Etisalat lifts 500 university students

Etisalat Nigeria has lifted some 500 university students with scholarships grants, as part of its corporate social responsibility.

Speaking on the rationale behind the Merit Awards Scheme, chief executive officer, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Steven Evans, who was represented by the Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs, Mr. Ibrahim Dikko, described education as a powerful tool for change and economic growth.

According to him, dynamic economies that have emerged in the last 30 years have done so on the back of heavy investment in education, stressing that this has driven the company’s desire to support the government in encouraging improvement in the educational sector in Nigeria.

The grants, he said, were given under its Merit Awards Scheme, an initiative built on its core CSR platform of empowering Nigerian youths to obtain qualitative education.

He said that about 90 of these university students recently received their grants of N100,000 each at the Etisalat Merit Awards regional presentation ceremony held at the Afficient Event Place in Kano.

And like the students, their respective schools also received a grant of N100,000 from the telecommunication company.

These schools he listed to include the University of Abuja; Bayero University, Kano; Usmanu Dan Fodio University, Sokoto; Kaduna State University; Benue State University; Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, and Federal University of Technology, Yola.

He also said the scheme was one of four major programmes on Etisalat’s education platform. The others include the Adopt-A-School initiative, Teacher Training Programme and the establishment of the Etisalat CSR Centre.

He pointed out that the Merit Awards scheme focuses on tertiary education, rewarding and encouraging excellent academic performance. And the scheme appears to be paying off, from feedback by the partner universities and recipient awardees.

Commenting on the development, a third-year student of the department of Electrical/Electronics Engineering of the University of Abuja, Ferdinand Enyereibe Nwaoha, and two time recipient of the award has already moved from being a second class upper student to being a first class student.

“The award has impacted on me positively, and in many ways. For instance, with the money from the scholarship, I was able to buy a brand new laptop and an internet modem, which has helped to broaden my means of studying. Now I can study with ease, as a lot of the challenges I had before have been eliminated. I can also study and do my assignments online, while also keeping abreast of latest developments in my field of study,” he said.

He noted that the scholarship made him to study harder, knowing that if he maintains the academic excellence, Etisalat would reward him again, and that is what has happened.

“Last year, I came in as a second class upper student with a CGPA of 4.34, but this year, I came in as a first class student with a CGPA of 4.55, and that was from the encouragement I got from the award,” he said.

Another beneficiary, a third-year student of the department of Electrical Electronics of the Bayero University, Kano and two time awardee, Sherafdeen Muhammad, he thanked Etisalat for the award, adding that it has impacted positively on his life, especially in his studies. According to him, the award has helped him in the purchase of text books, which he ordinarily wouldn’t have been able to afford due to their prices.

Also, speaking the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics), Bayero University, Kano, Prof. Muhammad Bello, commended Etisalat Nigeria for what it has done in the educational sector in less than three years, not only through the scholarship scheme, but also through its Adopt-A-School initiative and other programmes. 

He urged other corporate organizations to emulate Etisalat, arguing that if all corporate bodies can do half of what the company has done, the nation will be the better for it.

Remmy Nweke
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Ojobo swaps post with Imoko, others too @ NCC

Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah has repositioned three directors, two deputy directors, eight assistant directors and more than a dozen other managers moved to new position.

A press statement made available to ITRealms Online and signed by Head, Media and Public Relations, Mr. Reuben Muoka, noted that the new postings saw the redeployment of Mr. Abdullahi Maikano, a deputy director as the new Secretary of the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), while the director and former secretary of the fund, Mr. Funso Fayomi, moved to head the Projects department of the Commission.

In the movement, the erstwhile Director of Human Capital and Infrastructure, Mr. Tony Ojobo,  swapped position with immediate past Director, Public Affairs, Mr. Dave Imoko, who now takes charge of the Human Capital and Infrastructure department as the director.

Ms. Ayodeji Sofolahan, a deputy director and former head of administration swapped positions with Mr. Sikiru Ibitoye, an assistant director and former Head, Government and Legislative Affairs, GLA, while Mr. 

A. K Yakubu, an assistant director in charge of Consultancy Unit at the Corporate Planning and Strategy department now  moved to head the Information, Technology Project unit of USPF.

Whereas, Mr. Ike Adinde, an assistant director and former Head, Procurement, swapped positions with the Mr. Chukwuma Azikiwe, an assistant director in the Human Capital department.

Also in the movements, Mrs. Felicia Onwuegbuchulam, an assistant director and former head of finance at USPF, moved to the Finance department of the Commission while her position at USPF was taken over by Mrs. Nkechi Obiekwe.

Mr. Bako Wakil also an assistant director who was in charge of Information Technology unit of USPF was moved to the Technical Standards and Network Integrity, TSNI, department while Mr. Haru Alhassan, an assistant director, formerly of the TSNI,  moved to the department of New Media and Information Security, NMIS, department. Engr. Someira Jumbo, an assistant director in TSNI moved to a new desk to head the Quality of Service unit of the same department.

Mr. Okechukwu Aninweke, a Principal Manager now heads the Lagos Zonal Office of the Commission while Mr. M.L Ibrahim, now heads the Kano Zonal Office of the Commission, a position he swapped with Mr. Adamu Amshi, a principal manager is now posted to the administration department at NCC headquarters.

Also affected were Mr. Ogbonnaya Ugama, Miss Freda Murray-Bruce, both principal managers who were now moved to the Corporate Planning and Strategy Department from their respective USPF, and Projects department.

Dr. Juwah said in a statement to the staff that the movement is aimed at injecting greater dynamism in the functional delivery of assignments, and producing well rounded staff with broad knowledge of the Commission and its mandates.

The new chief image maker of the Commission, Mr. Tony Ojobo, who has assumed duties, comes to the new position with deep knowledge of the industry, with M.Sc. in Public Administration from the University of Lagos, and an MBA degree in marketing with specialization in branding.

Remmy Nweke
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Zinox to commission digital plant in 2012

Chairman of Zinox Technologies, Dr. Leo-Stan Ekeh, has said that plans have been advanced to commission the company’s digital plant by February 2012.

Addressing newsmen on Monday on the occasion of his firm’s 10 years of operation in the country, Dr. Ekeh also said that the plant could be commercialized if the demand is there.

He said that the commissioning depends entirely on the ability of the federal government to sustain and surpass the current power supply.

“If the power supply would be stable as it was some two weeks ago and all things being equal, we shall commission the digital plant by February 2012,” he said.

The digital plant to be located in Gbagada, Lagos, he said, has gotten most of the things and fittings needed in place except for power, which is very critical.

“We’re trusting the miracle of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to fix power,” he said.

On the possible commercialization of the plant, he said, it all depends on the needs; stressing those Nigerian companies would do better, but need government’s support via patronage.

Ekeh also commended the customers of Zinox in the past 10 years, saying that the federal government and the media have been all very supportive, although more work is yet to be done to achieved the goals of the founding fathers of Zinox.

He noted that the past decade of Zinox has been very tough, saying that Zinox has survived the past 10 years pass through three governments, namely Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and now Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

“We thank God we have survived. We have passed through three governments,” he said, adding that Zinox is yet to achieve its set objectives.

This, he said, was tied to the fact that at Zinox, they have expectation that 10 years after, most Nigerian families should have started living digital lives.

“We have not succeeded, it’s still a long way,” he said, pointing out that Zinox strength rests on innovation, its staff and customers who have found favour with Zinox products.

“Our staff is our power,” he declared, adding that the launch of Legacy Notebook recently was a success as it has continued to gain attraction.

On Zinox whiz kid product, he said, the company has vowed to deliver Nigeria education through it as any child that go through it has all it takes to pass in green colours during any examinations.

“If a child goes through it and don’t pass, we refund you,” he asserted, noting that it comes on a notebook and has been made to be accessible offline, but not easily copied from one system to another.

For Zinox prestige, he said, it’s the flagship of the Zinox brand of personal computing and has been doing well in the market place.

Ekeh emphasized that Zinox as a brand, has added value to the digital economy of this country and is not relenting, thus requesting government’s support.

He described Zinox as mustard seed that is destined to challenge capitalist structures of the 20th century by promoting a knowledge economy through digital democracy.

Ekeh pointed out that Zinox in a short period has in addition to being the pioneer of Nigeria’s first Internationally certified computer manufacturers has institutionalized high-end Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions by moving the sector to the next level with its innovative products.

He added that over 10 years, Zinox has assisted people both within and outside the country to achieve their dreams and aspirations as well as deploy their potentials to create wealth and richer lives for themselves and their societies.

He further said that by using technology to proffer simple solutions to the day-to-day challenges that they face at home, school, work and even at play.

Zinox was founded in 2001 by a team of ICT technocrats-led by Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, and has since flourished into one of the leading ICT ecosystem on the continent.

Remmy Nweke

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September records 72% email-borne malware – Report

The results of the September 2011 edition of Symantec Intelligence Report has revealed that 72 per cent of electronic mail (email)-borne malware.

Malware is short form of malicious software, which consists of programming; code, scripts, active content, and other software, designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, gain unauthorized access to system resources, and other abusive behavior.

Also, Malware is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code.

Senior Intelligence Analyst, Symantec.cloud, Mr. Paul Wood, noted that September’s analysis reveals that a deluge of malicious email-borne Malware has left a clear mark on the threat landscape for September.

According to him, approximately 72 per cent of all email-borne malware in September could be characterized as aggressive strains of generic polymorphic malware, first identified in the July Symantec Intelligence Report.

At the end of July, he said, this rate was 23.7 per cent, in August but it fell slightly to 18.5 per cent before soaring to 72 per cent in September.

“This unprecedented high-water mark underlines the nature by which cyber criminals have escalated their assault on businesses in 2011, fully exploiting the weaknesses of more traditional security countermeasures,” he said.

Further analysis, he said, also revealed that the social engineering behind many of these attacks has accelerated, with the adoption of a variety of new techniques such as pretending to be an email from a smart printer and scanner being forwarded by a colleague in the same organization.

Equally, he said, the idea of an office printer sending malware is perhaps an unlikely one, as printers and scanners were not actually used in these attacks, but perhaps this sense of security is all that is required for such a socially engineered attack to succeed in the future.

Wood said although spam levels remained fairly stable during September, Symantec Intelligence observed the use of identified vulnerabilities in certain older versions of the popular WordPress blogging software on a large number of web sites across the Internet.

Spam emails, he said, contained links to these compromised web sites were also being spammed out.

“It is important to note that blogs hosted by WordPress themselves seem to be unaffected,” he explained.

Emphasising that the exploitation of these vulnerabilities to serve spammers’ interests is a stark reminder for the need to ensure software is up-to-date with latest patches and releases.

Additional research, he said, revealed that JavaScript is becoming increasing popular as programming language by spammers and malware authors.

“JavaScript is increasingly used to conceal where spammers are redirecting, and in some cases, also to conceal entire Web pages,” he said, stressing that for spammers, hosting simple JavaScript obfuscation pages on free hosting sites could increase the lifetime of that site before the site operator realizes the page is being used for malicious activity.

“JavaScript is popularly used for redirecting visitors of a compromised Web site to the spammers landing page. While some of these techniques have been common in malware distribution for some time, spammers are increasingly using them,” Wood said.

Remmy Nweke

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End of Microsoft XP support increases virtualisation - Study

Less than 1,000 days to end of support deadline for Microsoft Windows XP, organisations across the globe are reporting they are accelerating their migration to modern desktops powered by Windows 7, has given rise to virtualisation.

ITRealms Online recalls that April 8, 2014 has been documented as the deadline for Microsoft to offer support on its Windows XP.

This follows reported high level of awareness among these organisations of desktop virtualisation’s potential to simplify the move to a new operating system such as Windows 7 is driving their decision to invest.

These were some of the key findings of a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dimension Data on the desktop virtualisation market.

According to the study, of the 546 organisations that were surveyed, close to half (46 per cent) showed that they had begun ‘aggressive efforts’ to migrate to Windows 7, with a further 17 per cent planning to deploy within the next year.

While 13 per cent of companies said they had completed their enterprise-wide migrations, 51 per cent of Information Technology (IT) managers surveyed said they have linked their Windows 7 migrations to their organisation’s Personal Computers (PC) refresh cycle.

“Around 21 per cent of enterprises are prioritising desktop and application virtualisation over their Windows 7 upgrade, and 29 per cent are deliberately overlapping their investments in Windows 7 and desktop virtualisation,” he said.

Reacting to this development, the General Manager, Microsoft Solutions, Dimension Data West Africa, Mr. Jide Agbaje, said organisations that have not initiated plans to migrate to Windows 7 are under increasing pressure to beat the Windows XP end-of-support deadline.

“Of somewhat greater concern is the fact that independent software vendors (ISVs) will soon discontinue developing applications for Windows XP, while hardware vendors support drivers other than those designed for XP,” he said.
 

He also said that other organisations surveyed numbered 22 per cent, noted they do not have a Windows 7 deployment plan in place, and another 13 per cent were uncertain how long their deployments will take.

Remmy Nweke
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New national ID card: Nigeria netizens petition FEC

Nigerian Internet citizens (Netizens) may have began mobilization against the recent approval of the Federal  Executive Council (FEC) for another phase of fresh national identity card project expected to gulp N30.66 billion, even as they petitioned FEC.

Netizens are persons who have become part of the Internet community in cyberspace, which is defined as a notional environment in which communication over computer networks occurs.

This kind of communication based on the internet involves a computer network consisting of a worldwide network of computer networks that use of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) cum Internet Protocol (IP), used to govern the connection of computer systems to the Internet TCP/IP network protocols that facilitate data transmission and exchange.

Lead organisers of netizens, most of whom are youths against the new ID project and the Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN), Mr. Gbenga Sesan, said that it is disheartening to note that at this era and time the federal government is still embarking on another identification card project after the recently Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) projects respectively.

In an open letter to the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, a copy of which was made available to ITRealms Online, the group which has at the time of filing this story gathered some 40 endorsements, stated that they received with shock the news that government at the end of its last FEC meeting on Wednesday, September 28, 2011, approved a fresh national identity card exercise at estimated cost of “over N30 billion.”

The letter tagged, ‘Re: New National ID Card exercise’ the Netizens, while thank the Minister for his continued effort towards making Nigeria a better place, noted that the proclamation on the fresh ID project calls for concern.

They recalled that not long ago, INEC spent the sum of N87.7 billion to gather biometric and additional N73, 528,040 on data, purposely for the 2011 April elections cum voters registration exercise.

Also, they called to mind that NCC recently was given N6.1 billion for the just completed registration of Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards in the country for the estimated 60 million active lines, for yet another biometric data exercise.

“… It is surprising that another exercise that could have been built on the earlier efforts has now been approved,” the group decried.

This group of Netizens reminded Maku of the promise of the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure efficient proper management of the nation’s meagre resources that have been kept in their trust.

“We write as concerned citizens who have been assured by experts that this huge waste of unavailable national resource can be avoided by utilising existing data,” part of the letter stated.

They, therefore, requested that Information Minister use his good offices to ask Mr. President, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian economy, to consider the revocation of this recently approved national identity card exercise.

“… Or provide convincing technical justification why such enormous national resources should be committed to an apparent duplication of efforts by the Independent National Electoral Commission and the Nigerian Communications Commission,” they insisted.

The letter, Sesan noted has been copied to the Presidency, Senate President’s Office, Speaker’s Office, Hon. Minister of Finance, Hon. Minister of Communication and Technology, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission.

According to him, the group warned that if its request is not met with adequate attention, they may be forced to fully mobilize the citizenry to boycott the intended new national ID card exercise.

“We will not hesitate to mobilise the citizenry to boycott the proposed national identity card exercise in order to drive home the point that Nigeria must not spend tomorrow’s resources to plug today’s waste,” the group submitted.

ITRealms Online recollects that FEC gave the approval for the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), to embark on the provision of an electronic national identity card for all Nigerians of 18 years old and above, at the cost of N30.66 billion.

Remmy Nweke:

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