CBN insists deposit banks are safe, denies claims to revoke more licenses - ITREALMS

ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

Following claims in certain quarters about the stability of some Nigerian banks in the wake of Heritage Bank Plc's license revocation, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has again reassured members of the banking public of the safety of their deposits and the banking system's resilience.

Contrary to some claims, the Bank’s Acting Director of the Corporate Communications Department, Mrs Hakama Sidi Ali, on Monday, June 10, 2024, in Abuja, faulted claims that the CBN was considering revoking the operating licences of Fidelity, Polaris, Wema, and Unity Banks.

Kenya hosts AMRH 1st continental forum for safe medicines - ITREALMS

ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

The African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization (AMRH) programme has concluded plans to host the first Heads of Medicines Registration and Marketing Authorization Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, reports ITREALMS.

The forum slated to take place between April 10-11, 2024, ITREALMS gathered, marks a significant step in strengthening Africa's regulatory framework for medicinal products.

Explosion: Makinde signs Executive Order on safe handling of harmful substances - ITREALMS

ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

The Oyo State governor, 'Seyi Makinde, has signed Executive Order 001 of 2024 on the safe handling of harmful substances, reports ITREALMS.

Signing the order at the Governor's Office, Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, Gov. Makinde said: “We are signing the Executive Order 001 of 2024, and this is on the safe-handling and storage of harmful substances within Oyo State.

28 nations endorse safe, responsible AI development @Bletchley Declaration - ITREALMS

ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

The leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) nations convened for the first time to reach a world-first agreement at Bletchley Park with a shared understanding of the opportunities and risks posed by frontier AI and the need for governments to work together to meet the most significant challenges, reports ITREALMS.

The Bletchley Declaration on AI safety sees 28 countries from across the globe including in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, as well as the EU, agreeing to the urgent need to understand and collectively manage potential risks through a new joint global effort to ensure AI is developed and deployed in a safe, responsible way for the benefit of the global community.

AfricaNXT 2022: NCC Pulls largest crowd ever, says 5G is safe - ITREALMS

ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), have drawn the largest attendance and participation at a single session during the conference just concluded AfricaNXT Conference 2022, reports ITREALMS.

The AfricaNXT Conference, ITREALMS gathered, is previously known as Lagos Social Media Week, just as NCC maintained that Fifth Generation (5G) deployment is safe.

AfricaNXT 2022: NCC Pulls the Largest Gathering, says 5G is safe

PressRelease@ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

The AfricaNXT Conference 2022, known previously as Lagos Social Media Week, has ended on a historically impressive note for the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), having drawn the largest attendance and participation at a single session during the conference, where its team discussed the socio-economic benefits of 5G services.

The conference had scheduled over 200 sessions and about 400 speakers. However, NCC session was oversubscribed as all seats were occupied, while some participants had to stand to listen to the discussion on a topic that patently enthused and electrified the audience, and marked by very rare social networking and participation.

Nigeria safe for tourism says Minister - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said the successful, two-week tour of cultural heritage and historic sites across the country by local and foreign bikers, under the auspices of the Latin America Motorcycles Association (LAMA), has confirmed that Nigeria is now safe for tourism and business, reports ITREALMS.

The Minister made the remarks in Abuja on Monday while bidding farewell to the foreign bikers at the end of the tour that took them to eight states covering four geo-political zones and the Federal
Capital Territory (FCT).

“From the report that I have received, this tour is a great success. It is also an attestation to the fact that Nigeria is indeed a safe destination for tourists and business people alike. Yes, there are security challenges here and there - and this is not peculiar to Nigeria. But our country is safer today than it was before the advent of this Administration in 2015, thanks to the political will shown by the Administration and the commitment of our security agencies,” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed said the bikers who crisscrossed Nigeria by road all returned to Abuja, the starting point of the tour, safe and sound and will be in a better position to tell the world the situation in the country.

“They are not armchair analysts or critics. They are practical men and women who zoomed across the country on their power bikes. No one can tell the story better than them. And the feedback we have received is overwhelmingly positive,” he said.

The Minister said the tour, which he flagged off in Abuja on 23rd of October 2018, took the bikers to Niger, Kogi, Enugu, Cross River, Rivers, Edo, Oyo and Lagos as well as the FCT.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

JOIN our alert's group: WhatsApp: +2348033592762 Twitter: @ITREALMS 

Share story with us: SMS +2348033592762 WhatsApp: +2348033592762 email: itrealms.dsa@gmail.com

ETSI partners IQC on safe cryptography - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

A three-day workshop has been planned by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in partnership with Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and Chongqing University will take place in Beijing, China, reports ITREALMS.

This forms part of the 6^th ETSI/IQC Quantum Safe Cryptography Workshop, slated for 06 through 08 November 2018 at the Beijing International Convention Center, Beijing.

This three-day workshop, ITREALMS gathered, will bring together diverse players in the quantum-safe cybersecurity community to facilitate the knowledge exchange and collaboration required to transition cyber infrastructures and business practices to make them safe in an era with quantum computers.

 For instance, Executive Track, designed for business leaders, will outline the state of the quantum threat and its mitigation for a C-level audience including CEOs, CTOs and CISOs.

While on 7th November, the Technical Track, designed for members of the business, government and research communities with a stake in cryptographic standardization on a global scale.

ETSI, IQC and Chongqing University would like to thank all event sponsors for their support.
Sponsorship opportunities including table top opportunities are still available and could register here.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Dapchi girls: Back-channel meant for secure, quick safe release – Lai Mohammed

ITREALMS:

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has explained that the use of back-channel in the release of the abducted Dapchi girls from the Government Girls Secondary and Technical College (GGSTC) in Dapchi on 19 February 2018, was for quick and safety, reports ITRealms.

Speaking in Lagos on Sunday, Mohammed said “the abducted girls were released last Wednesday as a result of intense back-channel engagement aimed at securing their quick and safe release.”

This, he said, was done in concert with a friendly country, international organization and trusted facilitators, stressing that since then, there have been a lot of developments, including that actually, a total of 111 girls were abducted from

“That means one student was not captured on the list of 110 abducted students that was compiled by the school, on the basis of which the Federal Government gave the number of abducted schoolgirls as 110.

“Also kidnapped were two other persons, who are not students of the college. They include a primary school boy who came to the school to sell pure water and another primary school girl. That brings the total number of abducted persons on that day to 113.

“So far, a total of 107 persons, comprising 105 Dapchi schoolgirls and the two non-students, have been released by the insurgents,” he said.

The Minister equally said that six Dapchi schoolgirls were yet unaccounted for, but all efforts will be made to secure their release.

Nenye Dom/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Pix: Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed (middle) flanked by the Special Assistant 1 to the President on Information and Culture, Segun Adeyemi (left) and Special Assistant II to the President on Information and Culture, Mr. Williams Adeleye (right) at the press conference in Lagos on Sunday.

Lai Mohammed says 'Nigeria is in safe, competent hands'

ITREALMS:

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that with President Muhammadu Buhari piloting the affairs of Nigeria, the country is in very safe and competent hands, hence there is no cause for alarm, reports ITRealms.

The Minister said this at a mini town hall meeting with the staff of the Nigerian Embassy in Madrid, Spain, and a cross section of Nigerians living in the European country on Saturday.

He said contrary to the fake news being peddled on the Social Media, Nigeria is making steady progress, especially in revamping the economy, tackling insecurity and fighting corruption - the three cardinal programmes of the Buhari Administration

''Don't believe everything you read on the Social Media. Nigeria is neither at war nor in crisis,'' Alhaji Mohammed said. ''Contrary to what you may be reading on the Internet, the Buhari Administration is putting Nigeria on a solid footing, after the years that were eaten by the locust.''

He said naysayers are spending millions of Naira to distort the true situation of things in Nigeria and to make the Administration look bad.

The Minister said the Administration's achievements should be evaluated against the background of the tough challenges that it has faced since coming into office on 29 May 2015

''It is said that if you don't know where you are coming from, you won't know where you are going,'' he said, listing the drastic fall in the price of crude oil, the low foreign reserves at $24 billion, the fact that the federal government was borrowing to pay workers' salaries, and the fact that many states were unable to pay salaries as some of those challenges.

Alhaji Mohammed also said when the Administration came into office, unpaid pensions had run into billions of Naira in many states, contractors had abandoned sites across the country because they were being heavily owed, infrastructure was in poor state, power generation was 2,690 megawatts, billions were being paid as 'fuel subsidies' to fat cats, corruption was the order of the day, while 20 of the 27 local governments in Borno were under the firm control of Boko Haram.

''Today, the trend is being reversed, and the results are showing: Foreign reserves is now $42.8b, the highest level in four years, inflation has fallen for 12 consecutive months to 15.13%, 108 billion Naira has been saved from removal of maintenance fees payable to banks before Treasury Single Account (TSA), the nation is being saved 24.7 billion Naira monthly with the full implementation of the TSA and the elimination of ghost workers has saved the nation 120 billion Naira.

''With improved macro-economic conditions, capital inflow is on the upswing, reaching $1.8 billion in the second quarter of 2017, which is almost double the $908 million in the first quarter, Nigeria’s stock market is one of the best-performing in the world, delivering returns in excess of 40 percent, Nigeria jumped 24 places on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking, and earned a place on the List of Top 10 Reformers in the world,'' he said.

The Minister also told the meeting that the Administration's agricultural revolution is moving Nigeria close to self-sufficiency in many staples, especially rice, that the home-Grown School Feeding Programme has created jobs for 61,352 cooks, and it is providing 6.4 million school children in 33,981 schools across 20 states with one meal a day, that power generation has increased to 7,000 megawatts, that Boko Haram has been massively degraded and that the Administration's is embarking on a massive infrastructural renewal.

Alhaji Mohammed, who urged the Nigerians to download the FGN-iAPP in order to get authentic news from Nigeria, later fielded questions from the Nigerians, with many of them seeking to know when Nigerians in the diaspora will be able to vote, how they can access the national identity card, how they can get authentic information from Nigeria and what the federal government is doing to end the herder-farmer clashes.

Nigeria's Ambassador to Spain, Mrs. Susan Aderonke Folarin, led the staff of the embassy to the town hall meeting, which was held at the embassy premises.

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

6 ways to stay safe on public Wi-Fi

ITRealms:

With data connection rates still comparatively pricey in Nigeria, Wi-Fi hotspots are often a source of joy for most smartphone/device users in need of some free Web browsing or social media time. The benefits of free Wi-Fi access such as the ease of connectivity and opportunity to conserve cellular data makes it a common occurrence for most users to seek out these free connections in public locations such as parks, banks, hotels, restaurants, etc.

Findings by the Research and Development Unit of Yudala – Nigeria’s fastest growing composite e-commerce outfit – show that caution must, however, be exercised when accessing sensitive personal information and/or carrying out online shopping or mobile banking activities over a free public Wi-Fi connection as this could pre-dispose you to grave losses from hackers.

Armed with routers, remote spying software and other tools of their nefarious trade, these hackers – whose increasing level of sophistication is a source of global alarm – are capable of setting up fake hotspots which booby-trap you into thinking you are connecting to the Wi-Fi of a hotel you are staying in, for instance, while in actuality, you have fallen prey.

These tips from Yudala’s Research and Development Unit will help keep you protected:

1.Always remember you’re vulnerable on public Wi-Fi: This knowledge is essential as it will help keep you wary when using public Wi-Fi networks. Due to their often unsecured connections, chances are that the Wi-Fi hotspot you have so gleefully connected to is also occupied by a potential hacker. Within this shared virtual space, it becomes considerably more easy to infiltrate your device and compromise your personal information.

2.Disable automatic connection to Wi-Fi networks: Most smartphones are capable of automatically connecting to available Wi-Fi networks –  a development that may expose you to lurking hackers. While this feature is often disabled by default, you can do yourself a world of good by double-checking to make sure. Better still, you can tweak your device’s settings to ensure manual connection to Wi-Fi hotspots. This way, you are protected from unwittingly connecting to a rogue network which may compromise your privacy and other sensitive information.

3.Verify the network’s name before connecting: Research shows that most hackers label their fake hotspots with generic names that may fool you into thinking you are on the right network. A public institution such as the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), for instance, may not have its public Wi-Fi network named “Free NCC Wi-Fi.” Same goes for that hotel you may be staying in or the fast food outlet on the street corner. Obvious generic names such as these could be a well-sprung trap by a hacker to snare unsuspecting users.

If you are not certain of that generic name being the official Wi-Fi network you are about to access, you will do yourself a world of good by asking.  An employee of the organization concerned should be able to guide you in this regard and help you get connected to the right network. In the event that there is no one to verify from, it is better to err on the side of caution in order to avoid being hacked.

4.Stick to HTTPS for websites: To avoid exposing yourself to the risks of being hacked over a public Wi-Fi network, stick to websites that use HTTPS during your internet surfing activity. While regular websites transfer content in plain text thereby making it an easy target for potential hackers; websites that use HTTPS, on the other hand, encrypt your activity thus offering an extra layer of security. In order to be sure you are on an HTTPS website, simply look for a padlock in the address bar or check the URL for "https://..."

In addition, you can download and use a software such as HTTPS Everywhere to protect your data. HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox, Chrome, and Opera extension that encrypts your communications with many major websites, making your browsing more secure.

5.Turn off file sharing when using a PC: While you may not have a direct control over the Wi-Fi network you are connected to, your computer is thankfully still in your control.  Your computer may share certain information such as your printers, files, music library or even go as far as granting remote login to other computers on a trusted network or your personal Wi-Fi network. If not disabled when connecting to a public Wi-Fi network, you may just be opening the door to a potential hacker.

File sharing must be turned off or at best automated to ensure that your computer automatically switches to a more secure setup when you are on a public Wi-Fi network.

6.Keep all financial transactions off public Wi-Fi:  This applies to mobile banking, online shopping or any other activity that involves exposing sensitive personal or financial information. Every public Wi-Fi network should be regarded as a major security risk as you may be sharing these connections with an eagle-eyed hacker. Where the transactions cannot wait until you get to a secure network, it is best you rely on your cellular data for these purposes.

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Travelers tips: How to keep valuables safe in a hotel room

Gender ICT@ITRealms: 

Leaving your valuables in your room while lodged in a hotel can be very disconcerting. Whether you have placed it in a safe as most hotels would suggest or you have put it safely in your luggage, you can never be too sure. How safe is the safe really? How trustworthy is the staff? Is the security as tight as acclaimed? An option would be to always keep your valuables with you, but then that might not be convenient as there is the chance of you getting mugged or you misplacing the valuable, especially if you are visiting a new city.

The solution would, therefore, involve a situation where you are in charge of security and in that regard, ITRealms has put together pointers on how to keep your valuables while lodged in a hotel.

The safe is never safe. Digital or manual, never succumb to the temptation of the hotel’s safe or locked storage area. Doing that would imply relying on the accommodation staff. A number of things could happen, the locked safe could be broken into or stolen entirely or the safe could get jammed and your valuable would be trapped. Again, never use a safe that requires a key provided by the hotel, as there may be untold numbers of key copies circulating among staff and former guests.

Lock your suitcase. Always lock your suitcase either with numbers combination or with a key lock and ensure the key is with you at all times. Yes, there is a slim chance that someone could steal the entire suitcase, but that is extreme.

Use the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign. If you care more about your valuables than about your room being cleaned, simply leave the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door and if possibly, leave the TV on when you are leaving for the day. This will discourage people from entering your room when you are not there as they would think you are occupied inside. If you must invite room service, do so when you are available to monitor their activities.

Find hiding spots. There are so many places in your room where you can hide valuables from prying hands. You can hide money and important documents under the carpet corners, taped to the bottom-side of drawers, within a small bag and pin between double drapes, you could even go as far as unscrewing ventilator grates and hiding valuables inside. Basically, the idea is to choose areas of the room that are either not cleaned regularly or are so obscure people won't think to search them. Also, avoid putting all of your valuables in the same place. If you split them around the room, you are much less likely to lose everything if someone happens to find one of your hiding places.

Set the stage. Keep the room and your items very tidy so that any disorder would be conspicuous. This is not to say that you should now leave any valuable items out in the open. Also, while you are rearranging the room, you don’t want to damage or disturb things or areas in your room as you may end up paying to fix what you broke, thereby losing some or even all of the money you were trying to save.

*Contributed by Nkem Ndem, a PR Associate at Jumia Travel, phone +2347033853356 | skype Vivienne Ndem

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!