Research reveals education’s potential in reducing violence, advancing peace - ITREALMS

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Latest research by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), and the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP), have revealed that education has the potential to reduce violence and advance peace at all levels of the society, reports ITREALMS.

GPE in the new research provided compelling evidence of the strong relationship between education and peace.

ICANN resolves potential data exposure in RFP system

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The Internet Corporation for Names and Numbers (ICANN) has resolved a potential data exposure with JAGGAER (formerly SciQuest), the software as a service (SaaS) tool used for sourcing suppliers via competitive bidding processes such as Requests for Proposal (RFPs), reports ITRealms.

Affirming to ITRealms, ICANN said that two suppliers made ICANN aware of the issue on 4 December 2017 and ever since, ICANN has logged a severity 1 problem with JAGGAER immediately, and the vendor resolved the problem within 48 hours.

The issue, ICANN said, occurred in a module called Sourcing Director, which is used for administering RFPs and each RFP has a Question and Answer (Q&A) Board where RFP participants can post questions for the ICANN RFP team.

“Only the ICANN RFP team sees the questions while they are unanswered. ICANN posts the answer publicly, but the identity of the asker is not revealed on the website,” official disclosed to ITRealms.

The exposure, ITRealms gathered, occurred if RFP participants downloaded the page as a file extract.

“The extract listed the names of the entities that asked questions. We recognize that the problem undermined the expected confidentiality of those asking questions and potentially gave RFP bidders the names of their some of their competitors. As soon as ICANN learned of the problem, we reposted all questions and answers as if they came from ICANN, so the names of those asking questions no longer appeared in the file extract,” ICANN said.

This problem, ITRealms also reported, was not limited to ICANN as JAGGAER has verified that it was introduced on 10 November 2017 with the JAGGAER 17.3 upgrade that contained an enhancement to the Q&A file format.

“Because most people view the Q&A Board without file extraction, ICANN believes the data exposure was minimal. Bidders in three RFPs may have been affected, and they have already been informed of the issue.

Further, ICANN said that making this information public is part of its commitment to openness and transparency.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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TD Africa flaunts Nigeria’s booming ICT potential

ITRealms:

The celebrated Africa’s biggest Information and Communications Technology (ICT) distributors, Technology Distributions (TD) Limited, has flaunted the Nigeria’s booming ICT sectorial potentials, reports ITRealms.

This was showcased at the hosting of a high-powered team of executives from the headquarters of global digital giants, Google in Lagos.

The event which held on Tuesday July 25^th also witnessed the unveiling of TD’s new Ikeja office, strategically located at 26 Kodesoh Street, a few metres from the popular, Ikeja Under-Bridge.

ITRealms also reports that the event attended by the Chairman, Zinox Group, Dr. Leo-Stan Ekeh in the company of Senior Executive Management and staff of TD including the Managing Director of TD Mobile, Mrs. Gozy Ijogun who played a major role in liaising with the Google International team for the visit; Managing Director, Sales/Marketing, Mrs. Chioma Chimere; Managing Director, Operations, Mrs. Shade Oyebode and Managing Director, Special Projects, Mr. Stanley Okpalaeke among others.

Also in attendance were a number of key partners such as President, Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN), Mr. Adeniyi Ojikutu; MD/CEO, DreamWorks Nigeria Ltd., Mr. Chuks Aylor; Sales Manager, SLOT Systems Ltd., Mr. Jonathan Uzomba; CEO, Yudala Ltd., Mr. Wole Ogundare; Founder/Vice President, Yudala Ltd., Prince Nnamdi Ekeh; representatives of Transsion Holdings, Mr. Chuks and Mr. Adams as well as MD, Edge Baseline Solutions Ltd., Mr. Onyinye Ejide, among others.

From TD’s office, the Google team were conducted on an immersion tour of the sprawling Computer Village – Nigeria’s ICT hub and arguably the biggest technology market on the continent.

The tour of Computer Village provided a useful opportunity for the team to feel the pulse and garner a first-hand experience of the daily hustle, sheer scale and volume of transactions, immense opportunities and potential that abound in the Otigba market super-structure which represents a fitting microcosm of Nigeria’s growing ICT sector.

In his address, Ekeh shared insights from his over three-decades of serial digital entrepreneurship in Nigeria, urging the visiting team to see the numerous opportunities that abound from structured investments in the Nigerian ICT sector.

“Technically, I pioneered IT in the country about 30 years ago. I brought the likes of HP which currently owns about 60% share of the market to Nigeria. Same for the likes of Compaq, Apple, Lenovo and Microsoft among others. Nigeria is not as bad as it’s talked about globally. We are very hospitable people. We appreciate foreigners. We want them to come in here to do business and the Government protects you; even the corporate bodies and individuals protect you.

“When you have a country like Nigeria with a lot of resources and human capital that is largely untapped, the potential is huge. For instance, Google can invest a little bit on human capital, say in three universities in diverse regions in Nigeria and create an incubation hub to train human capital or what I call finishing school.

“The guys have the basic but they need to see the global big picture to learn coding and other associated skills. It doesn’t cost a whole lot. People like us have been doing it over the years to bring up most of the people you’ve seen here.”

While welcoming the Google team to Nigeria, Ekeh disclosed that TD Africa pioneered ICT distribution in Nigeria with a vision to becoming the biggest players on the African continent – a dream which saw the company make about $45m within its first year of operations based on personal guarantee and integrity. He also cited the examples of other partners such as SLOT Systems and Transsion Holdings, best known for its leading mobile brands including TECNO, itel and Infinix who have prospered from their ambitious tech investments in Nigeria.

Ekeh’s submission was echoed by the partners in attendance, most of whom took the opportunity to share details of their respective organization’s growth trajectory in the Nigerian ICT sector.

President of EMEA Business & Operations for Google, Mathew John Brittin, disclosed that the company is firmly committed to deepening its footprints in Nigeria.

“We have been in Nigeria for seven years with a small team of experts, all Nigerians who are passionate about making Nigeria making the most of the digital world. We share the view about the numerous opportunities in Nigeria for Nigerians.

“Three things are top of mind for us: the first is access so we have been part of the explosive growth of TECNO, Infinix and others with Android. This is something we are very proud of. I own some of these devices and I can see that they are very great devices so we appreciate them. How we can help with the explosion of access to make the internet a certain reality for everyone is a key thing that we are focused on here and that includes making our products and services work better on lower cost connections.

“Second is the computing revolution with smarter tools that work for everybody. If you can’t read and can’t spell, that’s our problem. We want you to be able to talk to us and we’ll give you an answer in your language. We are really working hard on making the next generation of tools better for everyone and also helping local developers do the same. We’ve funded some universities with free apps and we are trying to do more around developing a launch pad programme here to help local developers build local apps that can power the next generation of entrepreneurs and successful businesses here.

“The third thing and which is really important to us is education. We have piloted over the last year, here in Nigeria, programmes on basic digital skills for everyone: individuals, SMBs, developers and we set out with an aim to train 400,000 in a year. We’ve trained 600,000 with some government support and encouragement and we are looking at what we can do to take that further into the future. We look forward to the next chapter of our partnership with all of you,” he said.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Pix 1: Google's Mathew John Brittin with MD TD Mobile Mrs Gozy Ijogun
Pix 2: Google's Mathew John Brittin with Leo-Stan Ekeh of Zinox Group in Lagos 

Get Glo data plan, get smart phone

ITRealms:

Globacom Nigeria is dangling smart phones before any potential first-time data subscribers who care to grab the opportunity, reports ITRealms.

A press statement made available to ITRealms by the Manager, Public Relations at Globacom, Modupe Olubanjo, hinted that a subscriber would have to get 1.7 Giga Bytes (GB) of data per month for the next 12 months when such a customer buys a data plan worth N18,000 which is a cumulative data of approximately 21GB, and a free smart phone worth similar sum.

Glo Mobile, ITRealms gathered also noted that the offer is mainly for first time data subscribers and those who wish to upgrade their phones adding that the promo is particularly attractive to young professionals who seek to enhance their occupational efficiency while also boosting their social lifestyles.

The mobile operator anticipates that the promo would create enormous enthusiasm and advised subscribers to take advantage of the extraordinary offer by visiting any of the Gloworld outlets spread nationwide.

Further, the telco reiterated promise to redeem pledge for those ready to explore new world on Glo network.

Nenye Dom/ED, Ops 

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Breaking News: NCC sends names of potential Commissioners to Presidency

Breaking News @ITRealms:

In fulfillment of its statutory obligations, the leadership of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has sent list of potential Six Commissioners and one Executive Commissioner to the Presidency, reports ITRealms.

Presently, there is only one Executive Commissioner (Technical Services) Engr. Ubale A. Maska who has been working with the Executive Vice Chairman at the Commission, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta.

Disclosing this in Lagos at a one-day forum on Corporate Governance while responding to question by ITRealms, the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, said that a list has been compiled by his office and forwarded to the Presidency for consideration.

He also agreed that the appointment of these commissioners are essential and must cut across the six-geo-political zones of the country in addition to the two executive commissioners, would immensely facilitate the work of the Commission.

According to him, it would be fool handy to be discussing corporate governance in a forum like this without first of all ensuring that the NCC is in good standing in line with the statutes setting up the Commission, hence the list has since been dispatched to Presidency.

ITRealms gathered that the leadership of the Nigerian Communications Commission by law should consist of nine Commissioners made up of six Non-executive members, including the Chairman, representing each of the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria and three Executive members, including the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive and two Executive Commissioners.

He, therefore, urged corporate organisations within the sector to ensure compliance because NCC is now taking the issue more seriously, especially looking at Code of Corporate Governance for the telecoms industry published in 2014.

As said by him, the Code consists of 12 principles and was developed to protect the interest of investors and stakeholders in the industry as well as promote time-valued principles of accountability, responsibility, transparency, integrity and ethical conduct.

“No doubt, the Code has expanded the frontiers of accountability in the operation of companies in the sector,” he said, emphasizing however, that challenges still exist and cited for instance that the Code is declaratory in nature and implementation was initially voluntary across the industry, leading to violations.

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USF has huge potential to solve connectivity – Survey

ITRealms:

The latest survey findings have revealed that the Universal Service Fund (USF) has a huge potential to solving connectivity and service delivery issues in rural environments, reports ITRealms.

The survey key findings made available to ITRealms by the Managing Director, World Telecom Labs (WTL), Mr. Leigh Smith, indicated that an estimated 96 per cent of respondents see USF as offering huge potential to solve connectivity and service delivery issues in rural environments.

While 86 per cent of respondents including operators, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and government agencies, all expressed an interest in delivering connectivity to unconnected areas with a feeling strongly that a combination of all three is required in order to unlock investment.

ITRealms gathered that this implies that connecting the unconnected requires a coalition – a collaborative approach between all relevant stakeholders, including vendors who could offer technology to deliver the connectivity required.

However, the main obstacles blocking the building of networks using USF funds, the survey identified, were excessive bureaucracy and inflexibility of USF rules, just as concerns were raised about the sustainability of rural investments.

In addition, many respondents, ITRealms reports were unfamiliar with the handful of companies including WTL which provide equipment specifically designed to build commercially viable networks in rural villages. 

“People were very open and eager to share their experiences and opinions – and most were extremely positive about the economic benefits of providing voice and data to areas which are still unconnected. Connecting the unconnected continues to be a hot topic with companies such as Facebook and Google investing heavily in their own initiatives. At WTL we will continue to develop our portfolio of award-winning equipment to help operators, ISPs and NGOs build sustainable rural networks,” he said.

WTL has built a number of networks in rural Africa partly financed by USF and has seen for itself the immense benefits USF can bring, irrespective of its challenges. In particular, the deployment of WTL’s Vivada (Village Voice and Data) system in rural Tanzania is an example of a strong and productive use of USF funds.

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