nigeria, Mr. Chuma Okoye, noted that the telco in association with Ericsson and Huawei, took firm decision assuming the front seat in creating value for customers through implementing the best affordable new solutions or technologies in the Nigerian market of today.

He enlightened that the trial of HSDPA, avails the companies the opportunity to demonstrate their readiness to usher the country into the new mobile frontier, providing Celtel subscribers to be the first to experience broadband speed connectivity on the move through mobile phone.

Demonstration at the event offered video streaming and downloads from the web with over six times faster than traditional 3G, even as the response time for web site browsing, were placed at several times quicker than currently available.

High Speed Downlink Packet Access is currently referred to as the latest 3G module and Universal Mobile Technology System (UMTS), capable of performing a turbo-charger or supercharger for 3G phones and 3G-enabled laptops as well as Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) among others.

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3 directors emerge @ ITU plenipotentiary

Three Bureau Directors have been elected into the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to work with the newly elected Secretary-General of ITU, Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure of the Republic of Mali and his deputy Secretary-General, Mr. Houlin Zhao of China.

Out of the three, two where entirely directors while one was re-elected.

The latest directors are Messrs Sami Al-Basheer of Saudi Arabia and Mr Malcolm Johnson of the United Kingdom who were elected as Directors of the Telecommunication Development Bureau and Telecommunication Standardization Bureau respectively in a third round of voting.

While Mr Valery Timofeev of Russia was re-elected for a second term. He is to take charge at the Radiocommunication bureau of ITU.

Mr Timofeev, who reportedly received almost unanimous support from the Plenipotentiary, expressed great pleasure in reporting that the Radiocommunication Bureau (BR) had fully carried out all the programmes set four years ago, including allocation of satellite frequencies and organizing major radio conferences such as Regional Radiocommunication Congress (RRC-06).

He said, "In the next term I expect once again to fulfill your expectations owing to the high level of expertise available in BR."

For Mr. Johnson, "To win an election is an emotional moment, a life-changing event. I feel very humbled by the Plenipotentiary's confidence in me and I shall be determined to meet the expectations."

Mr Johnson is well known to many of the key players in ITU with over 20 years of experience in the Union's activities.

Equally, for the newly elected Director of BDT, Mr Al Basheer, he pledged to work as a team to achieve the goals and objectives of ITU.

"The challenge is great, the task is heavy but I am confident in our ability to serve the Union and all mankind," he said.

In his congratulatory message to the newly elected directors, the scribe-elect of ITU, Dr Hamadoun Touré, invited them to join his team, which hopes to work with congeniality.

"We will strengthen team spirit and mutual trust between the staff and management," he said. Mr Touré and expressed gratitude to the outgoing team of Mr Utsumi and Mr Blois and thanked them for their assistance and support.

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FCTA launches GMP cards

Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has launched a General Multi-Purpose Card (GMPC).

This was facilitated by a leading turn-key and innovative chip card solutions provider, SecureID Limited in Abuja.

The authorities said this would enthrone the city as the first Nigeria’s e-government multi-application smart cards implementation.

GMPC, is an innovative e-government and high-profile initiative in the multimedia smart card industry, which in the case of FCTA, was designed and executed by SecureID team.

The card, according to management of SecureID is a strong credit card-sized plastic with embedded microchip, mifare contactless chip and magnetic stripe, which is deployable globally and comes with about 8 kilobytes of JAVA.

Managing Director, SecureID, Mrs. Kofo Akinkugbe, said that the card allows the card issuer to easily append applications to the card after issuance and makes use of biometric technology for identification.

Also, Mrs. Akinkugbe said the project is a single but multi-application card that could be used for the purposes of identifications, access control, Automated Teller Machines (ATM) cashcard and even personnel management functions.

“GMPC supports easy and flexible payment and can be used on any ATM on the Interswitch network,” she said.

Storage of data on the card, she explained affords users the 32k memory chip on the card is used to store the bio-data of the cardholder, his or her human resource (HR) management, fingerprints and other biometric features.

Mrs. Akinkugbe equally noted that the card’s contact-less chip enables authorization commands for access control, just as the chip feature facilitates SecureID to transfer the GPMC to smartcard platform as demand increases and the nation adopts the Europay, MasterCard & Visa (EMV) solutions.

For Mallam Nasiru el-Rufai, the Minister of Federal Capital Development Authority, speaking on GMPC, it is an indication of how the new Nigeria Identity Card project should look like.

This, he said, would replace the old plastic identity card used by over 20,000 work force in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The project regarded as a multi-application card that serves as identification, access control, payroll/salary as well as in pension management, just as the card could serve as electronic payment device and accommodates other government applications in the future.

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Singapore, CTO sign MoU on mediation

Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Singapore Mediation Centre (SMC), to facilitate the provision of alternate dispute resolution (ADR) within the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector in the Asia-Pacific region.

Corporate Communications Manager at SMC, Ms Foo Kim Leng and Senior Manager, Programmes at CTO, Mr. Lasantha De Alwis, informed ITREALMS Online that the MoU would avail ICT companies in the Asia-Pacific region access to a new alternative mechanism for resolving disputes.

The deal they also said was the resolve of both entities to contribute their respective experiences to offer services to help minimise the impact of disputes arising between policy makers, regulators, operators and consumers.

According to a press statement endorsed by the duo of Ms Leng and Mr. De Alwis and made available to ITREALMS Online, said, “An MoU to this effect was signed by Mr Loong Seng Onn, Executive Director of SMC and Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Chief Executive Officer of CTO.”

The United Kingdom-based CTO said it has worked extensively on telecommunications and ICT projects with its member countries in Europe, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia-Pacific.

In recognition of this, CTO further said it is essential to ensure that disputes are resolved quickly, effectively and economically, thus it has set up the CTO Alternate Dispute Resolution Centre to provide all types of dispute resolution services to the ICT sector, in alternative to litigations.

On the other hand, SMC, a non-profit organisation under the Singapore Academy of Law has successfully spearheaded the mediation movement in Singapore since 1997 with over 1,300 civil disputes of all types to its credit.

Under the terms of the MoU, both the CTO and SMC will promote each other’s dispute resolution services, even as the two parties would also cross-refer cases to one another when mediation services are required.

SMC, as stated in the MoU would equally develop an ADR training programmes, seminars and workshops to cater to CTO’s requirements. Pointing out that the MoU is the first collaboration CTO is having with a mediation service provider outside the UK.

Commenting on this, Dr. Spio-Garbrah said that CTO member countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and those in the South East Asia will find Singapore an attractive location to hold mediation given the challenges presented in Singapore itself, within these countries and the dynamics between the countries themselves.

“Singapore will also be a central and neutral venue for cross border disputes involving Japan, Korea and China,” he said.

For those from the United States and UK, France and Germany, Dr. Spio-Garbrah noted that Singapore presents a viable, low cost option compared to mediation in a western country.

Also, Mr. Onn of SMC pointed out that the collaboration with CTO would enable his organisation to promote mediation services globally.

“This is also in line with our government’s plan to promote Singapore as an ADR hub,” he declared, stressing that CTO has extensive experience working with governments, regulators, telecom service operators and other ICT stakeholders while SMC will definitely benefit from their expertise in dealing with all types of telecommunications related disputes.

“CTO and SMC will also explore including ADR experts such as mediators and evaluators accredited by SMC in CTO’s panel of resource personnel,” he said.

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Celtel lifts African Students with £500,000

Newly established Mo Ibrahim Foundation scholarship for sub-Saharan Africa, and named after the chairman, Celtel International, has lifted African students with £500,000, about N122 billion.

The scholarship, the foundation said is aimed at helping to produce exceptional leaders for the continent by attracting and supporting outstanding sub-Saharan African students on the full-time MBA Programme at London Business School.

Remarkable is that the scholarship is the first grant to be made by the newly founded Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which was also presented to South African, Mr. Richard Hasson for MBA2008.

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation Scholarship is the largest award in the School's Scholarship portfolio. Each year, one full fee scholarship plus a stipend together totalling £50,000 will be awarded to an exceptional student from sub-Saharan Africa who has been offered a place on the full-time MBA programme, and who demonstrates both merit and need. The initial pledge of £500,000 will support one student per year over the next ten years.

“The focus of the Foundation is on the issues of governance and leadership in Africa. We believe that these are the most important challenges facing Africa today and that if we succeed in these areas all other things will follow,” Mo Ibrahim said.

In addition, he said, that by investing in the development of senior leaders, “We’re also developing a programme for aspiring leaders and in that context my fellow trustees and I are delighted that London Business School is the first beneficiary of the Foundation. What better place to start than by helping the very best talent from sub-Saharan Africa to study for an MBA at one of the world's top business schools.”

It was gathered that the inaugural award was presented in London at the LBS, recently Mr. Hasson, who plans to use his MBA studies to gain experience in management with a view to starting his own business consultancy in South Africa, where he feels strongly about creating business and job opportunities.

“I am honoured to receive The Mo Ibrahim Scholarship for Sub-Saharan Africa. It has given me an amazing opportunity that I would otherwise not have been able to accept – to come to London Business School and obtain an MBA.

Here I will have the chance to meet like-minded people from around the world, both faculty and students, who can help me in developing my global perspective of business,” he said.

Mr. Hasson further expressed his delight and honour to be the first recipient of the foundation’s grant.

Associate Dean of the MBA Programme at London Business School, Julia Tyler, noted that the Mo Ibrahim Foundation Scholarship “is the first scholarship in the School's history dedicated to support African students. It provides a wonderful opportunity for talented individuals from sub-Saharan Africa to acquire the management and leadership skills essential for individual, corporate and national success at one of the most global business schools in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.”

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SaharaReporters.com shut over alleged gift, accuses FG

Publishers of web-based journal, SaharaReporters.com, has accused the federal government of being the mastermind behind the shut down of its website and other inoperable challenges faced by the website.

According to them, the government is using their web host company and United States based lawyer, especially since its recent publication on the alleged money laundering involving some top government aids.

In a press statement made available to ITREALMS Online, publishers of SarahReports.com alleged “"www.saharareporters.com, www.saharareporter.com and www.saharareports.com," have been shut and vows to return soon.

The press statement read in path thus: “Since we published the story effectively and undisputably linking President Obasanjo to the Andy Uba money laundering scam, he has used every means available to get back at us.

“You are all aware that he has been using a lawyer based in Maryland, USA to harass our publication, but since we sent an appropriate response commensurate with his legal threat, they are possibly up to other tactics.

“First, our site was shut down on the day we published the Andy Uba story for two hours.

“However, we restored the site as soon as was possible, Yesterday (Tuesday) just as President Obasanjo admitted to accepting close to $46,000 "gift" for his Obasanjo Farms from Andy Uba And Loretta Mabinton, through his "International Legal Counsel on Persoanl Matters" Mr. Kunle Fagbenle, our webhosting company complained to us that our website was 'abusing their server and using their CPU (Central Processing Union) at 100 per cent' and as such had to shut down SAHARAREPORTERS because it was rendering others sites on their server 'inoperable'.

“Again, these are technical jargons that points to one direction only: There is a conspiracy to put our site out of existence.

“However, this will not happen, as such we will be working round the clock to resume our activities online ASAP.”

They also seek understanding and patience of their readers during this time and seriously implore all lovers of transparency, accountability and good governance who may be willing to share their technical knowledge on how to “reinforce our online presence to please contact us at saharareports@aol.com or call our publisher at 1-347 489 3765.

“Ultimately we will need our own server and SAHARAREPORTERS will appreciate possible suggestions and dedicated support from our teeming readers,” the statement said, declaring, “We will soon be back!”

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