Technology: Shell's team wins Best Technical Paper award @SPE conference'25 - ITREALMS

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A team of Shell staff has won the highly regarded 1st Place Technical Paper Award at the annual international and exhibition conference of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) which ended last night in Lagos, reports ITREALMS.

The team comprising well engineers Augustine Okosun, Osehojie Ojeh-Oziegbe, Oluwatobilola Aribike and Oladokun Adubi were commended “for an outstanding display of in-depth technical knowledge and quality delivery” in their presentation titled, “Application of Perforated, Wash and Cement (PWC) technology for annular remediation in deep-water abandonment.”

Beyond academic terrorism: Unpacking JAMB's technical glitch - ITREALMS

Telecoms Clinic@ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

Despite allegations of academic terrorism, REMMY NWEKE in this report, examines the recent mass JAMB result invalidation of 379,997 UTME candidates in Lagos and five South-East states, due to alleged critical lapse in server patch deployment and human error, attributed to outdated server logic with plan to introduce stricter checks and real-time monitoring.

 The genesis:

A shocking revelation recently rocked the academic community as the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) admitted that a critical lapse in server patch deployment and human error led to the invalidation of results for 379,997 candidates in Lagos and five South-East states who sat the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Covid-19 lockdown: ATCON seeks free movement for telco's technical staff

ITREALMS: 

The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has requested that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to initiate the process of National Right of passage for all technical staff of telecommunications companies in the event of foreseeable lockdown, reports ITREALMS.

ATCON through its Executive Secretary, Mr. Ajibola Olude noted this has become imperative because either the Federal Government or the State Government in an attempt to curb the spread of Coronavirus outbreak in the country.

"This request is made because of the essential nature of telecommunications infrastructures in managing the entire situation and the need for maintenance and repairs that may arise during the possible lockdown," he said.

ATCON, he said, counts on NCC to expedite action in this regard while they appreciated the Commission for being proactive and attentive.

"We also urge all our teeming members and their staff to comply with all the guidelines stipulated by the Federal Ministry of Health and all relevant authorities at State levels," ATCON Executive Secretary said.

Nenye Dom/Editor

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NATCOM consortium pays N14.051bn for NITEL

DigitalSENSE Business News:

In fulfillment of its first obligation, the preferred bidder of the Nigeria Telecommunications Plc (NITEL) and its mobile arm, Mobile Telecommunication (MTEL), the NATCOM Consortium, recently made a part payment of $75.75 million, about N14,051,626,202.30 billion, for the deal, reports DigitalSENSE Business News.

According to the Head of Public Communications, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe in a press statement sighted by DigitalSENSE Business News, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) said in Abuja that the payment was 30 per cent of the $252.52 million about N46,703,574,000.00 bid price for the acquisition of the assets and business units of the enterprises.

He also quoted the consortium’s lead, who is equally chairman, Skye Bank Plc, Mr. Olatunde Ayeni, as saying the offer letter to the preferred bidder which mandated NATCOM to make an initial deposit of 30 per cent of the bid price not later than 14 days on receipt of the offer letter has since been received.

DigitalSENSE Business News gathered that with this payment, NATCOM is anticipated to pay the balance of 70 per cent of the bid price within 90 days. 

“It is therefore imperative to inform creditors that disbursements to them will be considered only after full payment has been received,” BPE official said.

DigitalSENSE Business News recalls that the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) had on February 27, 2012, approved the privatisation of NITEL and its subsidiary MTEL through a term “guided liquidation.”
Experts explained that the strategy of guided liquidation was agreed by the NCP after due consideration of other options, including previously failed attempts to privatise NITEL and MTEL over Strategic Core Investor Sale and Negotiated Sale strategies as well as the huge liabilities of creditors to the tune of over N300 billion.

Under the guided liquidation strategy, DigitalSENSE Business News reports, all the core assets and business undertaking of NITEL and MTEL were to be sold as single or multiple lots to a qualified bidder by the liquidator under the general guidance of the NCP.

The bidder that acquires the assets of NITEL and MTEL will pledge to continue to operate the assets to provide telecoms services. This is as against the traditional liquidation of an enterprise by asset stripping.
Subsequently, there was advertisements for submission of Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from prospective bidders for the acquisition of the assets and business undertaking of NITEL and MTEL in both local and international newspapers by the liquidator. 

However, at the expiration date on June 30, 2014, 17 organisations and consortia submitted EOIs; and only two satisfactorily met the stipulated prequalification criteria.

DigitalSENSE Business News recollects that on September 18, 2014, the two successful applicants, NATCOM Consortium and NETTAG Consortium, reportedly met the minimum pass mark of 75 per cent pre-qualification standard and issued the Request for Proposals (RFP) which allowed them proceed to data room and due diligence stage before submission of their technical and financial proposals.

Eventually, beat the deadline of November 7, 2014 for submission of bid.

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