NITDA awards postgraduate scholarships - set to establish IT Hubs

ITRealms:

The National Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA) has awarded scholarship to 80 Nigerian youths to undertake postgraduate studies in various fields of Information Technology and related disciplines, ITRealms authoritatively gathered.

This is coming as the agency has concluded plans to establish IT parks and innovation hubs in its bid to bring ICT to the doorsteps of Nigerians.

Director General of NITDA, Mr. Peter Jack who disclosed this at a ceremony to disburse the awards to the students recently in Abuja, urged the students to focus on technologies that could solve real life challenges in the country and to develop alliances that can be helpful to them in the development of their careers in the future.

Mr Jack further called on them to sharpen their entrepreneurial skills, stressing that the agency’s innovative hubs would help them fulfil their dreams if they decide to go into entrepreneurship on completion of their programmes.

“NITDA is already embarking on the creation of IT parks and innovation hubs. We intend to raise support centres. The intention is to bring Information and Communication Technology to the doorsteps of every Nigerian. We plan to create 600,000 IT entrepreneurs and 1.2 million jobs. We are working closely to synergise our resources with other agencies in the country. Substantial resources have been invested in the last few years to build capacity in the ICT sector. There is a need for us to play among the top players in the ICT sector by the year 2020. We enjoin you to do your best to make Nigeria proud. Innovation is the way forward to improve the quality of life in Nigeria,” he said.

The scholarship programme is based on merit and covers the six geo – political zones of the country.

ITrealms gathered that 74 of the graduates (two from each of the states and the Federal Capital Territory) will be pursuing master’s degree programmes while six of them selected from six geo-political zones of the country will be pursuing doctorate degrees in Information Technology and related fields.

Chukwudi Obi

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Mobile Money transactions hit $600m says Johnson

ITRealms:

Minister of Communication Technology, Dr Mrs Omobola Johnson has said that the country has witnessed an upsurge in mobile money transactions, insisting that Nigeria could actualise the National Broadband Plan to increase penetration rate from six per cent to 30 per cent by 2018, reports ITRealms.

The CommTech minister made this disclosure while speaking at the Pat Utomi Center for Values and Leadership celebration of the ICT sector, noted that 11 million transactions worth $600 million have been recorded under the mobile money platform.

According to her, the mobile money platform has an estimated one million subscribers under 18 mobile money operators and 67,000 registered agent.

On broadband penetration in the country, Johnson stressed that facilitating increased investments in ICT infrastructure, spectrum auctions, regional Infrastructure (fibre) companies (Infracos), Smart States initiative (to reduce cost of infrastructure deployment) were some of the priorities set by her ministry to raise 3G/LTE Wireless Broadband Coverage to 80 per cent of Nigeria’s population; and Fixed broadband to 16 per cent of population based on fibre by 2018.

“More people in Nigeria have a mobile phone than have a bank account. 75 per cent of adults living in urban areas and 39 per cent of them living in rural areas have access to a pre-paid mobile phone. 18 Mobile Money operators have been registered in Nigeria and since the commencement of operations, there are approximately 1 million subscribers, about 67,000 registered agents and Over 11 million transactions worth US$600 million have been conducted,” she said.

Chukwudi Obi

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Industry Interest Groups back NITDA on GITEX country partnership

ITRealms:

Some industry interest groups within the Nigeria’s Information Technology (IT) space may have began to drum support for the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) resolve to fly the nation’s flag at the 2014 GITEX in Dubia, the United Arab Emirate (UAE) reports ITRealms.

Investigations carried out by ITRealms, showed that some of the industry groups have since canvassed support for the Nigeria’s participation from their members, including the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), and Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) to name a few.

GITEX is organized by the Dubai World Trade Centre as part of the awareness campaign whereas NITDA has taken up the sensitization of its stakeholders across the country backed with the setting up of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) to maximize Nigeria’s participation at GITEX 2014 with the theme: Re-imagining our future.

ITRealms recalls that NITDA has a relationship with GITEX organizer as the preferred Country Partner for the five-day event slated to hold at Dubai World Trade Center between October 12 and 16, 2014.

ITRealms gathered that while NCS announced its support during the recently National Conference in the South-Eastern state of Enugu, the likes of NIRA and NCS shared this with their membership through eNewsletters.

NIRA is a stakeholder-led organisation, charged with the management of the Nigeria's country code Top Level Domain Name (ccTLD), dot ng and founded on March 23, 2005.

While NCS prides itself as the umbrella organization of all Information Technology professionals, interest groups and stakeholders in Nigeria and formed since 1978 as Computer Association of Nigeria (COAN) before its transformation into today’s NCS in 2002, as a result of harmonization with other stakeholder and interest groups.

Remmy Nweke/ITRealms

 
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Pix: DG, NITDA MR JACK

FUTO VC insists Nigeria’s education quality intact

ITRealms:

The Vice Chancellor, Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Professor Cyril Chigozie Asiabaka, has declared that Nigeria's education quality has remain intact and there is no difference between the quality of education obtained in the country now and 54 years ago, reports ITRealms.

Responding to questions from newsmen in Owerri recently to mark the 54^th independent anniversary celebration, Prof. Asiabaka insisted that education in Nigeria’s education quality is still intact.

“It is still the same with the early ages of the 1960s. The issue you have at stake is that people are comparing apples with oranges. In those days, many people were 25 years when they were in primary schools. May be they were behaving like adults. But the world is a global village now. People are knowing more things,” he declared.

Prof. Asiabaka also stressed that the important thing now is for Nigeria as a nation to see this difference, wondering who some Nigerians are comparing the alleged falling standard of education with?

“Every country must have a path to its own development. As we are now, you can’t say the quality of education is going down. The challenges facing us today are not the same challenges that faced us 20 years ago. Nigeria is moving. Education standard is moving in the direction of the world as the world moves. So, we can’t compare what happened in 1960s with what is happening today in Nigeria. So, in my own thinking, what people are thinking is nostalgia—in those days, when we were there, I used to be,” he told newsmen.

Prof. Asiabaka equally noted that the country had not reached where it supposed to be in the area of education, saying this was the reason the nation’s government was investing hugely in the education sector.

“There is always room for improvement. Educationists in Nigeria and the universities are doing their best to improve the quality of education in the country; because Nigeria has the potential to be a great country, that’s why the founding fathers founded universities like FUTO where they want us to help them in technological advancement that will improve economic development of the country.

 

“In that direction, FUTO is taking the lead as the Premier University of Technology in the country, turning out graduates that had impacted positively in the technological and economical development of the country”.

Asiabaka emphasized that the federal government should challenge the university and educational institutions to perform their duties.

“What we are challenging government is to start what other governments do—challenge the university. A technological university is there to solve technological problems of the country. It needs funding. So what the government should do is to challenge us for us to do our duty. That’s why we do research. So, FUTO is there as part of the transformation agenda of the country. That is hope for this country to move to become a developed country among the comity of nations” he said.

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Pix: VC-FUTO, Prof. Cyril Chigozie Asiabaka,

Panasonic’s Sustainable Living, Smart Solutions to debut @GITEX’14

ITRealms:

The Panasonic Marketing Middle East & Africa (PMMAF), has advanced plans for the launch of the company’s latest, unique and exciting sustainable living and smart business solutions at GITEX Technology Week 2014, reports ITRealms. 

This, ITRealms gathered is aimed at providing customers with interesting insights about Panasonic’s plan for the region with some top executives, senior management officials and product managers from Panasonic lined up in attendance.

Also, ITRealms learnt will provide ideal opportunity to review the industry leading products and solutions from Panasonic stable.

Just as the event would happen at Sharjah D Meeting Room at the World Trade Center, Dubai, on Sunday, October 12, 2014, while experience center has been set up at booth A3-5 at Hall 3.

Remmy Nweke: 
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Kelechi Okorie emerges 2014 Journalist of the year @Telecom Awards

ITRealms:

The City People’s Kelechi Okorie was named the Telecom Journalist of the Year at the 2014 edition of the Nigerian Telecom Awards, reports ITRealms.

According to the organisers of the awards which took place at the Incubator Event Centre, Oniru, Victoria Island, Lagos, Kelechi was picked as a result of his unique coverage of the telecommunications industry.

In a citation read at the event, “Kelechi Okorie has been able to create a niche for his medium in telecommunications reportage in the country, making City People Magazine a point of reference for not only the main news, but the news-behind-the-news in the telecommunications sector”. “He brings in an interesting perspective to every story he writes and coverage he does, making otherwise abstract stories, quite appealing to the teeming readers of City People Magazine which has a pride of place as Nigeria’s number one print magazine. No wonder every telecommunications operator craves for coverage of its events by City People Magazine”.
 

 The Telecom Journalist of the Year award category was presented to Okorie by the former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel and Dr. Josephine Olatomi Soboyejo, former Hon. Commissioner for Women Affairs & Social Development in Ogun State.
 

Categories that were awarded on the night include Best in Mobile Banking, Telecom Financing Bank of the Year (Capacity), Best Mobile Money Operator of the year, Card Innovation Bank of the year, Best Mobile Money Bank of the Year, Technology Bank of the Year, Best in Online Banking and Telecom Financing Bank of the Year. Other categories were Indigenous Social Media Application of the year, Telecom CEO of the year, Society Friendly Telecom Operator of the year, Youth Empowerment Telecom Operator of the year, Telecom Innovation Operator of the year as well as several other categories.
 

Awardees include Chairman of Globacom, Dr Mike Adenuga (jnr), Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Airtel Nigeria, Globacom, Etisalat and Spring Bank.
 

The Nigerian Telecom Awards is the singular most important and popular event in the Telecom sector and has been consistent in recognising credible individuals and organisations that are contributing towards national development through the use of information and communications technology (ICT) tools. The awards entered its 10th year in 2014.
 

Kelechi Okorie was also selected as the Brand Writer of the Year 2012 by the Nigerian Media NiteOut Award.

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Pix: courtesy Kelechi Okorie