Lagos State IT project benefits workforce – Hamzat

The Lagos State Government has said that its Statewide Information Technology programme, known as the Global Computerization Project (GCP) of the current administration was initiated to benefit the workforce.

Commissioner for Science and Technology, Dr. Kadiri Obafemi Hamzat made this disclosure at the weekend, at a one day roundtable on Internet Governance Forum (IGF) preparation for the country organized by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Digital Sense Africa (DSA) in Lagos.

Dr. Hamzat who was represented by the Director, Computer Services in the Lagos State Ministry of Science and Technology, Mr. Jide Adenuga in a keynote to the occasion, noted that at inception of the last administration of Lagos State, it was confronted with enormous challenges of effectively managing the business of government particularly in the area of operational activities, revenue generation and electronic information dissemination between offices in its domains.

Consequently, Dr. Hamzat said, the present administration led by Gov. Babatunde Fashola on assumption of office fashioned out a policy thrust aimed at implementing a Statewide Information Technology programme for the transformation of the business of government in Lagos State from manual to electronic-based government.

This, he said, was introduced under the Global Computerization Project and envisaged to bring enormous benefits to government and people of Lagos State in areas of governance, management of natural, financial and material resources and the State workforce.

“On our part as a government we devised a means of maintaining closer contact with the people, by launching a state of the art website, which serves as the e-government portal at www.lagosstate.gov.ng,” he declared.

As said by him, the website features dynamic web pages with enormous bandwidth spread Statewide.

“It covers the whole gamut of government information online and provides opportunity to receive direct feedback from the citizens,” he said, stressing that the website also creates room for interaction and transaction online.

The over-riding objective of creating the website, he told participants at the forum with theme ‘Five Years of IGF: Way Forward for Nigeria’, was to provide greater access to government information and promote civic engagement; hence service oriented and provides information about government activities in addition to links to some government agencies such as tax information and payment.

“In line with the expanding nature of the socio-economic activities of the State, we are determined to continuously add value and expand the contents of the website in order to compare with the best around the world.

He pointed out that following the commencement of global Internet Governance Forum in 2006, which widely received commendation as an innovative experiment in global governance, thus bringing together stakeholders from government, the private sector and non-governmental organisations to jointly address public policy issues.

While commending the forum, presided over by the president, Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN), Chief Samuel Adeleke, Commissioner Kadiri advised the organizers to liaise with the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) in development of strategy to curtail cyber crimes to a barest minimum so as to reduce the projection of the nation negatively.

The former chairperson, Presidential Inter-Ministerial Committee on World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) and Permanent Secretary, Ecological Fund, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote presented progress report of the committee at the forum, while Managing Director of Nigeria Internet Exchange Point Limited, Mr. Muhammed Rudman, delivered paper on Internet Protocol version Six (IPv6) among others.

The former Communications Minister and current chairman, Board of Trustees, Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), Chief Olawale Ige led the delegate from NCC and represented the acting chief executive of the commission at the forum.

Welcoming participants earlier, Executive Director, Operations, DSA, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, said the forum was meant to rally opinion for the nation’s internet community in preparation for the global IGF coming up in September at Lithuania.

Digital Sense Africa is an initiative of Remnek Kommunications Ventures; a group of ICT analysts and public relations consultants, with continental media affiliates as part of its enlightenment strategies to engage Nigerians for sustainable deployment and utilization of technologies in order to make sense out of the burgeoning revolution.

This year’s forum was organized in collaboration with NCC and endorsed by the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Nigeria Internet Exchange Point Ltd, Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), to name a few.

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Open source software as business solution

Open Source Software has increasingly become a necessity for growing small businesses and government that wants to leverage on technology, especially for developing nations on the continent, reports REMMY NWEKE.

“Using open source software as the basis of your development can cut your development time and budget by 50 per cent,” Accenture Australia.

Once upon a time, a business entity presumably based on Open Source took over the Nigeria’s software scene, with cars and office outlets deliberately adorned with Linux logo and colour. For most local industry observers, it was a novel and classical entrance into the scene that has been known and described as ‘non-performing’ and ‘non-profitable’.

Soon after the campaign went down and from no time, the branded vehicles began to disappear one after another from Nigerian roads across the commercial nerve centre of the nation, Lagos. But one thing remained intact, the knowledge and awareness such a campaign has drawn to Open Source Software (OSS).

For Nigerians, open source means various things to diverse individuals and organizations. A school of thought would not like to hear anything about open source software and yet for another, open source is where the future lies.

And for the software engineers at a California-based Open Source Initiative (OSI) founded 12 years ago, www.opensource.org, the term ‘Open Source’ does not mean mere access to source codes, but must comply with some core 10 distribution terms for OSS, including free redistribution, source code, derived works, integrity of the author’s source code, no discrimination against persons or groups, no discrimination against fields of endeavour, distribution of license, non-limitation to specific product, restriction of other software and technology-neutrality.

According to OSS advocates, the term ‘free redistribution’ entails that no restriction on any party “from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programmes from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.”

On the ‘Source Code,’ experts said that the programme must take account of the source code which allows distribution in source code as well as compiled form, even where some form of products are not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge.

Thus, this must be the preferred form in which a programmer could modify the programme. In other words, deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed, just as intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.

For the ‘derived works’ they outlined that licenses must allow modifications and to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software. While the ‘Integrity of the author’s Source Code’ affords Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) application to have explicit permit to distribute software built from modified source code, which could require derivation works to carry a different name or version number from the original software, therefore, guaranteeing that source be readily available, and ensuring ‘unofficial’ changes to be made which could readily be distinguished from the base source.

Equally, FOSS experts described ‘No discrimination against persons or groups’ as theory with rationale that in order to get the maximum benefit from the process, the maximum diversity of persons and groups should be equally eligible to contribute to open sources. Therefore, it’s forbidden for any OSS licensee to lock anyone out of the process. This also applies to ‘No discrimination against fields of endeavour’ clause, which insists that licensee must not restrict anyone from making use of the programme in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the programme from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.

And for ‘distribution of license’ developers are not required to attach a programme codes that could make its redistribution a difficult option. As outlined by FOSS advocates, license must not be specific to a product, which entails that the rights attached to the programme must not depend on the programme’s being part of a particular software distribution. So, if the programme is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the above terms of the programme’s license, all parties to whom the programme is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution, thus, foreclosing yet another class of license traps.

In furtherance to maintaining its freedom stand, FOSS licenses must not restrict other software, either distributed alone or alongside other applications as well as insistence that any being distributed at the same time must have a given trade mark or open-source software. They maintained that distributors of open-source software have the right to make their own choices about their own software.

Finally, the ‘License must be technology-neutral’ as no provision of the license may predicate on any individual technology or style of interface, which aims at specific licenses requiring an explicit gesture of assent in order to establish a contract between licensor and licensee, such as provisions mandating so-called ‘click-wrap’ may conflict with important methods of software distribution such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP) download, Compact Disc Read-Only-Memory (CD-ROM) anthologies, and web mirroring; as well such provisions may also hinder code re-use. Therefore, conformant licensees must allow for the possibility that a redistribution of the software could take place over non-web channels which may not support click-wrapping of the download, and covered code or re-used portions of covered code, thereby running as a non-Graphical User Interface (GUI) environment that cannot support popup dialogues.

Presently there are several Open Source applications platform including Linux, IBM and Novell to name a few. Though the likes of Microsoft known for proprietary applications are turning some of their offerings into what some experts described as partial open-source, just to reduce the implication of argument that it is strictly tight-fisted and 100 per cent profit inclined. So, it was heartwarming that Linux distributor, Mandriva West Africa, recently opened office in Nigeria in an effort to expand its global market share with headquarters in Lagos.

Chief executive, Mandriva West Africa, Mr. Dele Ajisomo, while disclosing this, said his company’s goal in West Africa is to provide local distribution of Mandriva Linux and other integrated open source applications in English and French throughout the region. He pointed out that his firm is expected to work with regional Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to bundle Mandriva Linux with their hardware as well as work with independent software vendors to establish an open source integration environment for locally developed software.

Ajisomo also said that his office would work with educational organisations in the region to make computers more accessible to learners, just as plans are up to establish a certified business partner programme in the region and authorised Mandriva education centres that would provide Linux Professional Institute (LPI) training.

“The OEM versions of all Mandriva products are currently available and running on hardware from major international OEM vendors like HP, IBM/Lenovo, Dell and Acer. Mandriva West Africa plans to work with local OEMs in bundling these products on their hardware,” he said.

Affirming this, President, Information Technology (Industry) Association of Nigeria (ITAN), Dr. Jimson Olufuye, disclosed at 22nd national conference cum 30th Anniversary of Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), that ITAN, a hardware interest group of NCS partnered Mandriva West Africa for Mandriva Linux (ML) an Open Source Operating and application software on all the Personal Computers (PCs), laptops, notebooks and thumbdrives for its Old Students’ Computer In School Initiative (OS-CISI) now branded “OSPC” that is, Old Students’ Personal Computer.

Olufuye pointed out that OSPCs are computer gadgets provided by old students in the government across the three tiers, private sector and for primary, secondary and post secondary schools nationwide.

“1 million OSPCs powered by ML and its suites of educational software are projected to be deployed to primary, secondary and post secondary schools in Nigeria by the year 2015,” he said.

Above all, it is essential that proponents gain access to national and international markets through using the open source marketing methodology; the open source testing and debugging have brought great reduction in product development costs, and using open source software marketing and distribution channels could greatly increase the possibilities that products developed under this platform get the widest market, and tends to level the playing field with the larger, better-financed competitors, bearing in mind that Open Source licenses are not anti-commercial, but anti lock-in.

This aspect of Open Source has been described as excellent for users who could use it at will, thus, very good for marketing objectives.

Speaking with ITRealms Online in Lagos recently, Chief executive officer of Mauritius-based Footprint Africa Business Solutions (FABS), Mrs. Karien Bornheim identified complicity in the Nigeria’s public sector deployment of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), especially with respect to software application, hence creating confusion on what and how to deploy a given service that could lift the administration of governance through technology.

“They don’t know what exactly they really want. Also, the leadership change very often and it is difficult to make decision that could spur growth and enable the catering for clients better,” she declared. As said by her, FABS utilizes the platforms of world class software providers such as IBM, Novell and RedHat among others to deliver quality services to its customers in virtually all parts of the globe, pointing out that in most cases, especially at this era of meltdown recovery intensity, organisations do not really have to buy new software.

“We have our own expertise in our bid to deliver and we would not give any customer a product that is not certified,” she declared, stressing that most companies may not necessarily buy a new software application, but still prefer to deploy open source suites.

“In Open Source, the license is free, but the support service is not,” she explained, emphasising that Linux environment is the way to go. She cited an instance with East African countries where open source applications have become almost official software backed with a government decree, saying that is what is needed in other parts of Africa for open source to get to the next level of assisting developing countries to advance.

In furtherance of business viabilities for open source, the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA), recently linked up with the European hub of open source cum ICT hub located in Berlin, Germany, backed with intercontinental working tour.

Team leader of FOSSFA working tour and council chairperson, Ms. Nnenna Nwakanma, said it was the longest out-of-the continent working trip to Berlin, Europe’s Open Source hub. She also said, the Foundation’s executives and staff from the Western, Eastern and Southern Africa toured Berlin and its environs for one full week.

Noting that Berlin as centre of innovation brings science and Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) together for innovation on the Open Source Business Foundation platform with members cutting across companies, institutions and persons inspired by open source software.

Nwakanma also said the highpoint was a visit to Linux Tag, European’s oldest Linux Tradefair, which normally registers above 12,000 attendees. Other organizations and events scheduled included Open Berlin, The Open Source Business School, LiSOG, newthinking, Linux Association, LXDE, and Linux Verband. Parallel to these, she said, is FOSSFA and Inwent Capacity Building International event dedicated to ICT@INNOVATION.

“The joint project serves the need of Open Source SMEs in Africa, even as the team joined the Linux Professionals Institute (LPI) in celebrating their 10th anniversary.

Like the president of Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Chief Chris Uwaje noted, FOSS is where the future lies for development and emancipation of local content in a developing economy like Nigeria into the global realm.

For Uwaje, who spoke at the weekend during the Nigeria IT Expo (NITEX) organized by the NCS at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), said all nations of the world now look up to Open Source Software (OSS), as the roadmap to sustainable progress and creation of wealth. Therefore, he declared that development of OSS application and software products should be strongly encouraged and promoted to accomplish many objectives for the Nigeria software industry.

For the chief executive, Jidaw.com, Mr. Jide Awe, in view of the considerable interest OSS has generated globally, it will be a mistake for a developing country like Nigeria to fail to examine the worth and benefits of OSS.

However, noteworthy is that lack of awareness and relative availability of expertise among FOSS members could be a major hindrance for support services, but top on the logs has been the absence of adequate funding both by the government and few multinational proponents of FOSS in developing countries and Nigeria, of course, cannnot exist in isolation.

So, a clarion call is hereby made to those who have advancement of developing countries at heart to embrace open source as a way out of the wood, especially given its ability to drastically reduce cost of deployment and management, mostly where the expertise is available for support services.

Therefore, the introductory quote above could apply to businesses and government entities in the not-too-developed nations, most of which, could be easily found in Africa and with Nigeria’s size and population, the chances are in legion, in that what Accenture saw and witnessed in Australia could be replicated by Nigerian firms.

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ITAN adopts e-voting for 2011

The Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN), has backed the adoption of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in the 2011 general election in the country, reports CHARLES OKOH.

ITAN through its Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Oluwole Owolabi, said the term ‘electronic voting machines’ refers to Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines and not optical-scan machines.

Although optical-scan machines use an electronic reader to tabulate the vote totals, voters mark their selections on a paper ballot and are not directly recording their votes into the machine.

Owolabi explained that EVMs make the voting process more efficient.

“DREs are secure, able to unambiguously capture the intent of a voter, capable of preventing residual votes, reliable, easy to use, and accessible to disabled, illiterate, and non-English speaking voters,” he said.

Also, he said, every form of paper ballot that has ever been devised could and has been manipulated with considerable ease, stressing that the reason is that humans are familiar with paper and its characteristics.

“By contrast, altering redundant encrypted write-once computer records is impossible even for experts. So, assuming that the electronic voting records are written correctly in the first place, the possibility of modifying them later is remote,” he said.

Owolabi, who heads the African secretariat of World Information Technology (WITSA), Abuja, expressed the belief that computers offer the first technology that could easily make copies of information in different forms for archival preservation.

Further, he said EVMs of today keep records of the votes on disk, removable physical media in memories and, as a final count, on a paper scroll and that these multiple records can improve voting machines’ immunity to problems.

He identified the advantages of DRE systems to include eliminating the possibility of making more selections than permissible; advising the voter of when a voter makes fewer than the maximum number of permissible selections in a contest thereby eliminating marking devices which can result in questions of voter intent as well as providing a review screen before a voter casts a ballot.

And to ensure that EVMs improve the voting process, Owolabi reiterated that the process must be defined, confined and examined by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) experts and professional in the following areas, vulnerability to hacking, disabled voters and electronic voting machines, voter verified paper audit trails, accuracy in capturing voters’ intent, political ties of manufacturers, secure storage of votes, malicious software programming, physical security of machines, susceptibility to fraud and federal legislation.

Additionally, he called for a pilot for the implementation and measurement of a EMVs benefits realization model to be developed to specify benefits at the strategic or objective level, validate the benefits during investment analysis for programme and project funding, check the delivery of early benefits once the programmes and projects are defined and have begun execution to validate the long term goals and benefits and measure product or service performance once they are deployed to validate early results and assure the strategic goals are met.

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Uwaje advocates for national software directory

President, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) Mr. Chris Uwaje, has advocated for the establishment of National Software Directory on all software in use in the country, reports CHARLES OKOH.

Uwaje said that this would cover both the foreign and local, currently in circulation in the country, in order to make it mandatory for all software domiciled in Nigeria to be registered with Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).

Speaking at the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) organized National Information Technology Expo (NITEX-10), he said that except a national policy on software is precisely developed, Nigeria would remain a dumping ground leading to continued capital flight from the country.

He said every software-exporting country has evolved a unique industry, shaped by its own resources and situation and by the particular global opportunities presented at the time, insisting that no software in the world is perfect and that except the nation develops her own master plan no other nation would do it for her.

Uwaje, who also called for graduated ban on software applications that could be sourced locally by government agencies and parastatals, noted that it would allow for growth of the local industry.

He equally said the country should target an average of 5,000 software graduates annually to prepare her for the new information age.

Uwaje who dwelt on the Imperatives for a national software policy, last week said that a national master plan for software development, for instance would show the roadmap to leapfrog and avoid the nation from being a 21st century digital colony.

He also charged the government to advise and use moral persuasion to make private sector look inwards and possibly grant incentives to them for procuring and using indigenous application software.

Uwaje who is also the Managing Director of Connect Technologies Limited, added that imported software applications in private and public sectors, under the scheme, should in three years be subjected to high taxation if they are procured with foreign exchange.

According to him, the masterplan would afford the engagement and preparation of the nation for the challenges, risks and opportunities of the emerging knowledge society.

“To act as a vehicle for accelerated capacity building and creation of wealth through software development as well as ensure that Nigeria does not become a 21st century digital colony,” he said.

Today, Uwaje said, the global software industry has continued to evolve dramatically and countries who now aspire to develop their software exports face different and critical globally challenging situations.

“They are therefore, likely to evolve fundamentally different software industries. The current shape and dynamics of the software industry should inform ICT planning and policy, no matter the country’s stage of economic development,” he said.


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ICTWatch plans digital awards, lecture

Leading Nigerian television programme on MITV and TVC, ICTWatch Network has announced its Africa Digital Award and lecturer series to be held in June.

Coordinator of the programme, Mr. Tayo Adewusi, said that the essence is to stimulate rapid development of Information & Communications Technology (ICT) on the continent.

“We are set to assemble Africa’s Digital ‘who is who’ in Nigeria come June 2010. Highlight of the pan-African digital icons’ gathering is the Africa Digital Awards & Lecture Series 2010. (ADA 2010),” he declared.

He explained that the lecture will focus on the pace of Africa’s digital growth in the past decade, the award is designed to recognise and honour Africa’s ICT experts companies and individuals who have excelled in their efforts towards accelerating the development of the ICT sector across the African continent, as well as in other parts of the world.

Additionally, he said, the event is also aimed at acknowledging the very high performance of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in terms of effective and efficient regulation of the ICT sector in Nigeria, most particularly in the past ten years.

Indeed, as the change of leadership in the NCC takes effect, ICT Watch believes that it would be highly imperative for a stakeholders’ forum to set an agenda for the incoming helmsman of the Commission to help him manage, sustain and may be exceed the successes achieved by Engr. Dr. Ernest Chukwuka Ndukwe.

Tagged “Africa Digital Awards & Lecture Series 2010”, the pan-African digital excellence event aims at x-raying the achievements made in the Nigerian ICT sector in particular and the ripple effects such achievements has impacted on Africa’s digital growth in the last ten years. The forum will also examine the way forward for the incoming board of NCC and challenge the West African Telecommunications Regulatory Association (WATRA), which Nigeria is a leading member, to make every efforts to bridge the digital divide in Africa.

With the broad theme, “Nigeria’s Golden Jubilee: Sustaining the Growth in the Telecom Sector Beyond 2010” the forum is designed to focus on maximizing the potentials of Nigeria telecoms growth and sustaining it through putting in place leadership, policies and programmes that will move the industry to the next level.

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MTN rolls out HyConnect @ Abia, Kano

•Showcases at Internet forum

Leading telecommunications company, MTN Nigeria, last weekend showcased its mobile data offering to the second edition of the Nigeria Digital Sense Forum, which held in Lagos.

This is coming as the telecom operator announced the launch of its Internet and fixed line service MTN HyConnect in Aba and Kano, Abia and Kano States respectively.

Officials of MTN at the event said that with the MTN 3.5G mobile broadband service gaining momentum in the Nigerian market, it was imperative to showcase the products at DSA forum, pointing out that its internet products include the data access for the Nigerian travelling public and the 3.5G mobile broadband.

MTN 3.5G mobile broadband service, according to one of the marketing officers who requested for anonymity, opens up a whole new dimension of fast and simple working and harnesses the advantages of mobility, taking internet access in Nigeria to new level. The launch has ushered the two cities into a new era of cost effective and seamless communication. High speed Internet and fixed lines running on fibre optic technology will now be available to subscribers in their homes and offices in the cities.

Speaking on the roll-out of MTN HyConnect in two cities of Aba and Kano, the Chief Enterprise Solutions Officer, Mr. Derek Appiah, said the product of MTN Business is a comprehensive range of solutions, focused on assisting businesses to realize their full potential by availing them of an array of productivity-enhancing communications solutions.

“We are happy to announce that MTN HyConnect is live in Aba and Kano. This is consistent with our plan to systematically extend the benefits of MTN HyConnect services to more parts of Nigeria,” Appiah said.

MTN HyConnect was launched with fanfare in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State in August 2009. It has since spread to Port Harcourt, Calabar and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, in addition to its launch pad, Lagos.

Everywhere that MTN HyConnect has launched, Appiah said, small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) have particularly embraced it, as it enables them to improve productivity through its reliability and speed.

According to Appiah, MTN HyConnect Internet footprint would be extended to other major cities in the country before the end of the year.

In his comment, the Corporate Services Executive, Mr. Wale Goodluck said, MTN is committed to adding value to the lives and businesses of people.

“And this we are doing in very many ways, including delivering tailor-made, productivity-enhancing solutions to every part of this vast country. We will continue to do our best to stimulate economic growth and development in our great country,” he said.

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Covey to unveil Zain’s Enterprise Solutions

Renowned motivational speaker and author of ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, Dr Stephen Covey has been slated to unveil Zain’s Enterprise solutions.

Chief Commercial Officer, Zain Nigeria, Mr. Shamel Hanafi, disclosed this, said that during Covey’s three-day visit scheduled to begin on April 20 through 23, 2010, that Zain would use the opportunity to unveil its Enterprise Solutions in the country.

Zain Enterprise Solutions, he said, is a suite of products and services with a unique value proposition designed to significantly enhance the effectiveness, efficiency and productivity of businesses, business executives and entrepreneurs.

The celebrated motivational speaker and management expert would also share his time-tested tips on principles and values of leadership and tips on how individual and businesses can move from failure to success and improve efficiency, productivity and profitability.

During his visit, he said, Zain would provide over five hundred leaders in business, government and the media an opportunity to listen to and interact with Dr. Covey.

Hanafi noted that Dr. Covey and Zain Enterprise Solutions have a lot in common hence the decision of the company to associate the unveiling of the solutions with the foremost author.

He also said that bringing Dr. Covey into the country underscores its understanding of the need to improve on the efficiency and effectiveness of business managers and leaders generally especially in the light of the challenging global economic environment.

Hanafi emphasized that Zain would always look for opportunities to give its customers a pleasurable communication experience as well as equip and empower them to succeed in the various aspects of their lives in keeping with its brand promise of ‘A wonderful world’.

The itinerary of the visit released by the company show that Dr Covey would host a collection of young business executives, professionals and select media managers today at a cocktail event tagged “An Evening with Dr Covey” at the Auto Lounge, Victoria Island, Lagos, during which he will sign (autograph) books for the first 100 guests.

He would also have an interactive session with the media as well as visit some radio stations in Lagos and speak to listeners on air and expound on key management principles.

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Indian presides over ITU council

Global telecom regulator, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has appointed an Indian expert, Mr. R.N. Jha as its chairman for the 2010 Council

The Council comprises of 46 Member states, last week held its annual session, six months before the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, which would take place in Guadalajara, Mexico, 4-22 October 2010.

A press statement from the governing body signed by the Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, Mr. Sanjay Acharya, the council would take the opportunity to review the implementation of the union’s strategic and financial plans for the 2008-2011 period as well as the draft plans for 2012-2015.

At the first plenary meeting where India took over the rotating chairmanship from Ghana, Mr. Jha who is also the Deputy Director-General, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India, said in his opening address as Chairman,
“This session of Council is particularly important as this is the year of the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference. Many issues being discussed here will find their way to the Mexico conference.”

Mr. Jha added that as ITU celebrates its 145th anniversary this year, the importance of the Union is increasing as newer technologies, applications and services are introduced that contribute to economic growth worldwide.

In his State of the Union address, ITU Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Touré noted some recent landmark achievements, such as new ITU standards for the development of 3D TV and a universal charger solution for mobile phones as well as its timely interventions in restoring communications in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Chile earlier this year.

Recognizing the need for broader support to strengthen ITU’s role, Dr Touré said, “As a market-responsive organization in a fast-changing environment, we need to work constantly to continue to increase our relevance,” he said.

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Tizhe tasks media on IT promotion

The president of the Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), Mr. Ibrahim Tizhe, has tasked Nigerian media to project Information Technology (IT) as it is the only universally accepted agent of development.

This is coming as he warned Nigerians to know the difference between product certification and professional certification, saying that product certification is not equitable to professional certification.

Speaking in Lagos last weekend, at a quarterly media conference, Tizhe noted that this has always been the fact, but the media in developing countries give prominence to politics, insisting that IT is the bedrock of development,

“IT is the only agent of development, although we have been projecting politics, but the fact is that IT is the root of development,” he said.

He recognized that Nigerian media has been trying over the last decade, especially with the evolution to crept into the economy to promote IT extensively but more needed to be done in terms of ranking of stories that make news in the country.

He also disclosed that CPN membership has grown to over 4,000 since the body was established through Act 49 of 1993.

According to him, the Act was passed into law since June 10 and gazette on August of the same year, thus CPN was charged with the regulation, control and supervision of the computing industry.

Mr. Tizhe also said that product certification involves such certifications as being offered by product manufacturers like Cisco Systems, Microsoft Corporation and Oracle Corporation among others.

He described these as product-based certification and cannot be equated with professional certifications such as the ones offered by CPN.

“These are not substitutes for CPN certifications, but are product specific, thus, they deal precisely on their products,” he declared.

Tizhe explained that CPN qualification gives individuals a broad spectrum of knowledge instead of caging oneself within a given product, which is a limited option.

Also contributing on the chief executive of HiiT, Chief Kayode Shobajo, who doubles as the chairman, Public Relations and Corporate Affairs committee, maintained that vendor certification must be seen as such and has not equivalence in professional certification like the one being offered by CPN.

As said by him, this could only be made clearer with media education and enlightenment of the populace and for those who want to ply their trade in the IT industry.

He hinted that CPN has advanced plans for a congregation of IT professionals for its annual general assembly, which is expected to draw attendance from both local and international members of CPN and allied organizations.

Mr. Tizhe was accompanied at the session by his vice president, Alhaja Sekinat Yusuf, Registrar of CPN, Mr. Sikiru Shehu and Director of Finance and Administration, Mr. Sunday Eke.

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Odusote applauds DSA on Internet awareness

THE Permanent Secretary, Nigeria Ecological Fund, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, has commended Digital Sense Africa (DSA), organizers of the annual Nigeria Digital Sense Forum, for its initiative in sustaining the programme as a prelude to the global Internet Governance Forum (IGF). She noted that DSA as a private initiative has succeeded where government agencies failed.

Mrs. Odusote, who was speaking over the weekend in Lagos at the one-day Nigeria Digital Sense Forum, advocated that access to internet should be declared the right of every Nigerian.

“The nation needs a forum like this to enable her articulate her position at the global IGF. With attendance as this it shows the power the private sector has over the public sector in using the internet to network,” she said.

She also said though several attempts in the past to hold similar fora were not successful but that the public sector is beginning to wake up, just as she called for massive enlightenment on the potentials of the internet.

Mrs. Odusote who spoke on: Nigeria in WSIS; Five years of IGF, pointed out that for the nation to benefit more from the current internet access the service has to be improved upon.

Equally speaking, the President Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) Mr. Lanre Ajayi, lamented that the gap between the developing and developed nations in internet access is increasing by the day, citing that in the United States (US) and South Korea, broadband penetration has grown to 53 and 90 per cent respectively.

“The global average broadband penetration is 30 per cent. But in Nigeria we have one per cent of broadband penetration out of the estimated seven per cent of internet access, but what is this compared to the US, South Korea and global broadband penetration? So, we need to work hard to get access to our people,” he said.

Calling for urgent legislation to fight cyber crimes, he warned that unless something is done to check the menace of cyber crime in the country when access increases it means that the criminals would also increase.

The chairman of the 2010 forum and president, Internet Service Providers Association (ISPAN), Chief Samuel Adeleke said DSA has provided the nation the platform to articulate her position at the next IGF, lamenting that the average Nigerian is still illiterate when it comes to internet usage.

“We are not internet hungry. There is need for active participation both as a nation and as individuals to change the perception from the negative use of the internet to the positive,” he said.

In her welcome address, the Executive Director (Operations), DSA, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke said the forum acts as a rallying point for the nation’s internet stakeholders in raising and addressing salient issues concerning Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector and in particular, internet governance related issues.

Mrs. Nweke also commended the recent court ruling on the vexed issues arising from the sale of 2.3 GHz spectrum, describing it as a victory for democracy and the rule of law.

“This ruling is a victory for democracy and a way forward for the growth of the telecom sector in particular and the economy in general as the future lies on the internet,” she said.

Tagged “Five years of Internet Government Forum: The way forward for Nigeria”, the forum would prepare the nation for the IGF scheduled to hold in Vilnius, Lithuania between September 14 and 17, 2010, the organizers said.

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Zinox showcase e-knowledge suite @ NITEX’10

Internationally certified Nigeria’s premier computer brand, Zinox Technologies last week showcased the three-day Nigeria Information Technology Expo (NITEX) 2010, which lasted for three days at the University of Lagos, Multipurpose hall, Akoka-Lagos.

NITEX is organized by the Nigeria organized by the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), in partnership with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) and Center for Information Technology Studies (CITS).
The conference and exhibition which commenced last Wednesday ended Friday, April 16, this year.

According to the Assistant General Manager (AGM) Marketing at Zinox Computers, Mrs. Loretta Agbakoba said that the computer firm would maintain a strong presence with some of her product lines that are custom made for the educational sector namely the Zinox e-books suite, the Zinox NComputing package and the Zinox net book series.

She affirmed that Zinox e-books suite is top of the products at the exhibition, stressing that Zinox e-books suite worth N62,000 is free for one year and a free Zinox digi lamp to enhance reading in a country where blackouts have become a norm.

Agbakoba noted that the e-books suite, which Zinox developed in partnership with World e library is currently number 1 on the continent and contains 750,000 e-books downloadable in any personal computer (PC).

This is in addition to 59,000 medical e-documents and e-books, 11,000 classic literature e-books, 1,000 Chemistry e-books, 500 Mathematics e-books; 250 Physics e-books; and 680,000 e-books more.

She also said that the suite includes Physics simulation tools, Creative, Observation, and Skills Development Tools, Teacher Lessons Plans, Worksheets, and Classroom Articles.

Agbakoba pointed out that the e-learning suite holds a lot of promise for educational institutions who want to be rated among the world’s best and governments who wish to accelerate the pace towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and the Vision 202020 said Mrs. Loretta Agbakoba.

She further said that another unique solution that Zinox is demonstrating at the exhibition is the Zinox NComputing, which unwraps the unused capacity so that it could be simultaneously shared by multiple students.

“Each student’s monitor, keyboard, and mouse connect to the shared PC through a small and very durable NComputing access device,” she said, adding that educationists would find the NComputers rugged, durable, easy to deploy, and maintain because the device itself has no Central Processing Unit (CPU), memory or moving parts like a PC.

Mrs. Agbakoba said that IT professionals in the educational sector are always complaining about budget cuts, not enough PCs, outdated PCs, limited IT support staff, crowded and hot computer labs, growing student populations, and the desire to move e-learning into the classroom.

The Zinox A.G.M. said that NComputing offers solutions to these concerns because now it is possible to make huge savings on hardware, maintenance and power consumption.

The NComputing ultra low-cost desktops are so affordable that you can install twice as many workstations with your existing budget. She revealed that millions of students in more than 10,000 schools are already enjoying the benefits of NComputing’s virtual desktops.

The Zinox Smart series come in two portable variants – the Smart plus – running on Intel Atom processor, 10.1 display screen, Microsoft operating system, a SIM card slot and has a variety of three colors (red, black, pink); and the Zinox Smart – also running on Intel Atom processor, 8.9 display screen, Microsoft operating system, and has a blue color to depict ruggedness. Mrs. Agbakoba urged the Unilag community to take advantage of the NITEX exhibition and address their IT problems.

Zinox Computers was launched in 2001 as Nigeria’s First Internationally Certified Branded Computers. Presently rated by the International Data Corporation (IDC), USA as the No. 2 selling brand amongst international brands in Nigeria, Zinox is the only brand that has reduced the total cost of ownership of computers in Nigeria through her nationwide support network.

By virtue of its place of birth, history, ownership pedigree, investments, profitability, and a clear roadmap, Zinox is the largest IT Company in sub Saharan African and is determined to be the single largest integrated ICT Company in Africa by the year 2012.

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