FGN approves N24.2bn for Internet @airports, schools, markets - ITREALMS

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Arising from the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting of Wednesday, March 29, 2023, the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) approved the sum of N24.20bn for the provision of broadband internet connection in at least 20 airports, 43 schools and six marketplaces nationwide.

The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, disclosed this to State House correspondents after this week’s FEC session
chaired by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

Lagos markets to close at intervals for PVC - ITREALMS

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The Lagos State Market Advisory Council (LASMAC) has announced an interval closures for various markets in the state, to enable traders to collect their Permanent Voter Card (PVC), reports ITREALMS.

Secretary-General to LASMAC, Hon. Comrade Chinedu Ukatu, said in a press statement available to ITREALMS that sequel to previous message to various market leadership in the state, that all traders should exercise their civic rights on the forthcoming general election.

Why is localisation crucial for breaking into new markets? - ITREALMS

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Nigeria has the largest market in Africa with a GDP standing at $514.05 billion in 2021 and a population of over 200 million people. The business scene in Nigeria is faced with many challenges and the survival of any business in this market is dependent on the adoption of successful strategies.

One successful strategy for businesses entering the Nigerian market is localisation. A strong long-term localisation strategy will help in establishing a presence among locals, earning their trust and eventually building brand loyalty. It is equally critical, however, for businesses to understand that localisation entails more than just providing pricing in local currencies. Instead, it has to be a holistic approach that involves customers, employees, and other relevant stakeholders.

Nokia, China Mobile sign MoU to extend 5G for vertical markets

ITREALMS:

Nokia and China Mobile have signed an agreement to jointly investigate how China Mobile could extend its service offerings for vertical markets using the massive connectivity, ultra reliability and ultra-low latency capabilities of 5G, reports ITRealms.

 The research will focus on how industries could benefit from the growth of smart cities, smart transportation and intelligent video analytics.

With the deployment of 5G, China Mobile will be able to leverage network slicing to discretely support myriad new services and businesses simultaneously with differing service level requirements. Under the agreement, which extends Nokia and China Mobile's existing 5G collaboration, the companies will jointly research and trial use-cases leveraging Nokia 5G Future X network architecture as well as NB-IoT and MEC. 

The research, which will take place at China Mobile's 5G joint innovation lab, will aim to better understand:

• How industries can be integrated into the smart city ecosystem to take advantage of the massive new connectivity of people and things.
• How businesses such as logistics and car rental companies can benefit from the widespread introduction of 5G-connected automated vehicles. Nokia and China Mobile will also expand the existing Car2X trial ecosystem in Wuzhen to advance the use of automated vehicles, as well as technologies that improve vehicle safety.
• How to further enhance future network architecture security using intelligent network protection techniques.
• How China Mobile can access and benefit from embedded network intelligence and the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) architecture to manage and orchestrate services with network resources, and improve service automation and network performance.

The signing of the agreement was witnessed by Shang Bing, Chairman of China Mobile, and Rajeev Suri, President and CEO of Nokia, at a ceremony in Barcelona, ahead of Mobile World Congress 2018.

Marc Rouanne, president of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: "Together with China Mobile we will leverage 5G to identify the applications that meet future industry needs. At Nokia, we are bringing our Reefchark chipsets, new advanced algorithms from our research teams from Nokia Bell Labs, as well as our Optics, IP and cloud compute technology to boost our end-to-end 5G Future X Network architecture. We are committed to delivering open architecture development to allow operators such as China Mobile to leverage network intelligence."

Nonye Dom/GEE

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Tech players discover new markets

ITRealms:

Technology companies from Poland are on the path to power the next stage of diversified economic growth in the country, ITRealms reports.

ITRealms also gathered that technology intensive industries, although currently only a small part of Poland’s economy, have grown at 7-10 per cent since 2004, outpacing the overall economy, according to a recent report by consultancy McKinsey Insights.

From 2006 and 2013, ITRealms reports that Polish exports to emerging markets grew at 15 per cent annually, reaching 155 billion Euros in 2013.

Anna Hejka, founder of Heyka Capital Markets Group and managing partner of its VC and seed investment funds, noted that for future economic growth and a rising Gross National Happiness index, Poland needs to drive investment in technology-intensive industries, high-tech clusters, and research and development.

Presently, ITRealms reports that the Middle East and Africa is an excellent opportunity for Polish tech companies to deepen their relationships with emerging markets in Asia, Latin America and Africa, expanding exports and attracting new capital investment.

Poland Growth Fund III and Unicorn Nest, whose mission is to commercialise Polish inventions on a global scale are searching for opportunities.

Anna Hejka, ITRealms has been slated to speak in the United Arab Emirates this week.

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DHL Technology conference, experts set to tap into Africa’s technology growth

ITRealms

The DHL 5^th annual Global Technology conference, under the theme, “Connecting Markets, Trends and People”, came to an end in Dubai with over 300 experts and delegates predicting continued strong growth in the technology sector across African countries, and setting modalities on how to best navigate existing challenges and trade barriers and tap into the growth, ITRealms reports.

ITRealms gathered that the conference, a three day program of plenary sessions and workshops, covered several technological topics including the latest trends, innovations and solutions impacting the technology supply chain and focusing on the Middle East and Africa as key regions of interest with high growth potential.

Ashish Thakkar, Founder and CEO of Mara Group, in a keynote address on ‘Inspiring Africa and capturing chances’, made his case for doing business in Africa and advised companies to move beyond negative media hype and become familiar with African countries on the ground in order to explore and tap into the tremendous potential that exists.

With the internet usage on mobile phones, predicted to increase 20-fold in the next five years in Africa, which is double the rate of growth in the rest of the world. The technology experts also predicted a continued growth in the technology sector across Africa, with savvy entrepreneurs such as Shagaya and Oviosu leading the way in e-commerce and mobile payments, and technology segments such as mobile phones.

Delegates at DHL’s Technology conference as ITRealms gathered, learnt about African consumers’ preferences, such as paying retailers via mobile phone rather than cash and an increasing appetite for well-priced mobile devices, fuelled by a rapidly growing middle class.

Confirming this, Rob Siegers, President, Global Technology Sector, DHL said: “The technology sector is a highly dynamic industry and the pace of change is rapid.   We currently see two distinct trends: the advance of new technologies, such as the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing and others which are changing business models as technology companies are looking to enhance their products by building services around them – and an increasing focus on tapping into growth in emerging nations”.

He also added that, “While growth is slowing in some of the traditional markets, emerging nations are gaining importance for technology companies, and Africa is of particular interest to many of our customers”.  

Charles Brewer, Managing Director of DHL Express Sub Saharan Africa, stating the company’s vision for the conference said, “We had a team of logistics experts from across Africa on hand to facilitate knowledge sharing and networking, demonstrating that DHL is a strong partner to the technology sector across the continent.”

DHL, as gathered by ITRealms, is the world’s leading logistics service provider and has been in Africa for 37 years, well positioned to support customers with their end-to-end supply chains and tailor-made logistics solutions to help them overcome challenges and tap into the continent’s tremendous growth opportunities.  

Daniel Nsolibe/Ed,Ops.

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