MainOne aligns with global effort on women in ICT

Gender ICT@ITRealms:

Leading connectivity and data center solutions provider, MainOne, has aligned with the global campaign on girls and young women to deliberately choose careers in the growing information and communications technology (ICT) sector, reports ITRealms.

Marketing Manager, MainOne, Ms Jumoke Akande, made this call at the International Girls in ICT Day hosted by E-Business Life Communications Limited in Lagos, saying that there is currently a gender disparity in ICT jobs, and urged girls as well as women to pursue ICT-related careers in the burgeoning sector.

“We believe that improving the number of girls in ICT careers creates a more balanced and inclusive society. Therefore, it is important that we encourage girls to expand their horizons, to empower and enable them overcome whatever limiting mindsets and fears they might have regarding pursuing careers in ICT,” she said.

Emphasizing that MainOne’s support of initiatives aimed at encouraging technology careers for Nigerian girls aligns with the goal of the company to provide girls of all ages with support, mentorship and the motivation to pursue ICT-driven careers, eventually becoming active role models themselves to the next generation of girls.

“Our CEO, Ms. Opeke, is an ITU female role model and believes this cycle is necessary to create better opportunities for our girls and reverse the gender imbalance in technology,” Akande said.

The Chief Executive Officer, eBusiness Life Communications, Ufuoma Emuophedaro commended MainOne for its efforts in expediting digital literacy and called on other stakeholders to join hands to further invest in girls and young women by supporting the Girls in ICT campaign in addition to empowering them by offering them the confidence to pursue ICT studies and careers.

ITRealms recalls that the Girls in ICT Day, celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday in April, is an awareness-raising initiative designed to promote studies and careers in technology to a new generation of girls and young women with an interest in becoming ICT enthusiasts.

The theme for this year’s celebration was "Expanding Horizons and Changing Attitudes" and it was sponsored by MainOne along with other organizations and individuals. The event was attended by the representative of the Minister of Communications, representatives from IT companies and other industry stakeholders.

Nkemdilim Nweke/GEE

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Huawei signs strategic partnership with Fidelity Bank

ITRealms:

Fidelity Bank, has signed a strategic partnership with Huawei, the global Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions provider, to end the banks storage challenges, ITRealms reports.

The bank’s storage system was increasingly and steadily stretched by its sheer volume of business as it serves millions of customers daily across the West African sub region, thereby risking a potential drop in the bank’s service delivery. In addition, the bank’s backup system required optimization to ensure an even more stable and effective ICT system.

Prologue to the partnership, ITRealms gathered from the bank’s site, commenced in March 2014 at the CeBIT event where the Huawei’s financial solutions unit met officials of Fidelity Bank who were attending the conference in search of internationally reputable companies to partner with for their ICT needs. Then the two parties agreed to work together, with Huawei mandated to enhance the bank’s storage capacity and resolve the performance bottlenecks in the system.

According to the information, in September 2014, after three months of rigorous POC testing, Huawei`s S6800 and DR solutions achieved excellent results, with all pre-agreed indicators exceeding the bank’s expectations by more than 20 per cent minimum, while IOPS reached about 300K to meet the daily business requirement, and the RTO time came down to minutes level. This project has been designed to support the accelerated growth rate of Fidelity bank’s business expansion over the next 3 year.

 ITRealms learnt, Huawei’s solutions have gained a high rating from the client. “Based on its industry-leading hardware specifications, the S6800T integrates the advanced technologies of high-density disk design, Turbo Module (high-density and hot-swappable I/O modules), and Turbo Boost (three-level performance boost), and multi-level data protection, satisfying the application requirements of large OLTP/OLAP databases, Internet operation, centralized storage, backup, disaster recovery, and data migration.

“The S6800 is widely used in the international finance industry, with ICBC being the biggest user, utilizing the device to carry 16 forms of business data, including A / Class B business 5, C / Class D business 11.The A class of applications contain ICBC’s front and pedestrian front as the most critical business applications; it is worthy of note that the ICBC provides high reliability yet low TCO”.

Fidelity Bank, ITRealms also reports, is currently ranked amongst the top 10 banks in Nigeria, with a network of over 220 branches nationwide, and a presence in all the 36 states and major cities around the country.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

 
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ICT key in social security implementation

ITRealms

The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has been identified as key to drive social security and critical policies aimed at mitigating socio-economic problems that affect the citizenry of the Sub-Saharan  African countries, ITRealms reports,

According to the International Social Security Association (ISSA) social security is "any programme of social protection established by legislation, or any other mandatory arrangement, that provides individuals with a degree of income security when faced with the contingencies of old age, survivorship, incapacity, disability, unemployment or rearing children. It may also offer access to curative or preventive medical care".

The Regional Director (Africa) for the International LabourOrganisation, Mr. Aeneas Chuma in a recent interview with THISDA, admitted that social security can be expensive, but harped on the need for each country to define its own form of social protection as it is necessary to have a system where the vulnerable are protected, citing Brazil where income is given to poor families to allow their children stay in school.

In the same vein, the Vice President for Africa, Public Service Institute, Comrade Peter Adeyemi in an interview noted that social security can mitigate extreme poverty and insecurity in the sub-region.

Nigeria, since 2010, ITRealms gathered, has been implementing the Employees Compensation Act (ECA), the social security for those who become incapacitated in work related accidents, or for their beneficiaries in event of loss of life. The social security has recently been extended to provide social security to the aged and unemployed through an amendment to the Act establishing the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF). The amendment is currently awaiting Presidential Assent.

The ISSA's Liaison Office for West Africa, is therefore organizing a technical seminar for West African countries in Abuja this week, to brainstorm on the modalities and impact of ICT in the performance of social security. The seminar themed "Impact of New Information and Communication Technology in the Performance of Social Security Institutions," is being hosted by the NSITF, reports ITRealms.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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NDSF 2015 opens, as Gusau charges regulators on net neutrality study

ITRealms:

The two-day annual Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum on Internet Governance for Development (IG4D) and IPv6 Roundtable kicked off in Lagos with the chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Hon. Dr. Ibrahim Shehu Gusau, calling for an industry-based study on Net Neutrality in Nigeria, reports ITRealms.

Gusau who also led high level delegates at the event to declare the forum open, beckoned on industry regulators within the ICT sector like the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to initate a policy study on this begging issue of net neutrality with the trend on how it could affect Nigerians, especially the Internet, so as to have a defined reasonable traffic management policy dealing on all the associated concerns arising from net neutrality with its attendant usurping of services to end-users in the country.

While reassuring on readiness of the National Assembly, especially the House of Representatives to do all their power to encourage a level playing ground, the Committee chairman expressed hope on the forthcoming 8^th session to even thrive to achieve more than the outgoing 7^th session.

Gusau also commended the role being played by DigitalSENSE Africa Media Limited in annually staging the forum, which he described as significant role endeared to multistakeholderism in its role to ensure Nigerians are enlightened enough to be able to key into the global competitive of the Internet.

According to him, by successfully organizing the Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum on Internet Governance for Development for the past seven years, shows commitment in leveraging the values of ICT to enlightenment and education across board and multistakeholderism approach.

“The Forum by God’s grace has become a sin qua non, in other words an essential condition; a thing that is absolutely necessary for internet community in Nigeria as industry stakeholders-based  approach to gather annually to jaw-jaw on latest issues on Internet and Internet-related matters for individuals, groups and national growth and development,” he said.

Gusau, who also presided over the forum opening session, noted that the signing of the Cyber Bill into Law by the immediate-past President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on May 15, 2015, was a plus for the National Assembly.

“I think Mr. President and indeed the National Assembly deserve an applause, and we will continue to do more in that regard,” he said.

Recalling that in 2011, at a forum by DigitalSENSE Africa Media Limited at the Golden Gate Ikoyi Lagos, I promised Nigerians that Cyber Security Act will come into play before the end of 7^th session of the National Assembly and by signing this into law by former President Jonathan; that promise has come to fulfillment.

However, he said that the theme: ‘Net Neutrality and Nigerian Internet Users’ passes for the network neutrality, Internet neutrality, or net equality principle that Internet service providers or government should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favouring or blocking particular products or websites.

Further, he said, this principle applies to the ISPs and governments to treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication. 

The term was coined by Columbia University media law professor Tim Wu in 2003, as an extension of the longstanding concept of a common carrier.

Some of the agitations arising from the debate on net neutrality, he pointed to include bandwidth throttling; data discrimination; deep packet inspection, End-to-end principle; Internet Protocol (IP); Net bias, Net Neutrality law; Search neutrality and Tiered Internet to name a few.

Of course, more than ever before the House of Representatives and at large the National Assembly, is aware of the need to enact most germane and enabling laws that are meant to induce more competition, innovation, local content as well as checkmate excesses especially in the social media through cyber laws, so that population of netizens in Nigeria will continue to swell positively.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) 

 

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Pix: Captions for NDSF Day-1:
1. Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum on IG4D 2015 ... L-R: Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN), Mr. Gbenga Sesan, Country Manager, OLX Nigeria, Lola Masha, and Head, Legal and Regulatory Service at Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mrs Yetunde Akinloye, at a two-day Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum Series 2015 on Internet Governance for Development (IG4D) with theme "Net Neutrality and Nigeria Internet Users" held at Welcome Center Hotels Ikeja-Lagos, yesterday 4th June, 2015.
2. L-R: Head, Legal and Regulatory Service at Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mrs Yetunde Akinloye, Representative of Director-General,  National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mr. Preye Itonyo, Executive Director, Operations, DigitalSENSE Africa Mrs Nkemdilim Nweke, Country Manager, OLX Nigeria, Lola Masha, Chairman, House Committee on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Federal House of Representatives (FHR) Hon. Dr. Ibrahim Shehu Gusau (Forum Chairman), Group Executive Editor, ITRealms, Mr Remmy Nweke, during a two-day Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum Series 2015 on "Net Neutrality and Nigeria Internet Users" at Welcome Center Hotels Ikeja-Lagos, yesterday 4th June, 2015.

Nigeria-Brazil trade ties: Infoplus set to boost strategies

ITRealms: 

Infoplus an international business consulting firm based in Nigeria, has emphasized the need to boost affordable Information and Communications Technology (ICT), housing, agribusiness, retail franchising as well as renewable energy ties with Brazil, reports ITRealms.

Principal consultant, Infoplus, Mr. Ndudi Osakwe made this call in a recent seminar in Lagos, noted that it was high time for the two countries to explore their similarities in promoting trade and investment."Brazil is a country that faced what Nigeria is facing currently; they have edge in key areas where Nigeria can benefit, especially in the areas of affordable housing and agribusiness. They have the kind of less sophisticated system that Nigeria can adopt easily, we therefore see that Nigerians can tap into such business relationship," Osakwe said.

He further noted that they have identified areas that Nigeria stands to benefit from Brazil, through there similarly shared financial systems, which could be harnessed to promote the nation’s economy and deal with housing and unemployment which has challenged the country.

ITRealms gathered that in response, the minister of Industry, Trade and Investment  Dr. Olusegun Aganga promised to work together to enhance their bilateral trade volume.

Daniel Nsolibe/GEE

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Queen Elizabeth opens Info age exhibition with first Tweet

ITRealms:

The 2014 exhibition celebrating the history of communications technology got a royal seal of approval from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who opened the gallery last weekend by sending her very first Tweet, reports ITRealms.

Her Majesty Elizabeth II, ITRealms gathered took to Twitter to post on the @BritishMonarchy account saying: "It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R."

Also, ITRealms The tweet, which has been since retweeted over 36,000 times was favourited by over 37,000 times.

ITRealms recalls that it was fitting that Mother Queen chose to launch the gallery on Twitter. Information Age: Six Networks That Changed Our World is the first museum gallery dedicated to the history of information and communication technologies.

From the first transatlantic telegraph cable that connected Europe and North America in minutes rather than weeks, to the advanced computing power of the modern smartphone, the gallery looks at how the modern connected world was created through six communication networks: the telegraph; the telephone, radio and television broadcasting; satellite communications; computer networks; and mobile communications. 

Whilst it was the first time the Queen has sent a Tweet, Royalty and leaders around the world are no strangers to the platform.

Queen Rania of Jordan (@QueenRania) was the first serving Monarch to have her own Twitter account. Her bio reads “A mum and a wife with a really cool day job…” and she Tweets a combination of Arabic and English messages about her life and work.

In England, Prince Andrew the Duke of York (@TheDukeOfYork) became the first member of the immediate Royal Family to join the platform in a personal capacity when he signed up in 2013. He signs his personal Tweets with his initials AY, such as the shot of his office supporting the GB curling team at #Sochi2014.

He was joined on the platform this year by his daughter Princess Beatrice (@YorkieBea) who Tweets about her charity work, as well as occasional pictures of her pet dog which recently gave birth to puppies.

And the Queen made a surprise appearance in a picture on Twitter this summer, appearing in the background of Commonwealth Games athlete Jade Taylor’s Tweet, making that Tweet the most Retweeted of the entire Games. In fact, Royal photobombing became something of a craze as the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry got involved in the fun too.

Prince Harry sent his first ever Tweet earlier this year as he launched the @InvictusGames, followed soon after by his first ever Twitter selfie with the Duke of Cambridge at the launch of the Queens Young Leaders (@QueensLeaders) initiative.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge use the Clarence House account (@ClarenceHouse) to keep followers updated on news of their expanding family – including announcing the news of Prince George’s arrival in 2013, and the impending arrival of a new #RoyalBaby in 2014.

And when the King of Spain abdicated, he chose Twitter to share the moment instantly with the Spanish people.

Closer home, President Jonathan Goodluck is very active on social media and he regularly tweets on relevant developments in Nigeria.

https://mobile.twitter.com/JGoodlucktweets. One of his latest Tweets was applauding Nigeria's victory over Ebola. He has also sent several tweets on the Chibok girls.

US President Obama is probably the most socially media conscious leader in the world. He has almost 50 million followers on Twitter and has so far sent out over 12,000 Tweets.


+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms)  +InvictusGames  @QueenLeaders @+Clarence House @ScienceMuseum  +Science Museum  @BritishMonarchy +The British Monarchy

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