Boundaries of Social Media: Navigating thin line between sharing and seeking help by Remmy Nweke - ITREALMS

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Social media has become an integral part of complex issues. "I was looking for validation and support, but what I got was a mix of unsolicited advice and judgment," said Sarah, a 30-year-old woman who shared her story of struggling with her partner's infidelity on social media.

Sarah's experience highlights the importance of seeking professional help when dealing with complex issues. "Talking to a therapist helped me process my emotions and work through my problems in a safe and supportive environment," she said. "It was a game-changer for me."

SDG Digital urges UN members to help put SDG back on track - ITREALMS

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The ​​​​​​​​SDG Digital has received financial, and operational commitments from U.N. member states, the private sector, finance bodies, international organizations and philanthropic foundations to help put the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) back on track, reports ITREALMS.

The high-level SDG Digital event, convened by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at U.N. Headquarters, stepped up digital support for the world's 2030 Agenda as part of the SDG Action Weekend of the United Nations.

Help save my life with N20m, kidney patient James Molehin cries out - ITREALMS

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The greatest wish of James Oloruntosin Molehin at this time is to have his life back and live a normal life. For that to happen, he needs you, kind hearted Nigerians and other well meaning members of the society to make it happen. He needs urgently the sum of N20 million to do a kidney transplant, in the next three months, else he becomes history.

Molehin, should be a man of means; in his late 50s, Molehin, who hailed from Ode-Erinje in Okitipupa LG Area of Ondo State, was a graduate of Accounting, from the University of Lagos, Unilag, and Fellow, Institute of Chartered Institute of Accountancy, ICAN, (FCA). He was a management staff of MDS, the logistics arm of UAC Plc, Lagos.

ALeP beckons FG, NEMA, Soludo to help Awba-Ofemili flood victims - ITREALMS

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The Federal Government (FG) has been beckoned upon through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Anambra State government led by Prof. Chukwuma Soludo to urgently assist flood victims in Awba-Ofemili town among others.

Awba-Ofemili is a community in Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State and was heavily ravaged by the recent flood, sacking some villages including in Umuosite and some parts of Ege, Nkpuocha, Oka-akwu, Ngene Nkpumekwu communities to name a few.

Lady needs N12m to walk again, appeals for help - ITREALMS

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When 32-year-old lady, Taiwo Ogunlaja, set out to learn sewing, she dreamt of becoming the best in her trade.

She dreamt of owning a clothing line and becoming widely acclaimed for her trade. 

Elumelu tasks ACP countries to help youth accelerate industrial revolution - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

Governments across the Africa Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries have been tasked to help youth to be aware and accelerate drive to meet the challenges, capture and channel extraordinary opportunities through an industrial revolution across member countries, reports ITREALMS.

There are over 80 countries in the membership of ACP.

In a keynote address at the Africa Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Business Summit in Nairobi, Kenya on Sunday, the founder of Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) Mr Tony Elumelu gave this charge, urging everyone to take time to check out the TEF Connect and learn more about how individuals could contribute to socio-economic development through mentoring young and eager entrepreneurs.

He observed that talent was not hard to find in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries nor was dedication, ideas and discipline which are the components of entrepreneurial success.

“These brilliant ideas cannot exist in a vacuum and it is up to the governments across the developing world to help the growth of Small Medium- sized Enterprises (SMEs),” said Mr Elumelu.

He also said that the enabling environment was the backbone of success with industrialisation and wealth creation for ACP countries, noting that without enabling environment, the dream of industrialisation will be a fleeting illusion.

“We must streamline our bureaucracies, provide infrastructure and stable access to power,” he said, stressing that there was need to promote implementable policies that support industrialization than those hindering people.

“Power is critical, in Nigeria, where I come from, about $10 billion yearly is spent by people and businesses who provide power for themselves. Now, imagine if that money was spent on more productive activities,” he asked.

Insisting that “We cannot hope to industrialize if we do not fix the issue of power, if our entrepreneurs spend so much money to power their businesses, how then are they expected to make the investments necessary to upgrade and industrialize?”

He equally called for a self-honest introspection, emphasising that “if we do not tackle these issues, we will be unable to achieve industrialisation, wealth creation and poverty reduction.”

ACP youthful dividends, he advised, cannot be allowed to waste or can we exclude “our women from our development agenda.”

In addition, he commended the European Investment Bank, represented by Mr. Ambroise Fayolle, for its initiative SHE INVEST, focusing on mobilizing 1 billion Euros for women across Africa, through innovative digital solutions, financial products, climate responsiveness as well as capacity building.

“We at the Tony Elumelu Foundation strive to reach the same goals of uplifting women out of poverty and empowering them with knowledge and resources. This is an invitation to join forces as we have done with the UNDP to lift 100,000 young African boys and girls out of poverty and thereby stemming migration challenges.

“We must develop our industry, improve our knowledge base, the technical capacity of our people must be up scaled. Power and infrastructure are crucial to our success if we are to compete in an increasingly interconnected world with rapidly advancing technology,” he said.

Further, Mr. Elumelu said that there was need for the private sector, governments and policy makers, development partners to all work together through positive engagement to create the right environment and give hope to young ones so that their latent talent can be realised for the development of ACP countries and for peace in the world.

Asked if the Tony Elumelu Foundation will open up physical offices in the sub-region, the Chief Executive Officer of TEF, Ifenyinwa Ugochukwu alluded to efficacy of technology in helping to spread message beyond the nations.

Ugochukwu equally explained why the entrepreneurs do not receive the full $5000 USD grant, saying that the Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with awardees stated that it would be $5,000 at the Central Bank of Nigeria foreign exchange rate of N306 Naira, lamenting that in Nigeria there are two parallel markets.

“You have the official rate and the black market rate subject to wild fluctuations and as a company that earns in Naira we could not expose ourselves to that which is why we had to peg the currency exchange with the Central Bank which is stable,” said Ugochukwu.

Pointing out that any disparity that the entrepreneurs see is in that exchange rate, just as she acknowledged that they have gotten information that in other countries by the time the entrepreneurs get the grant money which is changed back to their own national currencies there are some limitations.

*Brenda Zulu reporting from Nairobi, Kenya.

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Pix: Ifenyinwa Ugochukwu, CEO TEF.

Nokia helps Hutchison 3's increase network efficiency - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

Nokia has said its helping Hutchison 3 Indonesia to increase network efficiency on the operator's LTE network and boost the customer experience, reports ITREALMS.

Using Nokia's Spectral Performance Management solution, Nokia pointed out that it has led to a 17 per cent increase in Hutchison 3's spectral efficiency, meaning more mobile broadband for more subscribers, with faster data speeds and a more reliable service.

Hutchison 3 Indonesia wants to provide the best quality service, especially for younger subscribers who are using bandwidth-hungry applications such as video and mobile gaming. Due to high growth in subscribers and traffic, the operator must make the most out of its LTE radio network resources without adding hardware, spectrum or cell sites.

Nokia's spectral performance management technology has enabled Hutchison 3 Indonesia to proactively identify and resolve network performance issues and provide the best quality service for its growing subscriber base. Nokia AVA's cloud-based analytics generates automated recommendations that improve spectral efficiency and help prioritize investment in additional capacity.

Nokia AVA collects, stores and analyzes data from multiple sources, including Minimization of Drive Test (MDT) data. A 3GPP feature, MDT enables the collection of performance data from Nokia and other vendors' networks, tapping into billions of anonymized measurement reports sent by ordinary mobile phones.

Machine Learning algorithms, developed by Nokia's services experts in partnership with Nokia Bell Labs, analyze the data and identify patterns of usage and network behavior to provide highly granular, sub-cell level insights about subscriber density, application throughput and radio signal performance.

This forensic level of analysis helps network engineers understand where capacity is running out and how data throughout can be increased while predicting future demand from subscribers. These granular insights allow Hutchison 3 Indonesia to plan more accurately and increase the return on network investments including, future-proofing its evolution to 5G.

Nenye Dom/GEE

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Accenture NewsPage to help AB InBev improve sales, distribution in Africa - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

Accenture has agreed to assist AB InBev, the world’s largest brewer, better manage its sales and distribution operations in Africa with the Accenture NewsPage Distributor Management System (DMS), reports ITREALMS.

A fully integrated distributor management and sales force automation system, Accenture DMS covers the complete down-stream supply chain, providing consumer goods companies with accurate, reliable data on secondary sales to help them control promotions; improve productivity; and streamline inventory and sales processes and distributor claims.

Under the terms of the three-year contract, Accenture is helping AB InBev implement the latest version of DMS for its operations in Africa. This includes the initial roll-out of the system in Mozambique, Zambia, Ghana and Nigeria, as well as the upgrade of the system in Tanzania and Uganda, where AB InBev has already been using DMS for more than three years.

The DMS implementation will enable AB InBev to track its distributor network and increase visibility into its product stock and sales in Africa. By consolidating all product transactional information — from activities of the sales force and distributors— DMS gives AB InBev’s sales teams the data they need to build relationships with distributors and customers and to closely track product promotions and performance.

The DMS software — which is integrated with the Salesforce-based solution that ABI uses to drive its contact strategy with its customers — will be used by more than 1,570 mobile and 620 back-office users and made available to more than 100 of AB InBev’s distributors.

Accenture has already completed the upgrade of DMS in Tanzania and Uganda, with the implementations in the other four countries taking place over the next several months. Once Accenture has implemented the DMS solution for AB InBev in the six countries, it will continue to support the solution, providing continued hosting, maintenance and application support for the duration of the contract.

“Accenture’s DMS solution has enabled us to enhance our sales and distribution operations in Tanzania and Uganda over the past three years, and we’re excited to upgrade to the latest version and expand its use to other countries in Africa,” said Lee Dawson, Vice President, AB InBev. “With DMS, we’re better positioned to achieve our goal of becoming the number one brewer across the continent.”

Marlize Claasen, managing director at Accenture, said, “AB InBev understands that expanding sales, enhancing efficiency and improving profitability requires full visibility into its sales and distribution operations. We’re excited to be able to continue our successful collaboration with them as they seek to expand their market share in Africa, while developing a more connected and modern relationship with consumers.”

Nenye Dom/GEE

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Nigeria’s tax goals: Automation driven small businesses can help

ITREALMS:

To drive higher levels of payroll and accounting automation among businesses, especially small, micro and medium-sized enterprises, would help Nigeria to achieve its tax goals, says the Regional Director for Sage West Africa, Mr. Magnus Nmonwu, reports ITRealms.

Reacting to the recent comments accredited to International Monetary Fund (IMF) which warned that Nigerian governments’ ability to effectively finance infrastructure and services is constrained by low tax collection, said that despite recent tax reforms by the Federal Government, Nigeria needs to grow tax revenue by registering more tax payers and enhancing collections and compliance.

Initiatives such as the government’s Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) - hich gives taxpayers an opportunity to voluntarily declare all previously undisclosed assets and income are steps in the right direction, he adds. Higher levels of automation and modernisation among tax authorities as well as increased use of digital filing and payment are also positive developments.

“Another way Nigeria’s Federal and State Governments could enhance compliance is by encouraging businesses of all sizes to use technology to streamline capturing of transactions and automate payroll calculations. These solutions can help minimize the risk of non-payment of tax or incorrect remittances of taxes to the relevant government agencies,” he said, stressing that the ability to generate financial statements, tax certificates, reports and electronic payslips with the click of a button is a major timesaver.

“An automated, cloud-based solution also means that businesses have an audit trail and reliable backups for all of their financial transactions, so that they can demonstrate their compliance with tax laws,” he said.

Such software, he said, could help address some of the complexity Nigerian businesses face in paying tax, as Nigeria aims to move from its current position of 181 out of 189 countries to top 50 on the Ease of Paying Taxes World Report, which means that we will see a lot of reform of the tax system in the years to come.

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