Buhari govt to save 20% from travels

ITRealms:

The All Progressive Congress (APC) Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari has concluded plans to save some 20 per cent from travel expenditures by limiting Business Class travel to Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Chairmen of Federal Government Committees, as well as Chairmen and Chief Executives of Parastatals and Agencies, reports ITRealms.

Disclosing this, the office of Efficiency Unit of the Federal Ministry of Finance said they are collaborating very closely with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) and the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), to review the provisions of some extant government Circulars on Overhead Expenses one of which is on Travels.

Special Assistant on Media to Honourable Minister of Finance, Festus Akanbi confirmed this to ITRealms, saying that the Efficiency Unit, an initiative of the current Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun was set up to engender transparency and reduce government’s large expenditure through procurement in the various ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government.

He also said that the unit, in its negotiation for discounts with local and international airlines also recommended other measures for reducing the government’s large expenditure on travels to the OSGF.

This, he said, includes the need to restrict Business Class travel to Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Chairmen of Federal Government Committees, as well as Chairmen and Chief Executives of Parastatals and Agencies.

He noted that previously, some government officials who should have been on Business Class usually traveled First Class, while many others travelled Business Class instead of Economy.

The second recommendation, ITRealms reports, bordered on the need to reduce the frequency of travels by ensuring that Board and Committee events such as meetings, workshops and conferences in Nigeria are held in locations where the institutions or persons participating in the event are domiciled.

Furthermore, such events should for the most part be held in Nigeria but where this is not possible, the prior approval of the Secretary to the Federal Government should be secured.

This, he further said, aligns with the present administration’s commitment to reform public expenditure, hence, the OSGF accepted the recommendations in full and has accordingly issued a Circular recently to effect the changes. 

“The buy-in and prompt reaction of the OSGF is an attestation of the common resolve by government to its change mantra and the spirit of collaboration among government institutions and officials,” Akanbi said.

ITRealms recalls that Travel Expenditure is estimated to drop by about 20 per cent if the provisions of the new Circular issued by the OSGF are fully implemented.

Akanbi went on to explain that a 20 per cent reduction in Air Travel Expenditure, using the figure of N69.417 billion incurred on Travels in 2014 will result in a cost-cutting of N13.88 billion, stressing that such large savings from Travel, should ordinarily not be a major expense item for the government, but become available for investment in capital projects such as roads, power, railways and public health facilities.

“The savings are expected to be even larger when discounts secured from Airlines are added. Already, 11 Airlines have offered discounts on local and international routes for travel by MDAs while negotiations are on-going with others.  The discounts received so far vary across routes and airlines and range from 7 per cent to 50 per cent. The Efficiency Unit expects the implementation of the price discounts secured from Airlines to start in May 2016 when the Agreements would have been signed with the Airlines and MDA staff would have been trained and equipped for effective administration of the new process,” he explained.

Other overhead expenditure items, he said being reviewed by the Efficiency Unit are those relating to refreshments and meals, honorarium and sitting allowance as well as advertising and publicity. 

Measures, Akanbi said that will standardise spending on these items, cut costs and promote transparency on these items have been recommended to the OSGF and the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, from which further cost-cutting on Overhead Expenditure is to be achieved.

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Innovectives unwraps SmartPesa mPoS for Nigerian Market

ITRealms:

Leading channel service providers in the country, Innovectives Limited, has unwrapped its SmartPesa mobile point of sales (mPOS) terminal into Nigeria market and reduces cost of deployment by 20 per cent, reports ITRealms.

This is coming at the heels of two-year intensive process by the National Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) as it certified SmartPesa mPoS for the Nigerian market.

 Revealing this to ITRealms, the  Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Innovectives, Mr. Emmanuel Agha, said that SmartPesa mPoS enables an existing banking network to be mobile, flexible and extensible at very low cost.

He also said, SmartPesa mPoS works with existing banks, not against them, and so does not have the problems that plague proprietary mobile money solutions such as opening special accounts, reliance on customer behavioural changes and unclear legal/regulatory frameworks.

“Cards are here to stay: with over 20 per cent per annum growth, cards continue to be seen to be the workhorse of banking and payments around the world,” he said.

Listing the key benefits of the SmartPesa platform, he said its provides a low cost alternative to traditional PoS solutions.

As said by him, SmartPesa immediately provides all the benefits of a traditional Point of Sale (POS) solution at less than 20 per cent of the cost.

“The platform can be quickly extended to include functions traditionally handled at branches and ATM’s such as balance enquiries, cheque deposits, and transfers at well less than 1 per cent of the cost. Support costs are also significantly lower since distribution of devices can be through retail stores, ordinary mail or branch offices and faulty hardware can be immediately swapped out locally,” he said.

Agha equally assured on security and compatibility, explained that with EMV Level 2 compliance in hardware, SmartPesa supports the highest level of payment security (Chip&PIN) and could accept all local and international cards; that’s over hundreds of millions of cards globally.

The platform, he said, could quickly incorporate new technologies including Near field communication (NFC) and be integrated into existing applications through its Software Development Kit (SDK).

The system, he further said, is compatible with over 97 per cent of current smartphones in use, including most low cost smartphones and commonly available tablets.

In addition, Agha said the platform was designed to be implemented in a financial institution’s existing data centre alongside the existing payment infrastructure (e.g. HSM, Switch). Transactions do not need to go to a 3rd party datacentre thus maximising transaction speed whilst there is no risk of data leakage to 3rd parties.

He emphasized that SmartPesa conforms to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) guidelines, which ensures all banking and privacy regulation are satisfied from the start. Besides, Agha said, the platform could be quickly extended beyond simple payments to include bill payment, agency banking and 3rd party services such as airtime and ticketing.

“Unlike traditional POS devices, SmartPesa can update all devices to support future local and international cards, loyalty schemes or integrated inventory systems. Updates are done remotely and do not require costly hardware recalls or customer visits,” he said, even as they are finalizing on a robust national rollout plans with its partner banks and card payment scheme.

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TCL says Alcatel Onetouch sales rose by 20%

ITRealms:

TCL Communication has revealed that its mobile brand Alcatel OneTouch sales volume rose by 20 per cent, year on year, reports ITRealms.

The company made this revelation in an unaudited results for the third quarter of 2015, saying that in the period ending September 30, 2015, an increase in sales of smart devices met the group’s overall revenue grew of 1 per cent over the same nine-month period in 2014 to reach HK$20.3 billion, with net profit up by 4 per cent year on year to reach HK$772 million.

According to the Chief Executive Officer, TCL Communication, Dr. Guo Aiping, despite a sluggish world economy and other factors, the Group’s gross profit margin rose slightly to a healthy 20.2 per cent.

He said that during the period under review, the total sales volume of handsets and other products grew 14 per cent year-on-year to 55.4 million units, with 50.5 million units sold overseas and 4.9 million units sold in China.

“Sales volume of smart devices increased by 20 per cent year on year to 31.1 million units, accounting for 56 per cent of the Group’s total shipments,” he said.

Also, Aiping noted that the Group continues to take advantage of the growing market demand for cost-effective and multifunctional smartphones to broaden its worldwide market share.

On the third quarter launches and fourth quarter plans, the CEO said the group unveiling of varieties of innovative products including the shockproof, waterproof and dustproof GO PLAY smartphone and GO WATCH smartwatch, which supports both Android and iOS operating systems, as well as the launch of Xess, an extra-large, 17.3-inch-screen tablet.

“In the coming quarter, the Group will build on the strengths of different markets and adopt targeted strategies for each of its six designated business regions, which include deepening relationships with operators and launching more entry-level 4G smartphones, tablets and wearable devices,” he assured.

Aiping stressed that the Group would also strengthen its open-market channels and e-commerce platforms in order to be well prepared for upcoming peak seasons, such as Christmas.

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Security: See something, say something

 ITRealms:

Since 2009 when the public attack on the Nigerian populace began its terrorism offensives, industry watchers estimates that some 6,000 victims have been killed and over 20 per cent of that figure have been defamed for life, yet another 20 per cent going in and out of the hospitals, writes ITRealms.

Today, a lot of concerns have been placed on the menace caused by the member of Boko Haram insurgent group, which has severally ascribed as “Western Education is Sin,” necessitating the slogan among most concern Nigerians for people to say something to appropriate authorities, including community leaders, once they spot something unusual, tagged in Nigeria parlance to be “see something, say something.”

It was not surprising that a few days ago, on my way from foreign assignment, a woman after standing to pick her language piece at the Muritala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja-Lagos, could not identify a white cellophane bag and has no option than to raise an alarm with the officials of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), who promptly condoned the space and invited the experts, especially on bombs to screen the bag.

Recently also, a man spotted an unknown face parking a car in front of his apartment in Jos and was quick in stepping out to confront the fellow who after much insistence had no option than to move the vehicle away and on attempting to start the car engine, the vehicle instantly blow-up, killing the man and his little daughter who accompanied “daddy” alongside the bomber; who invariably may not be classified as suicide bomber, because he had wanted to abandon the car at that location before its detonation time, remotely.

And it seems this campaign of “see something, say something” linked to some group of concerned Nigerians, may have continued to gain momentum and led to a young boy of 12-year old recently alerting his community of Muslim in a Kano mosque of a suspected parked rickety Toyota Tercel car nearby.

His alarm led to the discovery of what terrorism and security experts called ‘high-caliber’ Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in the car and people where quickly evacuated, as the security agents made up of a team of police personnel immediately went to work to defuse the IED.

Confirming this, the police spokesperson in Kano, Mr Magaji Majiya, told newsmen “The bomb targeting worshippers was placed inside a Toyota Tercel car near a Mosque in Sauna Pfanuga area of Nasarawa Local Government, Kano metropolis.”

Majiya noted that the boy whose identity was kept sealed for security reasons became apprehensive when he saw the car laden heavy with what looked suspicious. Hence, the car was taken to Police Headquarters afterwards for further investigations and analysis.

Further, the Kano Commissioner of Police, Mr. Aderenle Shinaba, soon after displayed the devices to newsmen in Kano.

“The explosives were primed to explode when the Juma’at prayer is going on and they can destroy a whole neighbourhood because they are of high caliber,” Shinaba said.

ITRealms recalls that this development came at the wake of a bomb explosion, which claimed eight lives that took place on Monday at the School of Hygiene in Kano, leaving behind scores of death, even though the Police said they have arrested a suspect in connection with the school attack.

The exploit by this young boy tend to show the concern of the populace because people especially experts are talking about the insurgence at all levels of communication channels including but not limited to local radio and television stations and even among peers and relatives.

As we look forward to more breakthroughs, let us keep talking about what we see mostly if they are unusual objects at unusual locations, because the issues of security cannot be left in the hands of security agencies alone.

So, when next you see something, kindly say something as you may be saving lives with that alert including yours.

by: Remmy Nweke

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Pix: President Jonathan on visit to recent bombblast.