Omobola, Lexi to headline TechCrunch Battlefield Africa’18 - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The 2018 TechCrunch Battlefield Africa will be headlined with high-powered industry leaders including the senior partner at TLcom Capital and former Nigeria’s Minister of Communication Technology, Dr. (Mrs) Omobola Johnson, alongside Lexi Novitske of Singularity Investments, reports ITREALMS.

The panel discussions, ITREALMS are to explore the best tech in Africa and how the technology investment landscapes is changing.

The first two speakers by TechChruch announced to offer direct knowledge about investing Silicon Valley money in the local ecosystem comprise, Dr. Omobola Johnson who is a senior partner at TLcom Capital and the former Minister of Communication Technology for Nigeria, with vast knowledge of the startup investing landscape comes from her 25-year tenure at Accenture where she served as the managing director.

Also, Lexi Novitske is the principal investment officer for Singularity Investments where she is responsible for managing investments in the firm’s Africa portfolio.

Mike Butcher, Editor at Large, TechCrunch said that the inaugural edition of TechCrunch Startup Battlefield Africa confirmed that Sub-Saharan Africa is home to a vibrant and growing technology startup ecosystem.

“We look forward to hearing about how this year’s competitors are disrupting their markets, providing innovative solutions to social and economic problems, and positioning themselves as global contenders,” he said.

“Supporting the next generation and wave of African start-ups is something that we at Facebook are passionate about. Our sponsorship of TechCrunch Startup Battlefield Africa, for the second year running highlights our commitment to the start-up scene on the continent, and helping to provide a world stage to showcase the very best in African talent and solutions” said Emeka Afigbo, Head of Developer Programmes at Facebook.

Notable companies that launched on TechCrunch’s global stage include Vurb, Trello, Mint, Dropbox, Yammer, Tripit, Redbeacon, Qwiki, Getaround, and Soluto. The 763 startups that have participated since the first competition, TC40 in 2007 have raised $8.2 billion, while 102 have been acquired or have gone public as of December 2017.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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CommTech Minister appluads NIRA, commissions new Head Office

ITRealms:

 

The Minister of Communication Technology, Dr. Mrs. Omobola Johnson has applauded the management and leadership of Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) as she formally commissioned its head office complex in Iponri-Lagos, ITRealms reports.

ITRealms gathered that Mrs Johnson in a commendable note, attributed the success of the edifice to the continuous and selfless effort of the current Executive Board of Directors of NIRA led by the President, Mrs. Mary Uduma with the support of th Board of Trustees chaired by Deacon Chima Onyekwere.

“The complex we are commissioning today was purchased from proceeds of past sales of premium domain names, she said, noting this validates the fact that business and wealth creation opportunities in the domain name industry are significant.

In addition she said this property serves not only as the operational headquarters of NIRA, but also provides for a Resources Centre for training and certification in Domain Name System (DNS).

ITRealms gathered that Mrs. Omobola while commending the NIRA Executive Board of Directors for reducing the price of .ng domain names also gave her support to the NIRA’s new zone “.i.ng” initiative.

“I wholeheartedly support these new initiatives and the campaign that reads ‘NIRA keeps you shin.i.ng’ and ‘Switch to .ng’. I therefore assure Nigerians that we are in for ‘excit.i.ng’ times”, She said.

Mrs. Uduma, delivering her note of appreciation ITRealms learnt, has said the association under her leadership has experienced increase in registration of Domain names (DN) from 2006 at 2,000 DN to about 50,000 (DN) in 2015. She also attributed this success to a collaborative staff strength and desired commitment of her team.

Speaking on their success so far, ITRealms gathered that some agencies have been instrumental to achieving that feet, “we are been giving subvention and this covers for .com.ng. My sincere thanks goes to Nigeria Communication Commissions (NCC) and National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), there supports have truly been helpful”, she said.

ITRealms learnt that she anticipates NIRA registering about 200,000 (DN) in the near future, with the price of Domain Names coming down more to an affordable price for Nigerians.    

The event which climaxed with the cutting of a cake, toast and celebrations of fireworks, is evident as ITRealms gathered that the global relevance of the .ng Domain name in both local and international Registrars, including The Internet Corporation for Assigned names and numbers (ICANN) accredited registrars are in business relationships with the .ng Registry with many more seeking to become NIRA Accredited Registrars.

Daniel Nsolibe/GEE

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