Second new gTLDs: Another chance for African registrars? - ITREALMS

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ICANN board in 98 recommendations:
Obviously in compliance with the direction of the Board of Directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) at its meeting during the ICANN76 Community Forum in Cancún, Mexico; where some 98 recommendations were adopted regarding the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process Final Report as set forth in Section A of the Scorecard: Subsequent Procedures (SubPro PDP), the ICANN organization (org), kick-started the preliminary preparations to ensure official proclamation by August 1, 2023, including outreach engagement to stakeholders.

The ICANN76 meeting that held between March 11 and 16, 2023, thus set in motion the commencement of the implementation process for the next round of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs).

Osun Salary debt: Adeleke approves another tranche - ITREALMS

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The Osun state, Governor Ademola Adeleke has approved the payment of another batch of half salary debt alongside the state workers' July salary, reports ITREALMS.

A press statement available to ITREALMS by the spokesperson to the State Governor, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, noted that the fresh payment makes it the third batch the Governor will pay the half salary debt in line with the template issued early this year to pay the debt on a quarterly basis.

The administration has paid that of the first and second quarters while workers will receive the third quarter payment alongside their July salary.

Governor Adeleke had during the electioneering campaign promised to pay the salary debt on installments basis. The administration had inherited about 26 billion naira in half salary debt and about 50 billion naira in pension related debt from the previous government.

Commenting on the approval, the Governor restated his commitment to the faithful implementation of the template for the payment of the inherited salary debt, adding that the template is a consensus among all stakeholders on how to exit the half salary rope.

"I want to assure Osun workers that the payment is progressing as scheduled. Despite the tight fiscal situation, we are prioritising workers welfare by paying the inherited debt on installment basis.

"As a government of the people, by the people and for the people, we will remain focused on human development even as we work to upgrade our infrastructure and develop our local economy," the Governor noted.

Donor agency bill, another fang on civil societies - ITREALMS

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With the introduction of a bill for an Act to Establish Donor Agencies Regulatory Commission; and for Related Matters (HB. 1568), REMMY NWEKE writes that the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is becoming a house for one-week, one obnoxious bill, despite the abortion of civil society bill.

Preface:
The last may not have been heard about the much aborted civil society bill at the National Assembly (NASS) as a new bill surfaced recently with fangs on donor agencies and by extension, on the non-governmental and civil society organisation in the country.

A century after Achebe's Okonkwo, another is here with us - ITREALMS

MidWeekCommentary@ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

One of my greatest sources of pride as an Igbo man is having come from same tribe with Chinua Achebe. And God blessed me further with coming from same state with this literary iroko. Imagine what people from Ogidi, his community, had but seemingly didn't and evidently don't appropriately appreciate. This is a matter for another write-up.

His novel, Things Fall Apart, is known by any literate or even semi-literate African and beyond. That great work of creative art mainly draws its flowing appeal from just one character - OKONKWO.

SPDC JV’s Afam VI power plant secures licensee for another 10 years

ITREALMS:

The Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has renewed the power generation licence for Afam VI Power Plant, a 650MW-capacity facility that has delivered over 25.97 million Megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity into the Nigerian grid since inception in 2008, reports ITRealms.

Afam VI is owned by The Shell Petroleum Development Company Joint Venture (SPDC JV) and located in Afam in Oyigbo Local Government area of Rivers State.

Presenting the renewed licence to the leadership of SPDC at the Commission’s office in Abuja on Tuesday, the Commissioner, Legal, Licensing and Compliance, Mr. Dafe Akpeneye, described SPDC JV as a committed partner in the Nigerian power sector adding that the company’s belief in the sector and its resolve to help it develop were remarkable.

“We hope for greater efficiency and improved operations from Afam VI in the next 10-year phase of your operations just as we look forward to working together to resolve some of the challenging issues in the power sector,” he said.

Receiving the licence, the General Manager, Gas of SPDC, Dr. Philip Mshelbila, described the Afam VI as a model worthy of emulation by government and other players in the power sector. “Here’s a power plant with a dedicated gas plant operating with high uptime generating clean and efficient power from the combined cycle of three gas and one steam turbines.”

He lamented the challenges of debt, power evacuation and off-take which he said prevented the plant from delivering optimally at 15 percent of the total national grid-connected electricity.

Afam VI uses combined cycle gas turbine technology that burns 40 percent less gas than plants using older open cycle technologies. This also contributes significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In 2016, Afam VI power plant supplied approximately 12% of the nation’s grid-electricity.

Built with the most efficient technology in the industry and utilising waste heat energy from the gas turbine exhaust, the plant generates an additional 200MW from the steam turbine without consuming any additional gas, thereby considerably reducing its carbon footprint.

As a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project under the United Nations Executive Board for Climate Change, Afam VI Power Plant eliminates over 500,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year, while also maintaining excellent safety standards.

The operations at Afam VI have generated subcontract opportunities and employment for over 150 people from the 16 host communities. It also provided hands-on and offshore training for 30 youths in Electrical, Mechanical and Instrumentation engineering on Combined Cycle Power Plant operations and maintenance. All the trainees are already employed in the Nigerian power industry.

The power plant also won SPDC the Best Company in Climate Action Award in the 2016 edition of Sustainability, Enterprise, Responsibility Awards for Corporate Social Responsibility (SERAs–CSR), an annual event to celebrate organisations that invest resources to improve the socioeconomic living conditions of people in Nigeria and Africa.

Ayo Midele/GEE 

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Pix; L-R: Commercial Manager, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), John Kadiri; General Manager, Business and Government Relations, Bashir Bello; General Manager, Gas, Philip Mshelbila; Commissioner for Legal, Licensing and Compliance, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, Dafe Akpeneye; and the General Manager, Legal, Licensing and Compliance, Olufunke Dinneh, at the presentation of power generation licence for SPDC Joint Venture’s Afam VI Power Plant, in Abuja… on Tuesday.

Nigeria in search of another Jay Jay Okocha

SportCommentary@ITRealms:

Great footballers don’t just appear from nowhere, the best footballers in the world be it Neymar, Mbape, Leo Messi, or Cristiano Ronaldo learned their trades at various football academies.

But for Nigeria, a country with over 170 million population, her football talents are horned on the streets with very few making it to lime light.

No doubt there is abundant natural football talent scattered across the 36 states of the federation but these talents waste away untapped because there are no deliberate attempts to nurture and guide them to fulfilling their potentials.

Austin Jay Jay Okocha a former PSG player who is widely regarded as one of the finest footballers to come out of Africa, in an interview with BBC sports academy,  describes his rough and tough background as a young footballer growing up in the streets of Enugu, Enugu state Nigeria.

“There were no grass pitches where we lived, so we used to play on the street corner, or wherever else we could find a space.

The pitches were very bad, but I think that helped me to develop a good technique.

Because the surface was so rough, you always had to be conscious of your ball control and how you passed the ball.

When I was 13, I started playing for my school team, the first time I had played under a manager.

I started realizing that I had to keep to my position and play with some discipline. Before then I was just playing for the sake of playing." The former Bolton Wanderers player said.

The lack of proper developmental process for budding young football talents has been the greatest undoing for three times Africa champions, Nigeria and this has been a source of serious concern to millions of football fans, including the commander-in-chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, President, Muhammadu Buhari who recently showed his undying love for the round leather game by tweeting a picture of himself watching the Super Eagles of Nigeria play the Lions of Cameroon from his modest sitting room, at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, Nigeria.

Top European nations like Germany, Spain and Belgium have all at one point or another turned their attentions to youth football development programmes and it paid off. Germany after suffering an embarrassing Euro 2000 group stage exit instituted a youth football development system that values coaches and nurtures indigenous talent and 14 years later they emerged world champions. Spain's phenomenal football success in the last 17 years can be attributed to a deliberate policy among the clubs to promote young, home-grown players and within this period they won two European titles and one world cup trophy.  Belgium, a country with a population of around 11m, with just 34 professional clubs competing across two leagues, have within 15 years of dedicated youth football development produced quality players like Eden Hazard, Thomas Vermaelen, Jan Vertonghen, Thibaut Courtois, Kevin de Bruyne, Mousa Dembélé, Axel Witsel, Romelu Lukaku among others who are currently some of the finest talents in football right now.

There have been efforts made by the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF to institute youth football development programmes, geared towards nurturing young football talents that could be graduated through the various national teams until they are good enough to play for the Super Eagles. The programmes don’t stand the test of time, largely because of inconsistency, lack of continuity and little or no sponsorship drive.

An example of this could be seen in 2008 when the then NFF president Alhaji Sani Lulu lunched the NFF U-13 football development programme. The programme involved the selection of national U-13 and U-15 teams from the annual NFF U-13/U-15 championship. The selected players were invited to summer camps which were held every school holiday period. At the camps, the players were taught the rudiments of football and how to play the Nigerian way. They also played friendly games locally and internationally and within seven years, Nigeria won back to back FIFA U-17 world cup titles between 2013 and 2015 with majority of the players coming from the programme.

This programme gave birth to players like Kelechi Iheanacho of Leicester City, Taiwo Awoniyi of Liverpool, Victor Osimhen of Wolfsburg, Dennis Bonaventure of FC Bragga, Alhassan Ibrahim of Austria Vienna, Chidera Eze of FC Porto within seven years. While these names might not ring a bell to the average European football fan, they are players who are between 18 and 20 years old and between 2013 and now have been rated among the best 50 players on earth alongside players like Gabriel Jesus, Renato Sanches, Martin Odegaard, Marcus Rashford, Leroy Sane and so on.

Unfortunately, since 2010, the NFF youth football development programme became inconsistent and the NFF attributed this to lack or paucity of funds. In fact, the NFF U-13/U-15 championship did not hold in 2014 and the summer camps became inconsistent too. It made a return in 2015, but the summer camps were still missing. However in 2016, the NFF now under the leadership of Amaju Pinnick secured a sponsorship deal for the programme and renamed it the Future Eagles.

The Future Eagles sponsored by Zenith bank is being reengineered by NFF’s youth football committee, led by NFF’s first vice president Seyi Akinwunmi.

“We decided that we must have a plan for our youth football, because in times past Nigeria has won and lost. We won the U-17 FIFA world cup and the next time we did not qualify, obviously not because of lack of talents.

I’ve been to numerous countries of the world and have attended several youth football tournaments but truly, I have not seen any that has the talent in abundance as Nigeria.

So we decided that we should have a youth football policy starting from U-13, we will have children who are exposed to tournaments at an early age and its benefits cannot be quantified.

It involves states producing their best 18 players at the U-13 and U-15 levels. There will be zonal tournaments in the six geopolitical zones, where the best 18 players from the zones will be picked to play against each other at the national level.

But the key is not about winning the tournament, it is about selecting the best players from the entire competition for the national U-13 and U-15 teams.

The talents discovered from the 2016 edition were incredible, Nigeria is ready to take over the world, believe me.” An obviously elated Akinwunmi said at the unveiling of plans for the 2017 edition of the Future Eagles championship in Lagos, Nigeria.

The zonal finals of the 2017 Future Eagles championship will take place between September 13 and 16. The group stage matches and semi finals will come up in Kano between 20th -23rd September, while the final will be staged in Lagos on a date to be agreed with the sponsors, Zenith Bank.

If Nigeria must realize her dream of ruling the world, then they must learn from the Spaniards. LA LIGA youth team trainer, Oscar Pruzon who was in Nigeria to lecture Nigeria youth coaches in March 2017 revealed that an average Spanish player would have been exposed to at least 500 competitive matches before the age of 17.

The Future Eagles U-13 team was in Rabat Morocco in August 2017 where they engaged the Moroccan U-15/U-17 national teams in two friendly games. While the Future Eagles lost the first game 1-0, the second game ended in a 1-1 draw.

What are the chances that this programme will be sustained even beyond the tenure of the current NFF board?

 “Already awareness has been created for the programme and what we hope to develop is a system where everybody starts going to look for youth players to play for their teams. That is why we have started from the states, infiltrating it into the state football associations, it may take a while, but surely youth football development will soon be our culture.” Akinwunmi added.

The Future Eagles championship will also be used to breed young football referees while only coaches who have a minimum of CAF C Licenses will be allowed to handle teams, making case for young and certificated trainers to grow the future stars.

This might not be the best youth football development programme in the world right now but obviously a culture to develop young football talents is being created and young Nigerian footballers are being given better chances to succeed more than Jay Jay Okocha had.

Courtesy: Bunmi Blair 

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Do we need another ICT University?

Editorial@ITRealms: 

Recent times, the media has been awash with the news of advanced plans by the Federal Government (FG) to enthrone an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) University, probably in the first quarter of 2017.

According to DigitalSENSE Business News findings, the Minister of Communications Technology, Adebayo Shittu, emphatically revealed this at the first annual workshop of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Abuja chapter, saying that the global technology establishments in Nigeria, like Ericsson, Microsoft, Motorola among others, will be part of the management.

The key plan is to convert the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) headquarters in Abuja to the ICT University and establish campuses in the six geopolitical zones across the country, with a bottom-line argument that Nigeria loses approximately $2.8 billion annually from the importation of ICT goods and services, including $1 billion spent annually on software imports, even as it will boost indigenous capacity of Nigerians to perform outsourcing in most of the areas that Nigerians spend huge money on importation.

The question arising thereof is whether Nigeria in the first instance needs another ICT University?

Records available to DigitalSENSE Business News from the National Universities Commission (NUC) shows Nigeria currently has some 152 universities, across the federal - 40; states - 44 and private - 68, as at time of filing this report. Among the 152 universities, there are four federal universities of technology, namely, the Federal University of Technology, Akure; Federal University of Technology, Minna; Federal University of Technology, Owerri; and University of Technology, Yola.

Also, out of 152, there are three states-owned universities of science and technology; comprising Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu; Ondo State University of Science and Technology Okitipupa; and River State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt.

Just as there are three privately-owned universities of science and technology, precisely the African University of Science & Technology, Abuja and Wesley University of Science & Technology, Ondo, both established same year, 2007, while the third is Bells University of Technology, Otta-Ogun State, founded since 2005. Thus, the Nigerian state has some 10 universities of technology despite the nomenclature.

In the same vein, Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) was established in May 2004 by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to change the narratives of dearth of trained and suitably qualified human resources in ICT sector, and to continuously foster rapid development and growth of the Nigerian telecommunications marketplace. Currently, DBI prides itself as a Centre of Excellence in ICT training and education with campuses in Abuja, Lagos and Kano, which could pass for some geo-zones.

DBI academic courses run under four principles; within the accreditation of National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), professional courses, International Telecommunications Union (ITU) accredited courses and Electronic Learning (e-Learning).

Whatever is the shortcoming of DBI in achieving its original mandate is not farfetched, including lack of local patronage by those telecommunications and ICT companies which Minister is anticipating to run the ‘ICT University’ with as Public Private Partnership (PPP). So, what stops the Ministry of Communication taking a second look at DBI in terms of existing infrastructure, syllabus and patronage, in order to make the needed change required in DBI effective, rather than starting a new capital venture, if at all in the geozones in the name of making a record of six campuses nationwide?

If the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari since inception has been lamenting lack of finance to build infrastructure will now go into establishing another set of universities with campuses in six-geozones, what will be the fate of existing DBI, which already has campuses in some zones?

If the argument of the Minister is anything to go-by, is the fact that the current 10 universities of technology and the entire university system in Nigeria have failed to produce indigenous capacity capable of salvaging the whole ICT eco-system and nation at large. It is worrisome too since building indigenous capacity has been ordinarily DBI sole mandate in ICT sector.

That Nigeria loses an estimated $2.8bn annually on ICT imports, cannot be attributed to lack of manpower in Nigeria no matter how feeble the Nigerian university systems, may be, but largely for lack of patronage and craze for anything foreign even from the Government, across all tiers and private sector.

So, instead of creating ICT University, one expected this Buhari cum Adebayo Shittu administration to prevail on the private sector players to assist the existing higher institutions including the 152 universities and DBI to have endowment of chairs in all faculties and departments, but not limited to Computer Sciences or Science and Technology, even as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.

This has become imperative, given that the world has not only become a global village but has since been knitted with ICTs, which means every faculty if not departments must as matter of urgency have distinct computer laboratory with requisite software developed locally for education purposes, installed and maintained by local software companies, who can confidently take-in undergraduates as interns and eventually take-in graduates as employees, without spending another round of annual year budget on retraining of such candidates.

If all things were well with Nigerian universities, they should be producing turn-key students that are trained as complete package for employment or innovation. Definitely not another university is required but maintaining that which we currently have coupled with adequate patronage above board will make the difference.

Except for the sake of nomenclature, DBI is already serving the purpose of which Minister Adebayo wanted Nigeria to have an ICT University. A change of name and accreditation from NUC will get this done. He needs to conduct ‘unofficial visits’ to the existing campuses to basically know the challenges facing the likes of DBI, and computer science departments of 152 Nigerian universities. 

This could lead to perhaps a dialogue with stakeholders championed by the Nigerian Computer Society (NCS), Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN), and Nigeria Technology Impact Group (NITIG) among others.

For instance, its heart-breaking to see lately some Federal Government’s agencies and departments tender, requesting foreign computer brands when Nigeria has the likes of Zinox, Omatek, Veda, SpeedStar, Brain to name a few, who have their Completely Knock-Down (CKD) factories locally in the country, thereby creating jobs and reducing the gap in technological transfer.

Maybe as a government that reputed with “change mantra,” the Federal Government under President Buhari should lead by example, when it comes to patronizing locally made ICT facilities including educational institutions like DBI.

If Nigeria and the ICT sector are searching for a solution, already DBI is the solution with a little improvement across board, especially using typical workable PPP model.

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