e-Readiness: Nigeria ranks 94

Nigeria has been rated the 94th networked readiness nation otherwise known as e-readiness in the 2007-2008 Global Information Technology Report (GITR) sponsored this year by Cisco Systems as a series of joint project between the World Economic Forum and INSEAD.

First launched in 2001, GITR has become a valuable and unique benchmarking tool to determine national Information and Communication Technology (ICT) strengths and weaknesses, as well as to evaluate progress, just as it also highlights the continuing importance of ICT application and development for economic growth.

The latest GITR framework indicated that a total of 127 economies in 2007-2008, were measured using the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), based on the degree of preparation of a nation to participate in and benefit from ICT developments.

According to the report, NRI is composed of three component indexes which assess the environment for ICT offered by a given country; the readiness of the economy’s key stakeholders - individuals, business and governments; and the usage of ICT among these stakeholders.

The report which ranked Nigeria 94th with 3.32 score points, also rated South Africa, 51, Mauritius 54, Egypt 63, Sri Lanka 79, Senegal 85, Algeria 88, Kenya 92, Namibia 93, while the likes of Mali was rated 99, Tanzania 100, the Gambia 101, Burkina Faso 103, and Uganda ranked 109.

However, the report named its top 10 led by Denmark with 5.78 points followed by Sweden 5.72, Switzerland 5.53, United States 5.49, Singapore 5.49, Finland 5.47, Netherlands 5.44, Iceland 5.44, Korea 5.43 and Norway 5.38.

Remarkably the top 10 have retained their positions since 2006/2007 and 2007/2008.
Senior Economist of the Global Competitiveness Network at the World Economic Forum and co-editor of the Report, Ms Irene Mia, stated that the successful experience of the Nordic countries, Singapore, the United States or Korea showed in the report that a coherent government vision on the importance of ICT is being optimized, coupled with an early focus on education and innovation.

“These are key not only for spurring networked readiness, but also to lay the foundations for sustainable growth,” Mia said.

Published for the seventh consecutive year with record coverage of 127 economies worldwide, the report has been acclaimed as the world’s most comprehensive and authoritative international assessment of the impact of ICT on the development process and the competitiveness of nations.

According to the editors of the report, under the theme ‘Fostering Innovation through Networked Readiness,’ this year’s report placed a particular focus on the role of networked readiness in stimulating innovation through topics covered in the analytical chapters.

Equally the Networked Readiness Index, featured in the report, examined how prepared countries were in using ICT effectively on three dimensions, namely the general business, regulatory and infrastructure environment for ICT; whereas the readiness of the three key stakeholder groups covered included individuals, businesses and governments ability to use and benefit from ICT; and their actual usage of the latest information and communication technologies available.

The NRI uses a combination of data from publicly available sources, as well as the results of the Executive Opinion Survey (EOS), a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum with its network of partner institutes made up of leading research institutes and business organizations in the countries integrated in the report. The survey provides unique data on many qualitative institutional and business environment issues.

This cross-country analysis of the drivers of networked readiness provides useful comparative information for making business decisions and additional value to governments wishing to improve their ICT preparedness.


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Steps to observe packet spoofing by ISPs (11)

Future versions of pcapdiff may be able to run without pcapy.
pcapdiff is run from the command line; you must specify two pcap trace files and the local IP address of the computer where each was captured.

In addition to producing statistics about overall rates of packet dropping and spoofing, pcapdiff will produce a list of the IP identification field values of each such packet.

This can help you locate packets of interest in a program like Wireshark much more quickly. For example, if pcapdiff says that a packet with IP identification value 4321 was spoofed in the outbound direction, you can enter the display filter ip.id eq 4321 into Wireshark’s display filter field and see only the packet (or packets) with this particular IP identification value.

Typically, IP identification values uniquely identify IP packets transmitted by a particular computer, although these values will be repeated at least every 65536 (216) packets.

Observing a very large number of forged packets may suggest that something is systematically wrong - for example, you may have started or ended the captures at different times (so that one machine has no record of having sent many of the packets that it did, in fact, send), you may have limited the number of bytes captured per packet at one end but not at the other end, you may have some kind of protocol offloading active on one end (so that one computer’s operating system is wrong about the contents of the packets that the network card actually sent over the wire).


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Omatek shares still available - Seriki

Group Managing Director, Omatek Computers Plc, Mrs. Florence Seriki, has said that her company’s shares are still available.

She said that it has become necessary to intimate interested Nigerians who may still be interested in buying the shares of the company since Omatek was listed on Wednesday, June 18, 2008.

“Omatek shares are still available through the stockbrokers,” she declared, adding that the firm needs to strategize beginning by telling the world that information technology (IT) is moving forward in Nigeria.

According to her, some people think that once a company is listed, that is the end of their chances of buying into the firm.

Presently the company needs to reposition because IT is a capital-intensive industry.
She also said, Africans to learn to produce so as to stop being consumer nations.

Mrs. Seriki noted that Omatek was founded 21 years ago and the better gift to offers Nigerians at this time, is to ask God to mark the anniversary successfully.

“Today, Omatek is the first computer company to be listed at the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange,” she said.

She pointed out that Omatek began by training executives on one-on-one basis in 1986 and by 1991, Omatek became a premium partners with the major foreign brands at the time while in 1993, the firm launched its first locally assembled Omatek Computer brand from Semi Knocked Down (SKD) assembly in the country.

She went on to say that in 2003, Omatek established its first SKD, which has grown to have one in Nigeria and another in Ghana.

As said by her, Omatek factory is the first on the continent to locally produce computer casings and speakers from completely knocked down (CKD) process, home entertainment speakers (2-1 to 5-1) and 3-1 Plasmas from SKD as well as flat screens from SKD.

She further said that Omatek was the first to buy directly CKD parts from front-line producers across the globe and to win Microsoft Systems Builder award 2005 for Central, West and East Africa in 2005.

Omatek, she said, recently exited the SMEI scheme successfully with two major banks in Nigeria.

“We seize this opportunity to thank immensely the managing directors of Zenith and GT Bank Plc,” she said, stressing that the trust in her firm had inspired them to ensure that it sustained buying from key manufacturers to maintain the quality of computers.

Furthermore, the firm achieved synergy in form of MOU with most educational institutions on research and development.


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MTN rounds off 21-day Y’ello Care

THE second edition of MTN 21 days of Y’ello Care, came to an end over the weekend with pomp as children and adults alike were treated to a nice time at the Lagoon Restaurant, in Lagos, reports CHARLES OKOH.

Speaking during the grand finale of the occasion, Corporate Services Executive, MTN, Mrs. Amina Oyagbola, said the event provided platform to demonstrate leadership in selflessness and social responsiveness.

She said the Y’ello Care focused principally on three important areas, education, health and economic empowerment, stating that the MTN Foundation has added value to the lives of people across the nation during the period.

Oyagbola said MTN places high premium in corporate social responsibility which was why it set up a foundation in 2005 with the aim of putting smiles on the faces of the less privileged in the society.

The SchoolsConnect, she said, provides hundreds of young people the opportunity to benefit from digital learning via special computer laboratories, which it has established in 49 different secondary schools across the nation.

She equally said that in the area of health, the foundation is helping to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS pandemic by providing succor to thousands of people living with the dreaded infection, as well as providing model housing scheme which provides opportunities for the homeless to own a house.

Mrs. Oyagbola said during the exercise, which was organized exclusively by staff of the company, orphanages, prisons, homes of the elderly where visited, tips on road safety and safe driving were shared with drivers while market places were cleaned as well as expertise shared on managing small and medium scale enterprises.

In his goodwill message, the Executive Director of Human Resources, Chief Victor Odili, thanked the staff for organizing the exercise, adding that the company appreciates the fact that human resources is the major resources for success.

On her part, Mrs. Foyinsola Oyebola, who led the team, said MTN Nigeria is poised to retaining the 1st position it got in 2007 among the 21 countries that participated.

She said the exercise called for sacrifice beyond the normal call of duty as schools were visited, the less privileged were beneficiaries of donation from MTN staff and other well-meaning corporate organizations who collaborated with the telco during the exercise.

The event saw the Lagos Para-soccer Players Association, Light of Hope Orphanage, Kanu Heart Foundation and Heart of Gold Hospice receiving N250,000 each while the Dyslexia Association got N50,000.

Outstanding staff during the exercise also got awards in recognition of their sterling performance.


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‘Harris services 80% telcos in Nigeria’

Harris Stratex Nigeria is currently servicing over 80 per cent of the nation’s telecommunications industry and as such, records its highest turnover annually on the continent.

According to the President, Harris Stratex, Mr. Harold Braun, “Harris Stratex Nigeria is servicing more than 80 per cent of the telecommunications companies in Nigeria and it has the highest turnover annually in Africa.”

Extolling the staff and management of the Nigerian office during his official visit to the country in Lagos, Braun said his firm has been a global player in wireless services solutions.

He stressed that since its inception in Nigeria, a few years back, “Harris Stratex has been the backbone of telecommunications operators and the success story would not have been told if not for the effort and determination of the staff and management.”

Responding, sales director for the Nigerian office, Mr. Bekele Tadesse, informed the visiting president that his presence brought big hope to the company.

He noted that as more operators continue to emerge in the Nigeria telecom sector, Harris Stratex is well positioned to deliver on their needs.

Also he said, that most operators current operating in Nigeria depend on Harris Stratex for voice and data transmission, emphasizing that the company has the resources and equipment that could service the telecom sector no matter the size of the market.

Pointing out that the firm provides customers across the continent with the most complete wireless transmission in the industry.

“And we have highly trained and experienced engineering and maintenance team that offer unbeatable after sales services to our customers,” he said.


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Vigilante arrests 3 NITEL cable vandals

The Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) has announced the arrest of three cable vandals in its Lagos Territorial zone.

Public Relations Manager, Lagos Zone at NITEL, Mr. Ig Nwangwu, said that a vigilante team in Lagos Island arrested the three members of a 4-man cable vandalisation gang in the early hours of Thursday, last week.

Those arrested, who were mostly men included; Onyebuchi Anazodo, 21, Steven Aleke, 18, and Monday Ebube, 27, while cutting the high-capacity, optic fibre cable linking Lagos to the rest of the country.

He also said that so far, this is the fourth occasion the same cable would be cut by thieves since this year.

On each of those occasions, Nwangwu said, NITEL sustained losses running into millions of Naira and inconveniences to its customers given the loss of traffic as a result of the disruption of their service and then the cost of repair or replacement of the affected cable.

“We regret this inconvenience and hope to restore service on the cable very soon,” he said.

The external line plant network of NITEL in Lagos Zone, he noted, has a long history of vandalisation and theft.

As said by him, this is perpetrated by persons who cut, cart away and sell the cables on give away price to some receivers who, in turn, re-sell them to jewelers who smelt and forge them into forms of jewellery.

NITEL and the security agencies are on trail of some of the smelting works in different parts of the country in the bid to ascertain their link with the spate of vandalism of particularly telecommunications and power cables all over the country.

The vigilante arrangement is part of the community policing system recently evolved to supplement the regular patrol of NITEL cable routes by the police and other agencies.


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Teledom IT Mart is one-stop shop – Ekuwem

Teledom Group International has announced the opening of its Information Technology (IT) Mart in Lagos, to act as one stop-shop to cater for the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry.

Executive Vice Chairman of the group, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, disclosed this during a media launch last weekend and said that IT Mart is one of the sister companies of Teledom Group.

IT Mart, he said, was established to be a replica of what he described as PC-World at Heathrow Airport Terminal Four as one drives into the city of London.

“That is, what IT Mart is like,” he declared, adding the subsidiary is collaborating with other IT super markets in Asia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the United States (US).

He explained that the concept of IT Marts is straightforward as all the telecoms operators are rolling out their networks, all the ICT companies are also expanding, wondering what happens to their needs to maintain growth of the industry that has been divided into three parts.

“What of the maintenance, what of the technical support, what of the replacement of hardware parts, what of the tools to address that need,” he asked, stressing that IT Mart is here to provide a one-stop ICT or InfoTech super store for the provisioning of the maintenance and upgrade needs of the industry. That is one part of IT Mart,” Ekuwem said.

Accompanied by the Manager, IT Mart, Mrs. Eno Ekuwem and Deputy General Manager, Teledom Group, Mr. Abia Esua, Dr. Ekuwem added that the second part of IT Mart would be to stock latest in the ICT revolution worldwide few days after they have been launched in other countries.

He pointed out that hitherto, in this part of the world ICT tools are available to the market between three and four years later, which make such products obsolete as soon as they arrive.

“We should not succumb to the idea of waiting for three to four years after a product has been launched in the United States (US), Europe, North America, Asia, China, Singapore and so on before they arrive Nigeria,” he said.

In addition, he said, IT Mart is going to shorten the time interval between research and development (R&D), through early procurement by being in touch and updated with the manufacturers.

“It is a very serious matter. We want to shorten the time of migration from when products leave as prototypes or as test products or at the point of entering into the market in Asia, in Europe, North America and when those same products arrive Nigeria. We want to reduce the tendency for our fellow countrymen and women who travel out of the country to be put up with any piece of technology,” Dr. Ekuwem said.

He explained that IT Mart would be available for procurement products of the Nigerian software industry, their demos and their prototype as they are made available by the member associations in the industry.

“Samples of pieces of hardware from Omatek, Zinox, Brian and Beta computers would be made available at IT Mart,” he asserted, adding that the subsidiary would partner with all known local ICT manufacturers.

On the third aspect of IT Mart, he said, it is founded to contribute to the national content development, emphasizing that the latest things about IT Mart are the books.

“The books on IT would help Nigerians to build their productivity. We have IT book section and most of the relevant IT books would be available in IT Mart, as a one-stop super store, not only for software or hardware,” he said.

He noted that the books would allow Nigerians to update themselves on trend in the industry. And as the ICT industry grows, he said, peripherals, accessories, connectors, cables and tools that are necessary for maintenance would be made accessible at IT Mart.


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Acer targets Nigeria as key growth market

The world’s third largest Personal Computer (PC) vendor, Acer, has reinforced its ongoing commitment to strengthening unique channel business model across the continent, thus Nigeria’s information technology (IT) market plays a key role in Acer’s African expansion strategy, according to the Deputy Managing Director, Acer Middle East and Africa, Mr. Krishna Murthy.

Speaking during a special visit to Lagos, Acer executives, led by Mr. Murthy acknowledged this fact by highlighting the crucial role its channel partner’s play in making.

Acer’s empowering technology and products available to valued customers across the country, is a major player for notebooks and desktops across the region.

“Nigeria’s IT sector is growing steadily and with the help of its strong channel partners, Acer intends to tap into this dynamic market,” Mr. Murthy said, adding that facilitating their growth is instrumental for our continued success.

“Acer’s business model encourages partners to be pro-active,” added Murthy.

In adding, Acer executives updated their distributors and partners on new products and Acer’s strategy for 2008, even as channel partners applauded the new reward schemes and annual loyalty programme that were introduced for this year.

They were also on hand to answer and explain Acer’s strategy and product line up, on a one-on-one basis.

ITRealms Online recalls that founded in 1976, Acer has constantly pursued the goal of breaking the barriers between people and technology.

And with focus on marketing its brand-name IT products around the globe, Acer ranks as the world’s No. 3 vendor for total PCs and No. 2 for notebooks, with the fastest growth among the top-five players.

Equally underscored by the officials is that the firm’s profitable and sustainable Channel Business Model is instrumental to Acer’s continued growth, while the successful mergers of Gateway and Packard Bell complete the company’s global footprint by strengthening its presence in the U.S., and enhancing its strong position in Europe.


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Phase 3 votes N23.5bn on fibre optic project

Licensed to offer transmission services in the telecommunications sector, Phase 3 Telecom, has said that it would spend about $200 million (about N23,550,000,000 billion) for its optic fibre expansion nationwide.

Chief Executive Officer, Phase 3 Telecom, Mr. Stanley Jegede, who made the revelation at the weekend, said that already, over $100m (about N11,775,000,000) has been spent deploying optic fibre in many cities in the country and providing the needed backbone that had been absent in many towns and cities.

Mr. Jegede also said that his company, which has been in operation for about five years, has been providing services using optic fibre over high voltage power transmission line, adding that this will be combined with underground fibre to compliment where necessary.

He explained that fibre over high voltage involves lashing and stringing optic fibre over power lines holds a lot of advantages over the traditional underground laying of fibre, even as the advantages include security and high-level reliability.

“The case study in Nigeria has proven that most fibre laid on the ground is affected by ongoing construction work, which results in cuts. However these problems are practically eliminated with the phase3 network,” he said.

Also commenting the Chief Operating Officer, Phase 3 Telecom, Dr. Vincent Dogo, noted that the firm had already covered significant parts of the country with its network and was making steady progress towards reaching other parts.

“Today we have practically deployed over 3,000 kilometres of fibre stretching from Lagos, cutting across Ibadan via Minna to Abuja, Kano and heading towards Katsina. We also have a tee-off cutting across Oshogbo, Benin and Asaba and now heading into Port-Harcourt,” he said.

Dogo added that Phase 3 operates today as a neutral carrier of other carriers, stressing that its network was designed by indigenous Nigerian engineering team and done to meet with the challenges associated with the telecoms industry in Nigeria and the West African sub-region today.


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PMM, NIA collaborate on InTech-08

DETERMINED to actualize the dream of making the Insurance sector in the country ready for the technological challenges of the 21st century, Private Media Mart (PPM) Limited in collaboration with Nigerian Insurance Association (NIA) will be holding the annual edition of Insurance Technology Workshop and Mini Exhibition (InTech) on September 4, in Lagos, reports CHARLES OKOH.

The chief executive officer, PPM, Mr. Ejiofor Agada who disclosed this, while speaking to the media on the activities lined for the workshop, said the era of being only satisfied with regional recognition by the insurance industry, is long gone and that global best practices dictates how business are conducted, stressing that these best practices are powered by Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Mr. Agada said, the insurance industry today strives on documentation and the ability to manage information from a variety of different sources to issue policies and manage them.

According to him, the fastest growing segment in the insurance industry is the integration of general business processes, such as writing new policies, performing policyholder services, and reporting claims into electronic management and workflow systems.

He also said heightened industry competition, increased customer expectation and demand for greater profitability are key drivers pushing the industry to reevaluate its strategies and to modify its traditional operating methods.

Mr. Agada noted that insurers are evolving the operations to better address the needs of their customers and agents/brokers, using IT in retooling core processes and systems to increase efficiency and flexibility with the aim of reducing cost and better manage risk.

He added that there is an urgent need for players of the industry to understand the value and utilization of technology in their day-to-day business practices, as according to him, the ultimate aim is to help the industry minimize both claims risk and customer value by integrating real-time analysis within existing systems and processes.

He noted that the idea of the event, InTech, is to continuously showcase the technologies suitable for this sector and have the proponents explaining the inherent advantages and features of their solutions and services to their target market with the aim of securing endorsement of such relevant bodies like the NIA, the National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria (NICON) and West African Insurance Companies Association (WAICA).

He also called on practitioners to leverage on ICT on regulation issues and solutions in e-insurance, enterprise solution issues in an insurance environment, security and fraud detection and communication solutions.


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