•As NCC slashes interconnect rates
The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) operators in the country are keen on the Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) as recently directed by the industry regulatory, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
The regulator had recently outlined conditions for the registration of Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards which takes effect from March 1, this year, even as it slashed interconnection rates with Short Message Service (SMS) now N1.94 as from December 31, 2009.
The operators keenness over the SIM registration based on the stipulated guidelines, was disclosed by the Head, Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Relations at Zain Nigeria, Mr. Emeka Oparah, operators are collaborating with NCC to make certain the success of the guideline.
“We are working with other operators in collaboration with NCC to ensure it is implemented with little or no challenges for subscribers in the country,” he told our correspondent.
According to the Head, Media and Public Relations at NCC, Mr. Reuben Muoka, it is expected that by March 1 this year all new SIM cards must be registered before activation in the country.
NCC, he noted, is exercising its regulatory functions as provided for by the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) of 2003.
He also said that arrangements have been concluded for the commencement of registration of all SIM card holders nationwide, noting that valid identification documents would be required for those seeking registration of their SIM cards.
These, he listed to include the electronic passport (e- Passports), corporate company or work place identity cards that has pension identification or tax numbers; student identification cards from recognized institutions, drivers license issued by the Federal Road Safety Commission, (FRSC) and electronic tax (e-Tax) cards.Muoka quoted the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, as saying that the registration process would include the capture of the photograph and biometrics of the subscriber.
“Proxy registration shall be restricted to the direct families of persons seeking registration,” he said. Therefore, he said, the Commission has directed all telecom operating companies to put all necessary arrangements in place for the smooth take off of the exercise. He advised that in the case of existing SIM card holders, necessary processes and procedures are currently being put in place to guarantee a smooth registration exercise.
“The general public and all relevant stakeholders will be notified in due course about the timing and how to proceed,” he said. In a related development, NCC has slashed interconnection rates with Short Message Service (SMS) now N1.94 as from December 31, 2009.
NCC said in Abuja that the new set of interconnection rates for the telecom industry, which effect commenced on December 31, 2009 would replace the earlier ones issued by the Commission in September 2006, which presented many features that represent improvement in the earlier interconnect rates determinations by the Commission.
Mr. Muoka further said that the latest determination applied the Asymmetric Interconnect rate method whereby, new mobile operators enjoy higher termination rates than the older operators as a result of the study that showed that such operators expend higher cost of termination in their networks.
With this development, he said, call terminations on new entrants’ networks are graduated from N10.12 from December 31, 2009 to N8.20 in 2012, while call terminations on older operator’s networks has been fixed at N8.20 over the same period.
Another major feature of the new rates, he pointed out, is the determination of interconnect rates for Short Messaging Services (SMS), for the first time in the country.
“The SMS interconnection rates also featured a glide path whereby, the new entrants enjoy interconnection rates starting from N1.94 from December 31, 2009 to N1.02 in 2012. The other (older) mobile operators will stay on a fixed N1.02 bar over the same period,” Muoka said.
Details of the interconnection rates stipulated that NCC has approved that for mobile voice termination new entrants in Nigeria irrespective of the originating network shall be N10.12 (Ten Naira Twelve Kobo) from 31.12.2009; N9.48 (Nine Naira Forty Eight Kobo) from 31.12.2010; N8.84 (Eight Naira Eighty Four Kobo) from 31.12.2011; and N8.20 (Eight Naira Twenty Kobo) from the 31.12.2012.
For the interconnection rate on voice calls termination provided by other operators in Nigeria irrespective of the originating network, that is, N8.20 (Eight Naira Twenty Kobo) from the 31.12.2009.
On the rate for fixed voice termination in Nigeria irrespective of the originating network, NCC said it would be N10.12 (Ten Naira Twelve Kobo) from 31.12.2009; N 9.48 (Nine Naira Forty Eight Kobo) from 31.12.2010; N 8.84 (Eight Naira Eighty Four Kobo) from 31.12.2011; and N8.20 (Eight Naira Twenty Kobo) from the 31.12.2012.
Details of the SMS termination provided by new entrants in Nigeria irrespective of the originating network, the Commission said is now N1.94 (One Naira Ninety Four Kobo) from the 31.12.2009; and will come down to N1.63 (One Naira Sixty Three Kobo) as from December 31, 2010; further still to N1.32 (One Naira Thirty Two Kobo) by December 31, 2011; while in three years period will be N.1.02 (One Naira Two Kobo).
While the Commission maintained that interconnection rate for SMS termination provided by other operators in Nigeria irrespective of the originating network would be N1.02 (One Naira two kobo) from the 31st of December 2009.
Pointing out that the new interconnect rate determination also prescribed two conditions for qualifying an operator as a new entrant, namely, that the termination service is provided under a license that was allocated after January 1, 2006 and is less than four (4) years old in operation within this domain; and that the provider (or a company bought by the provider) of this termination service did not provide this service in Nigeria before the aforementioned date (01/01/06) under a different license.
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Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Internet community had extra-ordinary 2009 – ISOC
President, Internet Society (ISOC) Lynn St. Amour has described the just ended 2009 as a year of extra-ordinary achievements for the group.
St. Amour in an epistle for the New Year to ISOC community made available to ITRealms Online, said Internet Society continued to prosper in 2009, with wide reaching effects.
“So, it is a pleasure to extend my sincere gratitude to all of you whose combined efforts, energy, and dedication have made this a great year,” the ISOC chief executive said.
He noted that often stakeholders use the term “Internet community” and, looking back at the achievements of 2009 by the ISOC family, it has become clear that these are truly the result of a strong, committed community pulling together around shared values and principles.
“It is impossible to list here all of the Internet Society’s achievements from such a busy and productive year, but I would like to single out a few highlights,” St. Amour said.
According to the ISOC boss, within the Enabling Access Initiative, the group worked closely with Chapters and other local and regional partners to significantly extend the technical and policy capacity building programmes, especially in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
“These efforts were aided through a revitalized INET programme with specialized content developed in partnership with local communities, and which reached out successfully to hundreds of participants in each location, St. Amour asserted.
Pointing out that this work also advanced the profile and strengthened of ISOC message in many high-level forums, such as the OECD, the World Bank, and the ITU, just as access has continued to be one of the major themes in many of the Chapter and other member projects supported by our grants programmes.
“In our InterNetWorks Initiative, a number of new efforts contributed to helping to advance the health of the Internet. ISOC continues to project a strong voice for IPv6 deployment, so it has been pleasing to see in 2009 that IPv6 is gathering momentum around the world, St. Amour said.
In an exciting new development in 2009, ISOC, she said, launched a series of topical, lively panel discussions during the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meetings.
“The first on IPv6 deployment attracted much international attention. Together with the subsequent panels on Domain Name System (DNS) security and bandwidth management issues, these events have set the scene for what will be an important ongoing activity, helping to advance the health of the Internet and promoting the role of the IETF.
The year 2009, she said, was one of ISOC’s most significant ever in terms of global engagement with highly visible roles in the European Union (EU), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and many other major policy and technical forums.
“It is clear that ISOC’s reputation as a trusted and authoritative voice on critical Internet issues continues to grow stronger. We again were honoured to coordinate the participation of other organizations, especially in the Internet Technical Advisory Committee to the OECD and the Internet Pavilion at the ITU’s Telecom World 2009,” she emphasized.
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St. Amour in an epistle for the New Year to ISOC community made available to ITRealms Online, said Internet Society continued to prosper in 2009, with wide reaching effects.
“So, it is a pleasure to extend my sincere gratitude to all of you whose combined efforts, energy, and dedication have made this a great year,” the ISOC chief executive said.
He noted that often stakeholders use the term “Internet community” and, looking back at the achievements of 2009 by the ISOC family, it has become clear that these are truly the result of a strong, committed community pulling together around shared values and principles.
“It is impossible to list here all of the Internet Society’s achievements from such a busy and productive year, but I would like to single out a few highlights,” St. Amour said.
According to the ISOC boss, within the Enabling Access Initiative, the group worked closely with Chapters and other local and regional partners to significantly extend the technical and policy capacity building programmes, especially in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
“These efforts were aided through a revitalized INET programme with specialized content developed in partnership with local communities, and which reached out successfully to hundreds of participants in each location, St. Amour asserted.
Pointing out that this work also advanced the profile and strengthened of ISOC message in many high-level forums, such as the OECD, the World Bank, and the ITU, just as access has continued to be one of the major themes in many of the Chapter and other member projects supported by our grants programmes.
“In our InterNetWorks Initiative, a number of new efforts contributed to helping to advance the health of the Internet. ISOC continues to project a strong voice for IPv6 deployment, so it has been pleasing to see in 2009 that IPv6 is gathering momentum around the world, St. Amour said.
In an exciting new development in 2009, ISOC, she said, launched a series of topical, lively panel discussions during the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meetings.
“The first on IPv6 deployment attracted much international attention. Together with the subsequent panels on Domain Name System (DNS) security and bandwidth management issues, these events have set the scene for what will be an important ongoing activity, helping to advance the health of the Internet and promoting the role of the IETF.
The year 2009, she said, was one of ISOC’s most significant ever in terms of global engagement with highly visible roles in the European Union (EU), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and many other major policy and technical forums.
“It is clear that ISOC’s reputation as a trusted and authoritative voice on critical Internet issues continues to grow stronger. We again were honoured to coordinate the participation of other organizations, especially in the Internet Technical Advisory Committee to the OECD and the Internet Pavilion at the ITU’s Telecom World 2009,” she emphasized.
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ICANN made huge strides – Beckstrom
Chief executive officer of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, Mr. Rod Beckstrom, has declared the just ended 2009 as a year of huge strides for the ICANN community.
Mr. Beckstrom, who made this known in his review of ICANN’s activities in 2009 tagged ‘A message from the CEO’ said 2009 is a historic year in the Domain Name System (DNS).
He pointed out that after six months as ICANN’s CEO and President, he was enormously impressed by the huge strides ICANN community made, not to mention the years of collaborative work, dedication and professionalism by the ICANN community in preparing the way.
According to him, a singular achievement is the signing of the ‘Affirmation of Commitments’ between ICANN and the United States (US) government in September.
This Affirmation, he said, brings to an end a series of amendments to the original 1998 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ICANN and the US government, the last of which, the Joint Project Agreement (JPA), expired on 30 September, 2009.
“The Affirmation broadens ICANN’s reporting commitment to the entire global Internet community, and it cements the ICANN multi-stakeholder bottom-up model,” he declared, expressing optimistic that a series of reviews embodied in the Affirmation will help ensure a high degree of public, global accountability throughout the ICANN community.
Another noteworthy achievement, he said, was the launch of Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) Fast Track Process in mid-November, stressing that the culmination of 11 years of technical preparation and 7 years of policy development.
“Internationalized Domain Names represent the greatest advance in the use of names on the Internet since its inception 40 years ago. For the first time in Internet history, non-English speakers across the globe will soon see Internet addresses completely in their own language. To date, 16 applications representing six languages have been completed.
In March, the Board ratified a global policy for allocating the rapidly depleting IPv4 address blocks. Under this policy, when only five blocks of IANA IPv4 addresses remain, each of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) will receive one block, or approximately 16 million addresses. We expect this to occur in 2011.
After much development work, public comment, and collaboration with the registrar community, in May ICANN’s Board approved an amended Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) that includes many new protections for domain name registrants encompassing data escrow, no name deletions or auto-renewals unless the registrant is notified, strict registrar responsibility and accountability requirements, and more.
“ICANN-accredited registrars representing over 87 percent of all gTLD registrations have signed or asked to review the 2009 RAA. In 2010, we expect to see additional RAA amendments being considered, along with the creation of a registrant rights charter,” ICANN chief said.
On the focus on contractual compliance, he said, significant results were made in the just ended, including more timely de-accreditation of noncompliant registrars and transfer of their domain names to accredited registrars.
“In 2009 over 20 registrars were terminated or not renewed, up from seven registrars in 2008,” he declared, emphasizing that the grounds for registrar terminations and non-renewals were broad and more varied than in any previous year, and encompass terminations and non-renewals based on Whois noncompliance, data escrow noncompliance, failure to pay fees, insolvency and UDRP noncompliance.
And to further enhance global enforcement efforts, Beckstrom said, a contractual compliance senior director was hired in the Asia-Pacific region in 2009.
“In 2010, ICANN will continue to augment its contractual compliance programme by conducting a registrar transfer policy audit, publishing the findings from the Whois Data Accuracy Study and continuing to aggressively enforce the provisions of the registrar and registry agreements,” he said.
In addition, he noted that ICANN community grew remarkably in 2009 with a number of countries joined the Governmental Advisory Committee, including China, Georgia, Iraq, Mongolia, the Philippines, and the Russian Federation, which bought the number of countries represented on the committee to just over 90.
“The At-Large community added roughly 20 individual Internet user groups, or At-Large Structures, including the first from Pakistan, sending the total worldwide past 135,” he asserted.
Equally, he said, ICANN signed formal accountability frameworks or exchanges of letters with the country-code top-level domain operators for Aruba, Austria, Bolivia, Haiti, Korea, Mexico, Paraguay, Portugal, Singapore, and Uruguay, bringing the total number of such agreements to 59.
As said by him, the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) also welcomed notable additions such as Russia (.ru) and the European Union (.eu), boosting its membership to 100 country code operators.
While last December, saw ICANN and the Swiss-based Universal Postal Union (UPU) signing a historic agreement which gives the UPU managing authority over .post as a top-level domain. This agreement came about after long negotiations, public review through ICANN’s public comment process, and consideration by ICANN’s Board of Directors.
“An equal level of effort was required from representatives of the UPU. The result is a new top-level domain for the provision of new and exciting services by the UPU member states,” he said.
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Mr. Beckstrom, who made this known in his review of ICANN’s activities in 2009 tagged ‘A message from the CEO’ said 2009 is a historic year in the Domain Name System (DNS).
He pointed out that after six months as ICANN’s CEO and President, he was enormously impressed by the huge strides ICANN community made, not to mention the years of collaborative work, dedication and professionalism by the ICANN community in preparing the way.
According to him, a singular achievement is the signing of the ‘Affirmation of Commitments’ between ICANN and the United States (US) government in September.
This Affirmation, he said, brings to an end a series of amendments to the original 1998 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ICANN and the US government, the last of which, the Joint Project Agreement (JPA), expired on 30 September, 2009.
“The Affirmation broadens ICANN’s reporting commitment to the entire global Internet community, and it cements the ICANN multi-stakeholder bottom-up model,” he declared, expressing optimistic that a series of reviews embodied in the Affirmation will help ensure a high degree of public, global accountability throughout the ICANN community.
Another noteworthy achievement, he said, was the launch of Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) Fast Track Process in mid-November, stressing that the culmination of 11 years of technical preparation and 7 years of policy development.
“Internationalized Domain Names represent the greatest advance in the use of names on the Internet since its inception 40 years ago. For the first time in Internet history, non-English speakers across the globe will soon see Internet addresses completely in their own language. To date, 16 applications representing six languages have been completed.
In March, the Board ratified a global policy for allocating the rapidly depleting IPv4 address blocks. Under this policy, when only five blocks of IANA IPv4 addresses remain, each of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) will receive one block, or approximately 16 million addresses. We expect this to occur in 2011.
After much development work, public comment, and collaboration with the registrar community, in May ICANN’s Board approved an amended Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) that includes many new protections for domain name registrants encompassing data escrow, no name deletions or auto-renewals unless the registrant is notified, strict registrar responsibility and accountability requirements, and more.
“ICANN-accredited registrars representing over 87 percent of all gTLD registrations have signed or asked to review the 2009 RAA. In 2010, we expect to see additional RAA amendments being considered, along with the creation of a registrant rights charter,” ICANN chief said.
On the focus on contractual compliance, he said, significant results were made in the just ended, including more timely de-accreditation of noncompliant registrars and transfer of their domain names to accredited registrars.
“In 2009 over 20 registrars were terminated or not renewed, up from seven registrars in 2008,” he declared, emphasizing that the grounds for registrar terminations and non-renewals were broad and more varied than in any previous year, and encompass terminations and non-renewals based on Whois noncompliance, data escrow noncompliance, failure to pay fees, insolvency and UDRP noncompliance.
And to further enhance global enforcement efforts, Beckstrom said, a contractual compliance senior director was hired in the Asia-Pacific region in 2009.
“In 2010, ICANN will continue to augment its contractual compliance programme by conducting a registrar transfer policy audit, publishing the findings from the Whois Data Accuracy Study and continuing to aggressively enforce the provisions of the registrar and registry agreements,” he said.
In addition, he noted that ICANN community grew remarkably in 2009 with a number of countries joined the Governmental Advisory Committee, including China, Georgia, Iraq, Mongolia, the Philippines, and the Russian Federation, which bought the number of countries represented on the committee to just over 90.
“The At-Large community added roughly 20 individual Internet user groups, or At-Large Structures, including the first from Pakistan, sending the total worldwide past 135,” he asserted.
Equally, he said, ICANN signed formal accountability frameworks or exchanges of letters with the country-code top-level domain operators for Aruba, Austria, Bolivia, Haiti, Korea, Mexico, Paraguay, Portugal, Singapore, and Uruguay, bringing the total number of such agreements to 59.
As said by him, the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) also welcomed notable additions such as Russia (.ru) and the European Union (.eu), boosting its membership to 100 country code operators.
While last December, saw ICANN and the Swiss-based Universal Postal Union (UPU) signing a historic agreement which gives the UPU managing authority over .post as a top-level domain. This agreement came about after long negotiations, public review through ICANN’s public comment process, and consideration by ICANN’s Board of Directors.
“An equal level of effort was required from representatives of the UPU. The result is a new top-level domain for the provision of new and exciting services by the UPU member states,” he said.
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Lottery Commission lauds Glo ‘Text 4 Millions’
The Director-General, National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC), Mr. Peter Igho, has lauded the second national operator, Globacom for displaying transparency in rewarding the winners of its recently concluded Glo ‘Text 4 millions’ promo.
Igho in a press statement said his Commission, in pursuant of its mandate to monitor the overall activities of lottery operations of whatever guise in Nigeria, recently conducted an independent, random verification exercise on 23 of the winners in the promotion.
The winners, he said, were traced to various parts of the country including Umuahia, Aba, Kaduna, Ayetoro, Igarra, Benin City, Warri, Port Harcourt, Lagos, Calabar, Uromi and Abuja in order to verify that the names published by Globacom were the real winners.
According to him, the Commission in the process asked if Globacom made full redemption of the prizes as promised and that the winners had free choice to spend their winnings as they desired.
“At the end of the independent verification exercise the commission gave a clean bill of health to the promotion and confirmed it as real,” part of the statement read, commending Globacom for its conduct of the promo.
The National Lottery Regulatory Commission was set up by the National Lottery Act of 2005 to promote transparency, propriety and integrity in the operation of national lotteries in Nigeria.
An agency of the Presidency, the Commission, ensures the protection of interests of the public by issuing licenses and permits in addition to regulating and monitoring the overall activities of lottery operations in the country.
ITRealms Online that the promo which was recently extended with raise in the prize money from N1m to N2m weekly, thus a success.
The promo which began in July created over 100 millionaires from a pool of ordinary Nigerians cutting across all socio-economic groups including drivers, traders, lawyers, brick-layers, carpenters, Okada riders, civil servants, doctors, businessmen and women, retirees, students and the unemployed.
Commenting on the promo lately, Head, Value Added Services, Globacom, Mr Samson Isa, the success and acceptability of the promo has been so high among subscribers that a decision was reached to extend the promo in response to subscriber demand and to enable more winners emerge and be rewarded.
“It is our wish to extend the gains of the promo to more subscribers, hence the decision to extend till the end of October 2009, so that more millionaires could emerge,” he said, pointing out that during this extension period, Glo gave out N2 million every day to one lucky subscriber, even as winners were presented prizes at a grand finale Laffta Fest event which held in Lagos in November.
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Igho in a press statement said his Commission, in pursuant of its mandate to monitor the overall activities of lottery operations of whatever guise in Nigeria, recently conducted an independent, random verification exercise on 23 of the winners in the promotion.
The winners, he said, were traced to various parts of the country including Umuahia, Aba, Kaduna, Ayetoro, Igarra, Benin City, Warri, Port Harcourt, Lagos, Calabar, Uromi and Abuja in order to verify that the names published by Globacom were the real winners.
According to him, the Commission in the process asked if Globacom made full redemption of the prizes as promised and that the winners had free choice to spend their winnings as they desired.
“At the end of the independent verification exercise the commission gave a clean bill of health to the promotion and confirmed it as real,” part of the statement read, commending Globacom for its conduct of the promo.
The National Lottery Regulatory Commission was set up by the National Lottery Act of 2005 to promote transparency, propriety and integrity in the operation of national lotteries in Nigeria.
An agency of the Presidency, the Commission, ensures the protection of interests of the public by issuing licenses and permits in addition to regulating and monitoring the overall activities of lottery operations in the country.
ITRealms Online that the promo which was recently extended with raise in the prize money from N1m to N2m weekly, thus a success.
The promo which began in July created over 100 millionaires from a pool of ordinary Nigerians cutting across all socio-economic groups including drivers, traders, lawyers, brick-layers, carpenters, Okada riders, civil servants, doctors, businessmen and women, retirees, students and the unemployed.
Commenting on the promo lately, Head, Value Added Services, Globacom, Mr Samson Isa, the success and acceptability of the promo has been so high among subscribers that a decision was reached to extend the promo in response to subscriber demand and to enable more winners emerge and be rewarded.
“It is our wish to extend the gains of the promo to more subscribers, hence the decision to extend till the end of October 2009, so that more millionaires could emerge,” he said, pointing out that during this extension period, Glo gave out N2 million every day to one lucky subscriber, even as winners were presented prizes at a grand finale Laffta Fest event which held in Lagos in November.
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Zinox to revive reading culture among Nigerians
Head of Zinox eBooks Project, Mrs. Loretta Agbakoba has said the Information Technology (IT) driven firm is determined to revive reading culture among Nigerians by advancing plans to launch Nigeria Reads.
Speaking at the weekend, she said that Zinox Technologies Limited, manufacturers of Nigeria’s premier internationally certified branded personal computers (PC), has concluded plans to launch Nigeria Reads, an initiative designed to revive a reading culture in the country.
Nigeria Reads from Zinox Computers, she said, was inspired by the company’s exclusive affiliation to the World e-Books Library, which gives the nation direct access to over 750,000 e-books and documents embedded in every Zinox Computer and enabled by a
Zinox e-Card, renewable annually at a subsidized rate of N5,000.00 only.
Mrs. Agbakoba explained that Nigeria Reads is built as a proactive measure to forestall Nigeria being a failed state given the decline in reading among the Nigeria populace.
She noted that the educational system in Nigeria has been consistently undermined by elaborate planning and inadequate funding; regular strikes and disruptions of the academic calendar; policy somersaults occasioned by the unpredictability of political successions; the exceedingly high cost of school fees outside the public schools system, which is generally seen as unstable.
“The race for ill gotten wealth has become a major preoccupation that distracts today’s Nigerian from the somber culture of reading,” she said, stressing that other distractions include television and video games, the internet, e-games and the colossal setback that is called power blackout. She pointed out that the problems that hinder reading in Nigeria are many and are central to the under development of the nation.
“Therefore, any attempt to return Nigeria to the path of greatness envisioned by the nationalists must begin with this plea to turn Nigerians back to reading,” she appealed.
Looking beyond Nigeria, she said the world today is talking about the imminent rise of China, India, Russia and Brazil, noting that these nations devoted huge resources to education and are today reaping the results of a literate, confident, and productive citizenry.
She recalled that a recent study revealed that the Chinese child spends three times as much time on his academics than the American child.
“It would be interesting to compare the Nigerian child to the Chinese in terms of reading,” the e-Book boss said.
Mrs. Agbakoba further said that Nigeria Reads would partner with Governments, corporate persons, educational institutions, parents and other stake holders to equip the citizenry to access the vast reading resources, over 750,000 e-Books, embedded in the World e-Books Library.
Additionally, she said, the e-suite contains 1,280 interactive educational games, 4,000 Computer Science e-books, 5,000 Maths interactive activities, 12,000 Classic Literature e-Books in PDF, 23,000 Audio books in MP3 downloadable, plus simulation tools in the Sciences and Teacher Lesson Notes, Worksheets and Classroom Articles.
She enjoined government at all levels and education stakeholders to take advantage of the Zinox initiative by ensuring that every school, every teacher, and every child around them, has access to these e-books.
“These e-books have solved two major problems associated with reading – availability and cost of books. Access to the e-books suite is gained by the purchase of a Zinox e-learning card, which is renewable yearly. The card costs less than 2 standard textbooks,” she said.
Agbakoba emphasized that this e-suite, is the main tool that Nigeria Reads would use to restore a reading culture in Nigeria and would soon be launched in the six geo political zones of the country.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
Speaking at the weekend, she said that Zinox Technologies Limited, manufacturers of Nigeria’s premier internationally certified branded personal computers (PC), has concluded plans to launch Nigeria Reads, an initiative designed to revive a reading culture in the country.
Nigeria Reads from Zinox Computers, she said, was inspired by the company’s exclusive affiliation to the World e-Books Library, which gives the nation direct access to over 750,000 e-books and documents embedded in every Zinox Computer and enabled by a
Zinox e-Card, renewable annually at a subsidized rate of N5,000.00 only.
Mrs. Agbakoba explained that Nigeria Reads is built as a proactive measure to forestall Nigeria being a failed state given the decline in reading among the Nigeria populace.
She noted that the educational system in Nigeria has been consistently undermined by elaborate planning and inadequate funding; regular strikes and disruptions of the academic calendar; policy somersaults occasioned by the unpredictability of political successions; the exceedingly high cost of school fees outside the public schools system, which is generally seen as unstable.
“The race for ill gotten wealth has become a major preoccupation that distracts today’s Nigerian from the somber culture of reading,” she said, stressing that other distractions include television and video games, the internet, e-games and the colossal setback that is called power blackout. She pointed out that the problems that hinder reading in Nigeria are many and are central to the under development of the nation.
“Therefore, any attempt to return Nigeria to the path of greatness envisioned by the nationalists must begin with this plea to turn Nigerians back to reading,” she appealed.
Looking beyond Nigeria, she said the world today is talking about the imminent rise of China, India, Russia and Brazil, noting that these nations devoted huge resources to education and are today reaping the results of a literate, confident, and productive citizenry.
She recalled that a recent study revealed that the Chinese child spends three times as much time on his academics than the American child.
“It would be interesting to compare the Nigerian child to the Chinese in terms of reading,” the e-Book boss said.
Mrs. Agbakoba further said that Nigeria Reads would partner with Governments, corporate persons, educational institutions, parents and other stake holders to equip the citizenry to access the vast reading resources, over 750,000 e-Books, embedded in the World e-Books Library.
Additionally, she said, the e-suite contains 1,280 interactive educational games, 4,000 Computer Science e-books, 5,000 Maths interactive activities, 12,000 Classic Literature e-Books in PDF, 23,000 Audio books in MP3 downloadable, plus simulation tools in the Sciences and Teacher Lesson Notes, Worksheets and Classroom Articles.
She enjoined government at all levels and education stakeholders to take advantage of the Zinox initiative by ensuring that every school, every teacher, and every child around them, has access to these e-books.
“These e-books have solved two major problems associated with reading – availability and cost of books. Access to the e-books suite is gained by the purchase of a Zinox e-learning card, which is renewable yearly. The card costs less than 2 standard textbooks,” she said.
Agbakoba emphasized that this e-suite, is the main tool that Nigeria Reads would use to restore a reading culture in Nigeria and would soon be launched in the six geo political zones of the country.
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Interswitch with Loyal membership
The global non-profit trade association with over 1,300 members in 50 countries, the Automated Teller Machines (ATM) Industry Association (ATMIA), has honoured Interswitch as
one of its loyal members in the African region.
ATMIA promotes ATM convenience, growth and usage worldwide in order to protect the ATM industry's assets, interests, good name and public trust as well as provides education, best practices, political voice, and networking opportunities for member organizations.
Interswitch, is Nigeria’s premier transactions switching and e-payment company, solely listed in Nigeria and the entire West Africa as “ATMIA Loyal Member”.
Interswitch has been a member since 2004.
ATMIA members have free access to the body’s international security best practice manuals for the global ATM business, corporate governance, resources and mobile banking security, policies and procedures.
ATMIA International member database also includes the global centre for ATM security best practices, fraud alerts, fraud reference library and ATM crime information.
In a communiqué, ATMIA listed 23 companies as Loyal Members in seven different categories based on the number of years these companies have been supporting it. Whereas Interswitch was listed in the fifth category along with corporate institutions such as Absa Bank, Banking Machine Services (PTY), Bankserv, Barrier Angelucci PTY, Fiserv, TMD Security Gmbh, ATMmarketplace.com, NCR, First National Bank, Triton Systems of Delaware, Inc to name a few.
Reacting to this development, the chief executive officer Interswitch Nigeria, Mr. Mitchell Elegbe, said that the management and staff of Interswitch were very proud to be selected as worthy of such recognition by the global body.
“As the only company listed in Nigeria and the whole of the West African region as an ATMIA Loyal Member, the management of Interswitch is humbled by the global recognition. We hope to continue to support the global body and as ATM services become pervasive in Nigeria and other West African countries. We also believe more Nigerian companies will make the list in the future and benefit from global associations such as this” Elegbe enthused.
He recalled that all the installed ATM capacity managed by 24 Nigerian banks and ATM Consortium (ATMC), the country’s only Independent ATM Deployer are linked to InterSwitch secure, electronic switching and processing networks.
The company provides switching and account reconciliation services for all the ATM networks.
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one of its loyal members in the African region.
ATMIA promotes ATM convenience, growth and usage worldwide in order to protect the ATM industry's assets, interests, good name and public trust as well as provides education, best practices, political voice, and networking opportunities for member organizations.
Interswitch, is Nigeria’s premier transactions switching and e-payment company, solely listed in Nigeria and the entire West Africa as “ATMIA Loyal Member”.
Interswitch has been a member since 2004.
ATMIA members have free access to the body’s international security best practice manuals for the global ATM business, corporate governance, resources and mobile banking security, policies and procedures.
ATMIA International member database also includes the global centre for ATM security best practices, fraud alerts, fraud reference library and ATM crime information.
In a communiqué, ATMIA listed 23 companies as Loyal Members in seven different categories based on the number of years these companies have been supporting it. Whereas Interswitch was listed in the fifth category along with corporate institutions such as Absa Bank, Banking Machine Services (PTY), Bankserv, Barrier Angelucci PTY, Fiserv, TMD Security Gmbh, ATMmarketplace.com, NCR, First National Bank, Triton Systems of Delaware, Inc to name a few.
Reacting to this development, the chief executive officer Interswitch Nigeria, Mr. Mitchell Elegbe, said that the management and staff of Interswitch were very proud to be selected as worthy of such recognition by the global body.
“As the only company listed in Nigeria and the whole of the West African region as an ATMIA Loyal Member, the management of Interswitch is humbled by the global recognition. We hope to continue to support the global body and as ATM services become pervasive in Nigeria and other West African countries. We also believe more Nigerian companies will make the list in the future and benefit from global associations such as this” Elegbe enthused.
He recalled that all the installed ATM capacity managed by 24 Nigerian banks and ATM Consortium (ATMC), the country’s only Independent ATM Deployer are linked to InterSwitch secure, electronic switching and processing networks.
The company provides switching and account reconciliation services for all the ATM networks.
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
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