Abia State Poly wins ISPON software contest’11

The Abia State Polytechnic has emerged winner of the maiden edition of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) national software contest cup with the Biometric Finger Print Voting System application.

They beat 19 other tertiary institutions across the country that made it to the finals in Tinapa, Calabar, with the University of Lagos coming first runner-up while, Delta State University, Abraka came second runner up.

Confirming this the chairman, publicity committee at ISPON, Mr. Moses Briamah, said that Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State who hosted the competition was so impressed with the performance of the students that immediately announced additional monetary rewards to all of them.

He also said that the Abia State Polytechnic team was given N1 million; 1st runner-up N500,000; 2nd runner-up N250,000; and N100,000 to the remaining 17 teams from the different tertiary institutions that contested.

Imoke was quoted in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online as saying that this is a very historic moment for the state and a proof that there is hope for Nigeria.

“… These young talents have shown us that with little encouragement and the right mentoring we can rule the world,” he said.

Governor Imoke also, announced that the competition will be hosted again by the Cross River State government in 2012 at Tinapa, Calabar but this time it will include secondary schools.

President of ISPON, Chief Chris Uwaje, noted that no nation could succeed in the new 21st century economy without a framework for constructive investment, incubation, development and mastery of its indigenous software knowledge base.

Chairman, Panel of Judges, Mr. Pius Okigbo declared that after almost 10 hours of deliberations, the judges were unanimous in their opinion that the contestants had far exceeded their expectations by presenting exciting, very well thought-out innovations in concept, design and code execution.

With the teams separated largely by fractions of a point, he said all the contestants were winners, but of course, someone has to emerge as star prize.

“You are all winners and we are proud of you, and Nigeria needs to know what it has stored up in its youth,” he declared.

The Abia Poly team of three was led by Ifeanyi Anyadike. Other members of the team were Ifeanyichukwu Enyika and Anslem Nkoro.

“This is a big boost to our ambition and career objectives. We are more than ever convinced now that it pays to be focused and hardworking. We remain grateful to ISPON and the governor of Cross River State for this opportunity given to us to showcase our skills and talents,” they said.

Apart from the cash prizes, trophies, and certificates, the top three teams will under mentoring, incubation and venture capital readiness training and a high level meeting with the Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, at a later date in Abuja.

This event was part of the two-day ISPON Software National Conference and Competition.

The Conference was attended by a capacity of more than 750 participants made up of government officials, academia, IT Professionals, captains of the software industry, students and gentlemen of the press.

The Governor hosted ISPON, Minister of National Planning Commission, Alhaji Shamsudeen Usman and the honourable Minister of Information, Labaran Maku to a dignified State Dinner, where both Ministers agreed on and endorsed the programme of ISPON on Imperatives for a National Framework for Software Strategy & Development.

The competition was organized by the Institute of Software Practitioner of Nigeria (ISPON) and hosted by the Cross River State Government. The sponsors were NITDA, NIGCOMSAT, 21st Century, Zinox, MTN, Huawei, NCS, NCC, CPN, ATCON and ITAN.

Remmy Nweke

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Toure commends Nigeria’s broadband plans

Secretary-General of the world telecom body, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Dr. Hamadoun Toure has commended Nigeria’s broadband plans.

Toure made his mind known at the just ended ITU’s World 2011 in Geneva at the weekend, which had the world’s richest man, Mr. Carlos Slim, Communications Technology Minister, Mrs. Omobola Johnson and Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, in attendance among other Nigerian dignitaries.

Toure who was responding to the announcement by NCC boss on the readiness of the country to license new market operators on broadband platform, said that he was excited that has made several progress in the past.

He noted that with the plans to adopt an open access model for the deployment of broadband across the country.

Toure pointed out that Nigeria’s performance in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector where she led in growth terms in the continent and in the world for upward of five years.

“Nigeria has always made us proud and has consistently taken the lead for upwards of five years,” he said, stressing that it is not a joke to be the leader for five years.

He therefore, commended Nigeria for this achievement while imploring continuity in the leadership to support the industry for sustained growth and consistent enabling environment for more investment and sustained success.

The lunch attended by global leaders in the telecommunications sector from all parts of the world, including ministers, investors, operators and regulators.

Welcoming guest earlier, Dr. Juwah said the adoption of the open access model is to forestall current challenges posed by some operational issues and the complexities arising from roles of different agencies, including urban and regional administrative setups which impinge on the right of way of facility deployments.

“The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has decided to explore the ‘Open Access Model’ for the effective deployment of a national fiber network that will ensure an even platform and playing field for the retail service providers and enhance the achievement of the nation’s e-economy goals,” he said, submitting that this model is a framework for infrastructure sharing.

Remmy Nweke

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Airtel slashes int’l call @ N8:33k

Airtel Nigeria has slashed international call rates to N8:33 kobo per minute. 

Chief Operating Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Deepak Srivastava said the latest introduction was in line with the mobile operator’s commitment to provide Nigerians with innovative, exciting, relevant and affordable telecommunications services.

Public relations manager, Mr. Emmanuel Otokhine in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online said that the offer has been designed to help its pre-paid customers across the country to increase their talk time with family, friends and business partners who are in important and popular destinations such as the US, Canada, UK (fixed lines), China and India at appealingly reduced and affordable rates.

With the offer, he said, Airtel customers could now call for as low as N8.33 per minute to any of the listed destinations.

Equally, he said, the International call bundle offer was structured into three categories; N500, N200 and N100.

“It is applicable only to pre-paid customers on the Airtel network,” Mr. Srivastava was quoted in the press statement.

He maintained that the company’s decision to lower call rates to the selected locations to N8.33 per minute has no doubt removed any barrier that is capable of hindering any of its customers from making important calls to the designated destinations.

“Our unwavering commitment to give Nigerians, affordable and innovative products and services has kept us firmly on toes since the Airtel brand was introduced into Nigeria. We are constantly injecting fresh thinking into our operation to enable us innovate and deliver more value and satisfaction to our customers even as we embark on the journey to become the most loved brand in Nigeria” Srivastava said.

Pre-paid customers who purchase the N500 bundle will have a whooping 60 minutes talk-time at N8:33/minute.

The N200 bundle will guarantee N10/minutes or 20 minutes call time, while the N100 bundle will provide Airtel customers, N10 per minute for 10 minutes.

To enjoy the service, new and existing customers are required to dial *789*60# to subscribe for the N500 bundle; *789*20# for the N200 bundle and *789*10# for the N100 bundle, even as each bundle has a 15 day validity period from the date of purchase.

Remmy Nweke

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TXT launches digital notice board

 Leading mobile and Internet services provider, TXT Europe, is set to launch the group’s flagship product Casual Work Market in the European market, a digital notice board.

Casual Work Market is a social commerce platform that facilitates the seamless listing, discovery and engagement of people looking to give or offering to do small jobs and services.

Chief executive officer, TXT Group, Nii Laryea, described Casual Work Market as a medium that acts as a digital notice-board for the listing of job offers and facilitates discovery of jobs within varying work types from putting up shelving, fixing a leak in the shower, to doing domestic work such as baby sitting, pet-walking, cleaning or cooking.

Laryea also said that the platform allows people to effortlessly search for job seekers based on their unique need and criterion.

“Users of the platform listing job offers and opportunities or seeking offers and opportunities will be able to rate and provide feedback for the benefit of other users so as to ensure both competitive pricing and allowing job finders/workers to build up a trusted and respected brand for themselves on the platform,” he said.

Payments, according to Laryea, are processed transparently with both parties protected under Casual Work Market’s guarantee which ensures that jobs are paid for after the job is completed satisfactorily.

“Casual Work Market provides a one stop solution for all those little jobs that you’ve been putting off or just don’t have the time to do yourself as it offers the widest variety of work types for every small job or service scenario,” he said.

Laryea said he is excited about the introduction of the service adding, “The mobile internet has empowered our generation to do things differently, creating waves of change and positive disruptions across all industries and it’s that same thinking that has been applied to the problem of unemployment or under-employment and matching causal or professional abilities to one time small job offers and identifiable opportunities.”

As said by Laryea, the socio-economic benefits of the platform cannot be overlooked, because it allows individuals to establish a secondary source of income by offering to work within their casual or professional abilities and convenience.

He pointed out that to better manage the scaling of resources and support required for a worldwide launch, TXT Europe in line with its Group’s vision and objectives will initially make the service available in The Netherlands and then in Germany, The United Kingdom, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria before an eventual world-wide roll out.

Remmy Nweke

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Etisalat rewards Blackberry users

Chief Commercial Officer, Etisalat Nigeria, Wael Ammar, has said the Blackberry week is to encourage customers to visit the Etisalat experience centres for their genuine devices and other Blackberry related purchases at a reward.

According to Ammar, “this exercise is an opportunity to reward our customers with exciting gifts and prizes as soon as they make a purchase. The gifts on offers are in different categories depending on the items bought. The Blackberry week will among other things provide subscribers with the opportunity of getting genuine devices and other products from our shops.”

Customers who walk into Etisalat shops are informed of the activities and are rewarded with instant gift items at the purchase of a device. Gifts such as car chargers, Blackberry skins, wall chargers, free BIS subscription, Bluetooth headsets, airtime amongst others, are to be won. The Blackberry week will end on Friday 8th November 2011.

He recalled that in about three years of operations, Etisalat Nigeria has become a major industry player with a growing subscriber base of over 9 million in a highly competitive market.

“Our portfolio of voice and data-centric products include – easy starter, easycliq, easyblaze, easynet and elite world; all tailor-made to meet the needs of its subscribers,” he said.

He added that for Etisalat has won several awards including ‘Brand of the Year’, ‘Best Telecom Customer Service’ Telecom Innovations Company of the Year, and ‘Most Innovative Corporate Social Responsibility Company’, among others.

Etisalat Nigeria is one of the 18 operations of the Etisalat Group that spans across Africa, Middle East and Asia serving over 100 million subscribers; and it is committed to delivering innovative and quality services to its growing subscribers.

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NCC prepares grounds for broadband plans

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is preparing grounds for a solid broadband plans for the country, insisting that Africa needs a unified broadband strategy.

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah made this revelation at the recently ended West African ICT Congress in Lagos and represented by the Director, Public Affairs, Mr. Tony Ojobo.

The Commission, he said, has commenced preliminary studies and appraisals that would usher NCC on solid ground for full implementation of a broadband marshal plan for Nigeria.

“What we would stress today is the desire for the industry, especially the policy makers, investors, service providers, vendors and policy makers to begin to examine how these would affect the future of our telecommunications environment, and prepare themselves for the roles they will need to play for us to realize a collective success,” he said.

The success being envisaged by NCC in the sector, he said, is not such that only one institution would be expected to deliver.

“When we put broadband in the perspective of cross border implementation, it calls for harmonization of policies across the states or nations involved at regional or continental levels,” he said.

Therefore, he said, Africa and Nigeria need to evolve a uniform inter-regional policy framework such that when broadband is fully implemented in any of the nations, the benefits could easily spread to sister nations in the continent.

“A careful appraisal of the growth of broadband in developed countries can be traced to a semblance of policies accentuated by uniform level of development in terms of telecommunications and ICT infrastructures,” he noted.

Lamenting that the same could not be said of Africa where huge telephone traffic are not exchanged between neighbouring countries on the continent, when compared with the traffic that such countries exchange with countries in Europe, America, Asia and the Middle east countries.

“Most African countries are yet to be directly interconnected, which is the reason why it costs higher to make calls across the continent than it is to make calls to and from outside the continent,” he said, stressing that as Africans must collectively pursue a deliberate policy of liberalization that will attract service providers to go beyond their immediate environments and also allow interconnection within and among African countries.

Nigeria, he cited as an instance, has witnessed impressive investments in the area of submarine optics fibre cable along the coastlines, yet, there are about four major cables currently.

Ordinarily, Juwah pointed out that if Nigeria taps into the full potentials of these cables, with its direct connection to the international super-highway, the country would have achieved a lot in broadband penetration.

Decrying the fact that these cables have only reached the coastlines, while majority of the geographical land mass are yet to be connected because they are mostly landlocked, Juwah urged investors to take advantage of this by going extra mile to ensure that the rest of the countries’ are connected.

“It could be that such investors may need to be incentivized, but in what ways? This is where we hope the experts and stakeholders would come up with the appropriate recommendations that will guide regulatory actions and policies,” he said.

Juwah emphasized that service providers in Africa appear to have backed down from an earlier pursuit of deploying to as many African countries as possible.

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SA deploys technologies to boost health sector

The South African government has advanced plans to deploy appropriate technologies to boost its health care system.

South African Minister of Health, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi made this disclosure recently at the launch of Human Resource for Health Strategy in Wits University.

He also said that the health system must provide safe facilities which have the appropriate technology and materials for health workers to discharge their duties diligently.

“We have embarked on strategies to ensure that all these factors are addressed,” he said. According to him, there is a coordinated health facility planning that has developed revitalisation plans for hospitals and nursing colleges.

To this end, he said, some advisory committee has been put in place which produced an essential technology list.

This, he said, is a list of minimum equipment each facility must have to deliver quality and safe health care.

“An audit of more than 4000 facilities is currently underway, this audit assesses among others; human resources, facility management, supply and logistics, etc. We will be setting up teams to work closely with the facilities to develop quality improvement and health system strengthening plans for each facility,” he said.

The South African government, he said, believes this would result in well-equipped and better staffed facilities that will enable health workers to focus on what they know best, that is, delivering quality health care in facilities they are proud to be part of.

So far, he said, his office has presented a wide ranging interventions to address human resource challenges.

This, he said, involve a process of systematic planning integrating facility improvement, working with private providers, increasing the number of student intake, refurbishing institutions and constructing new faculties as part of our response to the Human Resource shortages we face.

Further, he said, the previous sections have addressed the push and pull factors within the HR system and have addressed individual and systematic issues.

One of the weaknesses at organisational level is the management skill at facility and district level. Studies have demonstrated that it is not only financial incentives that make them leave but sometimes how they are managed or “mismanaged”. The public health sector has to ensure that environment in which health workers operate is conducive.

Remmy Nweke

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Sanusi for AIT Infotech, TechAfrica roundtable

Two leading information communications technology (ICT) content providers, AIT Infotech and Technology Africa, are now set to host a breakfast forum with the Central Bank’s governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, on evolving a cashless society.

A joint press statement made available to ITRealms Online endorsed by Bayero Agabi of Infotech Network and Don Pedro Aganbi of Technology Africa indicated that as the Nigerian Central Bank gets set to implement a measure that will encourage boom in electronic transaction otherwise referred to as cashless society issues of ICT infrastructure.

This, they stated would enable electronic transaction (e-transaction) laws and the political will to see it through.

As said by them, the talking point of the breakfast session with the CBN governor is evolving a cashless society in Nigeria, political or economic statement.

They alleged that cash is the blood wire of corruption, bribery and money laundering to name a few and by removing cash, definitely these vices aforementioned would find it difficult to survive.

The organizers further said that the challenge now is for all Nigerians to brace up for this new era in the economic development and banks to put in place necessary operational infrastructure to cope with the anticipated upsurge in the number of bank customers.

Equally, they said that the theme of the forum “Evolving a Cashless Society in Nigeria: Political Statement or Economic Benefit” is apt as it would lend weight to existing efforts to increase awareness of the issues, challenges, opportunities in growing a cashless society in Nigeria.

The forum would additionally provide a platform for government to present its plans and policies for a cashless society, and the private sector to provide insights into challenges, opportunities, and source of funds for infrastructural development, alternatives and enabling institutional legal frameworks.

The forum, they added, holds prospect for networking and forging strategic partnerships among key stakeholders in all the sectors of the economy.

The breakfast forum, they noted, would hold in Lagos on Friday, November 11, 2011, at the prestigious Golden Gate Restaurant Ikoyi-Lagos.

Remmy Nweke

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Schneider brings StruxureWare to data centres

Globally  acclaimed specialist in energy management for data communications, Schneider Electric, has introduced StruxureWare for Data Centers.

This comes in form of a management software suite designed to address all aspects of the data centre physical infrastructure needed to maximize availability and efficiency.

Confirming this, Mr. Kevin Brown, vice president, data Centre global offer and strategy, Schneider Electric, said the StruxureWare for Data Centers combines Schneider Electric’s Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) and Data Center Facility Management (DCFM) software tools.

These, he said, would provide data gathering, monitoring and automation, and planning and implementation functionalities enabling an integrated and multifaceted view of all the mission critical physical systems of the data centre. This new offering empowers data centre managers by giving them access to all the data and tools they need to operate data centers that are more reliable, efficient, productive, safe and green.

“Data centre environments traditionally rely on siloed management tools that require the knowledge and experience of numerous IT and facility professionals leveraging specialised management dashboards to obtain the information they need,” he said.

Brown also said that with StruxureWare for Data Centers, Schneider Electric is providing a toolset from which the data centre manager could access and manage across the domains of the IT room, building electrical power and power quality, facility and data centre cooling and physical security.

“This management software suite delivers comprehensive, accurate real time data enabling them to take action based on the complete picture of the data centre,” he said.

Further, he explained that the StruxureWare for Data Centers management software suite would offer a variety of software tools to improve both the monitoring and the operational aspects of comprehensive data centre management.

He outlined some of these tools include the StruxureWare for Data Centers: Monitoring Suite and Operations Suite.

On the monitoring suite, he said, it would offer a series of core and advanced options for real-time visualisation, notification and reporting of the physical facility and data centre systems for electrical power, cooling, security and IT infrastructure elements.

The monitoring suite, he pointed out further consist of StruxureWare Central which is formerly InfraStruXure Central; A fundamental, vendor-neutral software system that provides a unified view and analysis of complex IT physical infrastructure that communicates with building, power, enterprise and network management systems to ensure quality, and increase both energy and cost efficiencies.

“The new StruxureWare Central for Blackberry and iPhone apps provide data centre managers with the same active alarms, alarm history, device groups and current sensor values found in the StruxureWare Central desktop user interface without being tied to a computer screen,” he said among others.

While the StruxureWare for Data Centers: Operations Suite entails a second generation DCIM framework enabling customers to gain control of their day-to-day operations where capacity limitations, frequent changes and availability are daily challenges for data centre managers.

StruxureWare Operations, he said, is enterprise DCIM framework providing a scalable and fault tolerant solution encompassing all aspects of modern data centre management, ranging from asset and capacity control over dashboards to smart phone integration.

“The framework provides the ability to forecast future budgets for expanding and consolidating data centre operations as well as the impact these changes would have on various aspects of the facility,” he said.

Emphasising that through transparency into data centre key performance indicators (KPIs), customers are assisted in making informed decisions about service level agreements and controlling operational costs.

Remmy Nweke:

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