NAFDAC’s exploring e-regulatory – Akunyili

THE National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) is exploring e-regulatory practices so as to always be ahead regulatory issues even before they arise, reports CHARLES OKOH.

Stating this was the Director-General of the agency, Prof. Dora Akunyili during the recently concluded Computer, Telecommunications and Office equipment (CTO 2008) exhibition and conference at the Muson Centre, Onikan-Lagos.

Prof. Akunyili, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Enforcement Directorate, Mrs. T. O. Owolabi, said as the world becomes more and more e-operational, regulators including NAFDAC are also fast on the heels of these developments and the Nigeria cannot be left behind because electronics have turned the world into a virtual village.

She added that leveraging on technology for initial administration and control is a prerequisite for industrial development.

She disclosed that some of the areas of need for e-regulation in the agency include technologies to facilitate the policing of Nigeria’s vast international boarders to prevent entry of counterfeit products; systems that facilitate effective communication within NAFDAC, with regulated industries and other regulatory activities in the West African regions; affordable Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) as well as track and trace devices as well as markers capable of clearly distinguishing genuine food, drugs and other NAFDAC regulated products from counterfeits.

Also, she highlighted the capacity building for agency officials in the use of technology for regulatory control as well as regulations of the NAFDAC regulated industries among others.

According to her, “All nations and regions of the world must develop, embrace or be able to leverage technology for sustainable development. The reality of technology driven success such as in Dubai, China, among others, underscores the possibilities offered by the CTO 2008 conference which focuses on telemedicine, distance learning and on-line transactions.”

Mrs. Akunyili further said the country is already enjoying the good fruits of leveraging on technology with collaborative efforts between National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited of the United Kingdom, which resulted in the launching of Nigeria ’s first earth observation satellite project in 2000 and the birth of NIGCOMSAT-1 on May 14, 2007.

The collaboration, she noted, has the potentials to open up the country to the global frontiers and global economic competitiveness, as expectations are currently high that the satellite infrastructure could be used to offer high-speed voice, data, and video transmission networks in Nigeria.

Prof. Akunyili added that the growth in the telecommunications industries in recent years in the country has opened new doors for employment, investment, national security, economic growth, and sustainable development and that, hopefully, the third generation services from the industry will propel the country into greater information and communication technology (ICT) growth.

She also stated that the country must rush into telemedicine, which has moved from the realms of science fiction and research to reality as it has already proven capability to improve the quality of healthcare delivery to urban and remote rural dwellers.

Health providers, she said, are now able to monitor patients remotely, process data and obtain an alert if there is a problem and this, it is hoped, will reduce cost of health care delivery while improving quality of service.

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UNECA shows interest in I4J initiative

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has shown interest in partnering with a Nigerian-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) promoting Internet in the country since 1995, the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) on its Internet for Jobs (I4J) initiative.

President, NIG, Mr. Lanre Ajayi disclosed this at the weekend in Lagos during a one-day seminar on I4J held on the theme “Internet for Jobs: Creating Jobs by promoting eCommerce.”

He said NIG was excited to note the tremendous interest shown by the UNECA in the I4J initiative.

“We’re hopeful that they will soon become a promoter of I4J, as a representative of the international community in the multi-sectoral partnership constituted to promote the initiative,” he said.

Already, he said, advertisement for the project submission by individuals and corporate organisations in the country under the I4J, have been placed and the outcome showed that Nigerians posses enormous potentials that are waiting to be tapped.

“We are about to be proven right in our belief that given the right environment and the right encouragement Nigerians can excel even in electronic business (e-business) and e-government,” he said.

NIG, he said, is confident that I4J initiative would kick start a dotcom boom in the country, where many online businesses are expected to spring up and create wealth for the people.

“We are also confident that some of the projects that will benefit from the I4J initiative shall grow to become multinational companies in the mood of Yahoo, Amazon, Google and so on,” he said.

According to him, the success recorded so far would not have been possible without the personal and organisational commitment of the likes of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) led by Dr. Ernest Ndukwe and Director Mrs. Mary Uduma, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) under Prof. Cleopas Angaye and members of the execo as well as committee chairmen.

He recalled that on July 12 last year, the initiative was launched by the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Ndukwe, adding that the core strategies of I4J in promoting the Internet as platform for creating jobs, aside from giving grants, is to organise seminars to create awareness about the potentials of the Internet for jobs creation.

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Minna hosts telecom parliament tomorrow

The 46th edition of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC’s) Telecom Consumer Parliament would tomorrow, Tuesday May 27, 2008 hold at the Shiroro Hotel, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe Way, Minna, Niger State.

Head, Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Dave Imoko who disclosed this at the weekend said that the parliament is billed to take off at 12.00noon prompt.

He also noted that the monthly Telecom Consumer Parliament puts telecoms operators and the industry regulator on the spotlight of the consumers.

Just as he said, the 46th edition of the event would deal with the services of both fixed line and mobile operators.

The parliament, he said, would handle all issues pertaining to quality of service, consumer rights protection, environmental impact assessment, interconnection, tariffs and Universal Service Provision (USP) among others.

He explained that the programme would also feature a forum discussion with the title “Consumer Rights and Education”.

The audience, he said, would include major stakeholders in the industry, opinion leaders, public affairs and policy analysts, government officials and students.

Mr. Imoko, therefore advised interested public among all telecoms services consumers to attend the interactive programme that would be recorded for a network broadcast on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and other television stations.

Meanwhile, as part of its responsibilities in educating the telecom consumers in the country, NCC recently warned subscribers to be cautious about some dubious text messages making a round that people should switch off their mobile phones for the fear of an alleged radiation wave.

A press statement made available to Daily Champion informed that the attention of the Commission, has been drawn to the content of what he described as “a dubious text messages which asked users of mobile phones to switch off their handsets at 11 PM penultimate Tuesday, May 20, 2008, to avoid alleged radiation wave that may circulate through “handphone towers”.

According to him, the commission wishes to advise the general public to discountenance such dubious messages, as there is still no conclusive evidence of any harmful effects of mobile phone usage, or telecommunications towers.

NCC, he said, has noted that the text must have originated from some unscrupulous elements in the society who are bent on misinforming the public, therefore the Commission maintained that the content of the text message is incorrect, and the

“Metro TV” station quoted as the source of the story is non-existent in Nigeria.

He emphasised that mobile phone handsets and towers were not designed to be controlled remotely as to cause any harmful radiation as suggested in the text message.

“Such equipment are designed to have limited radiation capacity in order to avoid harmful radiation effects in their usage,” he said.

Imoko further added that the World Health Organization (WHO), has been involved in several research studies to determine the possibility of harmful effects in the use of mobile phones and towers.

He pointed out that such studies have never led to any conclusive evidence that mobile phones and towers cause harmful radiation of any kind.

“Several studies have also been carried out in the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and other European countries from 2004 till date without any conclusive evidence about the harmful effects of mobile phone handsets or towers,” he said.

The public, especially subscribers of telecommunications in the country are hereby warned to ignore any of such text messages in the future as the Commission is in the better position to inform the public “if, and whenever there is any harmful effect in the use of any telecommunications equipment.”

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Spotigo unveils WiPS

German-based software service provider, Spotigo, has unveiled its Wireless Fidelity (WiFi)-based positioning solution (WiPS), reports GERALDINE OKOLIE.

The latest solution, the company said sets new standard in positioning accuracy.

The unveiling which took place penultimate week at the city centre in London, according to Spotigo chief executive, Mr. Daniel Prumers, was showcasing of his firm’s achievement of 5 million WiFi-based positioning technology.

“You see your exact current location without any support by Global Positioning Technology (GPS) or Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM),” he said.

This calculation, he said, is done even faster than by conventional positioning technology with the result being amazing.

While commenting on the inception, features and advantages of WiPS, Mr. Prumers said that WiPS identifies the user’s position on the basis of the received WiFi signal patterns.

“It is the perfect compliment to GPS since it compensates the limitations of satellite-based positioning, especially in the urban areas with high buildings and narrow streets. WiPS usually generates more accurate results than GPS,” he declared.

Another important merit of this technology, Prumers said is the indoor and third dimension (3D) functionality.

As a Business-To-Business (B2B) company, he pointed out that Spotigo offers WiPS to companies, municipalities and organisations interested in offering high quality locations-based services or location-bas advertising.

“It also works perfectly as a stand-alone potion, making it possible to offer location-aware content on all mobile devices without GPS module,” Prumers said.

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Nigeria: Exploring ICT for wealth creation

The Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Dr. Hamadoun Touré, has described Nigeria as a better example of a developing nation using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for wealth creation.

Speaking as the special guest during the Nigeria’s day at the five-day event organised by the ITU annually which ended weekend at the Cairo International Convention and Exhibition Centre, in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, Dr. Toure said that given the growth witnessed in Nigeria in the past seven years within the ICT, it should serve as example for other developing economies, especially on the continent of Africa.

According to him, Nigeria has shown commitment in ICT, which has in turn transformed the regulation of the industry into predictability.

As said by him, predictable environment affords investors to forecast accurately thereby giving hope for the investing public.

He pointed out that no investor would like to go to an environment that is not profit friendly.

“People would not come if they are not assured of making profit,” he declared, stressing that two-third of the global workforce is in ICT industry.

He also advocated for wealth creation rather than the so-called poverty alleviation, saying that those who are interested in creating wealth should see Nigeria as their destination.

“So those who are interested in creating wealth should go to Nigeria,” he asserted.

Dr. Touré further reiterated the commitment of ITU in connecting the unconnected.

“ICT has to be the catalyst to bridge the digital divide,” he said, assuring Nigeria to keep up the good work in terms of creating enabling environment for investors to tap from.

“If you have regulatory bias come to ITU and we’re committed to close the digital divide,” he counselled.

Corroborating Touré, the Nigeria’s Charge De Affairs in Egypt, Mr. Adewunmi Azeez, assured foreign investors on the Federal Government’s determination to facilitate smooth environment for them.

Nigeria, he said, is a fertile land and needs to be exploited and indeed expecting those who know their onion to take this opportunity.

“Nigeria is a fertile land for investments,” Mr. Azeez joined by a Minister at the embassy, Mr. Ayuba Kewa to the occasion said.

The event has in attendance top government officials including the chairman, Board of Commissioners at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Alhaji Ahmed Joda, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) NCC, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, and chief executives of key public and private companies in Nigeria as well as telecom firms namely Etisalat Nigeria Limited, Mr. Saoud Al Shamsi, Celtel chief executive, Mr. Bayo Ligali and President, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), Mr. Ndukwe Kalu, to name a few.

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Steps to observe packet spoofing by ISPs (8)

Wireshark could be configured to colour these packets differently so that they stand out in a packet display.

Keep in mind that there are legitimate uses for FIN and RST packets within the TCP standards and that the presence of forged FIN or RST packets, not the presence of such packets generally, is suspicious.

A client software or firewall bug, for example, could cause one end of a connection to disconnect prematurely - but that isn’t the ISP’s fault!

*If a problem you’re investigating is widespread, someone may already have published claims about precisely when or under what circumstances spoofed packets may appear; you can consult the details of other people’s allegations to see whether you can reproduce these claims for yourself.

Setting aside the possibility of fragmentation, we have explained that packets are spoofed when they are received by one computer but were not transmitted by the other computer.

Below, we give examples of summary views showing a BitTorrent transfer disrupted by TCP RST spoofing:

Before the RST packets begin (packet no. 2338 in the local capture and packet no. 2549 in the remote capture 9), the packets transmitted and received correspond directly to one another (although they appear in rather different orders).

Ten Once the RST packets begin, a large number of packets are received at each end that do not correspond to packets transmitted at the other end. We can verify this by looking at the detailed contents of these packets (for example, their sequence numbers, which are displayed by Wireshark as Seq=nnnnn), although simply counting them tells the tale in this case.

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Take advantage of ICT, Ibru tells SMEs

Young and aspiring entrepreneurs have been advised to take advantage of the growing availability of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the country as a means of saving running cost of their businesses, reports Charles Okoh.

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Oceanic Bank International Plc, Dr. (Mrs.) Cecilia Ibru, gave this advice over the weekend at the recently concluded Computer, Telecommunications and Office equipment exhibition (CTO 2008).

She implored medium and small scale entrepreneurs not to despair despite the unfavourable macroeconomic environment, but to develop the right mindset to go through and achieve success while advising new start-ups not to envy others but remain resolute and focused until they have achieved their goals.

Mrs. Ibru who spoke on Business Financing: Getting the Fundamentals Right for SME and Microfinance, said the theme of the exhibition, A world without borders, is apt and should challenge young entrepreneurs to realize that there is no limit or failure for any aspiring entrepreneur with can-do-it spirit.

She listed some of the challenges of business financing in the country as, limited number of attractive investment opportunities and lack of enabling environment for businesses; dearth of reliable information on industries, which obscures investment opportunities; inability of entrepreneurs to articulate business plans due to lack of sophistication/skills; low level of management and technical competence; unwillingness of entrepreneurs to dilute holdings as well as the ‘national cake’ mindset which make most of the entrepreneurs to go the banks unprepared for the scrutiny the SMEEIS scheme entails among others.

She also encouraged entrepreneurs to pay their taxes because that is the only way they could demand provision of infrastructure from the government, noting that the country is rich and not poor because foreigners extract from here and make wealth for themselves outside the country.

The week-long exhibition which took place from May 12 to 16, 2008, the tool of the U.S. Commercial Service in Nigeria to encourage local companies in association with their U.S. suppliers and manufacturers of computers, telecommunications and office equipment to showcase the every best of American technology, equipment and services available in Nigeria for the sub region.

The exhibition featured an all-day, special-event seminar on the first day and a four-day exhibition with private seminars, workshops, product/services launching and demonstration was declared open official last week Tuesday by the U.S Ambassador to Nigeria. Ms Robin Renee Sander, Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele and the MD/CEO Fidelity Bank Plc, Mr. Reginald Ihejiahi.

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Computer Warehouse takes Wincor ATM to 2nd level

Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) alongside other worldwide partners of Wincor Nixdorf brand of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) said that it has taken ATM to the second position.

CWG Nigeria is partnering Wincor Nixdorf through its subsidiary, Computer Warehouse Limited (CWL) on the sales and services of Wincor ATMs in the country.

Disclosing this, the Managing Director, Wincor Nixdorf, Mr. Joerg Brinkmoler announced in the company’s half yearly executive management meeting in Frankfurt recently that its ATM shipping globally has risen to No. 2, attributing this success to the relentless sales efforts of Wincor’s partners including CWL.

A press statement from CWG endorsed by the Manager Marketing Communications, Ms Morenike Popoola quoted Brinkmoller as paying tribute to his firm’s partners.

“… As they have made this tremendous success possible in each single country with each single account. Without your constant effort and contribution this success will not have been achievable. We very much appreciate that all of you make this happen,” he said.

In a related development CWG recently won the Wincor Nixdorf’s “Award for best new partner” following a remarkable achievement in deployment and support for the acclaimed Wincor ATMs in Nigeria.

Presented by Mr. Brinkmoller, he noted that it was for achieving sales in 2007 fiscal year of over $5m and the timely deployment of over 600 ATMs in the period, the highest achieved by any new partner of Wincor.

She said, going by the statistics, Wincor is rapidly gaining market share and aims at No 1 position in the very near future.

CWG comprises three subsidiary companies in each of the disciplines of Information Technology namely, CWL for infrastructure, DCC for networks and ExpertEdge for software.

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NCC lifts four institutions with books

Apex telecom regulator in the country, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has donated a total of 385 more books on Engineering as well as information and communication technology (ICT) to four institutions in different parts of the country in support of capacity building in telecommunications and ICT in Nigeria.

Head, Public Affairs at NCC, Mr. Dave Imoko, said the benefiting institutions in this phase of the NCC book donation project were University of Calabar, Calabar, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, and Federal Polytechnic, Offa.

Each of the three universities, he said, received 100 books while the polytechnic got 85 books, all of which were the latest editions.

According to him, delegations of the NCC comprising Commissioners and management staff were at the four institutions between April 6 and May 16, 2008 to present the books to the heads of the institutions.

He also said that the donation is NCC role in keeping to its socially responsible corporate citizenship stand and in response to the dearth of up-to-date books in most tertiary educational institutions and public libraries in the country, the NCC took the initiative to procure the books for them.

The benefiting institutions in the first phase of the NCC book donation project in 2007 were Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu, Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna, and Gombe State Library, Gombe, each of which received 100 books.

The project, Imoko further said was designed to provide current, high quality Engineering and ICT books to tertiary educational institutions and public libraries in the six geo-political zones of the country.

While the objective of the project, he explained is to give future professionals in the ICT industry the opportunity to acquire quality education as well as to promote the reading culture among the youth.

In this phase of the project which took place at the University of Calabar a Commissioner of NCC, Chief Patrick Kentebe, presented the books to the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic, Professor Friday Mbon, and at Nnamdi Azikiwe University the Vice Chancellor, Professor Ilochi Okafor, received the books from a Commissioner of the NCC, Dr. Michael Onyia.

Also in this phase, the Vice Chancellor of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Professor Babatunde Adeleke, received the books from the Executive Commissioner, Licensing and Consumer Affairs, Engr. Steve Bello, while a Commissioner, Mr. Bayo Atoyebi, presented the books to the Librarian at Federal Polytechnic, Offa.

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IHS reiterates commitment to quality service

Telecom infrastructure provider, IHS Nigeria Limited, is riding on its recent ISO 9001 certification to reiterate commitment on provision of quality of service for its clientele.

Managing Director, HIS Nigeria, Mr. William Saad made this commitment at a one day training session at The Scarlet Lodge to familiarize its subcontractors with the processes and procedures that must be followed to fully comply with the international quality standard.

He assured that such training would be made quarterly by his firm to constantly keep clientele and subcontractors current.

He also said that IHS commitment to good quality of service is to avail it to remain the best in the telecom infrastructure services sector through the delivery of high quality services at affordable cost and to serve their clients with the best ethical norms, honesty and transparency.

“With over 1200 towers and masts erected across the county and implementation ISO 9001: 2000, we strive to ensure Nigeria ’s realization of its telecommunications aspirations as the African telecommunication powerhouse,” he said.

The training session moderated by the renowned telecom expert, Mr Titi Omo-Ettu, witnessed several speakers from various aspects of quality control and associated procedures under ISO 9001. Participants at the session included, Country Manger of Motorola Nigeria Limited, Mr. Ralph Udeogu and Manager of Community Relations at Celtel Nigeria Ltd, Mr. Femi Kayode among others.

Commenting on the event, Mr. Udeogu stressed the importance of implementing quality of service procedures as the basis for the growth of various companies.

Champion Infotel recalls that IHS Nigeria Ltd is a pioneer in the various aspects of telecom infrastructure services ranging from the building of telecom infrastructure to the management (O&M) and sharing/collocation aspects.

IHS was setup in 2001 as the Nigerian Communications Commission opened the telecommunications market, its customers cut across MTEL, MTN and Econet (Currently Celtel) to provide GSM services before eventually licensing two more and several Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators and other PTO’s.

IHS has built infrastructure in more than 30 states and have offices in Lagos, Abuja, Benin and Port Harcourt, just as its a member of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and is licensed by NCC to sell and maintain telecom infrastructure and equipments.

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