C/River commends Airtel on scheme

The government of Cross River State has commended Airtel Nigeria for powering its economic empowerment programme for rural communities and for improving access to modern communication infrastructure in these areas.

The Deputy Governor of the State, Mr. Efiok Cobham, said in Calabar, Airtel through its support has helped the government realize its dream of creating a pool of rural entrepreneurs and empowering more indigenes of the State economically as well as spreading its poverty reduction programme across the area.

Head of Public Relations, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Emmanuel Otokhine, said in a press statement made available to Daily Champion that under the programme, Airtel and the government would provide incentives for rural distributors to extend access to telecommunication services to rural and underserved communities.

Speaking at the presentation of brand new motorbikes, crash helmet, megaphones, SIM registration machines, giant umbrellas, and N50,000.00 (fifty thousand naira) worth of Airtel products and services to each of the beneficiaries, Cobham explained that the gesture would undoubtedly positively impact the life of the beneficiaries, their dependents, and indeed the general economy of the state.

The presentation was made under the wealth creation programme championed by Airtel Nigeria, and in collaboration with the government’s Microfinance and Enterprise Development Agency (MEDA). The project is code named “Project Sunny.”

The Deputy Governor who was represented by the Secretary to the Cross River State Government, Barrister Fidelis Ugbo said such an interventionist programme was needed to reduce the impact of poverty on marginalized groups, particularly women and youth, adding that it is the desire of the government to drastically reduce the percentage of the population that live below the poverty line of $1 per day.

He added that the government has mandated the Microfinance and Enterprise Development Agency (MEDA) and other relevant agencies to actively engage and obtain the support of the private sector in empowering the people of the State and thereby increase their purchase power, as part of its rural empowerment programs.

In addition to the current rural entrepreneurial programme, a few months ago, the State government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Airtel Nigeria to deploy specialized information and communication technology infrastructure across the state to deliver health, education, tourism and other economically beneficial services to the people and to boost the economy of the area.

Also, the Director General of the state Microfinance and Enterprise Development Agency (MEDA), Ignatius Atsu, commended Airtel for its swift response and assistance in spreading the benefits of the state government’s poverty alleviation programme.

Atsu expressed the optimism that since the telecommunications is currently one of the fastest growing services in Nigeria today, the gains of the programme will become readily noticeable to the new entrepreneurs and all across the State and therefore encourage more people to take up the scheme.

Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

MTN Group unveils contest for app developers

MTN Group has joined the Application Store enthusiast with the launch of its application developers contest.

The contest which is running globally across all its operation is seeking to challenge developers’ community from around the world to come forward with innovative applications which are inspired by the realities of Africa and the Middle East.

Chief Commercial Officer, MTN Group, Mr. Christian de Faria, said that by launching the contest, MTN has opened its innovative scope to the wider developer community in a bid to speed up the adoption of data-enabled technologies, especially those that feature digital content developed with the African and Middle Eastern user in mind.

“The more user-friendly and relevant the app, the more differentiated it will be, thus increasing the likelihood of its adoption on a wide scale in two vast markets that are hungry for local solutions – not least of which is digital content with an African and Middle Eastern flair,” he said.

He explained that the MTN App Store, which is currently in the works, is shaping up to be the largest in the two regions with ‘killer applications’ that speak to the needs and aspirations of users in MTN’s 21 markets across Africa and the Middle East.

“Our vision for the MTN App Store is to have an apps platform whose vast majority of applications is, by and large, created by the developer community. This way, we hope to offer MTN App Store subscribers unmatched user experience, with exciting and varied content that cuts across all facets of life,” De Faria said.

Additionally, he said, there is a huge apps developer community out there, but many of their inventions do not get wide adoption.

“The apps competition we are launching today will therefore give the developer community an alternative, and serve as a distribution channel that reaches more than 150 million MTN mobile subscribers,” he said.

According to him, MTN apps competition would therefore serve to strengthen the apps ecosystem as well as provide a much-needed distribution channel to 150 million MTN subscribers for the regions’ developer community.

To qualify for some awesome prizes, attached to the contests, he said, budding app junkies are invited to upload their apps from the most basic to the sophisticated, yet user-friendly ones on MTN’s global digital portal www.mtnplay.com/appcom.

De Faria also said the apps competition would run for five months, commencing Monday, September 5, this year, and will focus initially on the Android OS.

“All apps must be built in English and should be relevant for the African and Middle East markets,” he said.

He emphasised that there would be five monthly winners for the duration of the competition. The first prize for the monthly winners will be a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the second prize will be a Samsung Galaxy S2.

The coveted prize for the overall winner, who will be chosen from the six first prize monthly winners, will be an all-expenses-paid-for trip to the Mobile World Congress 2012.

He informed that MTN may choose to feature the best submitted apps on the MTN App Store, pending the conclusion of a formal agreement with the developer.

Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Spiller rejects ICANN’s VP job, more controversy looms

There may be more than meets the eyes at the top management levels of the world’s coordinating agency for the internet, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

This follows the recent the last week rejection of the post of the vice president for ICANN Europe by Mr. Thomas Spiller, barely a month after the announcement that he would be resuming on August 29, 2011.

This is coming on the heels of controversy that trailed the supposed announcement of no second term agenda by the incumbent chief executive of ICANN, Mr. Rod Beckstrom.

Daily Champion recalls that ICANN had proclaimed Spiller’s appointment to the position on June 23, during its 41st public meeting in Singapore.

But the latest information from ICANN indicated that Mr. Spiller may have rejected the offer, consequent upon his informing ICANN that he would not be joining the organization as its Vice President of Europe.

Also, Daily Champion gathered that a search for an appropriate replacement has already begun.

Conversely, industry watchers are concerned that the rejection by Mr. Spiller may have met more than the ordinary eyes.

According to observers there must have been some reasons adduced by Mr. Spiller for not accepting the top management offer, which is not a good omen for the industry and ICANN as an institution.

The rejection by Mr. Spiller, industry observers further said may not be unconnected with the fact that Mr. Beckstrom, who may have worked hard to see Spiller occupy the second most powerful position in ICANN is on his way out of the organization buried on controversies which are not farfetched from the reported unhappiness with Beckstrom by the United States government on his roles in convincing the ICANN board to approve .xxx at a time America is yearning for moral rebirth and allotting self-glory to some good works done by the Internet and ICANN community.

However, equally of note is that Mr. Thomas Spiller was to become the first top executive in Brussels office based on the appointment cadre.

The post of the Vice President, Europe, is a newly created position from the Singapore meeting and reasons for decline the supposed good job is yet to be known.

In the hitherto new position, Mr. Spiller, a French national was to be responsible for driving ICANN’s strategic objectives in Europe and managing the Brussels office as well as the focal point for regional issues.

Spiller has a wealth of broad experience gained through a career that includes corporate, legal, and political appointments.

He worked for the French Prime Minister’s Office and most recently headed up global policy strategy at Statistical Analysis Software (SAS), one of the world’s largest independent software vendors.

Spiller has worked on topics ranging from education, sustainability and innovation to data privacy and cloud computing.

However, responding to the appointment of Mr. Spiller, the ICANN president, Mr. Rod Beckstrom had noted that the new position was vital for the global expansion and deepening of ICANN.

“And we were lucky to find Thomas Spiller, who has a solid track record of performance and a good understanding of the complex issues affecting our community,” he said.

Beckstrom pointed out that Spiller has worked with a variety of international policy forums, trade associations and multilateral organizations that are active in Information Technology and Internet issues around the world.

Additionally, Mr. Spiller, who had then expressed optimism on his new post, stated that he looks forward to reinforcing ICANN’s outreach to all stakeholders and strengthening the ongoing inclusive dialogue with Europe’s Internet users, national governments, European Union (EU) institutions and business.

“I’m excited about contributing to the organization’s crucial role in keeping the global Internet open to all and in providing an extraordinary platform for social and economic progress,” Spiller was quoted as saying.

Before joining SAS, Spiller, a lawyer by training, spent 10 years working on global public policy and legal issues involving energy, defense and aerospace.

Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

MainOne cable connects NgCom on IP-NGN

MainOne Cable Company has connected NGCOM Ltd, a leading network solutions company to its Internet Protocol-Next General Network (IP – NGN).

Chief Executive Officer, MainOne Cable Company, Ms. Funke Opeke, said that the addition of NGCOM to her firm’s platform underscores Main One’s reputation as the broadband service provider of choice in the country.

“By connecting to Main One’s network, NGCOM has bolstered its desire to be positioned as a prominent provider of reliable internet service to its customers in Nigeria,” she said.

She said that MainOne’s pedigree as a provider of dependable and affordable broadband service places NGCOM at a vantage position to offer fast and efficient services to its customers.

Ms. Opeke also said the agreement with NGCOM Ltd is another opportunity for Main One to empower a Nigerian partner with an affordable product package tailored to meet its specific needs and demonstrate the reliability and efficiency of our network.

“We hope that this relationship will usher in growth for both companies and deliver value to Nigerians”, she said.

In his comment, the Managing Director of NGCOM Ltd, Mr. Ekeng Ekeng said, the partnership with Main One would enable the company to offer improved services to its customers as well as grow the bottom-line.

He commended MainOne for the efficiency and reliability of its network which recently commemorated its first year of operations with recognition of 100 per cent network availability on its platform since launch.

Daily Champion recalls that since Main One Cable network was launch in July 2010, it has continued to break new grounds with its open access, wholesale broadband connectivity.

Also, Main One currently has a growing list of major telecom, ISPs and enterprise customers including MTN Nigeria, Etisalat, Starcomms, Swift Networks, Mobitel, Netcom, IPNX, Visafone, e-Tranzact and among others.

Main One Cable is the first submarine cable company offering open access, wholesale broadband capacity in West Africa.

This objective is being realized through a submarine cable system which commenced operations in July 2010 linking West Africa to the rest of the world via Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Further Opeke said that Main One Cable’s vision is to be the most reliable, scalable and professionally managed international telecommunications service provider on the African continent.

“Our high capacity fibre ensures that reliable, affordable and first class service delivery of much needed broadband capacity is easily available and accessible within West Africa for regional and international operators as well as service providers,” she said.

Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Alexa.com says VConnect is fastest portal in Nigeria

Alexa.com has pronounced VConnect the fastest growing web portal in the country.

VConnect prides itself as Nigeria’s largest local search engine and leading information service provider, while Alexa.com provides information about websites including top sites, Internet traffic stats and metrics, related links, online reviews contact information and search.

Confirming this, the General Manager, VConnect Global Services Limited, Mr. Deepankar Rustagi said that according to the ranking of top websites used in Nigeria and released by Alexa.com, the world’s most reliable source of website ranking, saw VConnect only launched six months ago emerging the fastest growing website in the country.

He described the ranking as a remarkable milestone in the annals of the company which focus has been to provide local information to Nigerians wherever, whenever free of charge.

“We are proud to announce that VConnect has now been rated by a globally recognized website, alexa.com as the fastest growing web portal in Nigeria. This is certainly a great achievement for us as it goes to validate our claim as the largest local search engine in Nigeria,” he said.

Rustagi claimed that apart from being fastest growing web portal, VConnect ranked fourth most used website in the overall ranking of Nigerian local website according to the statistics on alexa.com, with Vanguard, Nairaland and Punch websites ranking first, second and third respectively.

He revealed that the internet growth rate in Nigeria over the last five years has been a healthy one of about 65 per cent growth rate, which means that Nigeria has the largest internet user base in Africa with over 50 million people reaping the benefits.

He urged business owners especially those in the small and medium scale category that are not yet registered on the web portal to join the over 200,000 businesses already listed on the website noting that VConnect is now a veritable medium for advertising through which businesses could effectively reach their target audience.

While appreciating visitors to VConnect website, Deepankar hinted that VConnect already has over 12,000 fans on its Facebook page while several millions visit the website or use the call centre for information on a daily basis.

Set up with the vision of providing the most reliable and exhaustive information about products and services, VConnect was launched in March to offer local information to Nigerians with convenience of using the website or through phone call to 070 0000 8888.

Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D