Abuja bomb blast: ICT experts berate govt

•Say it could have been averted

EXPERTS in Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) have berated the federal government over the last week independence anniversary celebration bomb blast at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) that killed over 10 persons.

Although the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, claimed responsible for the two blasts that rocked Abuja, penultimate Friday, MEND in a statement circulated at about 10 hours on October 1, endorsed by the spokesman, Mr. Jomo Gbomo, insisted there is nothing to celebration at 50.

“With due respect to all invited guests, dignitaries and attendees of the 50th independence anniversary of Nigeria being held today, Friday, October 1, 2010 at the Eagle Square, Abuja, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta is asking everyone to begin immediate evacuation of the entire area within the next 30 minutes. This warning expires after 10.30hrs,” the statement read in part.

They pointed out that several explosive devices were successfully planted in and around the venue by MEND operatives working inside the government security services.

“In evacuating the area, keep a safe distance from vehicles and trash bins. There is nothing worth celebrating after 50 years of failure. For 50 years, the people of the Niger Delta have had their land and resources stolen from them,” the notice added.

MEND also alleged that the constitution of the country before independence offered resource control, but was mutilated by illegal military governments, describing it as an injustice that is “yet to be addressed.”

Reports have it that the Nigeria security agencies claimed they had earlier received a tip-off on Al Qaeda, which paved the way for vehicles packed around the venue to be evacuated, only for this claim by MEND to surface.

While some concerned Nigerians are still trading words over the last week independence anniversary bomb blast, experts in the nation’s ICT sector have blamed the government for not listening to earlier advise proffered at the recently held ICT intervention summit on national security, in Lagos, barely three weeks before the bomb blast.

They argued that the Abuja bomb blast could still be averted with the aid of technologies given the forewarning from the likes of United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, said they were saddened by the unfortunate bomb blast and reflects poor security intelligence gathering in the country.

The government, ALTON chairman said, must invest more in intelligence and surveillance using a combination of terrestrial and satellite based technologies, such as the Closed-circuit television (CCTV). Mobile Telephone services, broadband and of course ground based neighbouhood patrol.

In his reaction, the group managing director of Teledom Group, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, told ITRealms Online that the Abuja bomb blast on the day of nation’s golden jubilee celebration was a national shame and embarrassment, just as he did not agree less with ALTON chairman.

Wondering why Nigerians should be suffering at this 21st century, when technologies abound with capabilities to check-mate the influx of such small arms and ammunitions.

“Why suffer like this when there are VACIS Systems, fixed and mobile, to scan all vehicles that enter Abuja without disrupting traffic?” he bemoaned.

According to him, VACIS scanning would expose all arms, weapons, arms and explosives even if they are embedded by welding within the chassis, boots and trunks of cars, trucks, trailers, and tankers to name a few, without having to physically open the boots.

“Broadband will enable in situation and remote monitoring of scan outputs,” he declared, stressing that precisely on September 7, the ICT industry held a stakeholders summit on ICT response to national security.

“It was endorsed by Association of Telecomm Companies of Nigeria, (ATCON), ALTON, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Information Technology Industry Association of Nigeria (ITAN), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National IT Development Agency (NITDA) Digital Sense Africa (DSA) and Joint Action Committee on ICT Awareness and Development (JACITAD) and so on and was attended by all security agencies,” he noted.

Pointing out that may be, they are still writing their reports when we have a serious national emergency, which is a shame.

He emphasised that the security event anchored by Technology Development Company (TDC) of Teledom Group in partnership with Gamnet Solutions Ltd, came out with a communique, warning against what happened in Abuja.

“The Nigerian ICT industry should be painfully proud of this fact that it warned the nation,” he lamented, asserting that there could be no kidnapping, bombing, hired assassination, armed robbery, militancy without transportation of arms, bombs and explosives, weapons among others.

These, he said, could be easily scanned and apprehended at seaports, border posts, airports, roads, highways and inland waterways, and so forth.

As said by him, with lawful interception, criminal database, Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card registration, we can monitor coordination of criminal activities by criminals, using ICT to the rescue.


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ATCON, NCC stress need for broadband

The Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), at the weekend, reiterated the need to have broadband in the country.

The Nigeria’s public and private sector segment of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry, they said, have the potentials of a broadband driven sector.

According to the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah; and President, ATCON Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu, who spoke at the Telecom and ICT Evening hosted by the Institute of Directors at the weekend at the Golden Gate Restaurant, Ikoyi, Lagos.

For Dr. Juwah who was the special guest at the event, NCC under him would deploy all the necessary human and material resources to ensure the realization of broadband in its fullness in Nigeria.

He urged members of IOD to partake in realizing this objective using whatever platforms that the Commission would set up.

“We will give emphasis to the deployment of broadband services across the country using various platforms, including public private partnerships. I am sure that members of this important body will have some supportive roles to play at the appropriate time to ensure that the nation attracts the kind of investments necessary for the success of this programme,” he said.

Dr. Juwah also raised the concerns of the Commission about the current state of the quality of service in the telecom network and promised to host the operators to discuss solutions to the problem.

Omo-Ettu in his part as the guest speaker at the event, dwelt on “The Last Man at the Far End of the Last Mile,” noted that Nigeria has transited from lack of basic telephony services to current pervasiveness of these services.

He said the current population and telecom statistics of about 78 million lines where many people use more than one phone, shows that most Nigerians out of the 150 million population are yet to own these services.

“Until every Nigerian, including this last man, whom we may not even know who he is, or where he resides, owns a telephone, then, we will not say that we have wholly succeeded,” he said.

Stressing the imperatives of broadband in a society, Omo-Ettu pointed out that recent forum tagged BB4NG (Broadband for Nigeria) revealed that Nigerians are at various levels in awareness of, and demand for Broadband Internet access, and that Government needs to be told in clear terms that Nigerians need both ‘bread and broadband.

He pointed out that the key message from that forum was without equivocation, “Broadband is the critical and efficient medium needed for the timely delivery of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Vision 2020-20, and ICT for Development (ICT4D).

“In order to ensure that Nigeria’s MDG commitments and Vision 202020 reach their target audience in All the 774 Local Governments, it will require a substantial completion of fixed Broadband infrastructure that gives optimum connectivity within the country and to the global Internet”, he said.

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Juwah to enthrone Internet-based economy

The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Dr. Eugene Ikemefuna Juwah has said that the telecommunication regulatory agency is working towards enthroning an internet-driven economy in the country.

Welcoming the board of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) led by the Dr. Isaac Odeyemi, who were on courtesy visit in his office, Juwah said that the aim of NCC is to work out the modalities for introducing an internet e economy.

He said that the Commission will soon invite stakeholders to fine-tune the concept sequel to the full implementation.

“We will involve all stakeholders,” he assured and congratulated the executive board members who were elected last August for paying him a visit.

He expressed delight that NCC has been giving support to NIRA and to the likes of Nigeria Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), stressing that what the Commission wants at this time in point is to concentrate on building broadband technology for the populace.

Juwah said that NCC also has some programmes to deepen the adoption of technology as it has development partnership with various government agencies and states towards making the Internet available to the citizens.

“Our aim is to introduce Internet economy,” he declared.

Speaking earlier, Dr. Odebeyi congratulated the NCC boss on his appointment as the new chief executive officer of the telecom apex body, saying that the contributions the Commission made in the last 10 years, has shown that the nation can actually move forward.

He also told Juwah that NiRA wants the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) .ng to be a preferred domain in the country among Nigerians and Internet enthusiasts particularly.

NiRA, he said, is pleased to have a director in the NCC, Mrs. Mary Uduma as its new president, whom he noted has been active since the inauguration of the association following the harmonization of all interest groups that give birth to NiRA.

Odeyemi used the visit to urge the new EVC to fast-track the release of NiRA’s subvention for 2010.

Also speaking, NiRA President, Mrs. Uduma said that as part of the 50 years anniversary celebration, her organisation has advanced plans to give out for free 50,000 domain names on .ng.

Earlier, Mrs. Uduma who was accompanied by some members of the executive board including Messrs Sola Bickersteth, Biyi Oladipo and Remmy Nweke, and secretary to the board of trustees, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, equally paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. (Mrs) Dora Akunyili at the Radio House, Abuja to intimate her of the NiRA’s strategy in making internet accessible to all Nigerians, especially in contributing to the Rebranding Nigeria Project and 50th independence celebration, through the free 50,000 domain names on .ng for 50 days.

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Nweke urges African women to embrace ICT

African women have been challenged to embrace Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and eschew the apathy they currently display when issues come up in their various domains.

The Executive Director, Digital Sense Africa (DSA) Limited, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, made this call at the weekend in South Africa during a three-day 2010 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) ICT Women Empowerment Africa Summit organized by CorpTrain at Gallagher Convention Centre, Midrand-Johannesburg, while delivering a paper on ‘Challenges Faced by Women in ICT: A Nigeria Perspective.’

Mrs. Nweke said that women should engage in more enlightened programmes, noting that access to knowledge is an indispensable right of an individual for socio-economic empowerment.

According to her, attitudinal change among African women is an apathy factor that must be dealt with head-on, because it encourages laziness and lack of interest if the Millennium Development Goal (MDGs) must be attained with women in the right place and frame.

She also listed poor saving culture and wrong perception of ICT by African women, citing for instance, that some women still see the Internet at this 21st century as avenue for fraud and pornography.

This kind of notion, she said, must change if African women must achieve the expectation of MDGs beyond political assertions.

Outlining some of the challenges facing African women in adaption of ICT with particular reference to Nigeria, Mrs. Nweke said that poor and uneven power supply militate against African women determination to self-reliance.

“If it is not erratic, it is the uneven distribution and there is high cost of alternative sources of power such as generating sets, inverters and solar,” she said.

She buttressed her point by saying that currently, poverty level on the continent remained a discouraging factor with low per capita income in addition to illiteracy and unemployment levels respectively.

She noted that with the Gross National Income per capita at less than a USD $1 per day, African women stand a lesser chance to make relevant change in their lives.

Citing the World Bank report of 2009, Mrs. Nweke said that the high rate of unemployment, stood at (0;0.6), while the high cost of ICT facilities such as computers, Internet access and fake products to name a few have not been helpful.

She said that the adult illiteracy rate from the age of 15 and above for women was scored 61 per cent according to World Bank by year 2000, decrying that high cost of education in primary and post-primary schools in terms of books and tuition fees among others have formed literal Berlin wall between those who want to get education and those who can afford it.

“Averagely primary tuition cost about N20,000 = USD130.548 in Nigeria,” she said, while lack of computer labs in most primary, post-primary schools and non-adaption of computer education, which Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) and Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) since worked on remain a disturbing challenge.

Lack of adequate infrastructure and poor internet services in most schools, coupled with time constraint and ignorance, she highlighted have kept African women at distance with ICT.

While urged relevant government authorities to give waivers on taxation and import duties, she called for a change of heart as far as adaption of ICT is concerned, especially in Nigeria and across the continent of Africa.

Free and compulsory primary, post-primary education, she said, is imperative for African countries and women precisely to attain the require figures anticipated in the MDGs by 2015, just as inclusion of ICT education in all academic core curriculum cannot be over-emphasised.

“Training is an indispensable component of an organisation or society,” Mrs. Nweke said, even as she said that provision of internet connectivity in all schools, beginning with primary and post-primary, would be a good omen.

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Nigeria@50: Emeagwali tasks African countries to revisit Berlin Confab of 1884

Nigerian-born acclaimed father of the Internet, Dr. Phillip Emeagwali has advised Nigeria to revisit the reasons behind the Berlin conference of 1884 so as to get insight into charting a new course for the country for the next 50 years, reports Remmy Nweke.

He called for the creation of technological knowledge capable of reinventing the future and recreating Africa.

Emeagwali who gave this advice while speaking on Nigeria’s 50th anniversary lecture at the Embassy of Nigeria, Paris, last weekend, said that the revisit is crucial to know where the country is coming from.

He said that as a country, Nigeria has existed for 96 years and not just 50 years, noting that it
has only been independent for 50 years, for just over half that time.

“We must critically examine the 46 years of colonial rule over Nigeria and the scramble for Africa that began with the Berlin Conference of 1884, if we are to get insights into how to chart our nation's course for the next 50 years,” he declared.

He gave an analogy with Sankofa, a mythical bird of the Akan people of West Africa, which flies forward while looking backward, with an egg in its mouth to symbolize the future.

“In order to understand its history, to reclaim its past, and to enable its people to move forward into the 21st century, Africa (Nigeria) must look back, back to the Berlin Conference of 1884 and back to the Atlantic slave trade that spanned four continents and four centuries,” he said.

This, Emeagwali emphasised, would allow citizens on the continent to understand how to come to be 54 nations instead of one.

He also said that like the Sankofa bird, Africa must look to its past to predict its future.

“It must know how it evolved in order to understand how it can be recreated. Its people should know where their journey began in order to understand which direction to take to find their future,” he said.

The Berlin Conference, he said, came about when Africa was divided into 50 colonies, and 1884 was when the modern map of Africa was created.

“The Berlin Conference was the beginning of modern Africa. In 1884, Africa was the agenda, but no African was at the table,” he said.

This year, in 2010, Emeagwali said, 17 African nations are celebrating their 50th anniversary of sovereignty and post-colonial rule.

“Nigeria's journey, like that of the other independent African nations, began at the Berlin Conference 126 years ago with no African in attendance,” he said, stressing that if colonial Africa could be created in Berlin, then a future Africa could equally be created in Beijing.

“Nations creating technological knowledge are reinventing the future and recreating Africa,” he said.

Emeagwali expressed the belief that by the end of this century, one in two Africans will live outside Africa.

“I was asked: "Why did you live in exile from Africa for 37 years?" Put differently, "Why don't you deliver Nigeria's 50th anniversary lecture in Abuja, instead of in Paris?" I have never visited Abuja. But I am not at home in Washington, D.C., either,” he asserted.

As said by him, he had an asymmetrical relationship with Africa and America, as well as with science and technology.

“I worked entirely outside the gates of science and as an outcast, with outsider status. I was honored, but will forever remain an outsider in America. I was honored for retelling the 330-year-old story of the Second Law of Motion: from the storyboard, to the blackboard, to the motherboard, by reprogramming 65,000 sub-computers to compute as a super-computer, and to communicate as an internet,” he said, stressing that he became own ancestor in physics, contemporary in mathematics, and descendant in internet science.

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Telecom providers can monitor diesel consumption – Chukwueke

Managing director, Communication Towers (CT), Mr. Philip Chukwueke, has said that telecommunications services providers in the country can technologically monitor diesel consumption to avert theft and unscrupulous acts by service delivery personnel.

Chukwueke made this known while speaking with newsmen at the just concluded Nigeria Com 2010, which held in Lagos, last weekend.

He said that this technology being offered by his firm, CT, is very useful in the telecoms service delivery because the likes of Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications operators and other telecom service providers could actually monitor diesel consumption of their base stations across the country.

“We also have a facility running in Yankari Games Reserves as we speak. It gives you instant information as to the much diesel has been used today in Yankari,” he said, stressing that it is based on text messaging that we put GSM, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card in the unit and that SIM card continuously reports the depth of assets in the tank.

According to him, the software application from CT calculates the volume based on that depth, stressing that if anyone has a generator running and instead of a smooth consumption such a person suddenly witnessed a cleft, which means that somebody must have tampered with it.

“So, we can calculate these things to immediately know how much was removed; with that we can send you an email alerting you to investigate. We can give you how many hours a day, week or month that you generator runs,” he said.

Chukwueke also said that for proprietors of petrol station, CT offering could tell customers how much petrol is in the underground storage tank anywhere in the country.

“We can let you know when your people are selling fuel and when they are not selling. And if you have fuel and they are not selling you must seek to know why. May be they want to sell in jerry cans at night,” he said.

He pointed out that as the nation warms up for the downstream deregulation of the petroleum industry this technology will become very crucial.

“If you have a petrol station your profit will depend on turn over, so, if your guys are not selling or hoarding because they want to sell at night and falsify the records, you will know wherever you are,” he said.

Responses by telecom companies, he said, have been encouraging, but noted that most firms take their time from testing of a given product to commercialisation, stressing that CT is at different stages of testing with some of these telcos.

“I do expect that may be in the next one month we would begin technical trial. One other thing you need to know is that the industry has out-sourced a lot of diesel supply to third parties. So the third parties are the ones that are now bearing the risk of theft.

“As we speak, we are in discussion with one of the biggest companies in Nigeria, they will be managing service for one of the biggest GSM companies and most likely they are going to use our tool,” Chukwueke said.

He explained that CT uses different types of sensors, some of the sensors use batteries that will last for two or three years, others do not.

“For those that will not, if it is a location that must have power 24/7 that means that they would have electric generator and in that case we can use the generator. But in some cases for a very small additional cost we can also package the solution with solar. That is the most preferred solution; it eliminates power surge and whole lot of things. We try to tell our clients that additional cost of solar option save us a lot of headache,” he submitted.

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Migrate to IPv6, AfriNIC tells network operators

The Manager for Africa and African countries in the Indian Ocean region, AFRINIC, Mr. Ernest Byaruhanga, has called on all network operators to start training their staff to ensure that their networks support Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPV6) to prepare them for the expected expiration of IPV4 in 2011 and to grow their networks, reports CHARLES OKOH.

Speaking to the ITRealms Online, in Lagos, last week at the IPV6 2010 training workshop organized by Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), Byaruhanga said this has become necessary because IPV4 addresses are running out globally in about two years.

“We are in Nigeria to do IPV6 training. IPV6 is the next generation internet protocol, the current version internet IPV4 is based on a set of numbers and identifiers that are running out very soon because of the way it was designed,” he said.

According to him, AFRINIC has warned network operators, ISPs, and everybody running internet networks that this internet protocol numbers were about to run out and to inform them of the next generation internet protocol which is Internet Protocol Version Six (IPV6).

He explained that they, network operators, need to move their networks and customers from the old protocol to IPv6 and to teach their engineers on how to deploy this new version in their networks and equipment,” he said

He said most operators are skeptical because of the resistance to change and lack of adequate information on how to deploy it, adding that for internet to grow there is no other choice than to move to IPV6

“Most of the new network equipment being produced by equipment vendors, like the computers, have operating systems that are IPV6 ready. Microsoft, for instance started making their operating system V6 ready with Windows XP. So also is the equipment that most ISPs are using on their networks. So the cost of moving IPV6 may be mainly on the training of the staff and getting the current staff of the ISPs to get to understand IPV6 and how to deploy it,” he said.

He also said after 2011 IPV4 addresses would run out of the global pool but that it does not mean that the current internet would stop working, because there are many technologies that are in place to extend the life-time IPV4 beyond 2011, but it would not be scalable.

One the participants, Mr. Cletus Okolie, of Datasphir Solutions, Ltd, attributed the reluctance to embrace the IPV6 to ignorance, maintaining that subscription rates for both versions are the same.

On his experience, another participant, Mr. Seun Ojedeji, of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, said the move is imminent in order to maintain communication with others who would have moved to V6.

Speaking on the need for the training, the Network Communications Manager, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), Mr. Anibe Onuche, said the collaboration with AFRINIC is to hasten the acquisition of IPV6 in the country.

He maintained that unlike Kenya that has implemented V6, Nigeria still lags behind.

“We want to ensure that we do not lag behind in any emerging technology and in doing that we can bridge the digital divide. We want to make sure that the nation is ahead in acquiring IPV6 address from AFRINIC.

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NCC’s Communication Centre to boost emergency mgt

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has advanced plans to deploy its Emergency Communication Centres (ECC) being established by in all the State capitals and Abuja FCT for effective management of accident emergencies.

This, the Commission said would boost the collating of information about various types of emergencies in the country.

Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, disclosed this in Abuja when the executive members or the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, RTEAN, paid a courtesy visit to the Commission in Abuja.

He said the Commission has put up enormous resources to achieve this given the critical roles that such centres will play in times of emergencies.

“NCC is very much involved in trying to redress the handling of emergencies in the country and in that regard, we are establishing thirty seven Emergency Communication Centers where emergency calls from different accidents will be received, dispatched to dispatch agents and the dispatch agents will contact the respective responsive agencies. We are going to include the police, road safety, fire service, ambulance and other agencies,” he said.

According to him, the centres will not only respond to emergencies, they will also collect and collate information about the various emergency situations so as to equip government to respond adequately, as such data collected over time will enable relevant agencies to respond more adequately,” he said.

Dr. Juwah said the Commission will support RTEAN very adequately in all its programmes aimed at curbing road accidents and other issues related to the safety of passengers on the Nigerian roads, including its plan to acquire ICT facilities including computers to enable them discharge their responsibilities to members and the Nigerian public.

In what appeared as an endorsement of the Commissions’ efforts to establish a data bank for phone users in Nigeria through the registration of SIM Cards, the organization sort the assistance of the Commission in furnishing them with such computerized information that will contribute to the smooth management of passenger handling and passenger movements.

National President of RTEAN, Dr. Abubakar Sadiq said the union wishes to “to seek the partnership of the Commission, particularly in the area of information management as regard accident victims and data collection system in respect of passenger manifest for the purpose of sharing information with victim’s family.

“We observed that your Commission will be of great help to us in this direction, counting on your network and capacity”, he said.

Dr. Sadiq traced the history of the organization as a trade union to 1978, with a mandate to establish and protect the interest of all commercial transport operators, and owners in Nigeria whose vehicles are used for socio-economic activities as service providers in public transportation system in Nigeria.

RTEAN President also sought for the support of the Commission in sponsorship of media programmes in respect of safety campaign and advocacy materials in partnership with RTEAN and Federal Road Safety Commission, to raise the safety consciousness of road users and drivers during festive periods.

Dr. Sadiq who led representatives of RTEAN drawn from all parts of the country to the courtesy call, said the union operates democratic leadership and system of administration and is operational in the Thirty Six States of the Federation and FCT- Abuja with membership strength and population of about One Million spread across the six geo political zone.

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Nigeria@50: Stakeholders laud ICT sector

Stakeholders in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have lauded the sector as the nation turned 50 at the weekend, saying its only industry that merited celebration.

Speakers upon speakers at a one-day forum ‘Celebrating 50 years of ICT in Nigeria’ all agreed that ICT sector deserve the 50 years celebration and charging other sectors of the economy to emulate the revolution that took place in the industry.

Some of those who spoke at the event include former Communications Minister, Chief Olawale Ige, former Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and chairman, OpenMedia Group, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, former president, Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) and group chief executive, Teledom Group, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, President, Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) Prof. Raymond Akwule, current ATCON president, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu as well as the president, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Mr. Chris Uwaje, his counterpart at the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) Mr. Lanre Ajayi and former executive director, Multi-Links Telkom, Chief Ezekiel Fatoye among others.

Chief Ige in his remarks traced the history of Nigeria’s ICT development between 1960 and 2010, saying that noted that he belong to the generation that was matured enough to appreciate and witness the political, social and economic activities that transpired during the transition from full colonial administration to self governance for the then three political regions that later culminated in full political independence on October 1, 1960, thus given Nigeria the status of a sovereign nation.

Speaking on 50 years of ICT in Nigeria, Chief Ige, reflected on the position 50 years ago before the advent of digital era within the last two decades of the twentieth century.

For over one and a half century since the inception of communicating by electrical signals, analogue technologies dominated the then three distinct industries, of telecommunications, broadcasting and data systems, Chief Ige said that digital technology came into prominence towards the end of the twentieth century.

This, he said, has facilitated convergence in all its ramifications, stressing that it promoted the application of unified technologies in the process of design, manufacturing and development on commercial platforms of the three erstwhile distinct industries.

For him, the terminology, nomenclature or acronym of ICT became popular parlance as a product of the digital era.

Information and communication technologies in general terms facilitate the transmission and delivery of services of all three sectors from one customer premise equipment.

“The simple and most common example today is that from a computer terminal, interactive telecommunications, radio and television broadcasting services and data collating, storage, processing, transmission and reception are all feasible and common day experiences in the global market the world now finds it’s self,” he said.

He pointed out that for the first thirty years of political independence, telecommunications, broadcasting and data systems were viewed from different perspectives as compartmentalised, until the convergence brought about by the ubiquitous ICT in the 1990’s to date changed that perception.

“Nigeria’s experience in the past 50 years in these fields can therefore be classified essentially to two: The Analogue era and the extant Digital age,” he said.

In his address to the occasion, ATCON President, Mr. Omo-Ettu, recognized that ICT industry has taken advantage of the effort and initiative of private investment to make the difference which, demonstrates that other sectors of the economy could actually do better if they emulate the sector.

ICT industry, he said, has reached a point when it may begin to fail to take full advantage of the economics of technology if the restructuring of telecommunications, broadcasting and computer industries into a true Information Communications Technology (ICT), industry does not emerge in the next twelve months.

Nigerians he said, have spoke that they consider access to broadband internet as their fundamental right. “We can therefore expect Federal Government’s reaction by making the necessary pronouncement on the need to commence the active construction of a National Backbone Infrastructure and indeed the launch of a stimulant funding to support the campaign for ubiquitous internet access,” he said.

According to him, if ICT sector aggressively demand in the next 24 months to derive a true, reliable Telephone Subscriber Database, “we would have been on the path to correcting those errors that we made as we tried to build the industry up to this moment.”

Omo-Ettu described the anniversary as a moment to remind the sector practitioners that there is more work to do.

For the immediate past EVC of NCC, Dr. Ndukwe enjoined Nigerians to let the music of progress which tune he set while in office to continue.

“Let the music play on,” he asserted, noting that in celebrating ICT development in the country, it is imperative to sustain the growth thereof, mostly for Vision 20-2020.
He pointed out that at independence in 1960, the colonial government bequeathed about 18,724 telephone lines to Nigeria with a population of about 42.7m translating to a teledensity of 0.044 per cent.
He stated that since then till year 2000, the number of telephone lines actually in use, that is active subscribers rose to just about 400,000.
“What this indicates is that the nation’s active subscriber base had grown at the rate of less than 10,000 lines per annum nation-wide over the forty years from 1960 to 2000,” he said.
Ndukwe said that the quest to improve telecommunications infrastructure urgently led industry stakeholders to discuss with successive governments since the 1960’s.
“Records abound of many development plan periods that were approved and embarked upon successive governments but did not yield the desired results,” he said.
Perhaps, he said, it was due to the need to find a solution to the unimpressive performance in this vital sector of the economy that prompted the Federal Government to decided to commercialise the then P&T, giving birth to NITEL in 1985.

“The idea was to run the company as a fully commercialised entity with faster decision making structures and improved efficiency,” he said.

The NCC, he said, operated under very difficult conditions between 1993 and 1999, beginning with the disbandment of its board in 1994 by then new military government of Gen. Sani Abacha, barely a year after it was constituted.

“The NCC obviously did not enjoy the measure of autonomy that is required of such a regulatory institution In the 7-year life of the NCC before 2000, licences were issued to a number of private companies to undertake various services such as fixed telephony services, Mobile telephony services, fixed satellite services (VSAT), Paging services, Payphone services, Internet services and some other value added services,” he said.

Noting that though these licenses were awarded and licence fees paid, only a limited number of the licencees were able to roll out networks in the various licence categories.

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Banks record over 10m Verve card

An estimated 10 million bank customers have acquired and used their Verve chip and Personal Identification Number (PIN) cards for various transactions, using Point of Sale (PoS).

Divisional Head, Verve Business, Interswitch, Mrs. Tobi Boshoro, disclosed this at the ongoing weekly Verve National Consumer Promotion session in Lagos.

The usage, she said, include through deployment of PoS terminals in over 13,000 merchant locations, 9,000 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and other channels as well as the internet.

She also said that Interswitch is organising the promo in conjunction with the banks, noting that over 10 million Verve cards have been issued so far.

“... But as at the time of going to the press only about 10 million cards are active,” she said, attributing this to the security features and reward system embedded in the Verve card.

“Over 56 bank customers from nine banks have been rewarded in the ongoing promo which would end in December,” he said.

Equally speaking, Head, Cards at Finbank, Mr. John Akpabio said that the banks have recorded many transactions and have been able to create the zeal for bank customers to acquire and use their cards.

“As a result of this promo we have recorded several transactions and that is good business for us. And of course it is good for the economy,” he said.

Stressing that the bank customers have acquired more cards as the ongoing Verve consumer promo has helped to raise card usage awareness among various bank customers.

The Verve Get & Win promo is rewarding bank customers who have obtained and used Verve card from the banks, change the PIN, and return the receipt from the ATM to the Chief Security Officer (CSO).

Additionally, this is to indicate that the PIN has been successfully changed at the bank before a customer gets a gift.

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Starcomms expands network to improve services

Starcomms customers would now be enjoying better signals following the company’s network expansion programme, which the operator said would boost the quality of service on sarcomms network, UCHE ELEKWACHI.

Chief Commercial Officer of starcomms plc, Mr. Tushar Maheshwari, disclosed this in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online at the weekend that the telecommunication customers that preferred starcomm network are increasing in number by the hour which encouraged the operator to expand its network capacity.

According to Masheshwari, for the company to provide services that would delight customers in areas where mobile phones used on the network are numerous and where there is more demand to deliver fast data services the network needs more cell sites.

He noted that starcomms customers in areas like Lagos, Enugu, Jos, Bauchi, Umuahia, and Onitsha would now enjoy the best quality of services with the new network expansion drive.

“We are aware of the need to be proactive in our line of business because we know that technological advancement is most pronounced in it and as our customers increase, their needs are definitely increasing. So, we meet them in their large numbers and at the very point of their needs,”Maheshwari said.

He further said that the network expansion project geared towards keeping fate with their commitment to teeming customers as well as raise technology bar at all times.

Starcomms he said has in recent times been delighting its customers with various innovations and enhanced services.

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Portugal supports ITU’s initiative

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré and Vice-Minister for Public Works, Transport and Communications of Portugal, Mr Paulo Campos, last week, signed an agreement that Portugal, through its eSchool International programme, will provide comprehensive technological solutions for schools in a number of interested countries as part of ITU’s Connect a School, Connect a Community initiative.

This follows a commitment made by Portugal during the ITU World Telecommunication Policy Forum (WTPF), in Lisbon in April 2009.

A press statement from the global body and made available to ITRealms Online, said about 20 countries would benefit from this first phase, with the initiative supporting the launch of one connected school project per country.

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Jonathan re-appoints Ilukwe CEO of Galaxy Backbone

President Goodluck Jonathan has re-appointed the current Managing Director and chief executive officer of Galaxy Backbone Plc, Mr. Gerald Chukwuka Ilukwe, for a second term in office of four year.

ITRealms Online recalled that Mr. Ilukwe was initially appointed in August 2006 and resumed in September of same year, after a six-year mid-wifing of Microsoft West Africa with sub-regional head office in Lagos.

The re-appointment became effective from September 4, 2010.

Galaxy Backbone is a Federal Government owned company established in 2006 and whose
primary mandate is the provision of ICT infrastructure and services to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Government as well as the digital inclusion of underserved communities and locations in Nigeria.

Confirming this development, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Mahmud Yayale Ahmed, said the re-appointment in a letter with reference: SGF.6/S.19/C.8/T/39 dated August 5, 2010, stated “your re-appointment is in recognition of your diligence and the confidence reposed in you by Mr. President.”

Congratulating Ilukwe on the second term, Yayale enjoined him to take the company to greater heights.

Mr. Ilukwe is the pioneer Chief Executive Officer of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) company established for the purpose of driving the transformation of the public sector through the deployment and utilization of ICT resources. Nigeria thus aligns with global trend which has countries such as South Africa, Mauritius, Iran, India, Britain, the USA, etc, establishing organizations for the centralized provision of ICT infrastructure and services.

Galaxy Backbone in the last three year has strategized and deployed a nationwide network, delivering greatly enhanced data, internet, voice and video services to over 250 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on its extensive integrated fibre, radio and Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) domestic networks.

Currently Galaxy has over VSAT 2,500 remote sites across the country and presently rolling out a metro-wide fibre optic network within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

Ilukwe is an Electronic Engineering graduate from University of Nigeria, Nsukka and holds an Executive MBA from ESUT Business School, Lagos.

Over the past 20 years, Ilukwe has acquired extensive experience working for a string of well-known IT companies including Microsoft Nigeria and MTS.

Ilukwe as the pioneer General Manager of Microsoft Nigeria, the Nigerian subsidiary of US-based software giant, just as he made significant contributions to the Nigerian and African ICT industry. A widely traveled man, Ilukwe has established and maintained first-rate relationships with key influencers and ICT stakeholders across Africa.

ITRealms Online gathered that Ilukwe plans that with the support of the management team and staff of Galaxy, will focus his energies in ensuring the achievement of its corporate objectives and goals thereby make a significant positive impact on the attainment of the ICT sectoral objectives and by extension the overarching goals of the Nigerian vision 20: 2020 strategy.

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Globacom, Samsung introduce Combo offer

Telecommunications giant, Globacom Limited and Samsung Electronics have introduced ‘Glo Samsung handset bundle’ tagged Combo offer, to commemorate Nigeria’s 50th anniversary celebration.

The collaboration between the two companies, Director, Samsung Electronics, West Africa, Mr. Fady Khatib said, is in order to celebrate the nation’s independence golden jubilee as well as a way of appreciating Nigerians who use any of their services.

Khatib said, the Glo Samsung anniversary handset bundle offer is packaged with two handsets in one with so many features every other mobile handset possess which includes Fm radio, torch light among others.

These handsets include Samsung E1105 and Samsung Corby.

“Not only is this package bundled with a Glo SIM card, it also has free airtime of N150 at first activation”, he said.

Khatib also informed that the retail price of E1105 handset is sold for N3, 600 while the Corby series could be purchased at N14, 500, which are available at any Glo outlet and Samsung shops.

The promo, he said would last for a period of three months, starting from October through December this year, even as he revealed that there would be a draw at the end of each month where every lucky buyer would win special gifts such five brand new i10 Hyundai cars, 15 Samsung 32-inch LCD Television sets, 50 Samsung Notebooks and 500 Samsung B3210 Corby handsets.

“I urge every Nigerian and our esteemed customers to go and get these bundle offer, activate and get mobile with your Samsung Glo Bundle package and celebrate the country’s independence in style”.

He further said that Combo offer comes with a 150MB free data for three months to the bargain.

He explained that apart from the benefits on each purchase, each subscriber who activates the bundled SIM also qualifies for a monthly draw for mouth watering prizes.

In his remarks, Managing Director, Samsung Electronics, Mr. Idorenyen Enong, said there is no better way of rewarding customers than to introduce this offer at this time in collaboration with Glo.

Enong noted that the partnership between the two companies is no coincidence because both have and will always come together to enhance, enrich and better the lives of Nigerians in terms of telephony services .

Responding to questions, Executive Director Globacom, Mr. Adewale Sangowawa clarified that one could not use another SIM card in any of these phones under this offer because the handsets have already been loaded with Glo SIM.

This, he said, makes it customized handset from Samsung and Glo.

Adewale stated that the fusion of airtime, Glo SIM card and two mobile sets in one is as part of the golden jubilee anniversary promo coming from the two firms.

“The Glo 50th jubilee anniversary combo in collaboration with Samsung he restated, is away of offering love to our people, we want to show them that we care and will always care for them, and so they needs to be rewarded because without you our customers we cannot thrive. The offer is doubly packaged which makes one mobile, talks the new mobile on the road as you get them, Happy 50th independence celebration Nigeria”.

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Multi-Links Telkom opens shop @ Surulere

Pioneer private telephone operator in the country, Multi-Links Telkom has opened outlet at the Adeniran Ogunsanya shopping mall Surulere, Lagos.

Chief Sales and Marketing Officer (CSMO), Mr. Chris Bannister, made this disclosure at the weekend, saying that the outlet is part of the new business strategy of taking the business closer to the people.

The Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Mrs. Ijeoma Abazie, in a press statement quoted Mr. Bannister as saying that Multi-Links Telkom’s integrated brand renewal and rejuvenation drive would ensure closer affinity between Multi-Links Telkom and its customers.

Bannister said that the new outlet would provide full complements of services available at all Multi-Links Telkom’s Touch Points (Customer Service Branches).

“With the opening of the new outlet, Chris said that the plan to bring all the brand’s sales and after sales services as close as possible to the valued customers of Multi-Links Telkom would be easily realisable,” he said.

According to him, by the opening of Multi-Links Telkom’s latest Customer Service Branch, customers can now derive quicker solutions to their immediate needs ranging from buying of voice and data based on broadband Internet packages, recharge cards, handset repairs and replacement, subscriber registration and general enquiries about the brand’s products and services.

At the official commissioning of Multi-Links Telkom’s Customer Contact Point at Adeniran Ogunsanya Shopping Complex, the marketing officer said, proposes to urge Multi-Links Telkom customers to use the opportunity provided by the opening of the centre at Surulere to register their lines in accordance with the mandate of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on the SIM/RUIM registration exercise.

In addition, he said that Multi-Links Telkom’s total brand transformation is a product of intense analysis of brand equity and brand promise as well as the customers’ expectations.

He stressed that the new outlet is indicative of Multi-Links Telkom’s current resolve to bring customer care and support and Multi-Links Telkom’s services and products closer to the customer.

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AFRICA: Then, Now and Forever (1)

Excerpt from Nigeria’s 50th anniversary lecture delivered by Dr.
Philip Emeagwali at the Nigeria's Embassy in Paris on October 1, 2010.

Walk with me in memory to one of the greatest celebrations, the end of the colonial era in Africa. The day: October 1, 1960. The place: British West Africa. The setting: a crowded stadium in the Atlantic coastal town of Sapele. School children are waving green and white flags in honor of the birth of modern Nigeria, no longer part of the British Empire.

I was six years old and was in that stadium. I do not remember what was said because the concept of colonialism was abstract to me. But I vividly remember an incident that made me cry all that day. I was waving my flag in excitement when a faceless bully snatched it away and disappeared into the crowd.

In far-away Lagos, the Union Jack was lowered. Nigeria's Head of State, the Queen of England, was dethroned and Nnamdi Azikiwe became Nigeria's first black leader.

Fifty years earlier, the Union Jack had cast its shadow across every global time zone, giving rise to the saying, "The sun never sets on the British Empire.” We had showed our pride in being part of the empire by celebrating Empire Day on May 24th, Queen Victoria's birthday, with parades and sporting competitions. Later, Empire Day was renamed Commonwealth Day.

As a country, Nigeria has existed for 96 years, but it has only been independent for 50 years, for just over half that time. We must critically examine the 46 years of colonial rule over Nigeria and the scramble for Africa that began with the Berlin Conference of 1884, if we are to get insights into how to chart our nation's course for the next 50 years.

The Sankofa is a mythical bird of the Akan people of West Africa. If flies forward while looking backward, with an egg in its mouth to symbolize the future. In order to understand its history, to reclaim its past, and to enable its people to move forward into the 21st century, Africa must look back, back to the Berlin Conference of 1884 and back to the Atlantic slave trade that spanned four continents and four centuries. This will allow us to understand how we came to be 54 nations instead of one.

Like the Sankofa bird, Africa must look to its past to predict its future. It must know how it evolved in order to understand how it can be recreated. Its people should know where their journey began in order to understand which direction to take to find their future.

The Berlin Conference is when Africa was divided into roughly 50 colonies, and 1884 was when the modern map of Africa was created. The Berlin Conference was the beginning of modern Africa. In 1884, Africa was the agenda, but no African was at the table.

This year, in 2010, 17 African nations are celebrating their 50th anniversary of sovereignty and post-colonial rule. Nigeria's journey, like that of the other independent African nations, began at the Berlin Conference 126 years ago with no African in attendance. If colonial Africa could be created in Berlin, then a future Africa could be created in Beijing. Nations creating technological knowledge are reinventing the future and recreating Africa.

I believe that, by the end of this century, one in two Africans will live outside Africa. I was asked: "Why did you live in exile from Africa for 37 years?" Put differently, "Why don't you deliver Nigeria's 50th anniversary lecture in Abuja, instead of in Paris?" I have never visited Abuja. But I am not at home in Washington, D.C., either.

I had an asymmetrical relationship with Africa and America, as well as with science and technology. I worked entirely outside the gates of science and as an outcast, with outsider status. I was honored, but will forever remain an outsider in America. I was honored for retelling the 330-year-old story of the Second Law of Motion: from the storyboard, to the blackboard, to the motherboard, by reprogramming 65,000 subcomputers to compute as a supercomputer, and to communicate as an internet. I became my own ancestor in physics, my contemporary in mathematics, and descendant in internet science.

I experienced the usual in an unusual way. I was an ordinary person caught up in extraordinary circumstances. I decided to march forward, to come home to myself, not to someone else's home. I stayed in exile in America, feeling at home in my alienation from the white community. My 37 years of solitude allowed me to gather myself and to find my power.

Philip Emeagwali has been called “a father of the Internet” by CNN and TIME, and extolled as a “Digital Giant” by BBC and as “one of the great minds of the Information Age” by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

... Continues next week
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