NLNG honors Prof. Bart Nnaji @70, lauds 22-year legacy in elevating Nigeria Prize for Science - ITREALMS

Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) has paid a rich tribute to former Minister of Power and renowned scholar, Professor Bart Nnaji, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, celebrating his over two decades of selfless service and strategic leadership toward the governance, credibility, and global stature of The Nigeria Prize for Science and Innovation.

The energy giant honored Professor Nnaji at a high-profile colloquium organized to mark his milestone birthday. NLNG reflected on his deep-rooted history with the Prize, which spans 22 years from its formative stages in 2004 to its current standing as Africa’s most prestigious scientific award.

The Nigeria Prizes: NLNG extols media contribution, sponsors new prize on energy reporting - ITREALMS

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Nigeria LNG Limited, over the weekend, celebrated the media for its contribution to the development of The Nigeria Prize for Literature and The Nigeria Prize for Science in the last 20 years, recognising media stakeholders for their dedication and commitment to the coverage of the Prizes.

At an event titled “Celebrating the Voices of Impact” held in Lagos, the Company also announced the sponsorship of a new prize category at the prestigious Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) called “The NLNG Prize for Energy Reporting.”

NCC says telecom contribution to GDP hits 16% - ITREALMS

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As at the end of second quarter of 2023, the telecommunications sector's contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has increased significantly to 16 per cent, reports ITREALMS.

This is contained in the data reported by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) based on the computation by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Shittu foresees ICT contribution to GDP above 1% by SMEs

ITRealms:

The Minister of Communications, Barrister Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu has foreseen that proper development and deployment of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in production processes of products and services in the country could propel the Small and Medium Scales (SMEs) to increase contribution above one per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), reports ITRealms.

Shittu in a keynote address to the University of Ibadan’s School of Business Eminent Person Business Lecture Series in Ibadan at the weekend, lamented that despite the fact that 96 per cent of Nigerian businesses are SMEs, compared to 53 per cent in the United States and 65 per cent in Europe, the sector contribute approximately one per cent of Nigeria’s GDP, a development attributable to several constraints which are not limited to lack of funding, infrastructure and low level of productivity.

Barr. Shittu, however, was optimistic that the country could leverage ICT to further increase productivity for it to become a critical leader in the fourth industrial revolution as declared sometimes ago in Kigali, Rwanda.

The Minister who in a keynote address delivered at the University of Ibadan’s School of Business Eminent Person Business Lecture Series in Ibadan at the weekend said ICT, more than ever, is now a leveler that will help transform and diversify the economy. He spoke on the theme: Maximizing The Potentials of The Telecommunications Industry For Reversing Recession and The Economic Growth of Nigeria.

According to him, the pervasiveness of technology in terms of transforming the way economic activity is organized, suggest that ICT and telecoms have features of general purpose technology, adding that the digital economy holds potential for entrepreneurs and small and medium –scale entrepreneurs (SMEs).

”New digital tends such as cloud computing, mobile web services, bid data, smart grid and social media, are radically changing the business landscape, reshaping the nature of work, the boundaries of enterprises and the responsibilities of business leaders” he said.

In addition, he said that given the immense contribution to the growth of the economy and the fact that ICT is an enabler for all the sectors of the economy, the present administration, will continue to explore ways of maximizing the potentials of the telecoms and ICT, for reversing the recession and the economic growth of Nigeria.

“Diversification of Nigeria’s economy into various sectors is not enough to take the country out of recession, until the process is done by leveraging on ICT in an effective and efficient manner to be driven by a Digital Government Strategy that aims to deliver: Government Modernization, Greater Value for Citizens and Businesses and Transparency & Open Government.

“The country is presently in recession, but it is not because we are in it that we are concerned. We are concerned because each time there is a sharp drop in prices, we enter into a recession and we want to make sure that this cycle does not continue and the only way we can do so is to diversify the economy by leveraging on ICT and move the economy from being resource-based, which it has been since independence”, he stressed, promising that “the Ministry of Communications is determined to making sure that the country break away from the cycle” the Minister said.

Revealing that the present administration under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari is convinced that ICT is the bedrock of Nigeria’s Change Agenda and development, the Minister said, having worked assiduously on setting the proper policy  and strategic environment for the development of ICT in the country, government is determined to expand its investments in ICT infrastructure and extend connectivity to unserved and underserved areas.

Change, therefore, he said, would mean a specific, deliberate and spirited reconstructive framework, for recalibrating existing policies and institutional configurations, as well as the value that underpins them.

Barr. Shittu promised that government will pursue policies that incentivize investment and promote development of digital economies, so as to be able to build an inclusive digital future for the citizenry.

In this regard, he said, attention will be paid to the issue of multiple taxation of ICT infrastructure in addition to having ICT infrastructure designated as Critical National Infrastructure and investment on the capacity and harnessing the talents of the ICT savvy youth through increased accelerators and incubators.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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MTN: Linking SMEs to opportunities via forum

MTN Nigeria MD, Brett Goschen

There is no gainsaying the fact that Information Communication Technology (ICT), plays a vital role in economic development. All over the world, exciting trends are emerging, with knowledge fast becoming a strategic asset for business growth. 

Advances in ICTs are occurring on an incredible scale. For countries which are tapping into the new ideas, innovation and technologies that are proliferating in a knowledge-driven economy, there is a definite abundance wealth of opportunities for their entire people.

While some schools of thought ascribe the concept of a knowledge-driven economy to trends, in advanced economies, to a greater dependence on knowledge, information and possession of high skills and the increasing need for ready access to all of these by the business and public sectors, other schools of thought reason that “knowledge is universal” and so, is not exclusive to the countries of the advanced economies only and neither does the concept of a knowledge-driven economy.

They maintain that other emerging markets like South Africa and Singapore have developed their own frameworks for catapulting their countries into knowledge-driven economies. Like the US and UK, Nigeria, with a population of over 150 million people, has the capacity to make a successful transition to a truly knowledge-driven economy. Already, the country has recorded a remarkable improvement in the area of Information technology, since the introduction of GSM in 2001. However, there is still a lot more to be done to play ‘catch-up’ with the rest of the world and be able to compete successfully in the fast-moving world economy.

In developing a knowledge-driven Nigerian economy, there is the need for a new wave of collaboration between different agencies and different sectors of the economy to make it a reality. For instance, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), have become the foundation of economic development, market prosperity and employment-generation, making a noticeable contribution to the national economy. The development of SMEs is an essential element in the growth strategy of most economies and holds a particular significance for Nigeria.

SMEs contribute to improved living standards, bring about substantial local capital formation and achieve a high level of productivity and capability. SMEs are recognised as the principal means of achieving equitable and sustainable industrial diversification. 

Tipping SMEs to anchor the growth of Nigeria’s economy, in the next couple of years, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga said that Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises remain the backbone of the development of any economy and the driving force of national growth. In Nigeria, he said, there are currently over 17 million Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, employing over 31 million Nigerians. “They account for over 80 per cent of the total number of enterprises in Nigeria and employ 75 per cent of the total workforce,” Aganga said.

If there is one factor that has contributed immensely to the growth and success of the SMEs, it is the use of ICT. SME usage of ICT ranges from basic technology such as TV, radio and fixed lines to more advanced technology such as email, e-commerce and information processing systems.

In fact, the emergence of different sophisticated ICT tools makes it a lot easier to do business in recent times. A case in point is the use of social media platforms to advertise products and services, the use of Skype to do a tele-conference meeting with business partners across the globe, etc.

It gets even better and interesting with the various value-added packages that are continually offered by the GSM companies for business owners to be at their best. One of such packages is the MTN Smooth Talk, a special tariff plan, created for business people, who make high volume calls and require heavy data plan for their businesses.

Iyke Nwachukwu, an IT consultant and a participant at the recently held  MTN Link Forum, an engagement platform for young, budding entrepreneurs and professionals to network and connect to their dreams, stated “The use of mobile phones has helped many entrepreneurs reduce costs and improve business processes. I am, currently, on the MTN Smooth Talk plan and I can testify that it is one plan every entrepreneur should buy into. Call rate is at a reduced and affordable rate, which enables you to communicate more with your customers and then of course the exciting data bundle that enables you achieve more.”

On how, ICT has shaped his business, Nwachukwu said “Everyone who is in the country knows that we are a lot better than where we were a decade ago. For everything thing we do, we rely, basically, on communication. You can reach people faster, track your products, do your business transaction etc, with the aid of ICT. We have all benefitted, in one way or the other, since the likes of MTN came into the business of Information Technology. Anyone who knows what it was like back then in the days of NITEL will agree with me that there is a complete paradigm shift. Life is much easier and businesses better, in this era of ICT.”

Using advanced ICT to improve business processes falls into the category of e-business. However, not all SMEs need to use ICT to the same degree of complexity. The first ICT tool that most SMEs adopt is having basic communication with a fixed line or mobile phone, whichever is more economical or most convenient for their businesses. This allows the SME to communicate with its suppliers and customers without having to pay a personal visit.

Like any firm, an SME decides which type of ICT products to adopt, based on the concrete benefits they can bring to its core business, the ICT capacity of its employees and the financial resources available. Most people are familiar with basic ICT such as fixed phone lines, mobile phones, fax, computers and basic document processing software – like Microsoft Office. 

Advanced communication technology, however, is more complex, because Advanced communication technology relies primarily on the Internet and the intranet, which allow people, within the firm, to share files with each other, over the same network. Having Internet connectivity enables firms to engage in faster research, set up websites, conduct e-commerce and set up video conferences.
  
*Anthony Ifeanyi Elikene contributed this from Lagos
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