Nnaemeka Ewelukwa replaces Marilyn Amobi @NBET - ITREALMS

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The Minister of Power Engr. Sale Mamman has proclaimed the appointment of Dr. Nnaemeka Ewelukwa as the new Managing Director for the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc, reports ITREALMS.

Until his latest appointment, Dr. Ewelukwa, was NBET’s General-Counsel and Secretary and replaces the controversial Dr. Marilyn Amobi, who has since been directed to handover and proceed on terminal leave with immediate effect.

GTBank is Euromoney Best Bank in Nigeria

ITRealms:

Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) plc has reaffirmed its position as leader in deployment of Euromoney as it bags the ‘Best Bank in Nigeria’ at the 2015 Euromoney Awards held in London at the weekend, reports ITRealms.

The Euromoney Awards for Excellence covers more than 20 global product categories, best-in-class awards and the best banks in over 100 countries around the world by recognizing institutions that have demonstrated leadership, innovation, and momentum in the markets they operate. In selecting its recipients, Euromoney combines quantitative and qualitative data to honor institutions that have brought the highest levels of service, innovation and expertise to their customers.

Mr. Clive Horwood, Euromoney Magazine’s Editor, “Competition for the awards this year was tough, arguably the toughest it has been since the start of the global financial crisis. In winning this award, GTBank stands out not only because of its stellar performance but by its ability to define what its core strengths are, abide by these strengths and build its business around them. According to him, banking in the future will be about what you do, as well as what you don't do. GTBank stands out as Euromoneys’ best bank in Nigeria for its ability to adapt to local situations while maintaining international standards of best practice."

Speaking after receiving the award on behalf of the GTBank, the Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Segun Agbaje, said they were humbled and proud to be recognised as the Best Bank in Nigeria. 

"For us, this award is an acknowledgement of the hard work and dedication of our staff, management and Board. It represents our commitment to serving our customers and providing them with value oriented products and services suited to their varied needs. Our desire to always be at the frontier of excellence, enables us remain relevant to our customers and add value to all stakeholders. Being, the 1st Nigerian Bank to win this award 7 years consecutively, outside of 2013, when we were recognised as The Best Managed Bank in Nigeria, is also an affirmation of our position as a Proudly African and Truly International Institution," he said.

Agbaje expressed appreciation to the Bank’s customers for their continuous patronage and tremendous support over the years, he further stated that the Bank will continue to leverage its brand equity to tap into the growth potentials of African economies.

Chuks Egbuna
+ITRealms DSA 
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GTBank launches mobile phone third party transfer code

ITRealms:

Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) plc has launched a third party transfer from a mobile phone using a short code ‘737’ reports ITRealms.

This channel, ITRealms reports, enables GTBank customers to conveniently perform third party transfers to both GTBank and other bank account holders in Nigeria, via their mobile phones, by simply dialing the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) short code *737 with details of the amount and account number (NUBAN) of the beneficiary.

Mr. Segun Agbaje, Managing Director/CEO of the Bank, said the *737* transfer service is another novel offering by GTBank in the Nigeria, that is safe, simple and convenient.

According to him, to initiate transfers to a GTBank account, simply dial *737*1*Amount*NUBAN Account No # e.g.*737*1*1000*1234567890# from the mobile number registered with the Bank.

For transfers to beneficiaries in other Bank’s, customers should simply dial *737*2*Amount*NUBAN AccountNo# e.g. *737*2*1000*1234567890#. Customers will then require the last four digits of their GTBank Naira MasterCard to authenticate each transaction.

The 737 transfer service has been introduced to build on the success of the Bank’s One Click Top –up service; which offers GTBank customers an efficient and easy way to buy airtime on their mobile phones directly from their GTBank account by simply dialing a short USSD code (*737*AMOUNT#).

“we will continue to leverage technology to make banking, especially payments and transfers, faster, safer and more convenient for all our customers. He further stated that, “this service addresses the electronic banking requirements of our customers, irrespective of their phone type” he said.

The *737* Transfer service is only available to GTBank customersvia their mobile phone numbers registered with the Bank and has minimum transfer limit of N1,000 and a daily transfer limit of N20,000.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) 

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The books of CWG in first quarter

DigitalSENSE Business News:

Introduction:

FOR some reasons, the beginning of this year 2015 has been a very busy one for the management and staff of Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) plc, At first, CWG was pronounced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as Payment Terminal Service Provider (PTSP) license and soon after, it was a time for commendation for the multi-national Information and Communication Technology (ICT) company.

PTSP License, facilitating more service offering:

DigitalSENSE Business News reports thatthe leading Pan-African ICT Company secured the Payment Terminal Service Provider (PTSP) license from the Central Bank of Nigeria, to facilitate CWG offering of services in the areas of Payment Terminal Service Provider (PTSP) to Point-of-Sale terminals (PoS) across the country.

This came in the heels of stopoverby a delegation of the apex bank to CWG in the last quarter of 2014 to assess the company’s keenness and certify that the company has fulfilled all conditions necessary, therefore qualified to be licensed as a Payment Terminal Service Provider in the country. 

As stated by CBN Director of Banking and Payment Systems Department, Mr. Dipo Fatokun, in a letter addressed to Computer Warehouse Group, CWG “has successfully passed through the various stages of evaluation.” These include an inspection of the company’s facility and processes, an allowance of a test period, during which the company’s products were carefully examined for quality and standard. 

Also, the letter indicated that CWG is “hereby licensed to perform the activities Payment Terminal Service Provider (PTSP) for Point-of-Sale terminals (POS) in Nigeria,” which came with lots of excitement as the year kicked off in earnest for the CWG team.

A testimonial for CWG:

The PTSP license, DigitalSENSE Business News gathered certifies that a company has the infrastructure to competently deploy, maintain and provide support for POS terminals in Nigeria. According to the CBN, “A PTSP shall offer services to acquirers covering all aspects relating to terminal management support, including but not limited to purchase and replacement of spare parts, provision of connectivity, training, repairs, and development of value added services, amongst other things.”

Excited founder and Chief Executive Officer, CWG, Mr. Austin Okere, noted that the license is a testimony to the capability CWG Plc to competently deploy functional PoS terminals to the market at a time when CBN is vigorously pursuing the ideal of making the Nigerian business clime a cashless model. 

He pointed out that although the number of POS terminals increased to about 125,000 as at June last year and the value of PoS transactions increased to about N138 billion during the same period, statistics from the apex bank also indicate that about 46 per cent of adult Nigerians have no access to financial services. 

For Okere, the track record of CWG in the financial services sector as indicated in the deployment of its Finacle core banking application to foremost banks in Nigeria, technical platforms for First monie and Diamond Yello account, are pointers to the capacity to be instrumental to the actualization of a truly cashless economy.

Why CWG 2.0 made a debut:

The Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Mr. James Agada, said that CWG’s quest to deploy POS terminals is an integral part of her new business module christened CWG 2.0. The deployment of which he said, include POS terminals, business package for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), just as he projected there should be 17million terminals if there are over 17 million existing SMEs in the country, which would aid the growth of smaller businesses and consolidate the cashless economy initiative of the government.

Mr. Agada pointed out that these terminals will be tailored to suite the specific peculiarities of SMEs and could work anywhere. 

“It will also allow merchants do more since it has multiple payment option. This means that a merchant can receive payments for bills, sell Jamb pins, airtime and importantly, keep inventory of sales using the same POS terminal. This will be our quota to enabling inclusive growth in the economy,” Agada said.

The day NBC boss visited CWG:

Then, a few days later, the Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Mr. Emeka Mba has commended the Computer Warehouse Group Plc (CWG) led by Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Austin Okere, over its teleport facility, reports DigitalSENSE Business News.

He used the opportunity of the visit to commend CWG, its management, saying the visit afforded his team to inspect CWG’s satellite facility that will serve as the support base for the soon to be launched SES digital TV platform.

He also applauded CWG’s vision for introducing a free to air Direct-To-Home (DTH) Television to the Nigerian broadcasting populace. 

“The idea of a free to air satellite TV platform is novel to the TV experience of average Nigerians. Its coverage capacity will be instrumental in our quest to take quality broadcasting to every corner of the nation. More so, it will allow indigenous stations compete competently and affordably with regional and global ones, in terms of picture and content quality,” he said.

Mr. Mba assured CWG management that NBC will provide the necessary support required to make certain this project is a success.

A warm welcome:

Welcoming the NBC delegation with a presentation, the Head, Presales at CWG, Mr. Gbenga Odegbami, gave an overview of CWG’s history of innovation and service excellence. He pointed out that CWG offers integrated ICT solutions that add value to the operations of diverse clientele, using highly skilled and well-motivated workforce.

“At inception, CWG was basically an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure sales firm. The group has since evolved into a pan-African ICT powerhouse, with focus on enabling businesses through strategic partnerships with world-class organizations and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs),” he said. 

CWG, he said, recently innovated her business model to be based on Subscription and Cloud Computing under an umbrella aptly tagged CWG2.0. Odegbami explained, the business concept, of CWG 2.0 is a cloud based subscription business model birthed and driven by the quest to help Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) grow and make notable social impact. 

This, he said, includes Openshopen, an e-commerce platform that allows shop owners open their own virtual stores online; and SMERP, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution built to assist business owners manage their Accounting and Financial Record Keeping.

Strategic collaboration:

“Our strategic collaboration with SES Astra, a foremost global satellite company to bring the first Direct to Home digital TV is an integral part of our CWG 2.0 vision. The partnership entails SES providing space segment, using their ASTRA 2F satellite, at 28.2 degrees East, while CWG will manage the teleport services required to project the signals to viewers, using high operational standards”, he added.

Addressing NBC delegation earlier, Mr. Austin Okere, thumbed up NBC for its efforts in ensuring that the nation beats the ITU June 17 deadline for migration to digital TV broadcasting. “The CWG/SES platform, beyond being a business idea, is our social impact investment contribution to ensure that none of the 27 million households in Nigeria are left out in the digital TV switchover,” he said.

Initially, Mr. Okere said, visual content will be made available to millions of households at no cost, through a Free to Air (FTA) medium. Stressing that secondly, CWG is offering a platform that will enable broadcasters deliver their content to a broader audience cost-effectively. 

“Most importantly, our platform offers the nation the opportunity of meeting the core requirements needed to beat the ITU transition to digital broadcasting deadline,” he assured.

Conclusion:

With the above, it is expected that CWG year in 2015 will be a beehive of activities across its operations, which has been predicted to rub off on Nigeria.

DigitalSENSE Business News recalls that CWG was operations in September, 1992 as Computer Warehouse Limited with only Four (4) staff members to undertake hardware projects.  Five (5) years later, DCC Networks, the communications arm of the group was established to provide VSAT, Metropolitan, Wide Area and Local area networks to corporate organisations. In 1999, based on the existing demands in the area of software solutions, system and training, Expert Edge Software was acquired.

In pursuit of its Pan-African Vision, Computer Warehouse Group has established its regional offices in west, East and central Africa. CWG Ghana limited (2003), CWG Uganda Limited (2010) and CWG Cameroon Limited (2012) to handle the business interest of these regions.

On the 6th of March, 2012, CWG merged with its three (3) subsidiaries; CWL Systems , ExpertEdge Software and DCC Networks, thereby leaving CWG as the only surviving entity within the group and the subsidiaries becoming divisions. 

Additionally, in February, 2013, CWG ceased to be a Private Limited Company and became a Public Company, hence, on November 15, 2013, CWG Plc listed its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, which saw to the boosting of the market capitalization of the NSE by about N14 billion naira, making CWG Plc the highest capitalized security in the ICT sector, as it matches to actualize its vision of being Africa’s Number one IT platform service provider by 2020.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) +Philip Obioha @Austin.okere@cwg-plc.com, @David.Afolayan@cwg-plc.com
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Okere, CWG boss to chair NIGF 2014

ITRealms:

The Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) plc, Mr. Austin Okere has been named as the chairman of the Nigeria Internet Governance Forum (NIGF) 2014, reports ITRealms.

The chairperson of the Local Multi-stakeholders Advisory Group (LMAG) of the Nigeria Internet Governance Forum, Mrs. Mary Uduma, revealed to ITRealms that Mr. Okere has accepted to preside over this year’s edition to be held on June 10, 2013 at the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) Center, Onikan-Lagos.

She also told ITRealms that, LMAG was excited to have Mr. Okere chair the event as his nomination and acceptance was unanimously endorsed by members which consist of the Ministry of Communication Technology (MCT), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), DigitalSENSE Africa (DSA), Internet Society (ISOC) Nigeria, Rita Talabi Foundation, Creative Technology for Development Initiative (CTDI) and Global Network for Cybersecurity (GNC).

Equally, Mrs. Uduma informed ITRealms that the two-day 2014 NIGF would host its youth workshop on day-1 with focus on “Internet Governance for Job Creation & Social Enterprise Development” to be presided over by an Internet Security Consultant and former D-G of NITDA, Professor Cleopas Angaye.

On the day-2, she explained it would centre on “Harnessing Multi-Stakeholders Framework for Internet Governance & Economic Growth” with discussions led by 2014 forum chairman, Mr. Austin Okere of Computer Warehouse Group Plc on June 10.

She noted that over the years, the Internet has affected the way we live and communicate with one another and it has been a huge contributor to economic development.

“It affects virtually all areas of life such as business, health, education and transport,” she asserted.

Mrs. Uduma further told ITRealms that the strategic importance of the forum is such that participants are drawn from all social and economic groups to have a say, through multi-stakeholders’ dialogue, in establishing local principles and protocols that would guide the governance of the Internet in order to facilitate economic growth in Nigeria.

She pointed out that NIGF 2014 is focused on engaging multi-stakeholder’s nature of the forum to harness and aggregate productive ideas, best practices and experiences towards facilitating an all inclusive framework for internet governance in Nigeria that will actively stimulate economic growth, even as she urged participants’ registration at NIGF website. 

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Photo: Austin Okere of CWG.