Gov. Soludo reappoints Agbata to lead ASICTA, names new heads for ARTMA, ACTDA - ITREALMS

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The Governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, has approved the appointments of three key Managing Directors to lead critical state government agencies, reports ITREALMS.

The appointments include a notable tenure renewal for the tech sector leader, while introducing fresh leadership to the transport and capital territory portfolios.

Tinubu heads to Saudi Arabia for lesser hajj - ITREALMS

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The All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential candidate in the 2023 controversial election, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has headed out to Saudi Arabia for Umrah, which is the lesser hajj, reports ITREALMS.

A press statement from his media office by Tunde Rahman, and made available to 
ITREALMS, he said that after a very exhaustive campaign and election season, that Tinubu, has travelled abroad to rest and plan his transition programme ahead of May 29, 2023 inauguration.

Sunday Igboho released, heads out to Germany - ITREALMS

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The reports reaching ITREALMS newsdesk this afternoon indicated that the human rights activist and Yoruba Nation advocate, Chief Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho has been released from detention by the Beniniose government.

This is coming a few hours after his arrest was rumoured.

Buhari heads to Washington DC for Monday meeting with Trump

ITREALMS:

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari would this Saturday, head to Washington DC, United States of America for a planned meeting with President, Donald Trump on Monday, April 30, this year, reports ITRealms.

This, ITRealms gathered from Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed that President Buhari on this visit would mark the first African president to meet US President Donald J. Trump at the White House in Washington, since emerging President in 2016.

Also commenting on this, the director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, J. Peter Pham, expressed optimism the visit by Buhari is coming with good omen.

“I think it sends a very good signal that the first African head of state to have an Oval Office meeting will be the democratically elected president of Africa’s most populous country and its largest economy,” Peter Pham said.

ITRealms further gathered that the two leaders are expected to focus on security and economic issues.

On security, Nigeria has been battling the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast of the country for almost a decade. The group was behind the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls in Chibok in 2014 as well as the abduction of more than 100 from Dapchi in February 2018.

Chuks Egbune/GEE 

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Lanre Alabi heads Nigerian Online Merit Award LOC

ITREALMS:

The strategy and marketing Communications expert, Mr. Lanre Alabi, has been appointed Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the maiden Nigerian Online Merit Award (NiOMA) scheduled for the second quarter of 2018, reports ITRealms.

The initiators of the award, News Express online newspaper, disclosed to ITRealms that Mr. Alabi, who is the chief executive officer, Prospers Strategy, a Lagos-based international marketing communications firm, was chosen to oversee the awards on account of his vast experience in brand building and management, business communications, marketing, banking, high profile journalism, as well as consulting.

“A former President of the Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks (ACAMB), Lanre Alabi is proficient in a variety of communication skills, including PR strategy development and execution, advertising, internal and external communications, social media strategy and execution, writing and media relations. We are confident that he will deploy his over 28 years hands-on experience into galvanising the Organising Committee to deliver a successful NiOMA and thereafter grow it into a dominant brand,” the statement signed by News Express Publisher Isaac Umunna said.

Umunna described NiOMA as a unique awards designed to recognise and celebrate excellence among all those who have anything to do online – be they individuals or corporates.

“Details of the 2018 NiOMA, including date, venue and categories, will be made public by the Organising Committee in due course,” Umunna said.

Uj. N. Dominic/ED, Ops

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pix: Isaac Umunna, publisher, News Express.

African LG Peer Review team heads to Morocco

ITREALMS:

The United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa) are heading to the city of Rabat, Morocco, for a training workshop for the first cohort of the members of Pan African Local Government Peer Review, reports ITRealms.

The workshop, ITRealms gathered, has been slated for November  1 and 2 at River Hotel to allow self-assessment and peer learning within the local government community of Africa, with an aim to drastically improve the delivery capacity and good governance of local governments and their national associations.

ITRealms reports that the Pan African Peer Review Programme ambition is to bring a local and territorial perspective to the African Peer Review Mechanism of the African Union (APRM).

This Programme, ITRealms recalled was launched in 2012 with the financial support of the Luxembourg Grand Duchy, and the technical support of the Local Government Association of England & Wales (LGA) of the United Kingdom. It started as a pilot project of 5 peer review exercises targeting 3 categories of cities that expressed interest for it: small (less than 100,000 inhabitants) in Otjiwarongo (Namibia); medium-size (between 100,000 and 1 million inhabitants); in Tiassale (Cote d’Ivoire); and major cities (over 1 million inhabitants) in Yaounde (Cameroon); as well as 2 national associations of local government in Ghana with the National Association of Local Government of Ghana (NALAG) and Uganda, with the Ugandan Local Government Association (ULGA).

ITRealms also reports that these peer review exercises were highly appreciated by the political leadership in all the five institutions, following which the office bearers of UCLG Africa decided to transform the pilot project into a full-fledged Pan African Local Government Peer Review Programme.

The 2-day training workshop is meant to capacitate the local government officials and officers that volunteered to serve as members of the Pan African Local Government Review Team to master the process and skills needed to efficiently implement a peer review exercise.

The workshop will be attended by 35 participants from all the regions of Africa, and will include: Political Leaders; City Managers; Chief City Finance Officers; Chief City Technical Officers; Permanent Secretaries of National Associations of Local Governments; Directors of UCLG-Africa Regional Offices.

Nonye Dom/GEE

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What Pope Francis told Heads of government @G20 summit 2017

Commentary@ITRealms:

Letter of His Holiness Pope Francis to Mrs. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany on the occasion of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, 7-8, July 2017.

Following our recent meeting in the Vatican, and in response to your thoughtful request, I would like to offer some considerations that, together with all the Pastors of the Catholic Church, I consider important in view of the forthcoming meeting of the G20, which will gather Heads of State and of Government of the Group of major world economies and the highest authorities of the European Union.  In doing so, I follow a tradition begun by Pope Benedict XVI in April 2009 on the occasion of the London G20.  My Predecessor likewise wrote to Your Excellency in 2006, when Germany held the presidency of the European Union and the G8.

In the first place, I wish to express to you, and to the leaders assembled in Hamburg, my appreciation for the efforts being made to ensure the governability and stability of the world economy, especially with regard to financial markets, trade, fiscal problems and, more generally, a more inclusive and sustainable global economic growth (cf. G20 Leaders Communiqué, Hangzhou Summit, 5 September 2016).  As is evident from the Summit’s programme, such efforts are inseparable from the need to address ongoing conflicts and the worldwide problem of migrations.

In my Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, the programmatic document of my Pontificate addressed to the Catholic faithful, I proposed four principles of action for the building of fraternal, just and peaceful societies: time is greater than space; unity prevails over conflict; realities are more important than ideas; and the whole is greater than the part.  These lines of action are evidently part of the age-old wisdom of all humanity; I believe that they can also serve as an aid to reflection for the Hamburg meeting and for the assessment of its outcome.

Time is greater than space.  The gravity, complexity and interconnection of world problems is such that there can be no immediate and completely satisfying solutions. Sadly, the migration crisis, which is inseparable from the issue of poverty and exacerbated by armed conflicts, is proof of this.  It is possible, though, to set in motion processes that can offer solutions that are progressive and not traumatic, and which can lead in relatively short order to free circulation and to a settlement of persons that would be to the advantage of all.  

Nonetheless, this tension between space and time, between limit and fullness, requires an exactly contrary movement in the minds of government leaders and the powerful.  An effective solution, necessarily spread over time, will be possible only if the final objective of the process is clearly present in its planning.  In the minds and hearts of government leaders, and at every phase of the enactment of political measures, there is a need to give absolute priority to the poor, refugees, the suffering, evacuees and the excluded, without distinction of nation, race, religion or culture, and to reject armed conflicts.

At this point, I cannot fail to address to the Heads of State and of Government of the G20, and to the entire world community, a heartfelt appeal for the tragic situation in South Sudan, the Lake Chad basin, the Horn of Africa and Yemen, where thirty million people are lacking the food and water needed to survive.  

A commitment to meet these situations with urgency and to provide immediately support to those peoples will be a sign of the seriousness and sincerity of the mid-term commitment to reforming the world economy and a guarantee of its sound development.

Unity prevails over conflict.  The history of humanity, in our own day too, presents us with a vast panorama of current and potential conflicts.  War, however, is never a solution.   As the hundredth anniversary of Pope Benedict XV’s Letter to the Leaders of the Warring Peoples draws near, I feel bound to ask that the world put an end to all these “useless slaughters”.  The goal of the G20 and of other similar annual meetings is to resolve economic differences peacefully and to agree on common financial and trade rules to allow for the integral development of all, in order to implement the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (cf. Communiqué of the G20 Hangzhou Summit). 

Yet that will not be possible unless all parties commit themselves to substantially reducing levels of conflict, halting the present arms race and renouncing direct or indirect involvement in conflicts, as well as agreeing to discuss sincerely and transparently all their differences.  There is a tragic contradiction and inconsistency in the apparent unity expressed in common forums on economic or social issues, and the acceptance, active or passive, of armed conflicts.

Realities are more important than ideas.  The fateful ideologies of the first half of the twentieth century have been replaced by new ideologies of absolute market autonomy and financial speculation (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 56).  In their tragic wake, these bring exclusion, waste and even death.  The significant political and economic achievements of the past century, on the other hand, were always marked by a sound and prudent pragmatism, guided by the primacy of the human being and the attempt to integrate and coordinate diverse and at times opposed realities, on the basis of respect for each and every citizen.  I pray to God that the Hamburg Summit may be illumined by the example of those European and world leaders who consistently gave pride of place to dialogue and the quest of common solutions: Schuman, De Gasperi, Adenauer, Monnet and so many others.

The whole is greater than the part.  Problems need to be resolved concretely and with due attention to their specificity, but such solutions, to be lasting, cannot neglect a broader vision.  They must likewise consider eventual repercussions on all countries and their citizens, while respecting the views and opinions of the latter.  Here I would repeat the warning that Benedict XVI addressed to the G20 London Summit in 2009.  While it is reasonable that G20 Summits should be limited to the small number of countries that represent 90% of the production of wealth and services worldwide, this very situation must prompt the participants to a profound reflection. 

Those states and individuals whose voice is weakest on the world political scene are precisely the ones who suffer most from the harmful effects of economic crises for which they bear little or no responsibility.  This great majority, which in economic terms counts for only 10% of the whole, is the portion of humanity that has the greatest potential to contribute to the progress of everyone.  

Consequently, there is need to make constant reference to the United Nations, its programmes and associated agencies, and regional organizations, to respect and honour international treaties, and to continue promoting a multilateral approach, so that solutions can be truly universal and lasting, for the benefit of all (cf. Benedict XVI, Letter to the Honourable Gordon Brown, 30 March 2009).

I offer these considerations as a contribution to the work of the G20, with trust in the spirit of responsible solidarity that guides all those taking part.  I ask God’s blessings upon the Hamburg meeting and on every effort of the international community to shape a new era of development that is innovative, interconnected, sustainable, environmentally respectful and inclusive of all peoples and all individuals (cf. Communiqué of the G20 Hangzhou Summit). 

I take this occasion to assure Your Excellency of my high consideration and esteem.

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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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Prof. Isoun heads Bayelsa Education Trust Fund, receives standing ovation

ITRealms:

The former Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Turner Isoun has been confirmed as the chairman of the newly innagurated Bayelsa State Education Trust Fund board, reports ITRealms.

Members of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, ITRealms gathered, on Thursday gave a standing ovation to former Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Turner Isoun when he appeared before them for screening as chairman of the newly constituted Education Trust Fund board.

The lawmakers rather than screen the erudite professor unanimously confirmed his nomination by ‎Governor Seriake Dickson, describing him as the best man for the job because of his impeccable integrity and uprightness.

One after the other the lawmakers applauded his choice to head the fund, maintaining that Prof Isoun will bring his experience and honesty to bear in the new task and thanked Governor Dickson for putting so much importance to the management of the fund.

According to them, Dickson must have recognized the value and enormous benefit the new law will do to the state which ultimately necessitated him to pick Isoun, a former chairman of the‎ board of the Nigerian Communications Satallite Limited (Nigcomsat).

They asked him to take a bow, expressing delight that in no distant time the state will experience  a major boost in the education sector with his entrance and assured him and members of the board of their unalloyed support to enable him succeed.

They also used the opportunity to call on all Bayelsans to believe in the new law as it was made with good intention to give students in the state a secured future and thanked Isoun for accepting to serve his state again.

Uju N. Dominic/GEE

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Pix: Prof. Isoun and Gov. Dickson

Former Gov. James Ibori returns to Nigeria, heads to Oghara

ITRealms:

The former Executive Governor of Delta State, Mr. James Onanefe Ibori, has arrived the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) earlier this morning, reports ITRealms.

Confirming this development, his media aide, Mr. Tony Elumuonor, also said Ibori is on his way to Oghara, his home town.

Mr. Ibori who was released on December 21, 2016, from a United Kingdom prison after serving a term for money laundering.

He was reportedly flown into Nigeria aboard a British Airways flight from London in the early hours of Saturday.

*Additional reports from ChannelsTV/GEE

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International investors’ heads to Tanzania

ITRealms:

The Nyerere country of Tanzania would be hosting a three-day international forum for investment in Dar es Salaam in July, this year, reports ITRealms.

The Tanzania International Forum for Investments  scheduled to take place at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre in Dar es Salaam, between July 12 and 14 July 2016, with confirmed funding commitments amounting to US$1 billion and participation from global investors.

TIFI, according to the organisers, is set out to be the largest gathering of international investors in Tanzania soil and aims to generate more than $4 billion in potential investments and funding commitments.

Some of the confirmed participating companies include Credit Suisse International, Africa Finance Corporation, Nedbank, UK Climate Investments, Pembani-Remgro Infrastructure Fund, Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking,  Intertoll Africa (Pty) Ltd, Advance Consulting, Netherlands, Letsema Consulting & Advisory (Pty) Ltd, Afriwise Consult, Development Bank of Southern Africa, Advanced Finance & Investment Group ("AFIG Funds"), Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries – Netherlands, and CRDB BANK PLC.

Others, comprise ZHE Africa, East Africa Trade and Investment Hub, Kibo Mining Plc, Rand Merchant Bank, Frontier Investment Management (FIM), German International Cooperation (GiZ), Mkoba Private Equity Fund,  Kibo Capital Partners, CrossBoundary LLC, Metier Sustainable Private Equity, SME Impact Fund, MasterCard, Public Investment Corporation -Africa’s largest asset manager and many more.

The TIFI 2016 world class programme comprises intimate highly-interactive sessions that give entrepreneurs, investors and financiers the best platform to build relationships and forge business-to-business and business-to-government partnerships.

The forum, ITRealms further gathered would showcase specific investment opportunities in key sectors including agriculture and agro-processing, tourism, energy, manufacturing, infrastructure, telecommunications and Information and Communications Technology (ICT), mining, and financial services, with investors and participants at decision making level, comprising local and foreign companies, heads of public institutions, and other relevant stakeholders expected to grace the event.

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