Afenifere wants FG to stop war against Globacom, Adenuga

Pan Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere has once again called on the federal government (FG) and its agencies to let Globacom be by stopping the war against the emerging telecommunications giant and its chairman, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr.

Afenifere in a press statement made available to Daily Champion and signed by its National Publicity Secretary, ‘Yinka Odumakin, said the call has become vital so as not to strangle the only Nigerian company that is obviously doing well.

He recalled that for the second time in one and half years, Afenifere is constrained to call on the Federal Government to stop the war against Globacom and its Chairman Otunba Mike Adenuga, noting that during the peak of former President Obasanjo’s obsession with tenure elongation, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) violently stormed the house of Otunba Adenuga in a mafia-like operation and eventually forced him to go on exile.

According to the group, a massive investigation was thereafter launched into the business activities of the organization and till date all the public knows is that the Senate Investigation Committee exonerated Adenuga from any wrong doing while it was proved that the Petroleum Technologyt Development Fund (PTDF) funds in ETB had been repaid with interest.

Afenifere also noted that the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr.

Michael Andooaka, had few days came out to tell the nation that he was considering a request from the British Home Office to interrogate Adenuga for irregular documentation over importation of telecoms equipment.

“We ordinarily would have no problem if it were the Nigerian Customs that raised question over importation of this equipment. As at the last time the President spoke about inviting the British Police to come and train the Nigerian Police, he did not tell the nation that the Nigerian Customs has been concessioned to the British Home Office,” the group said.

Afenifere therefore declared its rejected over the attempt to compromise the sovereignty of the country in the effort to make a businessman uncomfortable.

“We reject this attempt to compromise the sovereignty of Nigeria in the attempt to make a businessman uncomfortable,” Afenifere warned, stressing that the office of the Attorney General could be playing into the hands of international community simply because there is an inherited war being waged against Globacom.

Afenifere further said that the Yoruba nation is worried and the entire country should be that Globacom, which is a leading player in the telecoms sector is being constantly put under siege.

Here is a company that has over 40,000 direct employees and is giving indirect employment to millions of Nigerians. If the entrepreneur cannot be encouraged, the least the Government could do is to stave off any action that makes its operations unconducive.

The group maintained that Afenifere will never support any wrong doing or breach of the law, and in the case of Globacom, “no agency of law enforcement in Nigeria has accused it of any wrong doing.”

Afenifere, thus called on President Umaru Yar’Adua to call those responsible for creating this hostile environment for business to order immediately as bad signals are being sent to potential investors.

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Siemens top officials in marathon meeting

High-level management meeting, on Thursday at the Siemens Nigeria headquarters in Lagos, went into a marathon session over its being blacklisted by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), penultimate Wednesday, on the 10m Euro scam.

Source close to the company informed that top management team have been meeting over the blacklisting by the government, which is of grave concern to them.

HANA recalls that FG after its weekly session in Abuja descended heavily on the multinational telecommunications equipment provider, blacklisting Siemens from all its official transactions.

In addition, Siemens was involved in over 12 million euro bribery scam allegedly in Nigeria and Russia, while estimated 10 million euro was expended on Nigerian government officials; mostly Ministers of Communications in the last eight years.

Confirming the marathon session by Siemens Nigeria top management team, the Head Corporate Communications at the telco, Mr. Olusegun Akinlabi, said although he could not comment on the official reaction of the company for now, but noted that meeting have been going on since morning till late afternoon.

“Actually, I don’t know what the management reactions would be, but meetings are going on right now,” he declared.

On when he thinks the official reaction would be made, Mr. Akinlabi said he did not know, but reassured that Siemens management in Nigeria “would react at the appropriate time.”

Siemens first made its imports in 1950s and established the first project for hydro power station, Kainji in 1964 and two years later, it established Siemens Resident Engineers Office in Lagos, even as Siemens Nigeria Limited was incorporated in 1970, while it was renamed Siemens Limited Nigeria in 1997 with stake of Siemens AG going up to 68 per cent as at year 2000.

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Globacom dangles 500 cars in Win & Rule

The Second National Operator (SNO), Globacom Limited, Thursday, commenced a five-month promo, “Win and Rule,” dangling 500 cars for its subscribers, just as the Mike Adenuga Towers (MAT), was yesterday, reopened for business after a 48-hour seal up by the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue over alleged tax default.

This is coming in spite of the ban on promotions on telcos over the recent increase in poor quality of service (Qos) by the regulatory body, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) since June this year.

Announcing the latest promo estimated to worth N2 billion, Executive Director, Legal Services at Globacom, Mrs. Gladys Talabi, said the telco regards the promo as the biggest consumer reward package ever in Africa, with 500 exotic cars to be won by subscribers, even as Globacom was singly unbanned by NCC as far as promotions are concerned.

According to her, the promo, which began Thursday, December 6, 2007 would last till May 6, 2008 and is offering subscribers on the network 200 Kia Rio cars, 150 Nissan Sunny, 100 Peugeot 307, 38 BMW 3 Series and 12 Mercedes Benz S350 Class.

Explaining how the promo would be handled, Head, Marketing at Globacom, Mr. Chris Ihemien said the promotion is open to both old and new subscribers on the prepaid and postpaid platforms.

And to qualify for the draws to be held every two weeks, he said that existing subscribers are required to recharge from N500 to N10,000 and above within the next two weeks.

Those who recharge with N500 to N1,000 within two weeks, he added, would qualify to win any of the 200 Kia Rio cars.

Recharge surpassing N1,001 to N3,000, he said, qualifies the subscriber for the Nissan Sunny draw, while N3,001 and N5,000 qualifies the customer for the Peugeot 307 draw.

He added that a subscriber who recharges up to N5,001and N10,000 within two weeks will qualify for the BMW car draw, even as recharges of N1,001 and above will qualify the subscriber for the Mercedes Benz draw.

He stressed that subscribers could accumulate recharges to arrive at defined bands and for new subscribers, all they are required to do is to buy a Glo SIM card, activate and recharge to a certain amount of airtime in the defined band in order to qualify for the fortnightly draw.

“For us, it is yet another opportunity for saying ‘thank you’ to our esteemed subscribers for their patronage and loyalty. We’re celebrating them in this unprecedented manner for being on the fastest growing network in Africa and the Middle East region.

“At Globacom, the customer is, indeed, king and will continue to be. We’re a truly Nigerian company. That is why we are ploughing back our proceeds into building a first class network in Nigeria as well as investing heavily in our valued customers,” he submitted.

Reacting to inquiries, the Head, Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Dave Imoko, said that the ban on promotions is yet to be lifted and declined any other comment.

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‘InterSwitch security uncompromised ‘

Cover of the week:

Management of the premier electronic payment switching solutions provider, InterSwitch Limited, has denied allegations making a round that its Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) switches have been compromised.

Champion Infotel recalls that over the weekend, a Short Messaging Service (SMS) and electronic mails (emails) were being speculated that InterSwitch network server hosting some of the 23 banks on the network, namely First Bank Nigeria Plc, UBA Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc, GTB Plc, ECOBank Plc were infected with a purported Mpack Multi-Pertitie Malware, a computer virus used by cyber-criminals to access and steal information from a database.

Reacting to the reports, Managing Director, InterSwitch Nigeria Limited, Mr. Mitchel Elegbe, dismissed the allegations, saying that uptil date, there has not been any proof of compromising InterSwitch enabled-cards in the country, which has grown to over 7 million in the last five years of its debut.

As matter of fact, he said that the purported Mpack Multi-Pertitie Malware virus does not in the first place exist.

He also said that for any body to fraudulently tamper with any of InterSwitch cards, there must be access to the Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) either knowingly or ignorant of the cardholders.

He cautioned Nigerian Debit Card (NDC) holders to never disclose their cards’ PINs to anyone under any guise, reaffirming that the recent campaign orchestrated by one fake website, www.interswitchnig.com, has also been put to a stop.

Mr. Elegbe equally denied the allegation that approximated 1,500,000 (One million, Five hundred thousand) ATM Card numbers; PIN numbers and other ATM Card data have been allegedly stolen.

According to him, a key reason for cardholders to ignore such messages either via SMS or email is that it was not emanating from InterSwitch and its member banks.

In reality, he told Champion Infotel that stakeholders must note that these messages are fraudulent.

“There is no known computer virus called Mpack and the various messages were gimmicks designed to get a cardholder’s card number and PINs,” he warned.

InterSwitch, he said, is consistent with its offering based on international best practices, even as the firm do not have servers that store cardholders’ PINs either at InterSwitch or at member banks.

“PINs in transmission are encrypted using the most advanced algorithms as defined by relevant standard-setting entities and are unlikely to be compromised in transit,” he explained, stressing that devices use for de-encryption are tamper proof and self-destruct in the event of deliberate or accidental tamper.

He maintained that as long as the cardholder keeps his or her PIN secret, “your transactions remain safe,” adding that InterSwitch and its member banks do not have reason to ask customers to register their card details on any website.

“In the unlikely event that your card is compromised, you’re expected to hotlist, also known as blocking it and to re-register,” Mr. Elegbe pointed out.

He emphasised that by hotlisting of any ATM debit card could only be done based on the reports of customers to their banks, reassuring that any card with InterSwitch logo remains valid on all the channels including ATMs, Point of Sale (POS), mobile and Internet.

Disclosing that InterSwitch is collaborating with the nation’s Cybercrimes Directorate, Mr. Elegbe noted that it was the need to continuously educate stakeholders hence the emergence of fraudwatch@interswitchng.com and encouraged stakeholders to send any information regarding fraudsters’ activities to the above email.

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What you should know about VSAT (1)

Market Intelligence:

VSAT stands for Very Small Aperture Terminal - its a catchy acronym and as such has been adopted by all and sundry for every type of satellite product from small components of a system to complete systems. Also, because the term really hinges around the small size of the antenna, it has been used to describe both one-way and interactive systems.

Specifically, some experts in the industry, isolate television broadcast receivers because counting these as well would simply distort the numbers in the marketplace, but data, audio and, to some extent, voice systems are included.

Generally, these systems operate in the Ku-band and C-band frequencies. As a rule of thumb C-band (which suffers less from rain attenuation, but requires larger antennas) is used in Asia, Africa and Latin America whilst Ku-band (which could use smaller antennas, but suffers from rain fade in a monsoon-like downpour) is used in Europe and North America.

Typically, interactive Ku-band antenna sizes range from 75 centimetres to 1.8 metres and C-band from 1.8 metres to 2.4 metres. One way systems could use antennas as small as 45 centimetres.

One-way or broadcast systems rely on a transmitting station, which transmits one or more carriers to the satellite, which re-broadcasts the signal over its coverage area.

All receive-only VSATs under the satellite footprint could then receive the signal or the user/operator is able to define groups of VSATs from one to all on the network. Broadcast systems are used for data and audio.

The most popular application for data is the transmission of financial feeds - Reuters, Telerate and KnightRidder are good examples of companies with large data broadcasting networks - however, there are many other uses, such as software downloads, file transfers, transmission of press agency news items (with pictures) and the broadcast of paging messages for terrestrial transmission to the pagers themselves.

Interactive VSAT systems come in two main network topologies - star and mesh. The former tends to be based either on a shared access scheme like Time Division Multiple Access (TDM/TDMA), which is designed to support transactional processing applications, or on a dedicated link (the satellite equivalent to a leased line). The latter usually uses links, which are set-up and torn-down on request to establish a direct link between two sites on a demand assigned basis.

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Symbols is best software @ NITTA-07

Investment management software, Symbols from the stable of Progenics Corp Limited, was once again been pronounced the ‘Best Software’ at the Nigeria Information Technology (IT) and Telecom Awards (NITTA-07) held recently in Lagos.

Champion Infotel recalls that Symbols is a product of a leading Nigerian enterprise software and systems integrators, Progenics Corp Limited, and was winner in the same category of the award last year.

Executive Director of Symbols, Mr. Femi Akintoye, who disclosed this, said that the honour was bestowed on the software firm, due to its strong leaning towards the financial sector.

According to the organisers at the well attended ceremony held at the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) Centre Lagos, Symbols is “the most widely used stock and investment management application software in Nigeria this year.”

Akintoye equally said that this description obviously confirms the faith that majority of the players in the capital market have in the application solution, as the solution currently controls a sizeable portion of the industry currently.

He also revealed that the strength of Symbols rests on the technical competence of the people at Progenics.

He stressed that Symbols is currently making waves in some other African countries like Ghana, adding that recently many companies involved in the capital market have signed on to Symbols including Afrinvest West Africa, UBA Stockbrokers, Intercontinental Capital Market and Diamond Bank securities. Others are Gold Cost (Ghana), WSTC Ltd, Premium Securities, SA Money Ltd, Prime wealth capital, Marina securities, Crownwealth Asset, Kofana Securities, Maclaize Trust securities, Cradle Trust Finance and Compass investment Ltd.

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NITDA steps up ICT4D plans

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has advanced steps to conclude the Nigerian Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) action plans.

This, the agency said would facilitate the achievement of the nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Plan on the Action of the World Summit of Information Society (WSIS) and Africa regional development initiatives as mapped out by the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD).

Coordinator of the ICT4D Committee, Dr. Moses Ubaru, informed at the end of their meeting at the weekend, that work on the action plan is nearing completion.

He also said that the committee has commenced appraisal of the final draft submitted to it by the consultant, Prof. Clement Dzidonu, who had earlier handled that of Rwanda and Swaziland.

According to him, the ICT4D action plans outline the roadmap for the nation in the effort to integrate IT into all sectors of the economy.

The ICT4D, thus, is the blue print for the deployment of Information Technology in all the sectors of the economy. It is being anchored by NITDA, the government organ charged with nurturing the nation’s IT future.

Equally the ICT4D action plan is expected to enhance the achievement of the MDGs, WSIS and NEPAD, even as it would centre on achieving the 7-point agenda of the President, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who recently invited more proactive approach at furthering Nigeria’s development goals in order to adequately take her place among the 20 leading economies by year 2020.

Commenting earlier, Director General, NITDA Prof. Cleopas Angaye, said that the national ICT strategic plan of actions and programmes will cover various sectors and identify particular programmes for short, medium and long term implementation by identified stakeholders.

“The idea is to set out a time-sensitive action plan with realistic targets and benchmarks for sectoral applications of ICT for national development,” he said, assuring that the meetings outcome would be forwarded to the Minister of Science and Technology for onward presentation to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and Economic Commission of Africa (ECA) in February 2008.

Champion Infotel recalled that the nation’s ICT4D committee is a broad-based one inaugurated by the former Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Turner Isoun, in September 2003 and charged with the responsibility of producing a blueprint on strategic actionable programme for the implementation of the Nigeria IT Policy (NITP).

Experts were recruited by NITDA from various sectors of the economy in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) to facilitate the development of the sectoral plans.

In addition, sub-groups such as Health, Infrastructure, ICT Popularisation and Deployment among others were created to reflect the various sectors of the economy.

Each subgroup has a subgroup head while the overall chairman of the Strategic Action Committee is Dr Armstrong Takang, chief executive of Alteq Consulting, a private sector ICT player, while the ICT4D coordinator, Dr. Ubaru also serves as the vice chairman, even as the proposed action plan is sponsored by UNECA as well as funding expert input by Prof. Dzidonu.

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Omatek offers Plasma TV, home theatre for Xmas

Proudly African technology firm, Omatek Computers Limited, is offering customers some of its best designs and hi-tech brands for the Christmas season.

Managing Director, Omatek, Mrs. Florence Seriki, disclosed this in Lagos and said that the product on offer encompasses Omatek Home theatre 42”, 3-in-1 Plasma monitor television presentation screen which also functions as TV, computer monitor and presentation screen with high quality colour resolution and 99 programme memory which also has news, standard, music, movies, panorama picture control and user sound control.

According to her, the offer is in fulfilment of her companies promise to create entertainment ambience in most homes during the Yuletide through its range of home entertainment products.

“The period of felicitation is a good time to relax and see the world clearly from the comfort of your home with your family. It’s a lifestyle,” she said.

Mrs. Seriki also said that the Omatek home entertainment 5.1 and 2.1home speaker systems are available to make the season a memorable one for its teeming Nigerian customers.

“In a class of its own, the home speaker systems with its sleek design and performance driven engineering contribute to the ability to deliver a stunning home entertainment experience,” she said.

Equally, she said that Omatek speaker system sets are entirely new standards for clarity, dynamics, imaging and realism with their breathtaking ability to let music be heard the way it should and that the speakers are capable of bringing alive the most challenging motion picture sound.

“Not only are these home entertainment speakers elegantly designed to complement any décor, with a range of colour and finishes that will suit any environment, the digital speakers allow interconnection with thin, easily installed cabling for the ultimate in discreet, high-quality audio,” she said, adding that from living room to a complete home digital theatre, the Omatek range of home entertainment speakers provide a level of sound quality that users are not likely to find elsewhere.

As said by her, if music, for you is more than background noise, if superb audio reproduction is something that you must have at the most competitive pricing; then the Omatek range of home entertainment speakers is for such people.

Further, she reaffirmed the capabilities of Omatek brand of speakers in redefining home entertainment experience.

“At Omatek we believe your home system should not be compromised. Ambient sounds and effects from the surround speakers are equally important and the superior components and highly functional enclosures contribute to outstanding performance to prevent interference and allow for mounting near plasma and Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) TVs,” she said.

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HP software boosts biz automation

Hewlett Packard (HP) has introduced a new software and services to help businesses transform Information Technology (IT) operations and automate the full lifecycle of managing business services.

The new offer called HP Automated Operations 1.0, is an integrated set of products that automates IT operations across all technology and organizational domains.

Senior vice president, Software, HP, Mr. Tom Hogan, explained that this eliminates labour-intensive, ad hoc and error-prone manual processes and, in turn, helps IT organizations dramatically to lower the day-to-day cost of operations.

He also said that the cost savings from streamlining IT operations allows businesses to shift resources to more strategic IT initiatives that could help fuel business innovation and growth.

The HP Automated Operations 1.0 software suite, according to him, is composed of IT service management, business service management and business service automation solutions.

“This suite is one of the key pillars of HP software’s business technology optimization portfolio, which integrates assets from HP OpenView, Peregrine, Mercury and Opsware,” he said.

The company, Mr. Hogan further said, launched its HP business service automation software solution, a single platform to automate all IT processes and drive change across applications, servers, networks, storage and clients.

The solution also provides a central configuration management database (CMDB) for reporting, which reduces the cost and risk of change while providing comprehensive audit and compliance capabilities.

As said by him, HP also enhanced its IT service management (ITSM) software and added related services that offer best practices through blueprints, training and assessments, noting that ITSM helps companies define, deliver and manage business services from inception to retirement.

“We have been aggressively expanding our software portfolio in the last two years to broaden and deepen our capabilities to help customers improve their top and bottom lines,” he said, stressing that this relentless focus on customers has been paying off and more customers are now choosing HP software to achieve their business goals.

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Galaxy offers triple play to MDAs

Galaxy Backbone Plc (GBB) has reiterated its resolve to offer a triple play services to all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as part of its deployment for the national Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure backbone.

This, the firm said, would include telephony, video conferencing and Internet connectivity.

Giving this indication recently was the chief business operations, Mr. Yusuf Kazaure at the GVF 3rd West Africa Satellite Communications summit, which held in Lagos.

Mr. Kazaure who was represented at the occasion by the business operations manager at Galaxy, Mr. Ayo Adegboye, said that the proposed offering is in line with the objectives of the federal government company in ensuring that emerging Information Technology (IT) has its root in the government circle.

“Galaxy is poised to provide connectivity nationwide to support triple play solutions in the areas of rural telephony, video conferencing and Internet connectivity,” he said in a press statement made available to Champion Infotel and endorsed by Mr. Franklyn Ginger Eke of the marketing and corporate communications at GBB.

Speaking as a panellist at the session on, “Hybrid Satellite and Pure Play: The Convergence Factor Goes Mobile,” Kazaure pointed out that the satellite technology solutions earlier pioneered by the likes of Thuraya phones has witnessed new innovations that have resulted in the convergence of voice, data and video on the mobile technology platform.

Galaxy Backbone triple play solutions, he said, would generate Added Value Services (VAS) in the areas such as telemedicine, online learning, research, virtual hospital and telecentres to name a few.

He further said that GBB will in the long term support emerging IT trends for vertical markets in the financial, telco and oil as well as gas sector, even as the firm has positioned itself to deliver to the underserved areas by deploying Wireless Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) solution to proxy the connectivity with a wide range of presence.

In addition, Kazaure noted that the setting up of Galaxy Backbone Plc as a Federal Government initiative is an intervention that is expected to go a long way in complementing other such backbone initiatives by the public and private sectors respectively.

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Celtel to commission N1.7bn dealers project

Celtel Nigeria has heightened plans to shower its dealers in the country, with sum of $15 million (about N1,799,400,000.00 billion) in a project to be launched soon.

This is coming as the telco also plans to upgrade its Short Messaging Service (SMS) facilities to avail smooth SMS delivery.

Chief Commercial Officer,, Celtel Nigeria, Mr. Michael Foley, gave this indication at the weekend in a chat with Champion Infotel, just as the network has re-launched its one-network scheme in Lagos.

Reacting to recent claims by the Association of Licensed Telecoms Distributors of Nigeria (ALTDON), that Celtel’s business policies has changed detrimentally, he said that Celtel would be commissioning dealers project by next quarter worth $15 million.

He also agreed that the telco’s business policies have changed, but insisted it was to enable provision of better services to its subscribers.

“Our policies have changed to serve our subscribers better,” he declared.

On the hiccups being experienced currently by some subscribers on Celtel network, Mr. Foley appealed for patience, assuring that the telco is not unaware of their plights, hence its planning to upgrade its SMS equipment.

“We’re going to upgrade our SMS infrastructure soon,” he asserted.

Mr. Foley equally said that Celtel has not received any court summon with regard to the threat by ALTDON to drag the telco to court.

Champion Infotel recalled that recently ALTDON stated its resolve to institute a court action, seeking for N10,000,000,000.00 billion damages as suffered due to the result of Celtel’s alleged fraudulent practices through change of its business policies without any recourse to ALTDON well-being.

National president, ALTDON, Dr. Ayo Ojo, who disclosed this at a press conference in Lagos, said they would be seeking redress for what he described as a breach of agreement concerning their benefits and deliberate policy of congesting the market, which in itself is “unwholesome and unhealthy competition.”

According to him, Celtel violation of earlier contract was evidenced in its manner of appointing dealers, and all sorts of unethical means of distribution of their products, reckless promotions, which more often than not, ends up having damaging effects on the consumers and the dealers precisely.

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NITTA hosts media stakeholders, present prizes

Organisers of the Nigeria Information Technology and Telecommunications Awards (NITTA), at the weekend hosted the ICT-media stakeholders in Lagos, even as prizes were presented to winners of this year’s ICT Reporter (Print) category.

This year’s edition, which is the sixth ended with a total of 24 awards being dished out to deserving industry champions including media practitioners, reports Ugochi Nkwocha.

The ICT Reporter of the year award went to Mr. Elvis Eromosele of Financial Standard for the second year running, while Messrs Seun Ayantokun and Remmy Nweke of The Tribune and Daily Champion came first and second runners up respectively.

Speaking at the event tagged the ‘Gathering of the real stars,’ editor-in-chief of IT & Telecom Digest, the organisers, Mr. Mkpe Abang, commended Nigerian ICT-media for actively taking part at this year’s event, especially in the area of drumming support for the awards and appealed for consistency in sustaining the dream of NITTA.

Also commenting, the chief judge for the ICT Reporter category and chairman, Editorial Board at the Guardian, Dr. Reuben Abati, expressed delight in what he saw during the exercise and called for more researched work from media practitioners as to project more informed news delivery to the Nigerian people.

He equally tasked media practitioners on adequate proof-reading of their works and scaling down their entries to at least one per category, which must be among their best.

This way, he noted, judges would find it difficult to jettison such a report, even as he advised them to eschew use of press releases in their news analysis, but rather put in more efforts in researching their works through going extra miles.

Dr. Abati later presented the star prize of Sony Ericsson P1i to Mr. Eromosele while Communications Editor at Vanguard, Mr. Okoh Aihe and his counterpart at the Guardian, Mr. Sonny Aragba-Akpore presented prizes to the first and second runners up in that order.

In addition, the first runner up (Electronics) within the category for the year 2006, Mr. Tayo Adewusi, who was outside the country during the ceremony was honoured with his own prizes of Sony Ericsson K750i by Senior Reporter, Daily Champion, Mr. Remmy Nweke, at the ceremony.

Champion Infotel recalled that while presiding over this year’s NITTA held at the MUSON Centre, Onikan Lagos, the immediate past Nigeria ’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK), Dr. Christopher Kolade, called on telcos to be quality conscious and put every effort in place to keep this up as a way of keeping their subscribers.

Equally speaking at the occasion, chief executive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Ndukwe applauded the zeal of IT & Telecom Digest magazine, organisers of NITTA, stressing that the awards have become a way of showing appreciation to operators in the industry for a job well done.

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Starcomms moves into ultra modern office

Starcomms Limited has officially moved to its newly completed ultra modern office situated at 52 Ademola Adetokunbo Street, Victoria Island Lagos, reports Oluchi Ibeh.

Starcomms, which hitherto operated from Bishop Kale Close also in Victoria Island has since commenced operations at its new office.

According to the Chief Executive Officer, Starcomms, Mr. Maher Qubain in a statement made available to Champion Infotel, the office boasts of state-of-the-art equipment, which makes the operations seamless, thus achieving prompt service delivery and customers’ satisfaction. The office also boasts of a comfortable working environment for the employees.

Starcomms, the largest deployer of Code Division Multiple Access and third generation (CDMA-3G) mobile operator in the country has presence in key cities like Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, Aba, Onitsha, Asaba, Maiduguri and Port Harcourt.

Mr. Qubain pointed out that Starcomms “call of freedom” concept introduced last year offers subscribers an array of innovative products and services such as mobile phones and desktops at affordable rates, high speed internet, per second billing, internet, fun box amongst others.

He further said that nine additional service centre known as Starcomms shop were also opened last year in Ikotun Egbe and Apapa areas of Lagos, which provide communication solutions for data and fixed wireless customers” he said.

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Ado Bayero commends MTN on CSR

Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero has commended the leading Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, over its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

Speaking last weekend at the 28th Kano international trade fair as part of programmes and activities marking the ‘MTN Day’ at the world famous Kano International Trade Fair, he urged the telco not to relent on its CSR.

While giving kudos to MTN for the unrivalled roles in the area of CSR in the country, the Emir said, “I take special delight in the popular TV programme, ‘Dandalin Tashi Mu Taimeke Ka’ and I urge MTN to continue in this regard.”

Welcoming the Emir to the stand, the Regional Marketing Manager, North, Mr. Abubakar Shehu, who represented the Senior Manager, Trade Market, MTN Nigeria, noted that MTN’s involvement in the Kano International Trade fair is to partner with the good and industrious people of the North West and enhance commercial activities that Kano is known for.

“Our aim of coming to participate in this fair is to showcase the benefits of using MTN as a vehicle that enables you, the good people of Northern Nigeria attain your goals and aspirations, bearing in mind the commercial activities that goes on here which makes this city the heart of Northern Nigeria,” he said.

The vice president, Kano Chamber of Commerce, Mines and Agriculture, Alhaji Ahmed Rabiu, equally at the stand, eulogised MTN for its efforts in giving back to the society through its corporate social responsibility initiatives especially in the Northern part of the country. adding that KACCIMA will always contribute its quota to seeing that such moves are encouraged.

He emphasised the continuation of the TV programme called ‘Dandalin Tashi Mu Taimeke Ka’. A family economic empowerment programme as most people who have participated in the show are known to have won various prizes.

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E -Payment launches Virtual Money cards

Authorised independent agent of the global integrated electronic payment solutions in the country, E-Payment Solutions Limited, has officially launched its Virtual Money Cards into the nation’s market to further reduce the risk of carrying cash .

Managing Director, E-Payment Solutions Limited, Mr. Jude Ememe, said his firm as a principally authorised agent of Dallas-based Virtual Money Incorporated is strategically in partnership with the firm for marketing and promotion of this payment solution in the country and African continent.

The objectives of the company, he said, is to promote and popularise the use of e-money, create electronic payment solutions that would enhance and facilitate money transfers and reduce cash carrying habits of most Nigerians.

“The risk of cash carrying is enormous,” he declared, recalling the N10 million cash that was recovered at the crash site of Sosoliso Airline about two years ago.

The launch, he said, is very apt now that the Christmas is around the corner and movement of people to different locations is expected to increase.

“Cash portage from one location to another will be on the increase too,” he asserted, adding that based on this fact, the incidence of robberies would equally increase because of prevalent of cash carrying culture.

He attributed the high rate of attack on travellers to the suspension that they always carry huge sums of cash.

“If the Nigerian public is operating a cashless environment and the robbers know that their effort would not yield cash, we believe that the high incidence of robberies would greatly reduce,” he said.

He explained that potential Virtual Money card users do not need to maintain any bank account, saying that the card is a private-branded global Automated Teller Machine (ATM) product that could be used at any ATM and Internet worldwide.

“It’s a loadable debit card that enables an instantaneous card to card transfer funds to any two points in the world and it’s a fully effective electronic commerce (e-commerce) tool. Its also an electronic purse,” he informed.

Mr. Ememe who was accompanied by three other directors of the company, namely Messrs Andy Igboekwe, Victor Ibeh and Andrian Oche, said that the Virtual Money card cost $50 (about N6,000) while each loading attracts the sum of $15, about N2,000 and above.

He equally listed some of the features of Virtual Money card to include being loadable ATM debit card, card-to-card funds transfer, payroll cheque replacement, online transfer, card to cheque to name a few.

As said by him, the benefits of using Virtual Money card, encompass the ability to be safer than cash and comes with low cost, fast way to get money to family and friends on time, fast exchange of money and reloadable at anytime with ability to track

usage, real time record keeping among others.

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VIA PC-1 unveils PC-1 @ UK

VIA Technologies Incorporated has unveiled its PC-1 mainboards solution into the United Kingdom (UK) market.

Announcing the UK availability of its VIA pc2500 and pc3500 mainboards, the company said that the products which combine the world-beating power efficiency and hardware security of the advanced VIA C7-D desktop processor, equally comes with the rich digital media feature set and enhanced connectivity of VIA chipsets to provide a flexible and high performance platform for building energy-efficient systems.

He informed that at the Techno-Footprint ’07 with the theme: ICT and Sustainability in the Public Sector, held at the Church House Conference Centre in Westminster, London, VIA demonstrated how the mainboards could enable the design of computers that not only reduce electricity costs but also associated carbon emissions.

Mr. Brown, added that increasingly, IT systems are forming a significant part of a modern public sector body’s carbon footprint.

“From thin clients to laptops, desktops and now the new ultra mobile devices, VIA processor platforms have built a reputation for leading performance per watt and cool operation, enabling systems that help organizations to reduce their impact upon the environment while stretching their budgets further,” he said.

He stressed that market demands for sustainable computing products, motivated VIA processor platforms to have attained global reach with design wins as far a field as China, both North and South America, Europe, and South Africa, with leading brands HP, Everex, and Systemax.

“With an average operating power of just 2 watts and an absolute maximum of 20 watts, the VIA C7-D desktop processor is designed to cater to a new breed of computer users interested in limiting the impact their actions have upon the environment,” he said.

Hence, VIA worked with environmental experts to calculate the electricity used by the C7-D processor, and from that determined how much carbon dioxide will be produced as a result of electricity provided by fossil fuel burning power plants, finally working with regional organizations to offset that carbon dioxide through various regional projects.

Offsetting the carbon dioxide created through use of the C7-D processor is done through projects, which fall into three broad categories, including reforestation, alternative energy, and environmental conservation.

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Ugwu applauds Omatek Computers

Minister of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Charles Ugwu, has applauded the management of Omatek Computers Limited, for being steadfast in manufacturing of Personal Computers (PCs) locally.

The minister who was on a working visit to Omatek factory in Ikeja-Lagos, said that he was pleased after a tour of the factory, and noted that the government is not unaware of the challenges facing Original Manufacturers Equipments (OEMs).

“Particularly I am pleased with the neat handling of production at Omatek,” he said.

The minister equally asked the company not to relent.

“I commend Omatek for coming this far. Do not lose hope for things are going to get better,” he said, including electricity power supply.

Mr. Ugwu also charged Omatek to explore all the markets both in the country and in the West African region.

While assuring of the government support, Mr. Ugwu added that in the next two years, “all the strategies being put in place would be ready to be explored and there would be a lot of things people like Omatek would benefit from such as infrastructure.”

According to him, a lot is going on now on the part of the government and he knew that the cost of generating independent power is still high, which is about three times the cost of government power supply – national grid.

Also commenting, the Director General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr. John Akanya, described Omatek factory as a system that works.

“We have seen a system that works, that is why I accompanied the minister,” he asserted.

As said by him, having gone round the factory, Omatek is already working on quality standards specifications, he described as the most important aspect of any company survival.

“Our primary aim is to make sure that companies are sustained,” he said, noting that if a company is strong today and tomorrow is no longer there or folds, it means the company is playing down on the value of the company itself.

“That is why the ISO certification was instituted and centred on quality standards specifications which every company must operate with and not the face value of such companies,” he said.

Welcoming the minister and his team, the Managing Director, Omatek Computers Limited, Mrs. Florence Seriki, said that over the years, the company has grown from strength to strength and even ventured into neighbouring West African countries including Ghana where it now has a factory.

She later led the Minister through the manufacturing circle of the firm and asked for government support especially on import duties of Information Technology (IT) components so as to encourage local OEMs like Omatek.

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HiRest wants NigComSat to partner with local ISPs

Nation’s fastest growing Internet Service Provider (ISP), HiRest Africa Limited, has outlined the benefits of satellite-delivered broadband communications in a developing country like Nigeria, even as the company has called on the management of NigComSAT to evolve a strategy to partner with local ISPs.

According to the firm’s Corporate Affairs Director, Mrs. Ufuoma Emuophedaro, services through this platform would accelerate Internet penetration and bridge the digital gap between the West African sub region and the rest of the world.

This is moreso if the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NigComSat) management sticks to the optimisation of its satellite through involving local ISPs.

Delivering a paper on “Satellite Networking and The West African Broadband Paradigm Shift,” at the third West African Satellite Summit which held in Lagos, recently, she said that satellite-delivered broadband communications have generated a regional paradigm shift and analysts have observed that approximately 10 per cent of all broadband communications in the world are already provided through satellite and the proportion has continued to grow, particularly in Africa.

Mrs. Emuophedaro also noted that satellite broadband Internet access is particularly beneficial and relevant in the West African sub-region because many countries in the sub region lack infrastructure such as fibre optic that could make it easier to deliver Internet services to the rural areas.

“As such, satellite could be used to connect extremely remote and rural sites, which are unable to get fixed wired connections to the Internet,” she said, stressing that most rural areas in this part of the world do not have access to telephone lines through fibre optic.

Although she equally pointed out that it could be argued that the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) has increased teledensity of most countries in the sub-region, the fact still remains that for Internet connectivity, GSM is not the best technology due to speed and cost of connection.

She further noted that Nigeria has made giant strides in the telecoms sector locally and internationally, emphasising that the Internet sub-sector still has a long way to go.

“It is true that Africa, especially Nigeria is internationally acclaimed as one of the fastest growing country in the area of telecommunications, but the Internet sub-sector is still lagging behind. Recent statistics released by Internet World statistics.com, show that Nigeria, only about 3.1 per cent of the population has access to the Internet. This, therefore, calls for the need to grow Internet access penetration in the country,” she said.

Mrs. Emuophedaro added that some of the benefits of delivering broadband Internet via satellite include the fact that satellite broadband is about remote access to consumer’s in-house resources, whether needed at remote branch offices to link back to a main site or have teleworkers who need to access online resources.

“A satellite solution can bring these people into your company’s network via a secured Virtual Private Network (VPN) at a speed that makes teleworking effective,” she said.

In addition, she said that other benefits of satellite-delivered broadband Internet access encompass speed, security as well as cost savings.

She explained that the speed of satellite-delivered broadband is up to 39 times the download speed of dial-up Internet access, therefore availing customers the ability to send and receive information in time frames that suit customers and suppliers, enabling businesses to run smoothly.

Mrs. Emuophedaro also noted that monthly bandwidth cost cuts the cost of Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) or leased lines, adding that satellite solutions are easily upgradeable using the same hardware.

“NigComSat should be well utilized through well structured partnership with local Internet Service Providers and other operators to further reduce the cost of satellite-delivered broadband Internet access in the country,” she submitted.

Champion Infotel recall that HiRest Africa was licensed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) as ISP in year 2006 and has provided Internet broadband access to its numerous customers nationwide via satellite deploying Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) Ku-band and C-band.

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Cisco, IBM join forces to deliver solutions for retail banking

Two Information Technology (IT) giants, Cisco Systems and International Business Machines (IBM) are joining forces to deliver new retail banks solutions for the front office.

Announcing this development, the duo of IT firms informed that the collaboration is to rejuvenate a new phase of front office solutions for corporation organisations, thus they are poised to transform the retail banking experience by enhancing customer interaction.

Revealing this, the global solutions executive, IBM Banking Industry, Mr. Sunny Banerjea, said that the collaboration, would cut across all types of delivery channels, such as branches, contact centres and self-service kiosks.

The new modular solutions, he said, integrate front and back office systems with technologies such as Voice over IP (VoIP), streaming video, web conferencing, and instant messaging to help branch office employees deliver more personalized products and services for customers and drive organic revenue growth.

He noted that financial institutions value the relationship with their customers and are known to personalize products and services that better meet their financial needs, independent of the time of the day or the delivery channel. Customers are now demanding an experience from their banks similar to the customer-centric services they get from other industries, such as retail, travel and entertainment.

He emphasised that as a result, banks are striving to deploy technologies and IT architectures that help enable new marketing and sales programmes, more dynamic and timely employee training, and improve business process improvements to optimize a collaborative customer experience.

The IBM and Cisco front office solutions for retail banks, he said, addresses these issues through the transformation of front office banking by enabling a new, flexible multi-channel environment that delivers a more tailored and timely customer experience, streamlines processes and lowers operational risk and cost.

He added that the series of modular front office solutions feature IBM hardware, software, and services, as well as Cisco core and advanced networking technologies.

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BSA commends Wema Bank on software compliance

Business Software Alliance (BSA) Nigeria, has commended Wema Bank plc for complying with the global campaign against software piracy and counterfeiting in the country.

BSA spokesman, Mr Akeem Aponmade, gave this commendation at a strategic session organized to update the media on the impact of the campaign spearheaded by the group.

At the session attended by software distributors, resellers, partners and users, he spoke on the legal and operational risks involved in the use of illegal software and the negative impact it has on the Nigerian economy, expressing optimism that Nigerians would do what is right, if well informed.

He further praised Wema Bank Plc for advancing to the status of full compliance, saying that with this, the bank has no issues with BSA as long as software piracy and counterfeiting is concerned, adding that the bank is now fully licensed and has deployed fully authorized Microsoft technologies for its Information Technology(IT) operations.

“The full compliance by Wema Bank is a clear demonstration of the bank’s commitment to ethical business principles and corporate governance. It demonstrates that the bank is alive to its image and reputation as a well respected corporate organization” he affirmed.

He also called on other banks and corporate organizations to emulate Wema Bank by ensuring that their IT platforms are configured with the relevant technologies that are licensed.

In addition, he advised IT professionals in financial institutions and corporate organizations to educate their management on the consequences of using fake and pirated software, insisting that fake software does not only have the danger of ruining their business, but also3 implicating them with the law of the land that prohibits it.

He added that software piracy is copyright theft and many people do not realise that what they purchase is a license to use software and not the actual software itself.

“Your license agreement from the software publisher explains the terms for the software use. Essentially, you must own a license that covers each and every machine you use the software on,” he said.

He further explained that software piracy can take a number of forms: end-user copying, where an end user copies software onto more machines that they have licenses for: pre-loading un-licensed software by unscrupulous suppliers on new machines without supplying customers the necessary licenses: counterfeit software where software is copied and illegally sold as the genuine article and downloading unlicensed software over the internet.

High-lighting on the consequences of copyright and counter-feiting on the national economy, he emphasized that it was eroding the source of national wealth, explaining that the present global software piracy rate is about 35 per cent, which equates to almost $40 billion per year and that software violation in the country presently stands at over 82 per cent equating to a loss of $100 million in 2006, making it one of the highest and most alarming piracy rates in the world.

“The Business Software Alliance is the foremost organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world. BSA is the voice of the world’s commercial software industry and its hardware partners before governments and in the international market place. Its members represent one of the fastest growing industries in the world. BSA programmes fosters technology innovation through education and policy initiatives that promotes copyright elimination, cyber security, trade and e-commerce,” he concluded.

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