Consolidating on FOSSFA, media relationship

Features of the week:

Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) recently, held a weeklong workshop for African media practitioners in Accra, Remmy Nweke, writes that this effort could be consolidated.

Introduction:
Societies and organisations all over the world identify their own strategies to the media and so was FOSSFA at its recent meeting in the city of Accra-Ghana.

This culminated in a weeklong meeting at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) (AITI-KACE), for the African media with the theme: “Free Software for African Media, Free Software by African Media.”

Overview:
Welcoming participants to the occasion, FOSSFA council chairperson, Ms Nnenna Nwakanma, commended all for the supporting FOSSFA over the years and particularly for the collaborative workshop with the media.

Giving an overview of FOSSFA, she said, that it originated in pursuance of ICT policy and civil society workshop that was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, between November 6 and 8, 2002.She pointed out that FOSSFA is a group that is determined to aid every aspect of the economy to grow through offering free and open source software for the upliftment of the continent, at little or no cost.

She did not forget the management of KACE for accepting to host the event and singled out the Highway Africa News Agency (HANA) for praise for bringing seven members of its editorial team to the event, saying it is the greatest number from a particular group for this event.

Just as she did not left out the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), L’Association de Presse Panafricaine (APPA), the Meraka Institute, University of the Western Cape (UWD), IDC, Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) and PANOS London.

The meeting centred its discussion in relation to FOSS in the context of developing countries and the role of African journalists.

She described the workshop as a FOSSFA model for empowering African media practitioners and strengthening good governance.

As said by her, FOSS solution enthrones accountability, transparency and encourages growth, which are currently needed in the continent to develop in bridging digital divide.

“We also encourage good governance and support and coordinate FOSS activities in Africa by bringing in experts and facilitators to share and train our people,” she said.

Reiterating that the workshop focused on hands-on training during its five-day exercise and called for open model in every aspect of societal engagement to foster the creation of level playing field for every interested participant.

“There should be an open model in everything we do, in our individual lives and government,” she urged.

What is FOSS?:
FOSS, which stands for ‘Free and Open Source Software’ and is a movement that began globally in 1983 and led by Richard Stallman as well as the Free Software Foundation (FSF).

‘Free’ here is in the context of freedom and precisely the free speech and not price although FOSS tends to be. FOSS also stressed the fact that “Free software is a matter of liberty not price.”

Open Source is alive in Ghana
However, giving his address at the occasion, the Ghanaian Minister for Communications, Prof. Mike Oquaye, said that his country is committed to the penetration of FOSS on the continent.

Declaring open the first-ever FOSS-Media workshop on Tuesday, April 24, this year, Prof. Oquaye also said that this commitment is evident in the deployment of FOSS in most of the Ghanaian universities.

“Our educational institutions are also moving forward on the Open Source front,” he said, stressing that the active Linux user groups exist in a number of key institutions, consisting of the University of Ghana, Legon, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Education at Winneba and University of Cape Coast.

He also asserted that Open Source (OS) is alive in Ghana, hence the government of President John Kufour, has shown some seriousness on its usage including having an OS group at the University of Development Studies, Navrongo Campus.

Prof. Oquaye noted that more and more institutions in Ghana are exploring the use of OS solutions, even as the banking sector has indicated interest as well.

“I am very pleased to note that the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT has migrated its entire server services to Open Source,” he declared.

I too can programme
The minister further pointed out that this migration has saved some fund for the centre, the country and all its partners at large, thereby reducing costs and improving security.

According to him, Ghanaian youths are embracing FOSS and its activities through the campaign of AITI-KACE known as “I too can programme (i2CAP)” competition with focus on Senior Secondary Schools throughout Ghana.

“Our young people are being given the opportunity to learn Ruby and Open Source programming languages and to develop software while they are still in school,” he said, emphasising that Personal Computers (PCs) given out to winners’ as prizes under the i2CAP are all loaded with Debian, the FOSS Foundation Linux release.

He further said that Ghana sees FOSS solutions, as having African content and it’s good as the media is being brought to the centre stage, explaining that any revolution without media is bound to fail.

Therefore, he lauded the organisers for recognising the media and the need to carry the fourth estate of the realm along in this project, pointing out that ICT as a tool for development should be sustained, even as he hopes that this workshop would continue to be extended to other parts of the continent in other to attract the relevant success story expected.

Increasing FOSS usage
In her remark to the occasion, the Director-General of AITI-KACE, Mrs Dorothy Gordon, said that the continent awaits eagerly the outcome of the training session, especially since it affects the media empowerment.

She also expressed confidence that journalists on the continent would continue to support the crusade for an increased use of FOSS.

Equally speaking at the occasion, the ICT Programme Officer at the Open Source Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), Mr. Ben Akoh, tasked African media practitioners to be committed to evolution of FOSS modules on the continent.

He also said that as far as he knows, OSIWA is 100 per cent in support of FOSS and that has been the driving energy behind support in the recent past and promised to sustain the tempo as FOSS and FOSSFA continue to evolve.

Speaking on how FOSS should be deployed in African educational institutions, Information Technology Specialist at KACE, Mr. Kwasi Kwakwa, said it has an advantage financially, openness and breadth of available tools.

He stressed that those who deploy FOSS would save money with open architecture to structure it the way they want it thus availing a long breadth for users development.


FOSSFA, HA partnership on new media award
At the workshop, it was gathered that FOSSFA and Highway Africa (HA) have advanced plans to partner in the introduction of a new continental award to be announced at this year’s edition of the African media practitioners assembly billed to hold in September, at the Rhodes University, Grahamstown.

Affirming this development, Director, Highway Africa, Mr. Chris Kabwato, said that his office would go the extra miles to ensure that FOSS is entrenched on the continent through media contributions, even as Highway Africa is interested in expanding its scope using FOSS platform.

According to him, media stands out as a veritable instrument to ensure this desire is carried out to the letter.

To this end, he disclosed that HA plans to collaborate with FOSS to set up a “FOSS newsroom” with all the Personal Computers (PCs) in that room to be driven by FOSS applications.

Corroborating this fact, chairperson, FOSSFA council, Ms Nwakanma, said that on her part, FOSSFA would do everything possible to ensure that this opportunity did not slip.

She noted that already, a top notcher of the FOSSFA council, Mr. Dapo Ladimeji, has been mandated to handle that plans by cooperating with HA management among stakeholders to ensure the success of the new award.

Also speaking, Mr. Ladimeji said the award would facilitate enrichment of the information on FOSS on the continent and from the media particularly, adding that details of the continental media award will be made open at the 11th session of HA conference.

Equally gathered was that the association sees the planned award as a means of engaging African media professionals on cogent FOSS issues.

The workshop leveraged on Desk Top Publishing (DTP) applications that are FOSS-based, including Scribus, OpenOffice.org, Inkscape and Mozila Firefox, among others, even as participants were drawn from across the continent with focus on hands-on training.

Challenges of FOSS in media:
Some challenges, however, were identified as militating against the growth of ICT generally and FOSS in the media.

For the council member, FOSSFA, Nhlanhla Mabaso, not many journalists are seen reporting ICT and for the few, they would be there for a little while and then got moved to another unit to cover.

HANA editor, Mr. Mongameli Jabavu, pointed out that the key issue in developing specialised journalism in Africa is poor remuneration and pouching by corporate entities with lucrative incentives.

“Having ICT journalists, for instance in South Africa is a challenge and some would prefer to be part of those attractive areas of coverage,” he lamented.

As for HA director, Mr. Kabwato, the pouching of trained ICT journalists by corporate organisations with a better pay, is disheartening, even as Ms Nwakanma noted that most ICT decisions are not made by journalists themselves, while suggesting that the usage of freelancers is another way of encouraging the media and insisted that ICT is the future and future is ICT.

“We must develop ICT journalism in Africa because one of the reasons behind this meeting is to help build this kind of society. Whatever we missed in Accra, would be getting right in September,” she declared.

Media can leverage on FOSS:
In his paper, “Media, Leveraging on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS): The Nigerian Perspective,” the Chairman, International Relations, Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) and Secretary, International Relations, Joint Action Committee on ICT Awareness and Development (JACITAD), Mr. R.C. Nweke, described the formation of FOSSFA as historical.

He added that with FOSS, users if at all they have to pay, pay less than in the proprietary software of this world, like the Microsoft and Adobe packages such as Windows and Acrobat Reader, respectively.

He also said that the need for African media to leverage on FOSS has become imperative at this era of gathering efforts to downsize the ever-growing digital divide that exists between various sections of the society, which has actually given birth to the polarization of FOSS.

He pointed out that most media organisations especially on the continent are bereft of the economic wherewithal, and with the resolve to stand out in the society without basic political linen, thus essential for media to embrace Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).

“So, developing economies as visible in Africa today stand the chance of benefiting immensely by embracing FOSS; because it will take away the worry of how much to be paid for licensing or authorisation and invariably vote such monies towards eradicating poverty and digital divide among other hindrances to development,” he asserted.

Hence, Mr. Nweke, who also is the ICT Editor, Champion Newspapers Limited, said, there is need for media practitioners to accept FOSS, get trained on its evolution, skills and acquaint themselves adequately with the believe they will make the difference both at work and society at large.

Essentials of leveraging on FOSS:
According to him, media entities could leverage on FOSS packages by way of deploying the Operating System (OS), databases, desktop, websites and collaborative applications, as well as development tools and personal productivity.

To achieve the aforementioned, he said, “It is essential that media practitioners endeavour to own some of this technology hardware to enable them maximise FOSS at various levels, lives and eventually impact positively on the society.”

He recalled that in Nigeria today, several media houses have embraced ICT, especially since the coming of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) following the liberalisation of the telecommunications market in year 2000 by the industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

“Presently, it is rare to see any media practitioner no matter the level that does not have a mobile phone, be it GSM or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and given the continuous liberalisation of the industry, most telecom operators are now seeing data and content generally as the next level of competition,” he asserted.

Based on this, he said, most media organisations face some challenges, thus “every media organisation in Nigeria have gone computerised and therefore a challenge for individual computer users to also extend this skill to their personal lives and homes.”

The good news …
In addition, Nigerian media houses, he said, have embraced the Computer for All Nigerian Initiative (CANi) established in mid-2006 by former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, as a Government Assisted PC Purchase programme (GAPP) designed to expand the usage of computers and information technology in the country.

“The good news is that most media houses are taking up this medium to empower their employees including journalists,” he said.

Additionally, in order to ensure that this dream is sustained, there exist a group; Joint Action Committee on ICT Awareness and Development (JACITAD) since 2003, stressing that a practical experience with FOSS once earned him a media prize in Nigeria, despite its merits and demerits.

Wrap up!
The truth is that African media can actually take advantage of FOSS applications to save money, but like the decision taken by HA and FOSSFA already to introduce media awards at the continental level, this initiative needs to be replicated at the country or regional levels.

Although it should have been right to keep up the momentum of the Accra meet by announcing soon after the continental prize and then award it at HA-07 as argued by some stakeholders, it is relevant to keep all hands on the deck to ensure that even its take off come September is on smooth footing alongside making funds available by the supporting international organisations.

This way, it would mean consolidating on the FOSSFA, media relationship developed from the Accra meet.


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Lack of rural connectivity dwindles African ICT

Lack of rural connectivity has been identified as bane of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) growth on the continent.

Chief Executive, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah made this known at the just concluded ministerial panel on ICT at the 18th Annual Session of the Crans Montana Forum in Monte Carlo, the Principality of Monaco, Western Europe.

Dr. Spio-Garbrah who was the co-chairman of the panel noted that rural connectivity is the main challenge to the achievement of ICT access for most African countries.

Addressing the panel made up of Ministers representing the governments of Burundi , Cameroon , Chad , Cote d’Ivoire , Niger , Tunisia , Central African Republic and Russia, he said that this has been the worry of his organisation.

While acknowledging there were multiplicity of factors militating against African countries development especially on ICT, he said that lack of rural connectivity stands as major challenge to enthroning growth in this area.

“There were multiplicity of factors Africa is grappling with, in their efforts to make ICTs central organ for development and effective facilitators of national development,” he declared.

Other factors currently facing Africa he noted include infrastructural weaknesses, financial constraints, lack of control over ICT content, the challenges of e-illiteracy and inadequate implementation of e-governance, e-commerce, e-education and other e-initiatives.

“Of the numerous challenges facing African countries in the ICT sector, the critical challenge, has been that of the urban-rural divide,” he said, stressing that by the fact that recent investments by the private sector in the African ICT sector had been mostly in urban and peri-urban mobile phone connectivity.

He also used the chance to announce that this was a major reason that is leading the CTO to organise an important second conference on “Connecting Rural Communities in Africa.”

This, he said, would be held in Nairobi from August 21-24, 2007, the first of which was held in Abuja last year.

Dr. Spio-Garbrah noted, that there has been considerable progress made in recent years in most African countries in terms of increased penetration rates, especially for mobile telephony and to a lesser extent, the Internet.

“In most countries, too, governments have taken national ICT planning and implementation more seriously, by establishing independent regulatory agencies as well as Universal Service Funds (USF), to assist in managing difficult transitions in the sector and to promote increased access to ICTs,” CTO boss said.

He added that issues of uneven distribution of electricity, delays in privatisation of inefficient state-owned enterprises, poor coordination amongst various public and private sector agencies, and weak human resource capacity and skill contributes negatively in taking fullest advantage of new technologies, thus delaying the benefits expected from ICT access.

Also speaking, the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications of Cameroon, Bello Mr. Bouba Maigari, outlined progress made in his country in ICT access and availability.

He decried the unnecessary costs to ICT access on account of duplication of infrastructure by operators, failure to aggressively penetrate rural communities, and the need for lower prices for telecom services.

Just as he corroborated CTO boss on what Africa needed was three “E”s, meaning “education, empowerment and employment”, rather than 3Gs.

While 3Gs refer to high frequencies that had been allocated in some countries for the transmission of audiovisual entertainment content, invariably the frequency is being used for the transmissions concentrating on “girls, games and gambling.”


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Angaye applauds Beta Computers

Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Prof. Cleopas Angaye, has applauded the management of Beta Computers for the launching of its ultra modern factory in Lagos.
Speaking at the event, Prof. Angaye expressed optimism that the daily 200 Personal Computers (PCs) capacity factory which produces SpeedStar brands, has what it takes to compete favourably in the nations market.
He described the factory as a demonstration of a commendable doggedness in the local PCs assembling.
“I congratulate Beta Computers Limited, the proud owners of the SpeedStar brand of Computers on the official opening of its assembly factory today. Everyone who understands the difficult climate under which information technology has evolved in Nigeria should also congratulate Beta Computers,” he said.
Prof. Angaye pointed that the government realised that it has not been easy competing with the foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).
This, he said, was even more difficult with the unfriendly fiscal regimes of importing the Completely Knocked Down (CKD) and low demand for local brands, stressing these are some of the challenges the local PCs assemblers have had to face.
He also applauded the improvement and expansion in the production process of Beta Computers, adding that henceforth computer assembly companies would need to meet certain guidelines and standards, even as the production process must be automated like that of Beta Computers.
“The systems of local PCs companies must pass strict tests simulated to fit our environment, and must be compatible with Linux and the range of open source application software,” he said.
Prof. Angaye expressed delighted, saying, “I am happy that most of the existing companies already met the guidelines especially, Beta Computers with its semi-automated motorized conveyor line for actual assembly of 200 PCs per day,” Angaye declared.
Earlier in his address, Managing Director, Beta Computers Limited, Mr. Will Anyaegbunam reiterated his firm’s commitment, declaring that the destination is West African sub-region.


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300 laptop challenge for PHCN

Market Intelligence:

Fortnight ago, a Nigerian school, Galadima Primary School located at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, received a gift of 300 laptops from the United States based One-Laptop Per Child (OLPC).

But one nagging challenge for the programme is lack of electricity power supply to the school and its vicinity.

This, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report, was made pen ultimate Friday by the coordinator of the One-Laptop-Per-Child programme (OLPC)
Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien, who made the donation on behalf of the organisation, said the two-block Galadima Primary School has no electricity.

Noteworthy is that Galadima Primary is the first school in the country where each pupil has his or her own laptops.

The report also quoted a primary six pupil, Juliet Onah as saying, that they were browsing the Internet with the laptop and excited, but wondered how they could recharge the batteries of these laptops.

As said by the report, “powering the laptop remained difficult as the school had no electricity and the supply at home was irregular.”

This stressed the fact that electricity has indeed remained a big challenge in the country, presumably the world’s sixth largest exporter of crude oil.

Coincidentally, electricity was one of the top agendas of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

Over the years Nigerian have been lamenting the situation, which stands between them and growth in the evolving Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

This has been in spite of huge fund channelled towards changing the processes in the now Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in the past eight years, making Nigerians to rename PHCN as Poverty Holding Company of Nigeria.

In other words, processes of privatisation which have begun in PHCN, if anything else should be fast-forwarded in the first six months of Yar’Adua’s administration, because going by the recent assertion of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, electricity has become a thorn in the flesh for investors in the country and ICT particularly, hence if there is any progress to be made, it has to be fixed and he really mean fixed.

Also, this was obviously the reason ATCON has planned a workshop on ‘State of Energy & Power: Implications for Telecom Development in Nigeria’ for late this month, which he noted was not only essential to telecoms, but to all other sectors of the nation’s economy as well as the citizenry.


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APC-MGE names Bouchet, country manager for Sub-Saharan

Global leader in critical power and cooling services, APC-MGE, has named Mr. Dominique Bouchet, its country manager for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Mr. Bouchet would be reporting to Carl Kleynhans, who was recently appointed Regional Director, Africa for APC-MGE.

Disclosing this, Mr. Kleynhans said that they are delighted to have Dominique leading APC-MGE’s business in the Sub Saharan region, adding that he will continue to foster open and ongoing communication with the local stakeholders, and precisely the company’s already customers, partners and employees, through supporting their needs from the desktop to the data centre to the factory floor.

“With ultimate responsibility for the complete care of our customers, Dominique will ensure APC-MGE continues to create delighted customers through the delivery of the industry’s most comprehensive solution and service offering and a focus on the specific needs of the Sub Saharan African marketplace,” he said.

With more than 20 years of experience within the power protection market, Bouchet joined MGE Afrique Sub-Sharienne in 1996, based at the company’s Côte d’Ivoire subsidiary office as manager for MGE Afrique Sub-Sharienne and Indian Ocean.

Before now, he was employed by SA TIERI, a representative for Schneider Electric in Côte d’Ivoire UPS and automation, as assistant manager and commercial manager as well as the General Regulation as commercial manager.

Commenting on his latest appointment, Mr. Bouchet said, “I’m delighted to take on this challenge during such an exciting time for APC-MGE and for our industry. The Sub Saharan APC-MGE team stands ready to partner with our customers as they strive to meet their business objectives and address the challenging requirements of powering and cooling the latest technology required to meet these objectives.”

APC-MGE was formed in February 2007 when Schneider Electric acquired APC and combined its market leadership with that of MGE UPS SYSTEMS. Laurent Vernerey, executive vice president of Schneider Electric, is APC-MGE’s president and chief executive officer (CEO).


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NetApp certifies CWG gold partner

Network Appliance (NetApp) has announced the certification of one of the nation’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) as its Gold VIP Partner.

CWG achieved this feat through one its subsidiaries, the Computer Warehouse Ltd (CWL).

NetApp offers customers demand cost-effective management, simple provisioning, robust protection, and continuous data access. The NetApp software portfolio offers all of these benefits, and now extends them even further to support heterogeneous, multi-vendor environments.

Corporate Affairs and Marketing Manager at CWG, Ms Morenike Popoola, disclosed that CWL partnership with Network Appliance is to build and grow a strong business in enterprise storage.

She also said that NetApp offers highly available, scalable, and cost-effective storage consolidation solutions that incorporate the NetApp unified storage platform and the feature-rich functionality of data and resource management software to deliver storage that improves enterprise productivity, performance, and profitability, while providing investment protection and enhanced asset utilization.

She stressed that within the last few years, CWL and NetApp have implemented several cost effective storage consolidation, backup and recovery as well as business continuity solutions in the banking sector, telecommunication, oil & gas and manufacturing Industry.

Ms Popoola emphasised that CWL is the first NetApp Gold VIP partner to implement business continuity such as Information Technology (IT) disaster recovery solution across multiple countries.


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Globacom is official Shell’s carrier

Another chapter was at the weekend opened in the nation’s telecommunications sector with the Third Generation (3G) compliant and the Second National Operator (SNO), Globacom, entering a deal with the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) of Nigeria Limited, as its official telecom carrier.

This would enable Glo to provide avalanche of telecommunications solutions to the oil giant, for the next 10 years with effect from Wednesday, July 4, 2007.

A meeting to finalise and endorse the documents, held at the Mike Adenuga Towers (MAT), saw the Business Director at SPDC, Mr. ‘Demola Adeyemi-Bero and Chief Operating Officer, Globacom, Mr. Mohammed Jameel, signing on behalf of their companies.

Details of the partnership, Globacom would provide telecom infrastructure such as Base Transceiver Stations (BTS’) and microwaves, voice and data transmission services, bulk SMS service, international telecommunications and Value Added Services (VAS) including Blackberry and Vehicle Tracking services.

According to Mr. Jameel, the agreement avails Globacom to supply blackberry SIMs and other facilities for SPDC staff for local and international calls, direct connect, international roaming, including inbound and outbound, as well as Short Messaging Service (SMS) and application.

In addition, he said, Globacom would supply and install for SPDC 75 BTS’ and one micro station along with supporting infrastructure such as battery banks. Other facilities include the provision of 19 microwaves, 200 mobile open channels units and all other required telecoms hardware.

Value added services to be offered by Globacom, Jameel said would consist of Vereinigte Deuta Ota (VDO-300) vehicle tracking system, 1,000 units of Blackberry, 1,200 vehicle-tracking units and the Glo’s General Packet Radio Services (GPRS).

Equally, Mr. Jameel noted that the deal was part of an evolving business relationship with SPDC, stressing that the choice of the company indicated SPDC’s faith in the ability of Globacom to deliver on all the items contained in the contract.

“We are happy to have been chosen to work with SPDC on this project. SPDC is a world-class institution and it cannot settle for anything less than world-class telecommunication services. With our investments in modern telecom infrastructure and quality of our manpower, we can guarantee that Globacom will deliver on the promise,” Jameel said.

Also speaking, Mr. Adeyemi-Bero, said the company opted for Glo network because of its pedigree in the telecom industry.

“The nature of our operations is such that we require seamless telecommunications solutions and Globacom scaled through a competitive tendering process to prove it is the right operator for this project,” he said.


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Celtel justifies regionalisation, launches Project Katsina

Celtel Nigeria has justified the telco’s introduction of regionalisation in its operations, saying its a way of bringing offerings to teeming subscribers in the country, just as the telco launched its Project Katsina.

Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Celtel Nigeria, Mr. Lars Stork who gave the justification, said the reason behind the telco’s regionalisation of its activities, is to get nearer to the subscribers.

This is coming as the telco subsidiary in Kenya last weekend added Blackberry in its basket of offering.

Speaking at the launch of Project Katsina, Mr. Stork informed that the aim of regionalization of its operations is to assist the telco in building a mutually beneficial relationship, meet customers at their doorsteps and reach every community in nationwide within the shortest possible time.

He stressed that the transmission backbone from the South West to the South East is being completed and that MTC, the parent company of Celtel is investing more than N2.5 billion in Celtel Nigeria to boost the quality and robustness of the network.

Mr. Stork equally said that the telco is speeding up the coverage and expansion programme and enjoined Nigerians and the media precisely to give the regional team the support it needed to grow the network.

Commenting at the media roundtable to herald Project Katsina, the General Manager, North West region for Celtel, Mr. Babatunde Lawson said Celtel Nigeria has commenced aggressive coverage in the North West Region, which gave birth to Project Katsina.

He said, Project Katsina is aimed at covering every nooks and crannies of Katsina in the shortest possible time, whilst using the project to honour Mr. President, Alhaji Umar Musa Yar’Adua who hails from Katsina State.

“The country’s no 1 citizen deserves this honour and it is our desire to see the quick completion of this project in the shortest possible time,” he said.

Mr. Lawson also said that with over N8.9 billion invested in the last one year in the North West, the region now has over 700,000 subscribers and 186 base stations, just as the revenue base has also grown significantly by 70 per cent.

On the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), he noted that Celtel in the North West has sunk about 30 boreholes in different communities with critical water problems in the region.

Chief Commercial Officer, Mr. Michael Foley, also added voice to the regionalisation policy of Celtel, saying it’s to add local flavour to the network’s management as well as afford the customers the opportunity to know how Celtel is fairing both locally and internationally.


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ATCON’s energy summit gets new date

The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), has announced a new date for its one-day summit on energy and power.

Champion Infotel recalls that the summit was earlier scheduled for Friday, July 13, but has been shifted to Friday, July 28, this year.

The Executive Secretary at ATCON, Mr. Godwin Morgan while disclosing this said that the summit which is a one-day stakeholders’ brainstorming with the theme, “The State of Energy & Power Sector: Implications for Telecoms Development In Nigeria” would still hold at the Golden Gate, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Mr. Morgan added that the shift in the earlier date was necessitated by a clash with another equally important event in which some key sponsors and invited dignitaries will also attend and participate in various capacities.

“Considering the great importance of the issues to be examined at our Energy & Power Summit, ATCON thought it wise to shift the date forward to enable full and active participation by all the relevant stakeholders,” he said.

He stressed that energy and power sector is undoubtedly a critical and very important sector in any developing economy because of the enormous and vital roles they play in the socio-economic and industrial development of nations.

“It is simple logic to state that a vibrant and reliable energy and power sector promotes rapid and sustainable industrial development and boosts economic growth,” he declared.

Mr. Morgan noted that on the other hand, a failed energy and power sector brings industrial doom, economic stagnation and depression to any nation.

ATCON emphasised that over the years, the state of the Nigerian energy and power sector has been a source of endless worries to both the government and the governed.

“The situation has kept deteriorating from one regime to another. Governments have spent billions of Naira in this sector, yet succour has failed to come,” he said, stressing that the immediate past administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, battled in the last eight years to introduce a paradigm shift in the sector, but there seems to be nothing to show for the huge investments in that sector.

“Instead, analysts observed that the situation has only grown from worse to worst,” ATCON said.

According to the association, the burden of doing business in Nigeria with the epileptic energy and power situation has therefore increased tremendously, forcing many businesses to either operate below capacity or even close shops.

“The energy and power summit could not have come at better time than now that the Federal Government headed by President, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua and the relevant government agencies have shown greater concerns over the deteriorating state of energy and power provisioning in Nigeria,” ATCON said, expressing optimism that this is the right time for all stakeholders in the various economic sectors to join hands in the onerous challenge of improving the state and level of energy and power supply in the country to ensure steady development and sustainable growth of the various sectors of our national economy.

Hence ATCON finds it imperative to organise a summit around this theme.


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Stakeholders want ICANN’s feedback taken seriously

A total of 34 quality responses were made at the recently concluded request for public comments and dialogue on the performance of the global Internet coordinator, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

This is coming as Internet stakeholders have cautioned ICANN to take feedbacks more seriously.

According to the summary and analysis of responses made available to Champion Infotel by the Executive Officer and Vice President, Corporate Affairs at ICANN, Mr. Paul Levins, whereas 14 core responses were received as comments, 15 posts received and 10 comments in response to postings from ICANN staff.

Champion Infotel recalled that on May 8, this year, ICANN had posted a comment, seeking community feedback about its performance, especially as concerned its ongoing interest in continuous improvement.

ICANN also requested responses targeted at comments regarding to several areas of performance, which have been drawn from the ICANN strategic plan, including precisely on if ICANN has become more transparent, accessible and accountable?

The agency equally asked what improvements have been observed, what still needs to be done, and has ICANN improved its operational performance?

“What improvements have been observed and what still needs to be done? Has ICANN improved its performance in the development of Policy and what improvements have been observed and what still needs to be done?” were part of the areas of interest for comments.

In addition, comments were requested on if ICANN has increased international participation and what improvements have been observed as well as what still needs to be done.

Have there been improvements in participation and in efficiency of the ICANN multi-stakeholder model, just as what more needed to be done, what plans and actions have been observed that could position ICANN for more comprehensive transition of the technical coordination of the Internet’s system of unique identifiers among others.

And following the conclusion of the comments session on June 5, 2007, ICANN recently posted the summary of these responses.

As said by ICANN, Mr. Tim Ruiz of GoDaddy channelled his comment on the accountability and transparency with a key remark on second page where he asked for a mechanism to escalate review of a board decision.

Mr. Edward Hasbrouk, the summary stated, believes ICANN has not improved in any area, stressing that the body is still existing in “flagrant disregard of its bylaws” and called for reconsideration committee and ombudsman.

The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) urged ICANN to take its feedback from the Internet community more seriously.

Mr. Jon Nevitt of the registrar Network Solutions advocated for a better appealing system among the community, while Mr. Dan Krimm wondered on the kind of multi-stakeholder organisation of ICANN, saying it is not bottom up but vice versa, even as the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) was gravely concerned over the transparency and accountability of governance at ICANN, more especially on its public consultations among others.


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Telecom Africa-08 goes to Egypt

The Egyptian capital, Cairo, will in the second quarter of next year, 2008, play host to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) organised Telecom Africa.

The event, which has distinguished itself as a world-class exhibition and forum and a major networking platform for ICT players from across the African region, will take place in Cairo, Egypt, from May 2-15, 2008.

ITU, the global United Nations agency in charge of telecommunications, announced that the venue would be the Cairo International Convention and Exhibition Centre (CICC) and will be focusing on Africa’s growing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector.

The Secretary General, at ITU, Dr Hamadoun Touré, was quoted in a press statement made available to Champion Infotel as saying that the African ICT sector has grown steadily in a number of core areas such as mobile, which has increased at twice the global rate over the past five years.

“Mobile phones have now surpassed fixed line telephone access on the continent; the growth fuelled by factors such as market liberalization and increased levels of national and international competition,” he said, adding that broadband, although still in its infancy, is expected to make the connectivity leap across Africa, leading to increased convergence and migration to next-generation networks.

According to him, the event already tagged Africa-08, will bring the region’s top names together to focus on the major issues relating to ICT expansion across Africa.

“Cairo is a key business hub and it’s an ideal vantage point to observe all the unfolding trends as well as the wealth of opportunities that this exciting region has to offer. Africa 2008 will be a critical milestone for the African ICT sector, offering a unique platform for the most innovative minds, industry and new technologies to make the right connections,” Dr. Toure said.

Commenting, the Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Dr Tarek Kamel, said hosting the forthcoming ITU Telecom Africa-08, is an honour to the country, assuring that they would carry through with pride to outdo its previous success in 2004.

“Egypt welcomes Africa once again and vows to create a congruous milieu that brings together all stakeholders of the industry from all over the world to witness Africa’s progress and potential in ICT,” he said, adding that the faith bestowed upon his country by ITU will pay off in what will be one of the most vibrant telecom events to be ever held.

Managing Director, NeuStar International and Chairman of the ITU Telecom Board of Directors, Mr Reza Jafari, said that the even have consistently proven their ability to bring authoritative representatives of national governments, regulators, thought leaders and senior executives from the ICT sector under one roof for debate, dialogue and to explore growth opportunities in the ICT sector.

“I am confident that ITU Telecom Africa-08 will be no exception and a key ICT event for the entire region. I very much look forward to being a part of this event in Egypt and exploring many opportunities of mutual benefit and interest,” he declared.


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