Air Peace battle for skies: Strategies to gain competitive advantage by Austin Okere - ITREALMS

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Battle for the skies
Congratulations to Air Peace on its inaugural flight to London and for achieving full bookings for the upcoming months, thanks to attractive ticket prices. Over the past fortnight, Air Peace has been making waves on social media for various reasons. On a positive note, the airline shared a LinkedIn post featuring a picture of former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, aboard a return flight to London. The caption highlighted his positive experience, stating, "I went, it was pleasant. I came back, it was even more pleasant." However, on a different note, Nigeria Stories recently reported that the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority has contacted Nigeria's Civil Aviation Authority regarding alleged violations of aviation safety regulations by Air Peace.

The significance of Air Peace's impact on airfares along the Lagos-London route cannot be overstated. Since commencing operations on March 30, Air Peace has maintained its round-trip economy ticket price at $1,000 (₦1.2 million), a substantial reduction compared to the previous rates charged by international airlines, which could soar up to $2,500 (₦3 million). This bold pricing approach has disrupted the established norms, prompting foreign carriers to reassess their pricing frameworks.

TestNigeria 1.0: Quality software'll give Nigeria’s Digital Economy competitive advantage - ITREALMS

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Effective software quality assurance in the Nigerian Digital Economy will greatly impact the digital economy's accelerated growth, says Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.

He remarked in the lead address at the first-ever Software Testing Conference in Nigeria with the theme “Impact of Software Quality Assurance in the Nigerian Digital Economy”, organized by Nigeria Software Testing Qualification Board (NGSTQB) on Wednesday, November 23, 2022, at Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, Lagos State.

NCC urges Nigerians to take advantage of 2442

ITRealms:

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reiterated that subscribers could stop unsolicited text messages if they send “STOP” to “2442” reports ITRealms.

According to the Director, Public Affairs at NCC, this is part of the ongoing campaign to enlighten consumers on their rights to better services.

He noted that in declaring 2017 as the year of Nigerian Telecom Consumer recently, Executive Vice Chairman (EVC of NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta had said the year will focus on two key areas viz improving the Quality of Service; Protecting and educating the Consumer.

“To address the unsolicited calls received by consumers, the NCC has introduced the Do Not Disturb (DND) facility where consumers are urged to activate the service by dialing “2442” he said.

The EVC also said that consumers should access the customer toll free line by dialing 622 to register their complaints if they do not get such complaints addressed by the Network operator.

NCC, Ojobo said, intends to increase the awareness level and equally the activation level of these two initiatives, adding that in its determination to ensure that the consumer experiences improved Quality of Service in the year and beyond, “the Commission is implementing measures to reduce Dropped Call Rate (DCR) to meet its benchmark of less than one percent. It will closely monitor, track and review the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of operators by Network Integrity and Technical Standards Department”, adding that “greater efforts would also be put in Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement of set standards”.

The Commission has begun an enlightenment campaign to let the consumers know what to do whenever the issue of unsolicited telemarketing arises.

Jingles are already running on Radio stations and adverts in the print and other media are underway.

Subscribers have also been advised to avoid purchasing pre-registered Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards because of the dangers they portend to the security of our society.

Every SIM card purchased must be registered with the network provider, the NCC declared.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Nigeria gets LOC on GiTEX Technology Show, Dubai

ITRealms:

In order to fully take advantage offered by the annual GiTEX Technology Show which holds in Dubai in October, Nigeria has set up the GiTEX Local Organising Committee (LOC) as the official country partner, reports ITRealms.

GiTEX Technology, ITRealms pride itself as the premier technology event in the Middle East Africa and South Asia (MEASA).

The technology trade show occupies over 78,000 sqm of space, and records over 145,530 trade visitors from 144 countries in 2013. Also, more than 35,000 visitors came from Africa in the 2013 edition of GITEX where Nigeria premiered its presence by setting up the Nigerian Pavilion which was promoted by the Nigerian Government through the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).

This year, ITRealms equally gathered that Nigeria is renew its 2013 presence as Official Country Partner to become the centre of thematic activities for the five day technology expo and conference in Dubai.

The LOC is tasked with ensuring Nigeria’s successful participation through pre-show work-plans. While inaugurating the LOC in Abuja last week, the Director General/Chief Executive Officer of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr. Peter Jack, said NITDA has a new vision and the agency would genuinely pursue IT development aggressively to position Nigeria in the global society.

He said Nigeria’s presence at Gitex would offer the opportunity to explore international opportunities for collaborations and investments that would further advance Nigeria’s burgeoning IT sector.

“NITDA is determined to position Nigeria in that light, and would work through multilateral stakeholders approach to get everyone involved and achieve our core goals at NITDA,” he said, imploring the committee to do all they could to make Nigeria’s presence at GiTEX 2014 a success and assured of government’s support for IT development at all levels, while stressing the need for inter-agencies collaboration and synergy.

“It is in the spirit of partnership that NITDA has invited other agencies to be part of this preparation and we believe that this is imperative to achieve best results,” said Jack to the committee members.

According to ITRealms, the LOC members were drawn from different private and public sectors organizations including Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (NIPC), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Computer Professional Registration Council (CPN), Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), National Association of Computer Science Students (NACOSS), Nigeria Satellite Communications Limited (NigComSat), and Information Technology Industries Association of Nigeria (ITAN).

Others are Pinnacle Consult LLC and Knowhow Media International – both marketing and media consultants on Nigeria’s participation at Gitex 2014.

Members at the inauguration meeting of the LOC include Chairman of the LOC, Dr. Olatunji Vincent, NITDA; Mr. Yele Okeremi, ISPON; Mr. Mohammed Audu, NIPC; Segun Oruame, Knowhow Media, Mrs. Mary Uduma, NIRA; Tunde Bello, Federal Ministry of Agriculture; Mr. Yelwa Idris, NITDA; Mr. Mohammed Agbali, NITDA; Mrs. Hadiza Umar, NITDA; Mr. Abass Fufore, CPN; Mr. Jide Awe, NCS; Ms. Nwigbo Happiness, CPN; Mr.Abu Agbo Andrew NACOSS; Okafor Chukwuemeka, NACOSS; Olorogun James, ISPON; and Amalu Ikechukwu, NigComSat. 

Chairman of the LOC, Dr. Olatunji said it was important for all stakeholders to come together to drive Nigeria’s participation as the official country partner for Gitex 2014. He said there was a need for all stakeholders to strongly get everybody who has something innovating to showcase at Gitex to use it as a global platform to show the world what Nigerians are doing. 

For Mr. Oruame who later coordinated the meeting said preparations had begun already since Nigeria officially enlisted to be partner for Gitex 2014 and said there was need for the committee to expedite actions to meet up with the demands of the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), organisers of Gitex to ensure that deadlines for all preparatory items are met. 

The LOC stressed the importance of early marketing and publicity activities as the committee works on actualizing the necessary roadshows to engage local stakeholders in Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Enugu where the NCS conference will be holding in July this year.

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Juwah showcases Nigeria’s broadband potentials @ Mobile World’14

ITRealms

The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, took advantage of the just concluded Mobile World Congress (MWC 2014) in Barcelona, Spain to showcase the broadband potentials in Nigeria, reports ITRealms.

Addressing the crème de la crème of the global telecom stakeholders at the session on Ministerial Programme in Barcelona, ITRealms gathered that Dr. Juwah x-rayed the potentials of Nigeria’s broadband programme.

ITRealms recalls that the Ministerial Programme session of the MWC in Barcelona, is seen as a rare privileged event where decisions makers, ministers, investors, service providers, global mobile providers among other top industry players share insights.

At this year’s programme, a session was dedicated to Nigeria and Dr. Juwah seized the opportunity to make a profound presentation to the world about what to expect in Nigeria, which is at the threshold of unleashing a broadband revolution that will impact the Nigerian nation and the African continent.

He told the audience that Nigeria is fast-tracking her knowledge economy and contributions of broadband to GDP growth will increase considerably.

“We have successfully completed the auction of the 2.3GHz Spectrum and we have outlined a number of programmes under the broadband infrastructure framework while licensing of infrastructure providers, tagged Infracos is about to begin,” he said

Equally, Dr. Juwah said that his commission has a mouthwatering offer for investors in the Nigerian broadband infrastructure deployment programme using the Open Access Broadband strategy with the planned licensing of InfraCos that will provide a national broadband network on a non-discriminatory, open access and price regulated basis to all service providers.

NCC, he maintained is creating enabling environment and incentives for the private sector to roll out broadband networks which will be a one-off incentive for last mile to be achieved.

“We will replicate the success we made in voice in broadband plan as we proceed on the journey. We are also going to license more retail services and encourage the operators where possible to extend fibre to homes and businesses on their own. Government is committed to providing incentives to winners of infrastructure licenses,” he said.

The InfraCo, according to him, would enjoy government support, hence would be getting funding from government to rollout nationwide broadband infrastructure.

“We are ready to provide subsidy to simplify entry. However, such a subsidy will come on the basis of milestones achieved to ensure that we are realistic in the venture,” he said.

Juwah recollected that the historical revolution of the voice communications in Nigeria, the nation will witness a boom the broadband segment of the business as NCC propelled in the voice segment. Stressing that for Nigeria to be part of the 21^st century knowledge economy, there is need to leverage on the potentials of broadband.

“We have done quite well in the voice segment, but taking a look at the data segment, our internet penetration rate currently is 32.9 per cent, our broadband penetration rate is 6.1 per cent, taking it to a higher speed broadband, this 6.1 per cent will disappear,” he explained.

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