Warri, a distressed and a dying city by Michael Owhoko - ITREALMS

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

Who will restore Warri back to its glorious days? A city that was once the pride of all Wafarians, is now a shadow of itself, rusty and reeking with aroma of poverty occasioned by systemic decline with people cocooned in deprivation and squalor. Warri is allusively known as Wafi, making the people and residents of the city identified as Wafarians.

I was close to tears during my recent visit where I toured the length and breadth of Warri, covering Deco Road, Okumagba Avenue, Okere Road, McCiver, Odion Road, Market Road, Cemetery Road, Iyara, McDermott Road, Warri-Sapele Road, Upper and Lower Erejuwa, Ajamogha, Esisi, and Warri Port. I stayed for over two months, the longest since my relocation to Lagos in 1984.

Mr. 2Kay set for garden city concert

ITREALMS:

Singer, Mr. 2Kay has announced that he’ll be hosting the city of Port Harcourt and its environs to a night of great music and fun as he will be having his concert tagged, ‘The Elevated Concert’ reports ITRealms.

The event, ITRealms gathered is being organised by Grafton Entertainment, has been slated for Sunday, June 17, 2018, at Aztech Arcum, in the heart of Port Harcourt, featuring other A list artistes.

ITRealms also reportst that plans have been advanced for a sing and dancing competition on Monday, April 2nd 2018, would see Mr. 2Kay giving away $2000 (Two Thousand Dollars) to 2 persons in Port Harcourt.

According to him, the initiative is a way of giving back to his starting foundation in the music industry.

“Call it my little way of giving back to a place where I started my career. The support from the South has been superb from the people. The winners of the competition will also have the opportunity to share the stage with me during the elevated concert,” 2Kay said.

To participate, interested fans are expected to post a minute video of themselves singing or dancing to their favourite song from Mr. 2Kay’s latest album – Elevated. The videos are to be posted using the hashtag #ElevatedConcertph18 and participants must be following Mr. 2Kay on Twitter (@mr_2kay), Instagram (@mr.2kay) and Facebook (@iam2kay).

Media partners for this competition are Rhythm 93.7FM PH and Beat99 FM PH. They will be dishing more details and updates on a daily basis on the competition. 

Mr. 2Kay released his sophomore album on February 11, 2018 and it climbed from 3 to the number 1 position on iTunes album chart.

The album was on number 1 for three weeks. Since the release of the album, he has performed at the ongoing Big Brother Naija eviction show and had a media tour in Kenya with several appearances.

Mr. 2Kay has just concluded another media tour in Port Harcourt and will be heading to the UK for another media round this weekend.

Uj. N. Dominic/GEE

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Digital Switch-Over lands in coal city

ITREALMS:

The Federal Government has launched the Digital Switch-Over in the Enugu, the coal city capital of Enugu State, reports ITRealms.

The Enugu launch, ITRealms gathered, mark the third state the launch took place within the last two months.

According to the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Enugu follows the recent rollout in Kwara and Kaduna.

He also said that there is no better evidence of our commitment to rapidly spread the massive benefits of digital television to the people of Nigeria, Mohammed commended and congratulated all the stakeholders who are working round the clock to ensure the success of the transition from analogue to digital television across the country.

“The National Broadcasting Commission, the Digiteam, Signal Distributors, Content Aggregators, Set Top Box Manufacturers, Channel Owners and all others,” he said.

Further, he said the nation’s DSO is now at the cruise level of the journey started in Jos, Plateau State, in April 2016, as the DSO train has now transversed Abuja, Ilorin, Kaduna, to arrive Enugu, which is the latest stop.

“From here, the DSO train will proceed to Osun State, as we continue our rapid rollout of digital television across the country,” he said.

Mohammed, noted the need to support DSO sustainability for Signal Distributors, Channel owners, TV content producers and Advertisers.

“This is the issue of Audience Measurement. I have said it before and I will like to repeat it here: Without it, we will not see the growth in our television and the value creation in the creative industry that the economy and people of Nigeria so need. The current Diary Audience Measurement system is no longer ideal for the critical transitional phase before full DTT Migration,” he said.

The Enugu State governor, Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi later launched the DSO with a cutting a tape.

Ozo Nweke Ozo in Enugu/ GEE

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Akwa-Ibom: From smart city to smart state

MondayCommentary@ITRealms:

First, it is essential to state that Akwa Ibom was the first State in Nigeria to establish and enthrone a State Information (IT) Policy and created a Science and Technology Office at the Cabinet level – represented by a Commissioner. 

True to type, the State has also become the first to appoint a full-fledged ICT professional as SSG. Indeed, the ‘first kid on the block’ concept in contemporary development is not new. Chief Obafemi Awolowo applied it in 1955 when he enthroned ‘Free Education’ in the South-West and Bill Gates of MS and Steve Jobs of Apple PC applied it to fire and light-up the accelerated development of global ICT ecosystem.

It was year 2003 – sitting on the dark windows of a Night Bus to Uyo – I headed into an adventure of the unknown. The mission was to explore the e-Readiness of Akwa Ibom State ICT development. Oblivious of the challenges before me, delighting from the bus on arrival on the early morning the next day, I was welcomed by a refreshing breeze full of rich oxygen engulfed in a distant voice of ‘Welcome to Uyo’. It was at that moment that I realized that my mission was to lay a foundation for ICT as the most strategic imperative for the sustainable development and competitiveness of the State in the very near future.

Today, that future is here – giving us the privilege to look back and advance our evaluation as proof of concept for assessing 21^st Century development and growth at the State level. Before we evaluate the advantages of Akwa Ibom State as one of the very first to establish an IT Policy, let’s look at the future of ICT e-readiness of Akwa Ibom State in view of the current state of things. 

Based on my assessment of the ICT landscape in Akwa Ibom 2016-2018, the state will be one of the most advanced ICT Smart-State in Nigeria and indeed perhaps the first to deploy Robots for Education, Health, State Security, Essential public service, etc for sustainable development (derived from her current advantages of small population of 5.4m, enormous resources and abundant intelligent pioneers with ‘Can-do Sprit’); Readiness for acceleration of robust ICT infrastructure development, with respect to State-wide Broadband Internet access, State of the Art Fibre Optics Network for state security and youth empowerment will unleash monumental innovation beyond basic imagination. 

The State would harness the advantages of Internet of Things and Nano Technologies as diversification strategy of Akwa Ibom economy from Oil & Gas to Information Intelligence resources in preparation for Information Society (IS).

Before other States realize the ICT State of Things in Akwa Ibom, the environment would have propelled the State from the shadows of ‘Smart-City’ to the villa to the metropolis of Smart-States by 2030. This would be actualized by intensifying AI and Machine to Machine (M2M) Solutions strategies and multiply the dividend to her people exponentially. The secret of all these is hidden on the probability that the State government will promote the establishment State Innovation development Fund for Software Engineering Institutes (SDI), Code-accelerator based Education, Innovation Hubs, Critical Local Data centres, ICT Research Centres, etc – leading to position Akwa Ibom as the first destination for ICT Skill Resources and solutions to serve the nation and the ICT-hungry African market.

Today, as we speak, many States  in Nigeria are yet to develop State ICT policy and their ICT development funding mechanisms are at the lowest bottom of the budget ladder.

 Flash back, the same scenario was experienced in 1955, when Chief Obafemi Awolowo established Free-Eduction in the South West Region of Nigeria, while others were asleep – making the South West the current leader in the statistical spread of those who can read, write and educated all through West Africa and beyond. That is not all, the South West ICT agenda of empowering many millions of its citizenry with ICT competence of ‘how to code’ will further put the region many miles ahead of the others in the next decades. That is where Akwa Ibom will stand tall amongst equals in the emerging creative society. The State has done well in ICT spend and investment over the years.

Moving forward with the deserved appointment of Dr, Emmanuel Ekuwem - an exceptional IT Professional and renowned Tele Communications expert as the State Secretary of Government of Akwa Ibom State, the expectations are that Akwa Ibom State will undoubtedly become the first address for ICT knowledge advancement, solutions, services and creative dimensions for the sustainable future.

The current landscape ICT advantage of Akwa-Ibom State was conceptualised in 2003. This established the State Information Technology (IT) and Science and Technology (S&T) Policies respectively. These sets of policy frameworks were aimed at: Creating knowledge and innovation clusters for strategic and sustainable development of the State. Retooling the workforce in readiness for e-Government programs designed to meet the basic and central needs of the State. 

Finetuning leadership and governance operations. Discovering and enthroning new knowledge resources to serve core business–commercialisation activities. Reposition the State’s ICT brand to engage national and International entrepreneurial and innovation culture. Engaging knowledge workers and core Stakeholders to relocate to the State for the real mission of adding sustainable value State development and prosperity.

In the beginning, the central goals include but not limited to the following: Transform Akwa Ibom through ICT. Conceptualize the establishment of Akwa Ibom State’s ICT Policy and premier Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Park as the central Hub and strategic platform for transforming and accelerating the development and advancement of new Knowledge Resources to empower existing start-ups, small and medium scale businesses and industries. Apply R&D to understand and master the secrets behind accelerated ICT, future applications and related Technology development curves in innovation, electronics, advanced materials business and e-Government development. Develop and built new Entrepreneurs and Techno-preneurs Culture.

While wishing Akwa Ibom State well in pursuance of her sustainable ICT mission, there is need to invigorate and apply design-thinking process to accelerate Youth employment through ICT knowledge empowerment and the commercialization of innovative State technologies. Above all, there is need to improve and protect the State’s Critical ICT Infrastructure, business incubation, knowledge coaching, skills development, strategic relationship networks and access to capital.

 For the records, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem shared the vision with professional advice at the founding stage of the State’s IT Policy. Those who were in the line of fire for actualizing the establishment of the foundation of Akwa Ibom State’s ICT vision and mission at the critical stage include but now limited to the followings:  Obong. Victor Attah– First and Former Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State. Dr. Linus Asuqor  First Commissioner for S &T, Chris Uwaje of Connect Technologies as Lead Consultant, Obong. Effangga, former PS of S&T. Prof. Ntuen (Department of Human Machine, North Carolina University, USA, Chief Ebitimi Banigo: Former  Federal Minister for S&T, Prof. Akpan Ekpo , former VC of Uni Uyo, Yinka Tanimowo, Gbenga Sesan as technical support and others too numerous to mention. Time for other States to learn ans share from Akwa Ibom’s ICT strategy and experience.

*Contributed by Chris Uwaje, aka, Oracle of IT industry and former president, Institute of Software Professionals of Nigeria (ISPON).

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Top 10 AIF innovators heads to Accra, sets city agog

ITRealms:

The African Innovation Foundation (AIF) has unveiled top 10 nominees for the 2017 Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA), slated to set the city of Accra-Ghana agog on the month of July this year, reports ITRealms.

The Innovators from nine African countries including Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe have been shortlisted for the prestigious Prize.
These selected nominees, ITRealms reports would pitch their innovative projects to the esteemed IPA panel of jurors during the closed pitch sessions on July 15^th and 16^th in Accra.

Following their pitch, three winners will be selected and announced during the Awards ceremony slated for 18 July 2017 at the Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel, Accra.

Some of the finalists include:

Innovations in communications and smart solutions

1.    Peris Bosire, Kenya: FarmDrive

FarmDrive is a financial technology company that has developed a mobile phone based application that collects data and provides an alternative risk assessment model for small holder farmers. While the continent remains largely dependent on agriculture, one of the biggest challenges facing smallholder farmers is access to credit or finance. Most financial institutions are reluctant to grant credit to farmers because their risk assessment models flag small farmers as being very risky. FarmDrive has developed a new methodology for assessing credit worthiness of farmers that has led to higher acceptance rate of loan applications by farmers while maintaining a very low default rate. This could have the effect of significantly boosting agricultural production on the continent while helping financial institutions cost effectively increase their agricultural loan portfolios.

2.    Nokwethu Khojane, South Africa: Lakheni, Turning Social Capital into Buying Power

Lakheni is a social and business model innovation which seeks to aggregate low-income households into buying-groups in order to negotiate favourable discounts for goods and services supplied to these households. Most poor people end up paying for goods and services at a unit price that is usually much higher than the unit price paid by other people with more disposable income. This is because as goods and services are packaged into smaller and smaller units to make them affordable, they become less economically efficient and end up costing higher than if one was to buy in bulk or in larger units. In essence, the poor end up paying a poverty premium. Lakheni solves this problem by aggregating poor households into a buyer’s market by leveraging mobile technology.

3.    Omolabake Adenle, Nigeria: Voice Recognition and Speech Synthesis Software for African Languages

This is a software solution that can understand and digitize spoken African languages, and synthesize speech from African languages presented as digitized text. Digitizing African languages in this way allows Africans to interact with hardware devices such as mobile phones, and digital services such as call-center applications by speaking their local language. The software can be integrated into a wide range of devices and third-party software applications. While voice recognition and speech synthesis software have been developed for various Western and Asian languages, there has been very limited commercial application or academic research for African languages. The difficulty lies in modelling tonality present in most African languages and limited data resources for language modelling. This innovation opens up opportunities for Africans with low literacy levels to also enjoy the benefits of the digital revolution.

4.    Nzola Swasisa, Democratic Republic of Congo: Lokole

Lokole, is a device that enables access to efficient email communication anywhere with cellular coverage at a price that is one hundred to one thousand times cheaper than accessing email via regular cellular bandwidth costs. Lokole achieves this firstly by creating a shareable local area network where up to a hundred users within a 25 meters’ radius can access the network and share the costs. Secondly, it contains advanced algorithms that compress email and also schedules uploads and downloads of data to when data bundles costs are at their cheapest. Costs per user could be as little as $0.01/person/day. More than 71% of the African population doesn’t have access to efficient communications. Lokole solves this communication problem and enables many communities to access efficient communication for the first time. Applications of Lokole include: health (remote-doctor), education (remote-teacher), commerce (purchase orders via email), business (attachment documents) and many more.

Leveraging artificial intelligence and mechanical solutions

5.    Badr Idriss, Morocco: Atlan Space

Atlan Space develops software technology that is then deployed to manage the operations of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones. The software is currently tested for use in managing operations in detecting illegal or harmful maritime activity such as illegal fishing or oil spills over wide expanse areas. UAVs operated by this software can be launched and deployed into monitoring operations without having an aircraft operator. Also, by using Artificial Intelligence they are able to collect data, analyze and produce actionable reports.  African governments face numerous challenges in monitoring activities and operation over wide areas. This includes border patrols, deforestation, animal poaching and maritime activity. The software allows for the deployment of UAVs at a very cost effective price without need for highly skilled human intervention and over a wide number of uses.

6.    Aly El-Shafei, Egypt: Smart Electro-Mechanical Actuator Journal Integrated Bearing “SEMAJIB”

The patented innovation (SEMAJIB) presented by Dr. El-Shafei, is a smart bearing which is versatile and can change its characteristics as it operates.  It consists of a magnetic bearing imbedded in an oil-filled journal bearing, thus forming the smart controllable bearing. The flooding of the bearing with oil is a game changer as the purpose of bearings has traditionally been to expel oil.  There is a significant improvement in turbine performance using the SEMAJIB particularly in single line combined cycle plants, as well as conventional generator technology.  The device is designed to be used to support energy generating turbines and can be used to improve efficiency and reduce costs of generating energy in Africa.

Discoveries in healthcare solutions

7.    Dougbeh-Chris Nyan, Liberia: New Technology for Rapid Detection of Many Infections Using Only One Test

This is a rapid diagnostic test that can detect and simultaneously differentiate at least three to seven infections at the same time within 10 to 40 minutes. In most African countries, there is a lack of sophisticated diagnostic devices and limited expertise in high-tech diagnostics. This hinders the clinical decision-making ability of healthcare providers. This test provides a solution to this clinical problem. The innovation is easy to use in any setting and particularly in rural areas. Additionally, the device is able to detect and distinguish multiple infections which bear the same symptoms for instance, when a patient has yellow fever, malaria, and Ebola. Whereas most testing methods take 3 – 7 days, this device gives test results in 10 – 40 minutes. This would provide a significant step in the detection and management of infectious diseases on the continent.

8.    Olanisun Olufemi Adewole, Nigeria: Sweat TB Test, A non-invasive rapid skin test to detect Tuberculosis

Sweat TB Test, is a non-invasive rapid diagnostic test to detect tuberculosis (TB). TB is second only to HIV/AIDS as a leading cause of death in Africa. Available methods are high tech; cannot be deployed in rural centres, dependent only sputum which sometimes may not be collectible and considered messy by patients. It is also time consuming with patients making repeated clinic visits before a diagnosis is made. Delay in diagnosis and missed diagnosis of 3million TB cases occur leading to continuous spread of the disease.  Sweat TB Test leverages on TB specific marker in sweat of patients, to produce a point- of- care test to detect TB, within ten minutes, without any needle prick. In simple steps, reports are read and patients commenced on medication as needed at the same clinic visit. It has the potential to contribute towards effectively controlling TB, reduce TB related deaths and holds promise to prevent drug resistance TB in Africa.

9.    Gift Gana, Zimbabwe: Dr. CADx

Dr CADx is a software solution that helps doctors and health care workers diagnose medical images more accurately. Due to the scarcity of radiologists on the continent, most medical images are read by general doctors or other health care workers who lack expertise and end up misdiagnosing more than 30% of the cases that they review. As a result, millions of patients fail to get the right treatment or the treatment is delayed leading to more complications and even death. Dr CADx uses deep learning to interpret medical images and achieve an accuracy of 82% an improvement over the 70% average for radiologists. Dr CADx is designed to work in low resource settings with poor internet connectivity opening it up for use in many rural settings in Africa.

10. Philippa Ngaju Makobore, Uganda: Electronically Controlled Gravity Feed Infusion Set (ECGF)

The Electronically Controlled Gravity Feed Infusion Set (ECGF) is medical device designed to accurately administer intravenous (IV) fluids and drugs by controlling the rate of fluid flow based on feedback from a drop sensor. Over 10% of children admitted to East African hospitals need immediate infusion therapy. Findings from the FEAST trial indicates that over-infusion in children increased the absolute risk of death by 3.3 % at 48 hours. Erroneous delivery rates can result into serious adverse effects. The ECGF solves this problem as it is very easy to operate and has key safety features which include alarms for rate of infusion (rapid or slow), total volume (over or under) and faulty sensors. A battery utilizing a hybrid (AC mains and solar) charging bed powers the device. The ECGF has the potential to save lives by providing accuracy and safety at 8% the cost of a brand-new infusion pump.

Nonye Dom/GEE 

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