Telecom leads in ICT sector

Cover of the week:

As the nation marks its 48th independence anniversary, REMMY NWEKE, looks at some of the events that heralded the season since last year.

In the last one year, Nigeria under the leadership of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who could be said to have inherited a vibrant Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, given the achievement the nation made in the last six years under his predecessor, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

With the present state of things in the sector, as the nation celebrates 48 years of independence, especially in the communication sub-sector, Nigeria is still receiving accolades from both local and international technocrats based on the soaring achievements.

Till date Nigeria is on record as at June 30, 2008, to have had over 54 million connected active mobile lines while as at March 2008, NCC said there were about 60.9 million phone subscribers in the country.

Portable numbering plan:
An issue of concern within the year under review was the planned adoption of portable numbering plan. Commenting on this, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, had said that the proposed introduction of portable national numbering apart from enthroning convergence in the polity would boost market evolution.

Speaking at the four-day workshop organised by NCC in collaboration with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Lagos, Dr. Ndukwe, who was represented at the occasion by the former Communications Minister and NCC commissioner, Chief Olawale Ige, noted that Nigeria as a leading country on the continent in terms of mobile communications, has continued to record success, even as it has surpassed South Africa in terms of mobile subscriber base.

He described the proposed portable numbering plan as a cornerstone for market evolution and growth. The EVC also noted that introduction of numbering is a critical component towards provision of communications services that would impact on how operators conduct business, and services are rolled out as well as how subscribers would behave in the near future.

Strengthening NCC’s regulation:
Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria had identified areas it could strengthen the telecommunications regulatory in the country, so as to improve the Quality of Service (QoS).

Giving this indication, Senate Committee chairman on Communications, Senator Sylvester Ndubuisi Anyanwu, disclosed this at a recent one-day public hearing on Quality of Service in Abuja, and said that his committee had advanced plans to introduce new laws into the regulation of the sector that would tackle complaints against poor telecommunications services by various operators. He stressed that this would be done via strengthening the powers of the telecom regulator to facilitate the application of stiff sanctions against any defecting operator.

As said by him, part of the proposed laws would be to make it mandatory for operators to refund subscribers on established cases of call drops and call terminations or in any clearly established situations of poor service delivery.

NCC vs GSM operators:
Notable was the dragging of the regulator to the law court by two major telecom operators over a directive to pay compensation for poor Quality of Service (QoS).

A federal high court while holding in March 2008 in Lagos, ruled that mobile operators; MTN Nigeria and Celtel Nigeria (now Zain) must compensate subscribers for poor quality of service, by crediting them with N175 each, in accordance with a directive from the Nigerian telecommunications regulator, NCC.

The regulator had in September last year issued a directive to three Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) operators, namely Glo Mobile, MTN and Zain, to reimburse subscribers for services that were below average quality, claiming that it was inundated with complaints from subscribers about poor and unacceptable level of services. But rather than complying, MTN and Celtel filed a suit to halt the directive.

Delivering judgment, the presiding judge at the Lagos Federal Court, D.D. Abutu, who initially stopped NCC from implementing the directive, pending the determination of the case slated to take effect on October 6, ruled in favour of NCC.

While NCC insisted that the two operators failed to achieve required Traffic Channel Congestion (TCH) levels, as measured by the commission’s Key Performance Indicator (KPI). It also directed the operators to pay all of their active subscribers through airtime credit, and that no time limitation shall be placed by the operator on the utilization of such airtime credit.

“All the active subscribers are to be credited between March 1, 2008, and April 15, 2008,” NCC spokesman, Mr. Dave Imoko said.

New entrants and rebranding fever:
One of the new entrants in the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Visafone Limited, claimed it recorded over 1 million subscriber marks within six months of its official commercial launch of services in 12 states and over 40 cities across the six geo-zones, on February 22, 2008.

Head, Corporate Communications, Visafone Limited, Mr. Toni Kan Onwordi, described it as “an unprecedented record in the history of Nigeria’s very vibrant and exciting telecoms sector.” He recalled that the record began on August 1, 2007 when the industry regulator, NCC, handed out a Unified Access License (UAL) to Visafone.

Also, Visafone is known to have acquired some other regional operators like the Cellcom among others.

According to Onwordi, Visafone coverage has grown within six months to 17 states in over 150 cities and now has attained 1 million subscribers which underscored the telco’s uncompromising decision to take its offerings beyond the cities and grow the network.

Equally remarkable was the pre-launch of Etisalat Nigeria’s 0809uchoose, with a promise to replicate what the operator did in Egypt, where it is on record that it achieved millions of subscribers in 12 months after a commercial unveiling.

The 0809uchoose option allows subscribers to reserve special numbers and also a five minutes free airtime for life.

While Celtel in a dramatic repositioning became Zain in August, alongside 14 other networks on the continent. The company said its plan is to become a strong number one brand in Nigeria, according the chief executive officer, Zain Nigeria, Mr. Adebayo Ligali. “We have to be the number 1 … Anything it would cost legitimately is what we would like to pursue,” he said.

He said that Zain as a group aims to be among 10 top telecom operators in the world in the next few years. Stressing that Zain has remained the fastest growing telecom operator among its peers for achieving from 5 million subscribers to 15.5 million. Insisting that Zain embodies peace, beautiful, joy and wonderful, explaining that the name was chosen out of 400 other names, even as the telco targets 110 million across its 22 networks globally.

Reltel was not left out of the rebranding fever, as it became ZOOMmobile, while it recently claiming it attained over 1 million subscribers. Even as Multi-Links has become Multi-Links-Telkom among others, dangling cars and free airtime on subscribers for receiving calls on the network.

Plot against EVC & Glo’s exploit
For some stakeholders the issue of purported plans to remove EVC Ndukwe before the end of his tenure at NCC was a highlight, even as the need to boost local content remain imperative, hence NCC among others are canvassing for broadband adaptation by all, especially in the 36 states of the federation. Obviously the issue of EVC removal did not receive any support from the stakeholders both at home and abroad.

Globacom in June commenced its international operation with a launch in Benin, just as the Ghana network may come live before the end of first quarter of next year. Notable is that Glo’s move heralds the first of its kind that a home grown operator taking its trade offshore.

Wake up call for CPN:
Invariably, the communications sub-sector has remained very active ahead of other within the sector like the core Information Technology (IT) sub-sector.

To this end, the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), repackaged its professional examinations to accommodate online educational component, according to its Registrar and Chief executive, Mr. Sikiru Shehu.

He said that the repackaging is to offer Nigerians, especially the youths more options in being part of the 21st century revolution based on Information Technology (IT) literacy. “CPN has repackaged its professional examinations to make the graduates employment ready,” he said, emphasizing that Nigeria cannot forego IT at this time of development in the country’s quest to be part of the 20 most successful economies by 2020.

Shehu also said that the repackaging provides the exam with the purpose that it would always have recognition at every stage the candidate may decide to stop. “From kindergarten to primary it is now compulsory for pupils to be taken on English Language, Maths and Computer Science,” he said, noting that CPN was not ignorant of lack of teachers at this level thereby encouraging heads of kindergarten and primary schools to approach CPN for collaboration.

He, however, said that a big challenge here is non-availability of teachers to teach computer studies, just as there is now a window for those who could not gain admission into the universities due to their inability to either pass the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) exams or make their papers as well as those who could not scale through the post-JAMB entrance exams of various universities.

He listed the pre-professional levels to include Computer Literacy Certificate (CLC), Computer User/Proficiency Certificate (CUC) and Computer Affiliate Examination (CAE). Within the CUC level, he listed about 12 specialization candidates could take interest in consisting Computer Secretarial Practice, Computer Desktop Publishing, Computer Utilization, Computer Operation & Programming, Office Productivity Expert, Website Development Expert, CAD Expert, DeskTop Publishing (DTP) Expert, Programmers, system audit expert, PC Maintenance expert and network expert.

This is coming as the EVC of NCC, said that about 4000 teachers have benefited from training offered by the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) since inception.
The Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) in efforts to showcase its reach nationwide took its Annual General Meeting (AGM) and international conference to Ogun State, which was described as a flop according to reports.

While the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) held an Annual General Meeting (AGM) which culminated in re-election of Mr. Lanre Ajayi as its President in addition to persistent on the need to promote local content via its pet-project, Internet for Job (I4J) initiative.

Also, the Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) began campaign to register Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) in the country, which currently is receiving industry attention under NCC.

Toure visits Nigeria:
The year under review saw the Secretary General of ITU, Dr Hamadoun Touré in Nigeria for a three-day official visit from Thursday, April 10 to Saturday April 12, 2008. Dr Touré met with top government officials in the country to draw attention to the Connect Africa Initiative of ITU.

This was the first time the Secretary-General of the ITU, the world telecommunications regulatory body, officially visited Nigeria since the establishment of the United Nations agency. Dr Touré met with President Umaru Yar’Adua, as well as other top government officials including the Minister of Information and Communications and the board and management of NCC in Abuja.

Equally, he met Chief Executive Officers of leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies at a dinner hosted in his honour in Lagos.

Touré also visited projects related to the ITU Connect Africa Initiative such as the Digital Bridge Institute, the Digital Awareness Projects of the NCC and some Universal Access Projects of the Nigerian civil society.

Noteworthy was that Toure’s visit coincided with the period Nigeria attained the position of the largest telecommunications market on the continent, overtaking South Africa in number of active connected lines, as at January 2008.

Power engineers must emulate telecom counterparts:
Given that power is one of the 7-point agenda of Yar’Adua, it was time for experts to look inwards, according to the Chief Executive Officer, Telecom Answers Associate, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu. He said the engineers in the power and energy sector should emulate their counterparts in the telecommunications sector.

Addressing members of the Abuja branch of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) recently as a guest speaker, at the opening of the Engineering Week and AGM, Omo-Ettu who dwelt on “Energy Crisis and Economic Development: the Nigerian Telecommunication Development as case study,” urged them to take up their rightful place in positioning the nation’s power sector by canvassing for genuine liberalization in that sector.

He noted that the power challenge in the country has graduated from being a mere problem to crisis and now has deteriorated to the level of emergency. “Nigerian engineers should admit responsibility for the power situation in the country and go to government with a comprehensive blueprint, asking to be given whatever they require to solve the problem,” he advised, warning however that they should not claim “knowledge of the energy sector” in isolation.

In addition, he revealed that a total of 210 Internet Service Providers (ISP) licensees were yet to take off in the country, about two years after they were granted licenses, citing the Internet Access to all Report of ISP Audit of 2006.

Omo-Ettu whose firm championed the study said that about 96 ISP licensees had their businesses short down prematurely due to poor public power supply.

He attributed the stunted growth of the telecom industry to the power crises, noting that Nigeria should have had more feasible Internet Service Providers (ISP) than what it has now.

Conclusion:
Although the federal government announced the celebration of 48th year of Nigeria would be low-keyed, the commemoration, however, would afford the government of Yar’Adua the chance to restrategize in finding a lasting solution that would spur economic growth.

Precisely, what the aforementioned differences and difficulties facing stakeholders, mostly in ICT sector indicate is that apart from the telecom operators who invariably have become investors delight, other sub-sectors of the sector are not enjoying the same patronage from the international community and government, be it hardware or software, basically due to epileptic power delivery.

Therefore, it would be appropriate and wise if NSE alongside the government could join forces to liberate the nation from this mess and give more life to ICT growth and various industries generally.


ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

SAP outlines ICT strategies for oil & gas

Leading provider of business software solutions, SAP, has outlined its Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) strategies for the oil and gas sector in the country.

Solution Manager at SAP, Terence Ogle, said in Lagos, last weekend, during an executive breakfast briefing on corporate ICT strategies for oil and gas sector, that the firm understands the workings of the sector very well, hence it’s offering appropriate solutions.

Dwelling on “SAP Oil and Gas Strategic Themes –Responding to Market Challenges” Ogle noted that SAP offers the complete solution in its engagement model which enables the firm to understand business requirements.

According to Ogle, SAP also assesses where most value could be extracted and develop requisite roadmap to align with technology based on business priorities.

On the oil and gas overview, Ogle described the sector as a vital contributor to the overall energy ecosystem, pointing out that the key challenges in the oil and gas industry evolves on its dynamics and performance demands which focus on assets performances and operations.

SAP, the solution manager said, responses to industry challenges and value proposition through strategic imperatives it has developed for oil and gas industry.

“SAP oil and gas business process platform matches any oil and gas industry capabilities,” the manager declared.

Ogle further said, the oil and gas industry solution map 2008 for up-stream solution portfolio, for instances, covers refining and manufacturing portfolio, downstream solution portfolio, supply, transmission and trading service station and convenience retailing portfolio.

“Our value proposition includes a strategic, business focused partnership, a high quality, comprehensive and proven solution that offers the opportunity to achieve substantial business benefits,” Ogle said.

In addition, the solution manager said that this could be achieved at a low risk approach that provide early business benefit.

Strategic imperatives for oil and gas sector, Ogle pointed out, avails companies to maximize their Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), while meeting the energy supply challenge.

Equally, it affords the optimization of investment portfolio to meet both strategic and financial objectives with manageable risk, exercising control over escalating capital costs with speed project delivery from concept to on-stream are kept under manageable instance.

Just as it enables collaboration globally and across ecosystem to deliver superior quality projects that meet the changing demands.

Clients, Ogle emphasized would maximize operational efficiencies, while SAP offers visibility and performance management across breadth and depth of enterprise assets.
Deployment of a proven methodology, the manager noted, saw to the success story of the likes of JVA at Statoil, by saving time and money with SAP’s Joint Venture Accounting solution.

SAP, Ogle said, helps to identify and share best practices across the enterprise among other)s.

Currently, SAP prides itself with over 46,100 customers in over 120 countries.


ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Ericsson, UN team up on mobile health

Ericsson has joined hands with the United Nations Office for Partnerships to use telecommunications to bring mobile-health applications and services (m-health) and telemedicine in rural Africa.

Manager, Marketing and Communications, Ericsson West Africa, Mr. Olabode Sowunmi Jnr, while disclosing this, weekend, said that as a founding member of the UN’s Digital Health Initiative (DHI), Ericsson is taking another step in its ongoing commitment to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which aim to reduce global extreme poverty.

The Digital Health Initiative (DHI) is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) that works to create innovative models for the development and delivery of global health to millions in developing countries.

This, would be critical to help achieve those MDGs that are related to health, which specifically address the need to tackle diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other infectious and communicable diseases, reduce child mortality, and improve maternal health.

He said that the MDG named “Develop a global partnership for development” also points out the vital role that the private sector could play, especially in terms of information and communication technology, in meeting the other goals.

Mobile communications, he noted have proved to make a positive difference to people in developing countries, enabling cost-effective access to basic services, such as health, particularly in rural areas where there is little or no infrastructure.

A key goal of the DHI, he said, is to confront the diseases of poverty more efficiently and effectively. Engaging the private sector is seen as critical to reaching this goal. Mobile communications in particular can empower individuals, communities, health workers and health institutions to streamline knowledge capture, collection and communication in the field of health.

According to him, as the leading telecom provider, Ericsson would use its expertise to spearhead the initiative’s technology stream, and will explore the use of mobile communications to deliver telemedicine to rural communities, to help to improve access to and delivery of emergency and general health services, assist with disease surveillance and control, enhance the collection of basic health data such as birth and death registration, and deliver mobile learning to health workers in remote areas.

He pointed out that Ericsson’s experience in India and Bangladesh showed that even people with an average income of USD 1.25 per day could have access to medical care with the help of mobile connectivity.

Sowunmi in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online quoted the Ericsson President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Carl-Henric Svanberg, as saying “Telecommunications play a vital role in facilitating access to health services, which help end the cycle of poverty and empower communities to improve their own social and economic situations. This initiative reflects Ericsson’s ongoing commitment to harnessing our technical leadership to develop sustainable business models that bridge the digital, and health, divides.”

Also, Executive Director of the UN Office for Partnerships, Amir Dossal, said they believe the DHI will form the basis of a strategic framework for new model partnerships across the ICT, pharmaceutical and health-technology sectors with a view to concrete deliverables in the accelerated delivery of the health-related MDGs.

“In this regard, the United Nations sees Ericsson as a core strategic partner in the emerging field of digital health for development,” Dossal said.


ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

CNP unveils Digital democracy in 3 cities

Computerize Nigeria Project (CNP), an initiative of Zinox Technologies Limited, has launched its latest project, the Digital Knowledge Democracy (DKD) in three cities, namely Abuja, Enugu and Lagos.

Also unveiled were sets of windable Freeplay educational projects including touch, radio and table lamp as well as Classmate laptop from Intel.

According to the Chairman of Zinox, Chief Leo Stan Ekeh, DKD is a huge independence anniversary gift to Nigerians from his firm and a solution-filled package designed to meet every Information Technology (IT) consumer at his or her point of need.

Chief Ekeh who unveiled DKD at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, also said it’s a bold-hearted bouquet that recognizes and seeks to enhance the pace of IT penetration in the country.

“It is an effort to guide Nigerian citizens, corporate and individual, through the network of technology, and ensure that they choose and buy only what is right for their situation,” he said, adding that the simultaneous launch took place at
Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, Adeyemi-Bero Auditorium, Alausa, Lagos, and Zodiac Hotel, Enugu.

Ekeh further said that the pace of change in technology is very fast and could be confusing to the consumer, explaining that the DKD professionally analyses the needs of the consumer and makes sustainable prescriptions that are affordable with flexible payment terms.

The first phase of DKD entitled e-School Project, he said, comes on the heels of the nation’s 48th independence anniversary, to draw attention to the choices embedded in the package designed to help schools to attain world-class standards without the usual financial stress.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure like computer laboratory, digital library, website domain, school portals and the Zinox wireless cloud are offered with tangible incentives that include free training, free website designs, free e-mail for senior staff and free internet access up to 1 kilometre (km) radius.

Also, he explained that the e-School project offers a staff computerization and a students’ computer ownership schemes respectively. Stressing that one of the novel additions to this offer was the Zinox Wireless Cloud, which provides internet connectivity up to 1 km radius thus injecting hyper-activity into the environment.
Performing the launch of e-School project in Lagos and Enugu, the chief executive officer, Computerize Nigeria Project (CNP), Mrs. Vivian Abii, enlightened that the project was another testimony of the commitment of the organization, to IT penetration in Nigeria.

Mrs. Abii noted that no IT company has invested on marketing themes and schemes as much as the CNP, resulting in the provision of, most times, discounted and subsidized systems to consumers.

She further said that the e-School project was a special anniversary gift for educational institutions, at primary and post-primary, urging schools to take advantage of the e-School bouquet of benefits.

She singled out the ZX Portal which opened the way for a range of online student teacher interactions from admissions, to lectures, to school administration, to intra and inter campus connectivity, revealing that the first point of contact for international and other assessor agencies is the school‘s website and the CNP would completely take the website design off the schools.

Mrs. Abii emphasized that free training is a major benefit of the e-School Project.
In Enugu, Mrs. Abii informed that state officials and stakeholders in education that the huge ICT opportunities embedded in DKD would not be exclusive to schools alone as state and local governments, churches, hospitals, estates, office complexes, sports facilities and so on, could take advantage of this bold strategy to enhance productivity and bring about real development in the country.

The Computerize Nigeria was set up in 2001 by the board of Zinox Technologies Limited to catalyze the adoption of the computer as a major tool of work and play.

The CNP has remained in the forefront of ICT penetration in Nigeria; donating laboratories to many schools, obtaining subsidies and passing same to consumers as discounts, working assiduously to change the face of education in Nigeria through the CNP partnership with the Federal Government.


ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

APC holds product roadmap session

Global leader in critical power and cooling services, APC by Schneider Electric recently in Lagos held its products roadmap sessions, to educate local resellers on its end-to-end solutions offering and Reliability Partner Programme (RPP).

Speaking at the occasion, Regional Director, Africa at APC by Schneider Electric, Mr. Carl Kleynhans, said that at the RPP level, resellers have access to a range of benefits, such as personalized web pages, which provide them with information at their fingertips, enabling them to proactively search information on a daily basis, or as often as they require, without having to contact APC or its partners.

“Although we do send regular e-mail newsletter informing dealers of special offers and updated information pertaining strictly to the region, we believe that this added level of independence is a great step for our local resellers,” he said.

According to hi, not only could they now check for upcoming tradeshows and company events in their regions, but they could also keep tabs on current industry news, as well as read the latest local press releases and product information.

“Our website is a major delivery vehicle for our Reliability Provider Programme,” Kleynhans declared, adding that another major advantage to the local channel is “our web-based reseller locator, which end users can access to find all contact details for our dealers.”

Equally speaking, APC’s Manager, English Speaking Area and Service Centre West and Central Africa and Indian Ocean, Mr. Paul-Marie Dable, emphasized that companies across Africa would do well to look at the line interactive uninterruptible power supply (UPS) when on the lookout for a power protection solution to safeguard homes and businesses from the hardware damage and data loss associated with lightning strikes and power outages.

“The line interactive UPS has an improved design that is commonly used in both homes and businesses,” he said.

Dable pointed out that one of the major advantages to this type of UPS is Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR), a device that boosts and trims the power without using the battery.

He explained that AVR protects a computer from damage and loss of data by monitoring incoming electricity, smoothing out high and low voltage conditions and ensuring delivery of only safe, “clean” electricity. A wide range of errant line voltage levels such as brownouts, surges, or spikes are converted by AVR into safe electricity for your computer.

In addition, the line interactive UPS is also available in sizes up to around 3,000 VA and offers a number of benefits over other UPS topologies, including size, durability and low cost.

In this type of unit, the separate battery charger, inverter and source selection switch have all been replaced by a combination inverter cum converter, which charges the battery and converts its energy to AC power for the output as required. When the line power is operating, the inverter cum converter charges the battery. When the power fails, it operates in reverse.

The main advantage of this design is that the unit is always connected to the output, powering the equipment. This design allows for faster response to a power failure than a standby UPS, filtering out noise and spikes as well as regulating the power output, providing additional power during brownouts and curtailing output during surges.

Additional benefits of the line interactive UPS include lower electricity consumption, meaning that the UPS is less costly to operate and is more efficient due to using less power. This UPS is also theoretically more reliable due to a lower component count and lower operating temperatures which produces less heat.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

ZOOMmobile commends ATCON

Group Managing Director (GMD), Reliance Telecommunications Limited, trading as ZOOMmobile, Chief Tony Okonkwo, has commended the leadership of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) in its efforts at stimulating rapid growth of telecommunications industry in Nigeria.

Receiving the executive of ATCON in his office last weekend, led by its National President, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, Chief Okonkwo gave kudos to ATCON for its well-conceived programmes and activities which have often promoted intellectual exchanges and knowledge sharing that has helped in enabling sustainable development of the information and communications technology (ICT) sector in the country.

He noted that a strong industry association has become imperative for creating understanding and industrial harmony amongst competing operators in a rapidly developing sector such as the Nigerian telecommunications industry.

Okonkwo pledged to ensure that ZOOMmobile shows higher interest in ATCON being one of the frontline members of the association, he extolled the patriotic zeal of ATCON’s NEC in tackling issues relating to the growth of the industry.

ATCON, he said, is a very vital advocacy platform for shaping public policies that affect the sector and should therefore be encouraged and given the necessary support to enable it function optimally in the discharge of its programmes and activities in the best interest of the ICT sector in the country.

He confirmed his company’s active participation in the upcoming ComBIT 2008 expo being put together by ATCON and promised to appoint a staff of the company as its representative in ATCON to attend all meetings and participate effectively in all events.

Speaking earlier, Dr. Ekuwem said the visit was an opportunity for ATCON’s NEC to congratulate the management and staff of ZOOMmobile for putting the fire incidence that gutted the company’s network and property a few years ago behind them through exhibition of much resilience, courage and managerial dexterity that have today seen the company repositioning and re-branding to stay ahead of competition.

Ekuwem also observed that without a strong sense of commitment and unbroken focus, the company could have gone down with the disaster that befell it, expressing gladness that the company came out even stronger to the joy and pride of its teeming stakeholders and the association of which the company is a member.

He noted that ZOOMmobile’s rapid expansion of services to many parts of Nigeria, gave rise service penetration and the nation’s teledensity, as well as creating jobs and business opportunities for thousands of Nigerians, thus helping to create wealth and alleviate poverty in the land.

Ekuwem explained that ComBIT 2008 expo, the annual international ICT exhibition and conference organised by ATCON, offers a veritable and cost-effective platform for Zoom Mobile to re-launch its cutting edge services and new corporate identity to a high networth audience that will gather at the expo.

Ekuwem lamented the absence of a mega ICT event in Nigeria which the whole world looks forward to attending every year. He also noted the absence of an international expo centre that competes with what obtains in other parts of the world.

“ATCON’s vision for ComBIT expo is for the whole ICT sector in Nigeria to team up and grow an event that would attract global attention to Nigeria every year. This is one major way we can attract more foreign investments into our nation’s economy,” Ekuwem submitted.


ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Etisalat goes to India

As Etisalat Nigeria website continues to attract a beehive of activities with the surge to acquire 0809uchoose, Etisalat Group has announced its entrance into the Indian market.

The inroad was made possible with Etisalat’s acquisition of 45 per cent stake in the Swan Telecom Private Limited, a recently licensed mobile operator in India.

Head, Communications at Etisalat Nigeria, Mrs. Nwugo Nwoke, said in a press statement that the Group committed $900m (about N105.3 billion) to further extend its presence in Asia in addition to its present operations in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Indonesia.

She quoted the Chairman of Etisalat Group, Mr. Mohammad Hassan Omran as saying that the entry into India, one of the largest and fastest growing mobile markets in the world today, marks an acceleration of its expansion strategy.

This, he said, brings an opportunity which matches the scale of the telco’s ambitions.

“We are truly excited by the partnership with the DB Group and the prospect of building Swan Telecom into a leading telecom operator, emulating the successes we have achieved in similar situations elsewhere” he said.

ITRealms Online recalls that India has nearly 300m mobile phone users currently, and is expected to double in the next three to four years.

On the other hand, Swan Telecom holds Universal Access Service Licenses (‘UASL Licenses’) in 13 telecom service areas in India and is in the process of acquiring UASL Licenses in an additional two telecom service areas.

Commenting on the development, Chairman, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Hakeem Bello Osagie, said that he is proud of the giant strides Etisalat is making globally.

“As Etisalat is just about set to launch commercial services in Nigeria, we are in a stronger position than ever before to leverage the synergy of Etisalat’s international operations to offer Nigerians high quality telecommunications services,” he said.

Over the years, Etisalat has continued to build its reputation of high growth and innovative technology offerings across the world, and now serves an aggregate of 64 million subscribers world-wide, rated the fastest growing telco worldwide.


ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Women and battle for place in ICT

Features of the week:

A colloquium was held recently in Lagos to deliberate on the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to achieve women agenda in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). REMMY NWEKE reports that African women are still yearning for their rightful place in ICT sector.


“At present, a huge gender gap exists in access to communications. Infrastructure is concentrated in urban areas while the majority of women live in rural areas,” Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, Director, Information Technology, Federal Ministry of Information and Communications, Abuja.

Canvassing for more women in ICT:
ABOVE was the submission of one of the concerned Nigerian women on efforts at “Mobilizing Nigerian Women for the Millennium Development Goals” as they agitated for more of their gender participation within the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) sector.

With the above premise, Mrs. Odusote took participants at the recent forum organised by Technology Africa into the world of women in ICT, especially in what the future portends for this gender in attaining the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ultimately by 2015. Although Nigeria alongside other developing countries of the world recently agreed to peg the deadline at 2012, in order to give room for reassessment by 2015.

In every sector of human and institutional development, she noted that the role of women is pivotal, hence, its imperative that women cannot be left out if the goals are to be really achieved.

She also underscored the fact that by the emergence of ICT revolution, “importance of mainstreaming gender in ICTs cannot be overemphasized.” Adding that it would amount to a grave mistake to assume that the benefits of Information Society will trickle down to the marginalized communities, precisely women living in the rural areas, given the huge gap that exist in having access to communication tools.

Women mentoring relevance to MDGs:
Mrs. Odusote who was the nation’s first point of contact for the .ng country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), outlined some relevant MDGs to women, including eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases as well as ensuring environmental sustainability and budding of a global partnership for development.

In order to mobilize Nigerian women against the backdrop of the IT age, she outlined the need for a life cycle approach, mentoring, MDGs and ICT for Development (ICT4D); service delivery, promoting education and public health services bundled with ICT.
Life cycle approach for girls, she said, must be encouraged to embrace technology and deconstruct gender stereotypes before school age, noting that gender-based role conceptions and so-called division of labour on the basis of such conceptions between men and women are formed in early childhood.

“This is one of the reasons why we cannot overemphasize the significance of early intervention,” she said, stressing that early childhood educators play a major role in the promotion of gender equality.

According to her, mentoring is vital to encourage people to manage their own learning so as to maximize their potential, develop skills, improve performance and grow to be the person they want to be. She invited successful women to mentor others, especially younger ones by sharing direct experience about the benefits and difficulties of studying and working in a dedicated sector like ICT.

This, Mrs. Odusote said, must be voluntary and based on learning and encouraging individual responsibility towards the management of self-development, describing a mentor as a “listener, advisor and guide; a person with a flexible approach, prepared to deal with the opportunities of progress and change.”

ICT, she said, plays a fundamental role in promoting investment, which is key to alleviating poverty within the MDG idea, even as Nigeria is currently developing a plan with policy objectives focused on transparent, stable and effective legal operating environment that promotes private sector business and investment in the sector.

Additionally, she said that the policy would engender cultivation of a culture of electronic commerce, thereby making business transactions easy, quick and cost effective.

On e-health, Mrs. Odusote stressed the need to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health through application of ICT, mostly in the rural communities.

“It is accepted that some of the most promising and clearly demonstrated applications for ICT in development are in improvements of health care delivery especially in the facilitation of remote consultation, diagnosis and treatment,” she said, underlining that connectivity is central to e-health initiatives, which must meet the local situations both socially and culturally among others.

China example for Nigerian women enterpreneurs:
For the Chief Executive Officer, Omatek Computers Plc, Mrs. Florence Seriki, its apt for Nigerian women to take a critical look at participating in small and medium scale enterprises especially by going into small scale production of raw materials.
This step, she said, would make them to be significant in the burgeoning ICT sector, advising that women small-scale entrepreneurs could start byway of concentrating on small production such as knots and screws in order to attain global importance as far as ICT is concerned.

Mrs. Seriki also cited an instance with China, where the citizens commenced small businesses by producing little products with specialisation that has made the country reputed among others economically.

She equally counseled Nigerian women on the need to form local clubs and cooperatives to be able to access funds from banks or even set up small-scale enterprises and specialize in the production of raw materials to pave the way for bigger factory in the future.

Mrs. Seriki who presided over the session further cautioned potential women entrepreneurs to shun the desire to make quick money by compromising on standards of whatever product they choose to produce. “Desist from doing so because these products cannot meet global standards,” she warned, noting that ICT is not gender biased.

“So women should take the opportunity of the emerging IT revolution and announce themselves,” she declared.

Nigerian women and vision 20-2020:
Also speaking, research specialist at the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Mrs. Omowunmi Hassan, noted that MDGs represents a global consensus on human rights and global development with the potential of dramatically improving the lives of millions of people who are currently denied dignity and opportunity, mostly women, who are also likely to benefit from the Millennium Declaration.

“If urgent action is not taken to address gender issues in development, the MDGs may not be effectively achieved,” she said, pointing out that the call for advancement of women through mobilization should not be for MDGs alone, because it is very crucial to attaining all other development goals like the vision 2020 of the Federal Government and the proposed seven-point agenda of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

The challenge today for women, especially in Nigeria, she said, lays in tapping the windows that open into the virtual world for connecting new platforms for solidarity in a global village ruled by knowledge and information. This, she noted, has become a key resource imperative for socio-economic realities in the 21st century.

“No doubt, there is a wide consensus that new ICTs can play important role in reducing poverty, improving education and healthcare, enhancing political participation and empowerment as well as promoting sustainable development,” Mrs. Hassan said.

Knowledge society and the rest of us:
Emphasising that this position was propelled by the attention of the United Nations in year 2000 to adopt a Ministerial Communiqué on the role of information technology in the context of a knowledge-based economy.

According to her, as long as the majority of the world population still resides in poverty and remains unreached by the benefits of ICT and undefined inequalities. “Within countries and among groups within countries and regions, the most overlooked and ignored disparity is the one that exists between men and women,” she said, highlighting that this contributes immensely to differential access, participation and treatment for both sexes in Information Society.

Elucidating her point, she said that majority of women have no purchasing power, no access to modern means of communication and are further excluded from the mainstream of ICT evolution, adding that such challenges like literacy and education, language barrier, time constraint as women are involved in time-consuming activities in the core economy as well as the cost of accessing ICTs, certain social and cultural norms prohibiting women from using public access points and the urban bias in connectivity.

“Without women’s participation in decision-making in all spheres of life and all levels of society, poverty will not be eradicated nor will all-inclusive information society emerge,” she envisaged, calling on all women to come together in groups and form coalitions that would assist their gender to achieve the peculiar MDGs in various communities, but beginning from the homes.

Women must power-up:
Hence, in powering up, Hassan said, women must synergise to achieve the MDGs, especially with the immense tools and opportunities provided by ICTs, just as this involves prioritisation of women issues in the national agenda, urging women and young girls to appreciate the essence of knowledge and skill development in IT for a competitive advantage, “so that we all can raise our voices like the Uganda women in their ‘Stand up, Speak out’ approach for the purpose of addressing each of the MDGs.

“The sky is our beginning if we can decide to power up using new technologies provided in ICTs to mobilize and enhance the capacity of other women in Nigeria as well as utilizing the basic ICTs at our close reach like the television, radio and the Internet,” she urged.

Women ICT project under-funded:
She was convinced that women’s ICT rights are under-funded and cited an instance with the survey conducted recently by the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), which focused on “Where is the money for women’s right? Strategic Initiative,” Hassan noted that this encompassed the field of ICT and gender.

Women’s organisations and movements, she said, have historically been key actors in the advancement of women’s rights, gender equality, social justice and development, even as these roles have been threatened by the growing challenges to obtain resources that support this work.

According to her, AWID was aware of these challenges thus sees that the dominant sense is one of scarcity: too few interested funders, with too little money to support existing women’s rights initiatives. She noted that AWID in the bid to respond positively to this need, went to town with survey in 2006.

The outcome, she said, was that apart from availing them a better understanding of funding trends for women’s rights work and how best to expand the resource base for feminist movement and women’s rights organisations, “They had since learnt that the challenges of the current funding landscape are many; including decreasing support for women’s rights organisations among almost all sectors of funders in most regions.”

While tasking Nigerian women on the way forward, she said, “We must find alternative, more collective ways of approaching resource mobilisation that both expand the pool of resources for women’s organisations generally, and strategically influence donor agendas.”

Women’s Rights Organisations Working on ICT:
Mrs. Hassan further said that based on AWID’s recent survey, for instance, out of the 958 women’s organisations which responded, only 161 mentioned to work on ICT, accounting for 17 per cent of the sample. The regional distribution of these organisations are as follows: Africa 43 per cent, Asia 12 per cent, Latin America and the Caribbean 19 per cent, Middle East and North of Africa 6 per cent, Central/Eastern Europe 16 per cent and 4 per cent in North America and Western Europe. Only one organisation did not identify the region it belongs to.

Within that particular group, two-thirds of the organisations had annual budgets of less than USD50,000 in 2005.

Stressing the importance of women’s organisations within the information society, she cited Nancy Hafkin and Sophia Huyer in their 2007 reports, which stated that it’s crucial to sustainable long term development. “Everyone will benefit if women engage in and actively contribute to the knowledge society. If they do not, society will be deprived of their full creativity, perspective and experience, and women will not be able to play a role in designing, creating and developing science and technology (S&T) that affects every aspect of their lives and determines their life opportunities,” part of the report read.

Additionally, the data was clear that women organisations working on ICT live and work with limited resources.

Submission:
Above all, it is crucial for all stakeholders to join hands, with all women groups by supporting women globally and in developing economies like Africa, given the large numbers of them yearning for encouragement.

This would also boost women participation in ensuring that most societies like Nigeria gets close to, if not realizing their dream of becoming part of the 20 most developed economies by 2020.


ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

ICT4D: Akwa-Ibom State reiterates commitment to citizen empowerment

The government of Akwa Ibom State, has reiterated its commitment to continuously position the state as the when it comes to using Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D) in changing the lives of the citizenry.

Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr. Samuel Efanga restated this position, during a working visit of some three sites where work on the state’s science park is on-going. He witnessed demonstration of some of the completed projects, including telephone booths.

Mr. Efanga expressed satisfaction at the level of work carried out by the contractor and its partners in the country, noting that the project, when completed, will not only put Akwa-Ibom State ahead of others in ICT4D, but also empower its citizens and create wealth for the populace.

Champion Infotel recalls that about four years ago, the Akwa-Ibom state government, commenced the plan to set up science parks in the state and connect all government offices with internet, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and video conferencing, with a plan to extend same to all local government areas in the state.

The contract was awarded to SBT Juul Africa and since then, however, a lot of efforts have been made to ensure speedy completion of the project, which earned the current Governor, Mr. Godswill Akpabio a prize of digital governor recently.
The completed first phase of the project, powers up the Ministry of Science and Technology, the State House of Assembly and the State Government Annex.

At the instance of the contractor, SBT Juul Africa, the supervising ministry, the Ministry of Science and Technology were invited for a test run of the first phase of the project.

Speaking to newsmen after the visit, the Commissioner who had earlier demonstrated the use of VoIP via telephone from the State House of Assembly to the State Ministry of Science and Technology, explained that the project is intended to provide internet access, VoIP and Video Conferencing to all state ministries with plans to extend it to the local government areas of the state.

The design, he said, is to facilitate e-government in the state.

“I am impressed with the state-of-the-art technological facilities that have been installed and running. The state government is investing heavily in the project and it is fully committed to the funding of the project,” Efanga said.

As said by him, the project would enable infrastructure development for the state and the idea is to link all state government offices and the local government areas with one network, such that the governor or permanent secretary to any of the ministries could decide to hold video conferencing with staff of the same ministry from the comfort of their various offices.

He cited an instance that the Governor could hold video conferencing with various Commissioners and Directors in various ministries from the comfort of his office, without necessarily inviting all of them to a physical conference room.

All these, he said, will lead to industrial revolution in the state and spur wealth creation and attract foreign and local investors to the state in the area of manufacturing, while government in turn will provide the infrastructure and the enabling environment for their businesses to thrive.

The Commissioner further noted that presently, Nigeria depends so much on oil revenue, and promised that with the digital project of developing Akwa Ibom State-owned Science Parks, the state will be looking at alternative sources of revenue generation.

He appreciated the state governor, Godswill Akpabio who is known for his belief in the digital project, as well as his commitment to it, assuring that within a short time, the project will be completed.

“This is just the completion and inspection of the first phase of the project and the idea is also to transform Uyo, the state capital into a mega city,” he said.

Also speaking at the session, the chief executive officer, Teledom Group, partner to SBT Juul Africa, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, commended the governor for believing in the project of his predecessor and for continuing with it.

No nation, Ekuwem said, could grow effectively if there is no continuity in governance, stressing that the Governor is not called ‘digital governor’ for the fun of it, explaining that he has been in the forefront of technology drive for the country, having assumed the position of Publicity Secretary of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) some years ago and has organized several Information Technology (IT) events for the country.

He also said the planned Science Park is to provide enabling environment for knowledge workers to design and develop their ideas.

“What knowledge workers need do is to walk into the science park and begin the process of development either as software developer, systems engineer, or hardware developer. It will save them the stress of looking for an office space and the difficulties in raising money over a period of years to kick start their knowledge development business,” he said.

Ekuwem, further said, that virtually everything needed to advance technology will be found in the science park, which he listed to include library, research department, incubation centre, cyber café, offices, recreation centre among others.

Director for African Projects at SBT Juul Africa, Mr. Albert Awolaja, equally commended the courage of the state government in embarking on such a developmental project which will definitely transform the state.

“We, at SBT Juul Africa are happy to be part of the project,” he said.

Also commenting, Chief Executive Officer, SBT Juul Africa, Mr. Trevor David Juul, said the science park project is special not just for Akwa Ibom State, but for all well meaning Nigerian, pointing out that without ICT infrastructure in any community, there will be no meaningful development in that community.

“Our desire is to ensure the successful completion of the project. We have developed similar technology in Malaysia, South Africa, Romania, among others,” he said.


ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

GSMA, IDB partner on mobile financial services

Global body for the mobile industry, the Global System for Mobile Association (GSMA) is partnering with the world largest regional development institution, funds economic, social and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), to accelerate the deployment in the region with focus on mobile financial services designed to meet the needs of the unbanked and the poor, reports CHARLES OKOH.

The joint initiative would provide financial and technical support to mobile phone operators and partner banks for the implementation of up to five mobile financial services systems in different countries throughout the region.

According to the Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA, Mr. Michael O’Hara, the partnership would enable those without bank accounts to access full range of financial services using their mobile phones.

“Working with the IDB will enhance our efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean to enable the many people in the region, who currently do not have bank accounts, to be able to use their mobile phones to access a full range of financial services, including fast, simple and cost-effective mobile money transfer services,” he said.

O’Hara also said that GSMA expects that increased access to low-cost and secure financial services in developing countries would improve the standard of living for many millions of people, by increasing economic opportunities and lowering the cost of many activities.

Also speaking IDB’s project team leader, Mr. Frank Nieder, said the partnership would boost access to financial services to the poor and unbanked.

“The initiative with the GSMA is part of a larger IDB effort to increase access to financial services to the poor and the unbanked, in which mobile financial services will play an important role. The GSMA will be an especially effective partner as it brings extensive expertise and experience on how to promote and implement mobile financial services as well as close relationships with mobile network operators in the region, who generally have not worked with the IDB before,” he said.

Champion Infotel notes that till date, there has been little development and implementation of mobile financial services for the unbanked and poor in Latin America and the Caribbean, where estimated 65 per cent of the adult population do not have bank accounts. Mobile financial services in other parts of the world have proven to be a transformational technology, providing lower cost, better quality and more secure financial services to large numbers of the poor and unbanked.

The joint initiative, to be coordinated under the GSMA’s Mobile Money Transfer Programme, will take advantage of the GSMA’s work with technology vendors and computer systems designers to establish a hosted mobile wallet platform that will enable the mobile operators to pilot financial services. Several operators and financial institutions have already expressed a strong interest in participating.

The IDB will be responsible for the overall execution of the initiative, to be financed in part by the Knowledge Partnership Korea Fund for Technology and Innovation.

Latin America, which receives $60 billion in international remittances each year, would benefit greatly from the availability of services that enable individuals to use their mobile phones to manage money.

Eight of the 34 mobile operators participating in the GSMA’s Mobile Money Transfer programme have operations in Latin America. Several other Latin American operators have also expressed an interest in joining the Mobile Money Transfer initiative.


ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

e-Inclusion is platform for bridging digital gap – Ilukwe

Managing Director of Galaxy Backbone Plc, Mr. Gerald Ilukwe, has called on the Commonwealth member states to embrace Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as a platform for bridging the poverty gap in their regions., reports OLUCHI KALU UKWA.

Galaxy Backbone Plc, is a public sector of the Federal Government established to provide a common platform for he provision of network connectivity and transversal services to the public sector.

Ilukwe while commending the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), Federal ministry of Information and Communications and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), for organizing the upcoming CTO ICT summit taking place from October 6 to 10, 2008, in Abuja, noted that it is an avenue for the Federal Government to appreciate the role of ICT in the country as well as prove its commitment to the country’s uptake of the benefits of the digital revolution going on, the world over.

Furthermore, he highlighted the significance between the theme of this year’s event and that of the company’s as geared towards ensuring effective connectivity for a socially inclusive and commercially vibrant society.

This, he said, was sealed by the recent signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Galaxy Backbone and Nigerian Postal Services for the provision of broadband connectivity to all of the 1,500 post offices across the country.

He further stated that this event will afford the company to showcase its main objective of delivering e-education, e-health, e-agriculture and e-government solution through i-Gov.net platform and National Information Communication and Education Programme (NICEP) network.

It will also offer opportunities for the company to secure partnerships with leading ICT establishments, bandwidth wholesalers, equipment vendors, funding and development partners and solution providers.


ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

APC introduces protection for desktops

Leader in integrated critical power and cooling services, APC by Schneider Electric, has announced the introduction of its high performance protection for desktop computers, namely APC Back-UPS RS 650VA and 1100VA.

These new units, the company said, offer four power outlets in proven product design with 390 or 660 watts of power, extensive runtime and Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR) technology.

Manager, English Speaking Area and Service Centre West and Central Africa and Indian Ocean at APC, Mr. Paul-Marie Dable, said that the firm would continue to make great strides in the advancement of APC’s Back-UPS family to meet the evolving needs of power customers.

Today’s business desktops, he said, are highly configured with several peripherals and higher power and runtime requirements, thus users are looking out for cost-effective, reliable solutions for protecting their hardware and more importantly their data on their desktops.

He said that the Back-UPS RS 650 and 1100 offer high performance protection for home and business computer systems.

“These new units provide abundant battery backup power, allowing users to work through medium and extended power outages with runtimes of up to 46 minutes (BR650CI) and 84 minutes (BR1100CI), depending on the units’ load. The units’ AVR feature enables users to work through just about any power condition by supplying safe, consistent power to the computer in case of over-voltage or brownout conditions, without running on battery,” he said.

Dable outlined four outlets, three with battery backup and surge and one with surge protection only, the Back-UPS RS also safeguards equipment from damaging surges and spikes that travel along utility and phone lines.

“APC’s new Back-UPS RS 650 and 1100 units are currently available through all distribution channels including retail, catalogues, resellers and online,” he said.


ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D