Nsukka TCP forum to dwell on SIM card registration

THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) consumer forum, which comes tomorrow in Nsukka would dwell on Sim card registration: A veritable tool for consumer protection.

A press statement made available to ITRealms Online, stated that the impact the exercise would have on the statistical data base of the nation and the need to protect subscribers from theft of handsets informed the decision to embark on the exercise.

It said in spite of the initial furor and objection raised by the exercise, it remains a veritable tool for telephone consumer protection in the country.

The forum which would bring together stakeholders from all walks of life would also educate the people on the necessity for the exercise.

“The NCC in its characteristic responsible stance, has taken up the gauntlet in ensuring that this vice is curbed maximally by educating consumers on the necessity of registering SIM cards as a way of dissuading snatchers and thieves of handsets,” part of the statement said.

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Etisalat relaunches EasyCliq

Etisalat Nigeria, on Monday in Lagos relaunched its EasyCliq package designed to address the lifestyle of youth market segment. Just as its subscriber base has reached over 6 million.

ITRealms Online recalls that EasyCliq was initially launched on May 8, 2009, but owing to its impact, the operator decided to relaunch the product with additional features of Cliq of the week and of the day.

Chief Commercial Officer for Etisalat Nigeria, Mr. Wael Ammar said that Cliq for the week offers 15 mega byte of free data browsing for subscribers when they recharge with N200 or more weekly, the Cliq for the day offers discounted call rate of 25 kobo per second to other Easy Cliq subscribers at a daily fee of N5.

The reloaded Easy Cliq, he also noted comes with features like unlimited Short Messaging Service (SMS), free midnight calls, Talk ‘n’ share, Bonus on incoming calls and one cliq one tune, which endeared the product to the youth and young at heart. Ammar pointed out that the product was repackaged to meet the ever-increasing demand of the youth market for unique service offerings and data services.

“Easy Cliq is repackaged to showcase our commitment to subscribers who constantly desire a refreshing and dynamic approach to expressing themselves in the way they communicate with friends and loved ones,“ he said.

Explaining how to migrate, Ammar said for Cliq for the day, a subscribers simply need to dial *330*1# or send ‘On’ to 330 and subsequently receive a notification confirming their subscription to benefit from the tariff proposition. Subscription to Easy Cliq for the day can be confirmed by dialing *330# or by sending ‘Help’ to 330. To opt out of the plan, subscribers will dial *330*2# or send ‘off’ to 330.

Ammar recounted that year 2010 witnessed a remarkable increase in Etisalat’s subscriber base from less than 3 million in 2009 to close to 7 million subscribers at the end of the year.

“It was the year we changed the face of tariff proposition with the introduction of Easy life which enables subscribers make calls at 25 kobo per second across networks; it was our special gift to Nigerians on the 50th anniversary of the nation,” he said.

The year 2010, he said also saw the re-launch of Easy starter, the Etisalat’s flagship product, while in October last year, the operator presented a school building to the Lagos State government under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Adopt-a-School initiative, while over 300 University undergraduates benefited from its scholarship programme.

“It was the year we brought the Nigerian Idol, the reality show designed to promote and discover talents among the Nigerian youth,” he noted.

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Fire razes Focus Television station

•JACITAD, DSA respond

THE premises of Lagos-based Focus TV studio were over the weekend razed down by an early morning inferno. Properties worth several millions of naira were lost to the fire.

Confirming this to newsmen on Monday, the chief executive officer, Focus Television, Mr. Tayo Adewusi said as at 7am they were in the premises to put finishing touches to some fittings, only for him to receive a call about the inferno an hour later.

He also confirmed that nothing was recovered from the studio which was commissioned in 2008
by the former Minister of State for Communications, Alhaji Dasuki Ibrahim Nakande.

Located in Ikeja, he noted that the studio is a digital entertainment cable television station with bias for information technology, business and gospel.

Adewusi also said the Focus TV is a cable channel on the Disc Communications platform, offering a bouquet of digital cable channels that could be received with an installed Yagi antenna on UHF 45.7 MHz on the DISC terrestrial transmission space.

Focus TV, he said, became a powerful tool in the hands of creative men and women, entertainers, politicians and the state as a medium for broadcasting items of news, music, talk, sports, entertainments and movies.

“It has bias for Information and Communications Technology - ICT reporting in line with global trends which takes into cognizance the role of ICT in the development of the various strata of society and humanity,” he said.

Adewusi recalled that Focus TV drive its offering from the ICT Watch; a weekly industry feature on Minaj Broadcast International (MBI) which has been sustained for over seven years and continues to provide issue-based reports and analyses as well as the coverage of industry innovation and product launch.

Reacting to the incident, a non-governmental organisation, the Joint Action Committee on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Awareness and Development (JACITAD) called on the industry stakeholders, especially telecom operators and concerned individuals to come to the aid of Focus TV in the bid to rebuild the studio.

JACITAD through its president, Mr. Prince Osuagwu kick-started the support with a donation of N100,000.

This donation, he said, though was not anticipated by has to be promptly decided after due consideration and consultation with relevant members of JACITAD executive.

Equally responding to the call by JACITAD, an affiliate, DigitalSENSE Africa (DSA) Media supported JACITAD’s on this project with a sum of N10,000.

Speaking after visiting the scene of the fire, the Executive Director, DSA, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, lamented the inability of fire service personnel at Alausa to contain the fire, describing it as a sad situation.

She also prayed for the grace to bear the loss by the management of Focus TV led by Mr. Adewusi.

She urged industry players to contribute their quota in re-building of Focus TV at this trying period.

In addition, Mr. Bayero Aganbi of AIT Infotech, said that what has gone with the fire cannot be quantified in monetary terms, adding that since the studio came on live in 2008, a lot of additional investments have been made in terms of equipment and documentation of programmes.

Remmy Nweke:
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DDC machines: Oji-Alala urges for patient with technology

Former President of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Deacon Ojinta Oji-Alala has urged Nigerians to be patient with the technologies deployed for the on-going voters’ registration.

Oji-Alala, made this call in Lagos while speaking to newsmen, saying that technology driven processes require practice and experience to get it right.

While reviewing the current voters’ registration exercise, Oji-Alala said that he was confident that it would succeed but required the public, the governments and the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to remain focused on the objectives of achieving a free and fair election through the exploration of modern technology.

Also, the former NCS boss noted that the public must show resilience through maturity, patience and effective participation.

As said by him, the finger printing process has become a challenge and the way to get about it is for the INEC officials to follow strictly the guidelines provided by INEC and the equipment manufacturers.

He equally said that excessive dirt, sweat and grease might affect the effectiveness of the scanners.

“Everyone who goes for scanning must ensure that the fingers are dirt free,” he declared.

Oji-Alala further urged the INEC operatives to ensure that the scanners are always placed on a flat surface while scanning and should never be cleaned with chemicals as this will damage it. For him, he is aware that INEC calibrated her software to achieve high quality finger print and this may cause slow scanning.

Additionally, he said that there is nothing wrong with the actual Direct Data Capturing (DDC) hardware, either the laptops produced by Zinox or the printers from Hewlett Packard (HP).

He explained that Zinox being an indigenous computer manufacturer deserves commendation for supplying 80,000 out of the 94,000 DDC machines that INEC has so far deployed in this exercise.

Oji-Alala emphasised that it is natural at this point for Nigerians to blame even software problems on the hardware branded Zinox.

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Samsung ends LTV fair in style

The Lagos Television annual end of year fair 2010 ended in the centre of excellence with the full participation of Samsung Electronics West Africa (SEWA).

The event which took place at the Lagos State Television ground, Alausa, Lagos, attracted visitors from all walks of life.

Speaking on the event, Product Manager, Home Appliances, Samsung Electronics West Africa, Menmohan Chandroth, said, Samsung’s participation in the annual fair which saw several people visiting the stand during the month long fair, with three special open days, was targeted to reach different consumers, in line with the company’s strategic objective to reach more people and create awareness for Samsung products in the marketplace.

According to him Samsung understands the Nigerian market as the company has been in Nigeria for 13 years with 20 per cent market share in the home appliances category.

“Though Nigerian market is still an emerging market, it is highly competitive and rapidly growing and Samsung is poised to do things that will improve the market. The customers are also getting matured, looking for quality products at good prices. That is exactly what Samsung is offering them,” he said.

He also informed that Samsung has started assembling some of her product range in Nigeria.

Products like refrigerators, washing machines and air conditioners are being assembled in the country. He informed that the company will be assembling television sets right here too.

“We are coming out with new products next year which will be highly user friendly and rightly priced for the Nigerian people. This approach will endear Samsung more into people’s hearts and our products acceptance level will be much higher. Nigerians are highly price conscious and they want the best product at the right price. Samsung will be at the forefront, offering great products at affordable prices. We will continue to come out with innovative products in the coming year”, he adds.

Samsung products are A+ which saves energy and are also eco friendly. Consumers of Samsung products should expect new models in 2011.

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Microsoft partners Blueprint, FinArch on IFRS

SOFTWARE giant, Microsoft Nigeria, in collaboration with Blueprint Technologies and FinArch, last week, in Lagos, held a workshop aimed at preparing the nation’s financial institutions on how to prepare financial statement in accordance with International Financial Regulatory Standards by 2012, reports CHARLES OKOH.

Tagged ‘International Financial Regulatory Standards (IFRS) Academy’, the workshop had over 60 chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief information officers and risk managers from the nation’s top banks, insurance companies and auditing firms as well as government parastatals, in attendance.

The Public Relations and Communications Lead, Microsoft Nigeria, Mrs. Ngozi Ife Anene, said the workshop featured presentations on the challenges financial institutions may face and the opportunities they would gain implementing IFRS as they strive to achieve accounting and reporting compliance.

Vice President Business Development FinArch, Mr. Mounir Baccouche, gave a presentation on FinArch’s 7 Steps to IFRS, which provided practical insight on transactions, data management and classification, IFRS valuation calculators, Multi GAAP event based accounting generation, IFRS subledger, reporting codes enrichments and compliance reporting.

On her part, the Director of Risk Management, Central Bank of Nigeria, Ms. Folakemi Fatogbe, who delivered the keynote address, focused on how the implementation of IFRS would improve the corporate governance landscape in Nigeria.

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Juwah commissions Lagos Internet exchange N3bn

The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, has officially opened the Network Operating Centre (NOC) of the Internet Exchange Point Nigeria (IXPN) in Lagos.

This is coming as Nigeria is to save an estimated $20 million, about N3,068,199,951.17, in offshore Internet bandwidth transactions.

Speaking at the occasion, Juwah said that he was delighted to perform the commissioning of the Internet Exchange Point for the nation.

He also said that the event marked a major starting point for realizing the desire to achieve speedy spread of Internet services across the country, and the quest to reduce cost of Internet connectivity, improved quality of Internet services and above all, keeping the nation’s local Internet traffic local.

“It is well known in the industry that one of the most cost effective ways of managing the Internet traffic of any country is to ensure that domestic Internet traffic is kept within the nation,” he said.

According to him, this facility would go a long way in checkmating the imbalance in the global telecom connectivity that forces some nations of the world to send local traffic designed for local destinations through international hubs located outside their countries.

This, he noted, attract extra cost and consuming more international bandwidth, which means that this facility would save the nation some foreign exchange when fully implemented, stressing that immediate drop in connectivity costs is expected as well as cost savings of more than $20million in offshore Internet bandwidth payments in the first year of operations.

Juwah declared that this is commendable, pointing out that the facility would allow local management of Internet traffic in Nigeria to remain local and result in improved security profile of the Internet traffic and save the nation of the embarrassment of volumes of scam mails originating in this country that tend to affect the our image abroad.

“This is in addition to giving the practitioners the opportunity to create local content which is very desirable in this country,” he said.

The EVC said that this were some of the reasons why NCC with the cooperation of the stakeholders initiated the implementation of the Internet eXchange Point (IXP) centres to be located in each of the geopolitical zone.

“This is, therefore, is part of the commitment of the Commission to ensure cost effective and speedy spread of the Internet across the nation,” he said.

The success of this project, he said, gives confidence that the plans for pervasive broadband Internet availability for the citizens will be realized.

“The Commission has already stepped up plans on its focus on the broadband availability and is currently reviewing the implementation of the State Accelerated Broadband Initiative (SABI) and the Wire Nigeria Project to give them more verve,” he said.

Broadband availability in Nigeria, Juwah said, remains very high in the priorities of the Commission and the success of this project provides an impetus and hope that we will succeed in this direction.

He, therefore, commended the board and management of the IXPN Ltd and renew the pledge of continued support for its projects.

“We commend the cooperation of all the companies and institutions involved in the implementation and usage of the Internet Exchange Point,” he said, underscoring the fact that the cooperation of different companies and institutions in this project is very remarkable and an indication that success is sure, even for the future success of IXPN projects.

Earlier in his welcome address, the chairman, board of directors, IXPN, Chief Chima Onyekwere, said that the journey of this Exchange point started with a dream shared by the nation’s Internet community several years ago.

“This dream has come to birth today officially and we are all so proud,” he said, underscoring the importance of an Internet Exchange Point, which he described as a physical network infrastructure that allows several Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and several network operators to exchange traffic between their networks.

He explained that the key purpose is to allow networks to interconnect through the exchange.

“In effect, the benefits to all the networks or operators are a reduction in costs, latency and bandwidth typically,” he said, noting that normally traffic passing through an exchange is not billed by any party while traffic through an operator is.

He pointed out that prior to the establishment of this Exchange, traffic was routed through foreign countries.

“This is an inefficient traffic routing process until this development,” he said, noting that the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) was initiated by the former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who directed the NCC to set up a national based Internet Exchange Point.

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Social Innovation camp provides home grown solution – Tijani

THE Managing Director, Co-Creation Hub Nigeria, the organizers of the Social Innovation Camp, Mr. Bosun Tijani, has called for home grown solution to the social problems confronting the nation.

Tijani, who was speaking at the weekend, in Lagos, during the first edition of the camp, lamented that most of the solutions imported from abroad do not meet the nation’s every need.

He said the Social Innovation Camp was created to groom local talents who have solutions that are web-based or via mobile on how to confront the social challenges of the people in all spheres of the nation.

“We want to empower Nigerians to find solutions to the day to day problems we face as a country. We tend to always depend on solutions coming from abroad and while some of them are good, they do not always meet all our need. We can think of ourselves as change agents, and the interesting thing is that there are a lot of Nigerians with great ideas on how to solve some of these problems but what we lack is the enabling environment,” he said.

He said 46 ideas were received out of which six were selected; from which three would emerge eventual winners.

“We invited people who have ideas which they think can be used to solve these social problems, but for now we limited that to ideas that can work on the internet, which is web or via mobile. It could be any idea, whether solving health or governance issues, education, and youth employment. We got 46 ideas, six were selected and out of the six three winners would emerge,” he said.

Highlighting on the process, Mr. Femi Longe, also of Co-Creation Hub, said 60 professionals from different walks of life would determine if the ideas can impact the people; if it is sustainable and viable as well as the entrepreneurial skills of the proponent.

“If you develop an idea that is social and cannot sustain itself, in a couple of months the company would die. These 60 experts are divided into six teams to work on the ideas,” he said.

He said apart from the prize money which is N500,000, N300,000 and N200,000 for the first, second and third positions respectively, they have invited venture capitalists who invest in businesses.

“For instance, we have someone here from Ireland who is here to scout and understand some of these businesses to see if they are worthy of investment and if they are they would be talking with the owner on how they can collaborate to take them forward,” he said.

On her part, the President and Founder, Growing Businesses Foundation, Dr. Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien, lamented that with the alarming population of unemployed people in the country, budding entrepreneurs can take advantage of the project to become employers of labour.

Nnoli-Edozien who would also act as one of the judges, commended the organizers of the projects for targeting the youths essentially.

Also speaking, the Managing Director, Accion Microfinance Bank, Mrs. Bunmi Lawson, said access to technology should be a basic human right of the people.

“The camp provides the youths with the opportunity to be another Facebook and providing indigenous innovative solutions to the nation’s problems,” she said.

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Glo turns mechanic into multi-millionaire

Globacom has turned a Lagos-based mechanic, Mr. Adebola Olugbenga to multimillionaire with the on-going ‘Text4millions’ promo.

Mr. Olugbenga became the winner of the first monthly jumbo prize of N10 million in the promo, which has produced several millionaire on weekly bases.

Receiving his cheque during a prize presentation ceremony held at the Mike Adenuga Towers, the corporate headquarters of Globacom in Lagos, 26-year old Adebola who attended the ceremony with his wife and son was overwhelmed with joy and was thankful to Glo for changing the fortunes of his family for good.

“I am just too overwhelmed to know what to say. I have seen poverty but Glo has liberated me.
I never knew this year will be my year. I am thankful to Glo for changing my life and making me a better person. Glo has always been special to me. I will continue to use the line while I pray that the company will continue to grow from strength to strength”, he declared.

Also, he said, will use the money to expand his mechanic workshop and employ more hands in addition to investing in a business centre and his wife’s fashion design outfit.

Shedding tears of joy, Mrs. Adebola, Morayo expressed gratitude to God and to Glo for not only giving excellent telecom services, but for also touching the lives of the poor masses especially its subscribers.

Also at the occasion, a brand new 3.5 litre Toyota Venza SUV was presented to Mr. Anthony Ndokule, a lawyer with the Niger State Law Reform Commission, Minna who won the first of the three cars to be given away monthly in the promo.

He noted being encouraged by his wife when he was on the verge of giving up that he could ever win, was also full of praises to Glo for the transparency of its promos.

“I thank God for the instrumentality of Glo. I also thank Glo for giving me the opportunity to play and for elevating the masses out of poverty. I will use the car personally though it is expensive. I urge other Nigerians to patronize Globacom. Glo promos are real and not a hoax”, he said.

The occasion was also used to present cheques of N1 million each to seven lucky winners who emerged in the daily draws of the promo. The winners include Prophet Oluwaseyi Fawehinmi from Owode-Yewa in Ogun state, Dr. Kola Falade, a lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Friday Ukpai, a businessman in Ohafia, Daniel Akuagbaoso from Onitsha, Anambra state, Mr. Obafemi Emanuel a trader from Otta, Ogun state, Abba Malloum Djaafar, a baker in Suleja, Niger state and Sikiru Salami a part-time student at the Nassarawa State University, Keffi, Nassarawa state.

Seven other lucky winners were also presented with HP laptop computers at the ceremony.

They include Kayode Ogbowa from Port Harcourt, Princess Grace Fregene from Warri, Mrs. Adunni Adepoju from Bariga, Emmanuel Salubi from Victoria Island, Alloysius Emedoh from Igando, Kingsley Ntekim from Port Harcourt and Wale Adegbuyi from Akure.

Winners of brand new motorcycles who collected their prizes at the event are Akinlolu Oni, Benjamin Okpara, Samuel Adebanjo, Gabriel Akah, J.A. Egbedina, Abdulquadri Adebayo and Abiodun Odugbesan.

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Helios acquires major stake in Interswitch

Helios Investment Partners (HIP), a private equity firm dedicated to making growth investments across Africa has acquired a majority stake in Interswitch Nigeria.

With this development HIP has become a shareholder of the largest transaction switching and electronic payment processing service provider in Nigeria and owner of the leading card scheme Verve.

The Managing Director, Interswitch Nigeria, Mr. Mitchell Elegbe confirmed this in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online at the weekend.

He noted that as Helios has join the firm’s shareholders as the core investor and its involvement is happening at a time when Nigeria is getting set for the next phase of growth in electronic payments.

Elegbe said Helios has demonstrated deep domain knowledge in the payments space combined with its leadership in African private equity, stressing that Interswitch believes the partnership will be highly synergistic and would propel Interswitch to become the leading payments company in Africa.

He explained that this strategic partnership and the remaining shareholders would further enhance Interswitch’s strong growth and accelerate the company’s pan-African expansion plans as well as build on its reputation for innovative applications developed for the African market and a service valued by banks for high reliability.

“Interswitch facilitates the exchange of value between service providers by providing a secure shared payment infrastructure and integrated message broker solutions for financial transactions, eCommerce, telecommunications value-added services, eBilling, payment collections and disbursementsm” he said, adding that the company developed and administers Verve, the leading card scheme in Nigeria.

According to him, Verve card is currently issued by 21 out of the 24 banks in Nigeria and is the first and only chip and PIN card accepted across multiple payment channels including ATMs, Point of Sale (PoS) terminals, online, mobile and at banks, and enjoys the largest range of value added services.

The company has been at the forefront of the development and growth of the e-payment sector in Nigeria, which is evidenced by its unique position of being the only switching and processing company connected to all banks in the country as well as to over 10,000 ATMs and 11,000 PoS terminals.

Aside, the company is the leading processor for MasterCard and the market leader in merchant acquiring/PoS, a segment that is still emerging and has potential for tremendous growth in Nigeria.

The completion of the switchover from magnetic strip cards to chip and PIN cards in 2010, is expected to further accelerate growth and usage of e-payments across the country. Nigeria is the first country in Africa to have completed this migration, and is one of the few countries in the world to have completed the migration in under a year.

According to the Managing Partner and Co-founder of Helios, Babatunde Soyoye, “Interswitch is a Nigerian success story having been led by a superb, highly competent, innovative and entrepreneurial all-Nigerian management team”, and benefiting from the foresight and support of its founding shareholders, along with a supportive regulator in the Central Bank Nigeria.

The statement further informed that Adlevo Capital, a technology-oriented private equity firm focused on Africa would be co-investing with Helios on this transaction. FT Advisors Limited, KPMG, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and a team of industry specialists are acting as advisors to Helios. Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and Aelex are serving as legal advisors to Helios. FCMB Capital Markets Limited is acting as the lead advisor to the selling shareholders.

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