President's rumoured resignation: Role of ICT

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President’s rumoured resignation: Role of ICT
Penultimate Tuesday, Nigeria and the world was awash with the hoax that President Yar’Adua would soon resign based on health ground. REMMY NWEKE examines the role of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the saga.


FOR an average Nigerian the news of President Umaru Yar’Adua’s ill-health is fast becoming stale and invariably a story all Nigerians have to live with until his tenure is over in 2011. This is because in the midst of his political campaign that led to his emergence, Nigerians were treated to a drama when the issue was raised by concerned citizens that Yar’Adua was sick and had been flown abroad for treatment, even as speculation was that probably he had died.

This forced the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo to call Yar’Adua through the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) during a campaign rally which was televised live on major television stations nationwide; where he asked him ‘Umaru, they say you’re dead, are you dead?’ Of course he was amazed to hear that and laughed it over.

Contentious news flash:
Barely a year and three months after he assumed office, another chapter was opened with the purported ‘News Flash’ from the government-owned News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that Mr. President would resign due to his health conditions. Just a fortnight after his Lesser Hajj saga turned sour with alleged surgical operation in Saudi Arabia among others.

NAN’s account on the contentious news flash was that the agency had nothing to do with the story, according the Managing Director, Mrs. Oluremi Oyo. She also alleged that mischief makers may have broken into the NAN’s content management system (CMS) to access its list of clientele and used this to send out false ‘news flash’ flawed with massive grammatical errors. She traced the mail to:
gencynig@yahoo.com, with obvious address in Abidjan, Cotd D’Ivoire.

The purported news flash read, “President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua may resign after carbonate reshuffle, on health ground” was sent out to both local and foreign media including the AFP and Lagos-based Channels Television, which eventually paid the price with license suspension for over 72 hours by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), thereby attracting outright condemnation from stakeholders.

Soon after NAN denied the authorship of the report, Special Adviser to the President on Communication, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, equally said there was no truth in the report.

Oyo, additionally, revealed the resting forthwith the two free electronic mail addresses used before now by NAN in its news distribution; nanabujahq@gmail.com and nancommunication@gmail.com and any other precisely from Google mail, Yahoo! mail or Hotmail.

“The only authentic address NAN will be using from now on is: newsroom@nannewsngr.com” a press statement from NAN by the Deputy Editor-in-chief, Abuja Metropolitan Desk, Alli Hakeem, read.

A member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) was reported as saying that investigations had shown the report never emanated from NAN, although it was distributed to media organisations through the NAN feed.

Our source who asked for anonymity noted that the situation could be a security matter. Also, a source in NAN on grounds of anonymity claimed that the report could be the handiwork of hackers, because it did not conform to NAN’s method.

“The story was not edited, and it carried one by-line, which shows that a reporter just sent it. This does not happen in NAN for a reporter to just write a story and send. Even if you are the Editor-in-Chief, the story has to be seen by a second eye at least, and the name of the editor who saw the story must be included before it is sent,” our source explained.

The penultimate Tuesday’s incident was the second time a controversial report would be circulated through the NAN feed by alleged hackers. The first being when it was reported the NAN management had, while addressing workers, declared that the Court of Appeal would nullify the result of the presidential election.

Experts view:
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) security expert, Mr. Bruce Schneier stated in his book Secret and Lies that a hacker is someone who thinks outside the box, discarding the conventional wisdom, and does something else instead. “It’s someone who looks at the edge and wonders what’s beyond. It’s someone who sees a set of rules and wonders what happens if you don’t follow them. A hacker is someone who experiments with the limitations of systems for intellectual curiosity.”

Nowadays, there are various classes of hackers; from computer to mobile hackers to name a few. Whereas, encyclopedia, www.webopedia.com, described it as a jargon for a computer enthusiast, who enjoys learning programming languages and computer systems and could often be considered an expert on the subject matter. The term has since been reduced to more of derogatory than complimentary among professionals, even as the negative sense has been popularized to refer to individuals who gain unauthorized access to computer systems for the purpose of stealing and corrupting data. Hackers, on the other hand, argued that the proper term for such individuals is ‘cracker.’

NiRA condemns NAN over nannewsngr.com:
A body of Internet users and enthusiasts in the country charged with the management of the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), dot ng, the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), while wishing President Yar’Adua a healthy tenure, condemned the obtaining of another foreign domain name by NAN, nannewsngr.com, saying its absurd and attributed the saga to be mainly a technology issue.

ccTLD is a country’s identity in the cyber space, just like .ng is for Nigeria, .uk is for the United Kingdom, .za is for South Africa among others.

NiRA via its president, Mr. Ndukwe Kalu condemned the option of a foreign domain, for any government agency let alone a critical one like NAN among others. He outlined four options that led to alleged cracking of NAN news management system, to include that someone broke into the system and authored as well as sent out the ‘news flash’; even as someone may have gotten the password of the NAN electronic mail (e-mail) address and news subscription list and capitalized on that to send out a mail.

Also, he said, that someone may have access to NAN news subscription mail list and send a mail to the list but changed the ‘from’ field to the NAN email address or finally, someone probably created an email address very close to the NAN email and used NAN news subscription list to send out mail.

“Now these are the only four means by which there could have been a breach and each had to do with technology with varying levels of sophistications,” he said, stressing though the outlined likelihood could be countered or blocked with the appropriate technology. He explained that for such CMS there are usually various roles and passwords, with the overall administrator having access to all areas.

“It is therefore pertinent that each role, username and password is very formidable especially in length and composition, with access for every role restricted. Also all this is assuming that infiltration of this type is external, it could be very much internal and an audit trail of activity would easily reveal this. So networks need to be protected,” he explained.

NiRA introduces ngCERT:
Kalu pointed out that ICT and particularly the deployment of dot ng, for instance, could immensely assist in managing such ‘information’ crisis in the future, especially with the ngCERT, which he described as crucial to national development as far as cyber space is concerned.

NiRA President further said that as matter of fact the group has taken relevant action to ensure that it does not reoccur, moreso if NAN has its domain name within the dot ng country code Top Level Domain, stressing that as regards .ng, NiRA plays a very key role in terms of identity and security.

“As for security we are putting together the ngCERT for Nigeria,” he said, elucidating that ngCERT is a place where network managers could share exploit details and work towards mitigating such attacks in the future.

Kalu who also is the chief executive of Amsco Telecoms Limited, affirmed that the contentious issue is a technology affair. “Yes, it is all about technology and the four means by which it is possible include through weak passwords, insider collusion, poor or nonexistent firewalls and access controls, could cause such a breach.”

He emphasized that on the issue of identity, that most people are fooled easily because the authentic web sites and electronic emails (e-mails) themselves are at best laughable, perceiving a situation where the fake e-mails and web addresses even look more authentic than the original.

Describing the new NAN domain as ridiculing Nigeria in the cyber space, Kalu gave another example with the UK-based British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), saying it has its domain hosted in UK as bbc.co.uk, and wondered why NAN would not apply to register nan.com.ng and stop all forms of speculation once and for all.

Two advantages of .ng:
Assuring on NiRA wherewithal to preserve security-wise any domain within its platform, he cited another instance with the website of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which is www.cenbank.org.

NiRA president insisted that government officials and agencies in the country, should desist from using dot com or any other foreign domain. “Both the new addresses of NAN and the current address of Central Bank are to say the least unfit for the institutions. This is what has made forgery thrive,” he said, drawing attention to the fact that NiRA has two key advantages to offer legitimate firms who want dot ng.

“First is that it is virgin and most if not all companies would get their names as it should be. No unneeded abbreviation. … Secondly for .ng we maintain a zero tolerance for cyber squatting,” Kalu asserted.

Wanted! Cybercrime Act:
Former officer, Directorate of Cyber crime at the presidency, Mr. Basil Udotai said in his reaction that it’s amazing and an evidence that Nigeria needs to urgently implement relevant security measures as hitherto canvassed by experts, which included the fast-tracking of the ICT policy currently undergoing upgrade and passing of the Cybercrime law which has lingered in the National Assembly.

“This is amazing story, and proof that if the country doesn’t take basic steps on information security around the tenets that we have recommended during the past years, this sort of things would continue to happen,” he cautioned.

Wrap up:
As the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), global ICT regulator recently concluded an agreement with the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber-Terrorism (IMPACT) to operationalize Global Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA) with state-of-the-art headquarters in Cyberjaya, Kuala Lumpur, with focus on strengthening core five areas, legal framework, technical measures, organizational structures, capacity building and international cooperation, the fact is that Nigeria has had enough lessons with the two incidents in NAN and it’s apt for the government and private sectors in the country to now pay attention to deployment of .ng domain names.

Moreso, recalling the cracking of Sarah Palin’s yahoomail; Vice Presidential candidate of the Republican Party in the United States 2008 election, at a time the contentious ‘news flash’ was being circulated.

Earlier the patronage of .ng began to receive adequate attentions, coupled with the passing of the updated ICT policy by the government and backed with the relevant regulations as in Cyber crime Act, then and only then, can Nigeria say, it has arrived in the cyber space, since that is the major platform of engagement at this era. Otherwise, Nigerians would remain strangers in this aspect of ICT planet, because once beaten, twice shy.


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MTN, Zain to deploy renewable energy base stations

Two key operators of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) in the country, MTN and Zain, have indicated interest to deploy base stations that use renewable energy under the Green Power for Mobile programme of the GSM Association (GSMA).

An estimated 1,500 base stations worldwide are currently powered by at least one form of renewable energy globally.

The indication emerged at the conclusion of the meeting of operators involved in the Green Power for Mobile programme’s session in Kenya , hosted by Safaricom, currently leading usage of renewable energy for networks with 30 base stations powered by solar and wind energy.

MTN and Zain are also part of the 25 global mobile operators expected to provide expertise for the deployment of base stations that use renewable energy under the initiative.

Spokesman of GSMA, Mr. David Pringle, confirmed this in a press statement, noting that till date, off-grid base stations have primarily been powered by generators running on diesel fuel, which is increasingly expensive, generates carbon dioxide emissions, and could be difficult to transport to remote locations.

He quoted the chief executive officer of GSMA, Mr. Roy Conway as saying that as they strive to bring the benefits of mobile coverage to as many people as possible, operators need to find reliable, sustainable and economic sources of power far beyond the reach of national electricity grids, especially through the Development Fund.

GSMA, he said, has built extensive expertise in solar, wind and other renewable energy sources that mobile operators could benefit from to link up with the unconnected in various parts of the world, reduce operating costs and minimize environmental degradation.

Pringle also noted that following extensive research with mobile operators, the GSMA Development Fund estimated that only 1,500 base stations worldwide are powered by at least one form of renewable energy.

He stressed that the challenges to date included commercial viability, equipment availability and lack of expertise, but the GSMA’s research suggested that rising diesel prices and falling renewable equipment costs mean that operators investing in green power sources for base stations could recoup the capital costs in as little as 24 months.

As said by him, the GSMA Development Fund is already working with several mobile operators to develop renewable power solutions for a variety of base stations located in diverse geographies, comprising Digicel and Idea.

The Development Fund, he said, has supported Digicel’s deployment of wind and solar energy to power 17 new base stations on the Pacific island of Vanuatu.

Commenting on the development, the chief executive of Digicel Vanuatu, Mr. John Delves, noted that as the oil becomes more scarce and expensive, renewable energy will be used more and more to power telecommunications networks anywhere that grid power is not available.

According to him, using alternative power solutions, such as harnessing wind and solar energy, will help lower operational expenditure and reduce environmental effect, giving people in the more remote areas of Vanuatu access to communications for the first time.

Equally, following a successful pilot in conjunction with the GSMA Development Fund and Ericsson, Idea Cellular presently uses waste cooking oil to help power more than 350 base stations in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India , where the conventional electricity supply could be erratic.

Chief Technology Officer of Idea, Mr. Anil K Tandan, said that their base stations run on a blend made up of 80 per cent diesel fuel and 20 per cent waste cooking oil.

“If we can secure enough vegetable oils from sustainable sources, we will move to a blend of 50 per cent diesel and 50 per cent biofuels, which will be better for the environment and for our operating costs,” he said, pointing out that they are also exploring other alternative sources of power to ensure that mobile network continues to be reliable, sustainable and cost-effective.

The major suppliers of base stations have anticipated the growing demand for green networks and have introduced a variety of low-energy products as well as renewable energy power solutions. Just as new entrants are emerging, providing tailored bolt-on power solutions for base stations.

The GSMA said, its developing metrics for “green” base stations, to support operators in their decision-making on providers and products.

MTN and Ericsson recently had an experiment of the renewable base stations in some parts of the Nigeria.


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Dokpesi urges FG to support local production of digital decoders

Chairman, Daar Communications Plc, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, has urged federal government to support the local production of digital satellite television (DSTv) decoders.

Speaking recently at the media unveiling of the DaarSAT pay Tv at the federal capital territory, Abuja, Dokpesi said that this call is more crucial now that broadcasting organisations have been mandated to change from analogue to digital transmission before 2012.

According to him, in South Africa, the government is working toward helping the aged to migrate from analogue to digital, while in the United States, a soft loan has been provided by the government for those who need to migrate.

He lamented that there is no known plan of the federal government to support the citizens and even broadcasting organisations to facilitate the migration to digital broadcasting as recently directed, noting that the discussion on digital migration has been on in the country for about 10 years.

Dokpesi disclosed that his DaarComms is planning to set up a plant locally to bring down the cost of digital decoders in the country.

Therefore, he reiterated the call on the government to subsidize the local production of digital decoders.

Champion Infotel recalls that the federal government had fixed 2012 as the deadline for all broadcasting stations in the country to go digitalas, as such all Tv sets in use has to comply to get better viewing.

Taking the media on a tour of the DaarSAT facility in Abuja, he said, the pay Tv has a master control room that is well backed up for about four times.

Investment currently is at about N20 billion for DaarSAT, even as plan is set for the commissioning of the Pay TV by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, on October 7.

“We can actually have the capacity for 100 channels but we’re starting with 40 channels, just as a building is being structured for news to facilitate AIT news 24 by 7 and a multipurpose hall that could accommodate 1000 persons is being built by Dangote,” he said.

Meanwhile, DaarSAT apart from dangling 40 channels on arrival is offering subscribers Visafone internet access as add-on, just as it commenced test running last week Wednesday, September 17, 2008.

Dokpesi reiterated the decision of the company to Nigerianize the pay TV industry with avalanche of local and foreign contents, noting that DaarSAT has seven satellite dishes linked on to the main dish with optic fibre to enable it deliver as planned and across the Ku and C bands respectively.

According to him, all the 40 channels made up of about eight factual 32 entertainment programming genres, which are premium and monthly subscription would not be more than N5,000, even as DaarSAT decoder would not cost above N36,000 against $1000 (about N117,000) that is obtained among other pay TV service providers who also offer less channels.

“We have four levels of decoders and every buyer would get Visafone with Internet access,” he said, assuring that all the good movies nowadays which come on High Definition (HD) because of digital migration of broadcasting organizations globally are compatible with DaarSAT equipment on ground, even as news stations around the global are covered too,” he said.

“We’re going to give you 40 channels. Prime as they are and expensive as they are, it would not pass N5,000 monthly subscription,” Dokpesi reaffirmed.

As at the date of media launch, he said, all the 40 stations, DaarSAT has relevant Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and paid all related dues as expected including with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

He enumerated some of the 40 channels to include AIT-MoviStar, Daar-StarXpress, Sahara One, Sahara Filmy, B4U Movies, Fox Crime, Fox Entertainment, Luxe TV, Art Channel, Gamzaki Channel, Yoruba channel, NTA, AIT, Channels TV, MBI International, Nickelodeon, Fox Baby Tv, Kidsco, Fuel, Euronews, AIT News.

Others are BBCWorld, Al-Jazera, Fox News, AIT Parliamentary, African Business channel, CNBC Africa, AIT Sports, Fox Sports, Setanta Africa, EurosSportsNews, Quest TV, B4U Music, Fashion TV, SoundCity, Primetime Africa, National Geographic Music, MTV Base, MCM Top and Pop as well as SciTech TV.

Also, Dokpesi explained that the aforementioned channels were chosen out of the desire to offer high-end channels for less, pointing out that CNN was never approached and from African perspective “We have Al Jazera,” stressing that CNN could still be added if subscribers so demanded over time.


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NCC assures on infrastructure security

The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, has said that telecommunication infrastructure would be protected to avoid vandalism that would set the industry back.

Ndukwe said at a stakeholder’s forum on “Vandalism of Telecommunications Infrastructure” in Abuja that the operators also have a great role to play in protecting their infrastructure.

“This means that they must take the security of their data and network seriously, institute corporate security plans and look for ways to collaborate on critical infrastructure protection,’’ he said.

He told the audience that telecommunications infrastructure should be considered as public property of strategic importance and it is criminal to vandalise them.

According to him, NCC would seek support of the security agencies to train those who would help to safeguard the infrastructure.

“The commission would also partner with various security agencies to put a stop to the situation,’’ he said.

As said by him, the operators should reduce competition and look at the inadequacies of each other and collaborate to fight it.

“NCC cannot do everything; it would only regulate and ensure that the system is moving. When you come together to fight the same cause, it will help to solve substantial problems. We will re-visit the law of wilful damage and enforce the law of compensation so that when you are billed for wilful damage, it may not occur again,’’ he said.

Mr. Val Amadi of Etisalat suggested that the commission should direct operators on the construction of their cables as a way forward.

“Operators should submit their drawings to the commission to help identify the defaulter when one damages each other’s cable. NCC should collaborate with the ministry of works, states and local governments to help ensure that telecommunications infrastructure are not damaged while constructing roads,’’ he said.

Mr. Martins Oluwale of Globacom suggested a harmonised policy for cable installation and laws that would make operators live up to their responsibilities.

“There is need to demarcate routes where cables are installed to avoid duplication of installation by operators,’’ he said.

While Mr. Ishaya Bawa of MTEL called for proper care and treatment of telecommunications staff as vandalism could only be done by professionals who knew how it was installed.

“Sometimes, the cause of vandalism may be out of anger,’’ he warned.


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How e-payment compliant is First Bank?

First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Plc could be the acclaimed first in banking penetration in the country but how Information and Communications Technology (ICT) compliant expressed by the bank to lots of its customers is unbecoming of an institution of such magnitude.

An instance of how doubtful FBN compliance to ICT was evident recently when a customer, Mr. Inyang Edet (real names withheld), stormed the banking floor of the refurbished Isolo branch to renew his Interswitch-enabled debit card, better described as electronic payment card, after expiration period was reached only to be reliably informed that it would take up to a month to get that fixed.

In confident, he was advised to go to the Oba Akran branch of the bank where the system for renewal has been installed and could even collect that in matter of hours. He was however unlucky as there were unexpected queue for those seeking to get attention for their various cards.

Eventually, it gets to his turn after waiting for over 45 minutes only to be referred back to the bank of domicile of the account at Isolo, where his details was once again taken and the attendant promised to get back to him through a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) phone.

Approximated six months after, Mr. Inyang is yet to get any Short Messaging Service (SMS) or voice call from the Isolo branch of the bank, even after intermittent checks at the branch to know if the renewed card is ready for collection, all to no avail.

The unfortunate aspect of this attitude is that its not encouraging in a society like Nigeria where the usage of cash is still very high and the likes of Interswitch and some other concerned banks are joining forces to create awareness on how to bring in even the literate few to accept the reality of e-payment solutions available to them and reduce cash handling by banks, which runs into millions of Naira monthly.

Some media reports have it that about 63 bank robbery attacks had been reported this year, 68 policemen who provided escort for bullion vans lost their lives and N3 billion lost by banks to the bandits.

Therefore, it would be dangerous to encourage FBN customers, for instance, to use the bank for electronic dividend (e-dividend) payments, because even in a situation where such dividend payments are made, the likelihood that subscribers of the bank would not be notified of the movement in their accounts is highly possible.

Thus, banks like FBN need to brace up to the need of encouraging the populace to use electronic payment system available to them, because it would not only reduce armed robbery in the society, but make it a better place to live in as vote for handling cash which runs into millions monthly could be divested into better use.


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Deadline approaches for Africa, Europe interest to host ICANN

Deadline is fast approaching for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN’s) call on countries and organisations in Africa and Europe who are desirous of hosting the 2009 version of ICANN public meetings to indicate interest before October 15, 2008.

ICANN, the global internet coordinator, in a press statement said the call for expression of interest is in accordance with its commitment to continuous improvement in the management of meetings, and in response to requests for advanced planning.

“ICANN posts a call for Expressions of Interest to host meetings to be held in Europe on 25-30 October 2009, and in Africa on 7-12 February 2010,” the press statement read.

The objective, ICANN said is to routinely provide advice on locations for meetings 12 months ahead of schedule.

In addition, ICANN said, its public meetings usually draw individuals from around the globe and attract a wide range of participants who follow Internet addressing and policy issues, just as the meetings receive international press coverage and provide an ideal opportunity for participants, sponsors, and hosts to interact on key Internet issues.

ICANN further advised organisations interested in the opportunity to host the Europe meeting in 2009 or the Africa meeting in 2010 should review the full Request for Proposals before submitting an expression of interest.

The specifications outlined in the request for proposals, ICANN said, gave detailed anticipated required elements of its public meeting and the minimum responsibilities of the hosting organisation.

Equally, the internet co-ordinator asked all interested parties to submit a completed expression of interest form via electronic mail (email) to meeting@icann.org for consideration. While inquiries regarding the call should be direct to ICANN meeting staff.

Champion Infotel recalls that ICANN meetings constitute an essential part of the organisation’s global consensus-building, policy development, and outreach efforts.
In a related development, the 2008 ICANN Nominating Committee (NomCom) has announced selections of its board of directors to serve beginning from ICANN Annual General Meeting (AGM) for 2008 until conclusion of the AGM of 2011.

Those selected comprised North American Steve Crocker representing the United States, Katim Touray from Gambia taking the place of Africa.

While members of the new At-Large Advisory Committee include Canadian Alan Greenberg representing North America, United Kingdom based Adam Peake stands in for Europe with the tenure starting this year at the ICANN’s AGM till 2010.

Formed in 1998 ICANN is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable.

ICANN dominantly promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers, but do not control content on the Internet or stops spam.


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PIN to honour 12 Internet safety youth ambassadors

A non-governmental organization focusing on youth empowerment through the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), the Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) has concluded plans to honour 12 youth under its Internet Safety, Security and Privacy Initiative for Nigeria (ISSPIN) Ambassadorship, tomorrow in Lagos.

Executive Director, PIN, Mr. Olugbenga Sesan made this disclosure in Lagos and said the Ambassadors were selected from a call for application made on the project.

“The Ambassadors will be decorated on the red carpet of the ISSPIN event at Planet One on October 25 2008,” he said.

Sesan also said that PIN was concerned over the need to make the internet as safe as possible for Nigerian youths.

“It is often treated lightly by many individuals, corporations, governments and other establishments in developing economies like Nigeria; hence the need to raise awareness through a social campaign,” he said.

According to him, the campaign involves sensitization workshops in selected schools, a one-day event and deliberate follow-up project.

He explained that the project was put together with the support of Microsoft Nigeria and other partners, while it is intended to direct the spotlight to the issue of internet safety, even as it provides a platform for other stakeholders to align forces.

The expected outcomes, he said, would include ISSPIN sensitization workshops in three pre-selected schools across the country, namely Anambra, Ondo and Sokoto states respectively; a one-day event that will draw attention to the issue of internet safety; and a follow up project that will help young people find alternative positive and lucrative use of their internet-related knowledge.

The 12 Ambassadors, he said, would serve for 2008 and 2009 ISSPIN Ambassadorial year and were selected based on their strong visible interest in ICTs; history of commitment to social good, as demonstrated by previous involvements; and their association with the ISSPIN brand will add value to the nation-wide tour, event and project.

He charged the selected youths to support the initiative by spreading the word among their networks and volunteer at events held in and close to their community; be available at the ISSPIN events, especially at the red carpet; willing to participate actively in the post-event projects including leading certain aspects of the projects in their communities.

“To qualify, applicants sent their current resume and a 200-word essay demonstrating their interest in ICTs, showcasing their work with young people and highlighting their role as a model to other young Nigerians, … and sent to info[at]pin.org.ng with the subject: “Application: ISSPIN Ambassador,” he explained.


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MBA launches comprehensive programme

New York-based advocate group for bloggers, the Media Bloggers Association (MBA) weekend announced the launching of a comprehensive programme to provide bloggers access to the same sort legal and financial resources available to traditional media organizations including BlogInsure, a first of its kind liability insurance programme for bloggers which provides coverage for all forms of defamation, invasion of privacy and copyright infringement or similar allegations arising out of blogging activities.

A blog is an abbreviated version of “weblog,” a term connoting web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information and those involve in this have become known as bloggers.

Co-founder and President of the Media Bloggers Association, Mr. Robert Cox, said in a press statement, the cornerstone of the new programme is an online course in media law developed by the MBA in partnership with the Poynter Institute’s News University.

The course, Online Media Law: The Basics for Bloggers and Other Online Publishers, was co-authored by David Ardia of the Citizen Media Law Project, which is jointly affiliated with Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Center for Citizen Media and Geanne Rosenberg of the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism and Baruch College. Whereas Scott Swift of Media/Professional Insurance created an assessment to evaluate the student’s understanding of the material.

“The past few years have seen unprecedented changes in the media landscape,” he said, stressing that from a handful of bloggers in 2000 to tens of millions today, bloggers have been granted full press credentials, broken major news stories, and dethroned high-profile politicians and media figures.

“With that success come greater scrutiny and the inevitable rise in legal threats facing bloggers. In this new environment, blogger access to education, training, legal advisory services and liability insurance is critical to the sustainability of a strong and vibrant citizen media,” Cox said.

He explained that because the MBA believes so strongly that all bloggers should take this course, it is made available at no charge and, although the course is an integral part of the new MBA membership application process, bloggers are not required to join the MBA to take the course.

“Payment of annual dues for MBA membership is not requested until after the course has been completed and bloggers may opt-out of the application process at any time,” he said.

Cox explained that after completing the exam, bloggers would be asked to take a course assessment; while the exam is a prerequisite for individuals interested in joining the MBA so those wishing to join must opt to report their test scores to the MBA.

“It is also the basis for the significant discount on liability insurance available to bloggers through the BlogInsure programme,” he said.

MBA president further explained that by joining the association, individuals have the exclusive opportunity to purchase liability insurance for bloggers through media/professional Insurance, a business unit of the select markets division of AXIS Insurance.

“Insurance will cover costs and damages for claims of defamation, copyright infringement and privacy violation. Media Professional Insurance (MPI), the largest underwriter of media liability insurance in the world, has offered media liability coverage for publishers and broadcasters since 1979, protecting against claims of defamation and infringement,” he said.

“As a leader with over 30 years experience protecting free-speech, it is a natural progression to offer coverage for emerging media such as blogs” according to the Chairman of Media/Professional Insurance, Leib Dodell, pointing out that affordable, readily available and easily accessible coverage was critical in development of the programme.

“Our web-based format allows those interested in BlogInsure to apply, pay for, and get coverage at the click of a button,” he said.


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Promos: Regulator lifts ban on GSM operators

Telecommunications regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has lifted the ban on promotions among the operators of the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM).

Head, Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Dave Imoko, confirmed this in a press statement made available to Champion Infotel, last weekend.

NCC also cautioned the operators to shun promotions that could lead to poor quality of service to the consumer.

This, Imoko said, would attract more stringent ban in the near future for at least six months.

“As this would henceforth attract more stringent ban that will not be subject to review by the Commission for at least six months,” he warned.

Equally NCC advised operators to maintain acceptable level of compliance to the Key Performance Indicators published by the Commission especially with respect to Traffic Channel Congestion (TCC).

Champion Infotel recalls that the warning followed the lifting of the ban on promotions imposed on MTN and Zain with effect from September 15, 2008. Even as NCC had on June 14, 2007, banned promotion on both networks based on unacceptable level of compliance to the Key Performance Indicators on quality of service.

NCC further said the lifting of the ban was on the condition that the two operators continue to “exercise self control and not engage in any promotion that would lead to congestion of the network or deterioration of quality of service generally.”

In addition, the Commission said that before embarking on any major promotions; all the operators would now be required to submit an impact analysis of such promotion on its network with respect to compliance with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as set by the Commission.

“They will also be required to state the duration of such promotions,” Imoko said.
Pointing out that it is not its intention to micro-manage any operator’s business, stressing that its primary responsibility is to protect the consumer and ensure that services are provided at optimum level of quality.


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Abuja set for Commonwealth watchdogs

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja is set to play host to a body of telecom watchdogs as the nation warms up for this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) scheduled to hold next month, between October 6 and 10.

The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Ndukwe who announced this during a chat with newsmen in Lagos recently, also disclosed that the Abuja Commonwealth Information and Communication Technology Summit ’08 incorporates the 6th Annual CTO forum, would be held between October 6 and 8.

With the theme: Ensuring Effective Rural Connectivity for a Socially Inclusive and a Commercially Vibrant Africa, the Forum, he said, would take place at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, will bring together international delegates from 51 CTO member nations comprising policy makers, regulators, operators, financiers, academics, technology and software developers, international aid agencies and civil society organizations.

Some of the topics to be deliberated upon are: Telecom policy and regulatory challenges, next generation network and Internet Protocol (IP) development, mobile and wireless broadband, digital broadcasting, satellite networks, telecom financing, e-governance and software development amongst others.

Additionally, the summit which is one of the largest assemblies of ICT stakeholders in the world would have the first three days for exhibition while the last two days would be for the annual general meeting.

Meanwhile, the summit has attracted an array of telecom operators, equipment vendors, telecom industry associations and banks.

The event being organized by the CTO in collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Communications and the NCC, is expected to be declared open by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

CTO is an international development partnership between Commonwealth and Non-Commonwealth governments as well as civil society organizations, providing the international community with effective means to help bridge the digital divide and achieve social and economic development, by delivering unique knowledge sharing programme in the use of information and communications technologies in specific areas of telecommunications, IT, broadcasting and the Internet.

The ICT summit in the West African sub-region in 2008, CTO Abuja 2008 with the theme “Ensuring Effective Connectivity for a Socially Inclusive and a Commercially Vibrant Africa”, is expected to explore Africa as a fertile emerging market for ICT business.


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Parliamentary staff to learn communication skills

Representatives of parliaments from 13 countries across Africa are attending a workshop in Kampala, Uganda which began on Monday to develop the skills needed to inform Parliamentarians about the scientific aspects of the issues they face in making policy decisions.

The workshop which includes Nigerian participants is being organised by the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS), the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), and SciDev.Net (the Science and Development Network).

Financial support has been provided by the UK-based Gatsby Foundation and SciDev.Net.

The workshop, which takes place from September, Monday 22 to Friday 26, is a response to a need identified by African nations for better communication between scientists and policymakers as part of their efforts to build science and technology capacity.

A key group of policymakers that could benefit from improved communications are members of national parliaments. The purpose of the workshop is therefore to help increase the extent to which policymaking across Africa ­ in areas such as health, agriculture, environmental conservation and climate change — is based more firmly on scientific evidence.

“Parliamentarians are increasingly required to tackle policy issues with a basis in science and technology. They rely to a large extent on parliamentary staff to provide them with the information they need to scrutinise government effectively,” says Chandy Nath of POST.

“Parliamentary staff, therefore, often act as ‘middlemen’ in the communication between scientists and policymakers. However, as few staff come from a scientific background, they may lack the skills needed to relay scientific information effectively to parliamentarians.”

“The main role of the workshop is to provide an introduction to some of the skills required by parliamentary staff to improve the communication process. A secondary function will be to reinforce the importance of communicating with scientists.”

Participants in the workshop have been selected from the staff of African parliaments made up of clerks, researchers and librarians from Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Somaliland, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

The conference opened by Rt. Hon. Edward Ssekandi Kiwanuka, Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Uganda. The Parliament has already been working with POST and other organisations, such as the Ugandan National Academy of Sciences and the UK Royal Society, to identify ways of strengthening its capacity to handle science issues.

The workshop will combine hands-on training from course tutors — such as science communication experts, scientists, and policy advisers — with group discussion where participants share best practice and present their own ideas.

Those addressing the workshop will include Charles Wendo, a science journalist who is the editor of the Saturday edition of New Vision, one of Uganda’s leading newspapers.

The meeting will also hear presentations from Kevin Urama, Executive Director of ATPS, and David Dickson, Director of SciDev.Net, who will present the results of an international survey carried out by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London into the information needs of policymakers.

Teaching material produced for the workshop will subsequently be made widely available, with the aim of stimulating similar workshops in other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. The workshop will be held at the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala.


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Intel reiterates commitment to TAPP

Intel Corporation has reiterated its commitment to its teachers Information and Communications Technology (ICT) empowerment scheme known as Teacher Assisted Personal Computer (PC) Purchase (TAPP) in the country.

African country manager at Intel Corporation, Mr. Devan Naidoo, reaffirmed this commitment while briefing newsmen in Lagos, during his recent official working visit to Nigeria.

“We look forward to getting over 100,000 (teachers) in TAPP by 2012,” he declared.
Naidoo said that based on what has been achieved already that it shows Nigeria is more receptive to the TAPP initiative.

He pointed out that due to this factor, any one who visits any of the benefiting schools in the next five years, “would see we have created a new market.”

According to him, Intel is trying to build on what technology could do for education and the economy, as such, Intel has expanded its horizon from South Africa to Nigeria, Kenya among other African countries and currently looking at Angola, where it has set up an innovative centre as a starting step.

“What we really want to achieve is to let the government know the essence of technology to the economy,” Naidoo said.

In Nigeria, he said, Intel was able to get government talking, but in South Africa, funding was set aside for teachers’ empowerment.

“We cannot talk about ICT in education without the teachers,” he asserted, noting that Internet for instance is no longer only a tool for entertainment but also for learning.

Responding to questions, Naidoo said that Intel’s Centrino 2 enhances Central Processing Unit (CPU) of any PC where it is installed and comes with new graphics quality and chipset that offers the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), also known as the IEEE 802.16 group of standards, which defines a packet-based wireless technology that provides high-throughput broadband connections via the new technology.

He listed some of the benefits of Centrino 2 to include offering of a processor technology that blazes fast video encoding, clear, stutter-free blu-ray among others.

The country manager for Intel, Mr. David Ibawoh, accompanied by the Corporate Affairs Manager for West Africa Region, Mr. Ekundare Olubunmi and Marketing Development manager, Mr. Babajide Olufemi all of Intel Nigeria, said that they are concerned with how the people especially could adopt to technology.

He said the challenging facing the TAPP initiative presently in the country is how to provide .5 million teachers with computers in the next three years.

The challenge of infrastructure, he said, is not helping matters, ‘because we have to look at the problems holistically.”

He expressed optimism that by end of 2008, about 500 government owned-schools must have benefited from the scheme.


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Poor ICT skills, bane of micro finance firms – Adisa

Business Development and Product Manager, ExpertEdge Software, a subsidiary of Computer Warehouse Group, Mr. Bola Adisa, has identified lack of adequate Information and Communications Technology (ICT) skills in the delivery of effective services in the Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in the country, reports CHARLES OKOH.

He also said that the absence of support institutions in the sector, incompetent management, poor corporate governance, insider abuse, weak internal controls, poor credit administration and asset quality, and low management capacity of clients are some of the reasons for failure of microfinance initiatives in the past.

Speaking at a recent seminar held at the Event Place in Lagos, Adisa equally identified Micro Finance Institutions as major components of the strategy for poverty alleviation.

According to him the overall goal of MFIs is to transform small-scale income- earning activities from subsistence living to micro-enterprises that provide jobs for others as well as enabling the poor to become not only income-earners but also employers, thus creating Micro – Entrepreneurs.

He further said that new microfinance policy provides for the setting up of private sector driven microfinance banks (MFBs) to offer services to the poor and low income groups.

Mr. Adisa pointed out that for the microfinance scheme to be successful, the use of appropriate technology has to be employed.

“Appropriate technology is not so much about what technology to use but more on the model employed to use the technology,” he asserted, observing that the use of technology would go a long way in helping MFIs to achieve their goals.

“The value addition of technology in enabling microfinance greatly depends on delivery model, operational efficiency and labour cum technology costs, hybrid, cost-aware approaches and accurate matching of device with target functionality are key success factors in use of technology,” Adisa said.

He listed some banking applications such as Orbit, MIFOS, Finacle and so on, Enterprise Servers & Personal Computers (PCs) - Omatek, Zinox, Dell, SUN and HP and databases (MS SQL, DB2, Oracle).

Adisa went on to say that on communications, the likes of the Internet access, Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs), while on card technologies Automated Teller Machines (ATM) cards, deposit cards come to play, even as the Point of Sales (POS) terminal are some of the technologies available to MFIs.

Adisa whose presentation was titled; Appropriate Technology for Microfinance Institutions, also identified ERP Solutions for Back End Operations (HR, Procurement, etc.), SAP, Oracle, Open Source ERPs, Major Core Banking Solutions SAP, Finacle, Rubicon, Flexcube, T24, etc. Independent Software Vendors, Orbit, Open Source MIFOS: A Grameen Foundation Initiative as some of the software applications.


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Xtracool multi-million academy ready

Local producer of the MTN Xtracool Project Fame Academy in the country, Ultima Studios and partners, have announced the completion of the multimillion Naira stage for the event, to ensure its success.

Chief Executive Officer, Ultima Studio, Mr. Femi Ayeni said in Lagos, weekend, that his firm would in partnership with MTN Xtracool, be organizing and hosting the contestants all through their stay in the academy which has been fully structured to enable them face the task ahead as the academy takes off on Monday, September 29.

According to him, expectations are high as they cannot wait to get the show started. Efforts, he said, have been intensified to ensure that music fans around the world are in for a jaw-breaking experience whilst the event lasted so as to leave globally reckonable and memorable time behind.

He disclosed that the over N100 million worth academy has in place state of the art edifice, specifically designed to suit the purpose and demands of the show.

“It comprise of the main stage brilliantly crafted in a world class design, and the faculty containing some off -the -hook facilities, which will be used to get the contestants trained in every required aspect of musical performances,” he said.

Apart from the physical structure, Ayeni noted that other areas of logistics and planning have also been effectively executed to ensure that both the participants and the viewing audience are presented with the most breathtaking experience they could ever imagine.

“Preparation is quite hectic though, as we have to work extra hard to ensure that everything is in place and that the academy is prepared elaborately. Nigerians are definitely going to have a very exciting experience when the academy kicks off fully,” he declared.

The MTN Xtracool Project Fame West Africa is an effort to bring the popular reality musical TV show closer to the West African audience, particularly to Nigerians so that they could have a better participation as opposed to the initial Project Fame Africa held last in 2004, which had the popular Nigerian Dare Art- Alade and Lemar discovered.

Other stakeholders of the event are Endemor, Ultima Productions, NTA, and Nigezie as the official broadcast partners.


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