U.S. Senate redesigns website, updates

ITRealms:

The United States (U.S.) Senate has updated its website after close to a decade, reports ITRealms.

Investigations by ITRealms revealed that last weekend, saw the U.S. Senate redesigned, refreshed, and updated website.

The new website, is reported to be more user-friendly with clear sections to navigate the site including Senate floor proceedings, archives, and upcoming Senate committee hearings – along with the easy to search Senators link and Committees link.

Observers said it is a much better resource for those wanting information on activity involving the U.S. Senate.

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DMO: Nwankwo denies scheming to extend tenure

PR@ITRealms:

The Director-General of the Debt Management of (DMO), Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, has denied any scheming to extend his stay at the Agency when his second five-year tenure ends in June 2017, sources at DMO and the Vice President’s Office, which supervises DMO, said on Monday afternoon. 

The sources dismissed rumours making the rounds that Dr. Nwankwo is reluctant to leave at the expiration of his tenure and that his purported ambition to stay on is generating tension or uneasiness at DMO.

“The rumours are not only senseless but also entirely false and ridiculous,” one of the sources said.

Insisting that “there is no iota of truth in the rumours,” the source declared that Dr. Nwankwo has no reason to scheme to extend his tenure, adding that that it is not even possible to do so.

“The law is specific on the issue; no one can do more than two terms of five years each at DMO. So why should the DG, who is in the last lap of his second tenure, nurse the idea of extending his tenure? Those who cooked up and are spreading the rumours do not know Dr. Nwankwo at all. 

He is a principled man who has built DMO into a globally-respected institution that impacts greatly on Nigeria’s economic fortunes and is contented with the two terms of office allowed by law.”

Also dismissing the rumours, a source at the Vice President’s Office described those behind them as enemies of Nigeria. He warned them to desist from spreading rumours capable of destabilising the country’s economy “in which DMO is playing a pivotal role and contributing significantly to the efforts to pull the country out of recession.” , 

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ISOC tackles enhancing entrepreneurship, innovation in Africa

ITRealms:

A two-day meeting of the Internet Society's Africa Bureau will focus on Enhancing Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Education in Africa through the Internet, reports ITRealms.

The meeting, ITRealms reports, is part of the African Regional Internet and Development Dialogue (RIDD 2017) on-going in Kigali, Rwanda.

The conference theme, ITRealms also reports is part of the global series of Internet Development conferences organized by the Internet Society with the aim of supporting the implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Thereby offering an open high-level discussions addressing some issues including “Internet and SDGs; Connecting the Next Billion; African Internet Economy; Opportunities for Africa’s education”

Just as the plenary sessions will be webcast live via the Internet Society Livestream Channel. Kigali.

Nonye Dom/GEE

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African leaders meet in Kigali, reiterate focus on key priorities

ITRealms:

The African leaders have reiterated commitment to focus on key priorities to ensure that the African Union efforts are not dispersed by any member state, reports ITRealms.

The Ministers commitment, ITRealms gathered, will also enable a clear division of labour between the AU and member states.

These were some of the outcomes from the one-day between President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Kigali, Rwanda.

ITRealms recalls that at the 27th African Union Summit held July 2016, member States of the AU entrusted President Kagame with the mandate to lead the African Union reforms to enable the Union to better meet its mission’s goal and truly serve African citizens.

And in January 2017, the proposed reforms were accepted by all Head of States and Governments. The reforms aim to make the AU more efficient politically, operationally and financially, so that the African multilateral organisation is better positioned to meet its mandate to member states and African citizens.

According to sources at the meeting, by realigning the AU institutions to deliver against these priorities and ensure that the Union Commission structures, organs, and specialised technical agencies focus on the agreed priorities.

Equally, the reforms will see to managing the AU efficiently at both political and operational levels, to allow the members to create an efficient and effective Commission staffed by the best African professionals.

This would also strengthen the working methods of the AU Summit to improve the quality and impact of decision-making whilst ensuring the timely implementation of Assembly decisions; and

Just as Financing the AU  and sustainably to strengthen the African Union’s financial management and accountability. 

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Nokia, Zain partner on RAN technology, boost 50% upload

ITRealms:

The Nokia and Zain Saudi Arabia have partnered to improve network upload speeds at Jeddah's King Abdullah Sports stadium by up to 50 per cent, reports ITRealms.

This comes in the wake of deployment of Nokia Centralized RAN technology to improve uplink connections and quality of experience for visitors to football matches and other events at the venue, which is also known popularly as the Al Jawhara Stadium, Jeddah's largest stadium.

ITRealms gathered that the volume of events held at the stadium has led to Zain Saudi Arabia finding a solution to address spikes in uplink data traffic triggered by thousands of fans sharing photos and videos via social media.

In addition, ITRealms reports that Zain chose Nokia's Centralized RAN technology to improve uplink performance, deploying clusters of LTE base stations within the stadium to optimize bandwidth and remove uplink congestion in the 1800 MHz bands.

A further benefit of the technology, ITRealms gathered is that it makes smartphones more energy efficient, reducing battery drain as it requires less power for uploading content.

Sultan Abdulaziz AlDeghaither, Chief Technology Officer at Zain Saudi Arabia, said: "With the increased penetration of smart mobile devices, people are sharing videos and pictures over social media such as WhatsApp, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram, especially during events at this stadium. The more people upload, the more the network becomes congested, so we have deployed Nokia's Centralized RAN technology to boost the uplink speed for fans while also improving their smartphone battery life."

Ali Al Jitawi, head of the Zain Saudi Arabia customer team at Nokia, said: "Our Centralized RAN technology helps operators like Zain Saudi Arabia address the network congestion caused by bandwidth-hungry applications and services at large venues and stadiums. In Jeddah, our planning and optimization services have ensured that the technology delivered as promised, maximizing the return on Zain's investment and working seamlessly with its existing network. With this, Zain can build denser LTE networks and improve customer loyalty by delivering higher capacity and more robust services even during high traffic events."

Chuks Egbune/GEE 

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Turkish Airlines offers laptops on-board for BC passengers

ITRealms:

As a result of the recent ban on use of information and communication technology (ICT) gadgets and other electronic devices on United Kingdom and United States-bound flights by the authorities, Turkish Airlines has provided an alternative way of making its passengers access state-of-the-art laptop onboard to continue with their business, reports ITRealms.

The service, ITRealms gathered, is touted as yet another innovation from Turkish Airlines for its U.S. and U.K. bound flights, would be accessible to Nigerian passengers and other nationalities, who are business class (BC) passengers of the flights.

Turkish Airline in a press statement made available to ITRealms, affirmed this development, saying that its flights to the most countries of the world, would continue to evolve new solutions for its passengers with respect to the electronics ban, applied on US and UK-bound flights.

“The national flag carrier has now started to offer laptops for its business class passengers of U.S. bound flights as from today. It will also launch the same practice for its U.K. bound business class passengers as of 12th May, 2017,” the statement said.

By the new service, Turkish Airlines said those passengers will be able to uninterruptedly be taken up with their personal things to do on their laptops above the clouds, while they can experience the Planet, seamless in-flight entertainment system of Turkish Airlines, on the other side.

“Within the context of this new practice, those passengers who deliver their personal laptops to the authorized TK staff before their flight, can request a laptop from the cabin crew in order to follow their business or personal processes on-board during the flight.

“Those laptops, that have the feature of being a tablet after being folded and as well as a touchscreen property, will be offered through a high security system which protect the personal information/works of the passengers by automatically and permanently deleting them all from the system when the notebook computer having shut down,” the airline said.

However, “if those passengers who wish to make a copy from those personal works to an USB memory stick, can easily do that,” said the statement.

Ayo Midele/GEE

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Nollywood special, Cinema in Lagos, debuts

ITRealms:

As part of activities celebrating Lagos at 50, the state government has unveiled a special publication named Cinema in Lagos ahead of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival holding in France from May 17 to 28.

The unveiling was done on Friday at Filmhouse Cinema in Lekki and Silverbird Cinema in Ikeja during a programme tagged “Lagos Love the Cinema”.

Speaking at the Lekki event, the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Steve Ayorinde, disclosed that the publication was conceived to highlight the contributions of the film industry to the economy and culture of Lagos.

He added that it was produced to complement Nollywood’s participation at the Cannes Film Festival.

“Lagos will have a pavilion at Cannes Film Festival which is celebrating 70 years in the same month our dear state celebrates 50 years. As you know, Lagos is home to Nollywood, the second biggest film industry in the world, and Cannes is the biggest film festival in the world. We have therefore put together this special publication called Cinema in Lagos. It will be presented in Cannes to filmmakers, journalists, film buyers and other from across the world.

“This is about our love for cinema and part of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s vision to promote art and culture in the state. We are excited that films by Lagos producers are doing well in the cinema and contributing significantly to the economy of the state. The state government is therefore pleased to showcase the creativity and business opportunities that abound here to a global audience through this publication,” the commissioner said.

Mr Ayorinde’s words were echoed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Strategy, Mr Fola Adeyemi, while unveiling the publication in Ikeja.

Like the commissioner, the permanent secretary promised that there will be other editions of the publication in line with Governor Ambode’s intervention in the creative industry.

Cinema in Lagos was produced by a team of film journalists and critics led by Mr Olumide Iyanda.

The magazine, according to Iyanda, “provides ready information about what is unarguably the capital of African cinema. It is invaluable for filmmakers, investors, fans and other Nollywood stakeholders.”

Joining Ayorinde and Folarin for the unveiling were eminent personalities like co-Chairman, Lagos at 50 Planning Committee, Hon. Habeeb Fasinro; Chairman, Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Health Services, Hon. Segun Olulade; Lagos State Head of Service, Mrs Olabowale Ademola; Chairman, Lagos State Internal Revenue Service, Mr Ayodele Subair; Executive Secretary, Lagos State Film and Video Censors Board, Mr Bamidele Balogun and filmmaker, Mr Kunle Afolayan.

Ayo Midele/GEE

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CBN says business soars in April 2017, as agriculture tops subsector growth

Exclusive@ITRealms:

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that businesses activities soared in the month of April 2017, just as agriculture topped the subsector growth, ITRealms exclusively reports.

The apex bank in its monthly survey by the management division of Statistics department, also known as the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) revealed to ITRealms that business activity index rose to 53.3 points in April from its level of 49.8 points in March this year.

ITRealms gathered that under business activities, there were 12 sub-sectors which recorded growth in the following order: agriculture; utilities; transportation & warehousing; educational services; finance & insurance; water supply, sewage & waste management; public administration; electricity, gas, steam & air conditioning supply; real estate.

Also, ITRealms reports that the growth continued with rental & leasing; information & communication; health care & social assistance and repair, maintenance/washing of motor vehicles. The professional, scientific, & technical services subsector remained unchanged, while the remaining five sub-sectors recorded growth in the order: management of companies; arts, entertainment & recreation; construction; wholesale trade and accommodation & food services.

Equally, ITRealms reports that the production level index for manufacturing sector expanded for the second consecutive month in April 2017.

“The index at 58.5 points indicated an increase in production at a faster rate when compared to the 50.8 points in the previous month,” the survey revealed.

Whereas the 13 manufacturing sub-sectors recorded increase in production level led by chemical & pharmaceutical products.

ITRealms further recalls that the Statistics Department of CBN conducts a monthly survey of purchasing and supply executives of manufacturing and non-manufacturing organizations in 13 locations in Nigeria: two states in each of the six geo-political zones, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The survey results, ITRealms reports were used to compute the monthly Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) and were conducted on April 18th to 24th, 2017 with a total of 1,743 responses received from a sample of 1,950 respondents, representing a response rate of 89.4 per cent.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Zinox sponsors 2017 Geneva Global Internet of Things Summit

Sponsored@ITRealms:

In furtherance of its corporate philosophy and superior business principle to continue the acceleration and development of the digital revolution, ZINOX Technologies Group is sponsoring Chris Uwaje – the Oracle of the Nigeria IT Profession and industry and Past-President of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) – as invited speaker at the 2017 Global Internet of Things in Geneval, Switzerland.

Uwaje, the Africa Chair on Communications and Publicity – GioT Geneva 2017- will be speaking as a panelist on Africa perspectives and challenges on IPv6.

With this sponsorship, ZINOX assumes fundamental leadership of national ICT Policy and strategy matters, where government should at all time be at the forefront. In the absence of this, and cognisant of the future requirements of 70% youths than makeup Nigeria/Africa Population, ZINOX is lighting up the way to the sustainable progress of the Nigerian nation the continent.

According to Dr. Leo Stan Ekeh, Chairman of ZINOX, Africa stands to gain immensely if she can leapfrog from her present deep slumber on ICT Ecosystem development and engage the values of Internet of Things (IoTs) - whose estimated market potential is valued at $19 trillion USD by 2020.

Uwaje is selected and invited to represent Africa and speak as a panelist of the Global IPv6 Forum on the state and challenges of Internet Protocol version 6 (Ipv6) at the 1st Global Internet of Things Summit (GioTS) in Geneva, Switzerland 2017).

Today, “IoT is rapidly evolving with the substantial risk of not paying attention to safety, reliability, privacy, security, and interoperability. Research has a fundamental role to enable a globally interoperable IoT and to make it right," said Sebastien Ziegler, General Chair and President of the IoT Forum.

According to Latif Ladid, Co-Chair and President of IPv6 Forum “GIoTS 2017 will attract experts from industry and research in current and emerging technologies such as 5G-based IoT, software defined IoT, IoT-centric Cloud Computing, including the Social Internet of Things” Dr. Antonio Skarmeta, TPC Chair said, “The selected technical topics seek some maturity in IoT across the board. There are many facets that need research and experimental pilots to put the pieces together and give IoT innovation a roadmap.”

GIoTS 2017 is supported by the IoT Week of the IoT Forum, The IPv6 Forum, the IEEE 5G subcommittee, the IEEE SDN-NFV subcommittee as well as the IEEE BiG Data TC. It will be collocated in Geneva with the IoT Week 2017, bringing together cutting edge research results, the IoT innovation community and the UN system with a unique worldwide outreach. 

According to the United Nations Development’s Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report of 2013 (UNDP,2013), Africa contributes 35 of the 45 poorest countries. Given these high poverty levels, most African governments (especially the Sub-Saharan Africa) are still struggling to provide basic needs (such as food, shelter, health, water and sanitation and education among others) and therefore technology innovations take a back seat. While the world’s Development Index stands at 0.694, the Sub-Saharan Africa’s one is at 0.475.

The IPv6 session will attract speakers from the 5 Continents to outline the deployment efforts of IPv6-based IoT research and best practices. The deployment in different countries is taking different shapes and forms considering the differing continental user requirements at this stage of deployment. This session will try to harmonize and draw a common roadmap for deployment of IoT networking capabilities and architectural definitions to make sure "Internet of Things" are scalable, inclusive of several communication media, secure, future proof and viable for businesses and end users.

Each representative is challenged to research his/her continent to outline the various IoT initiatives and industry showcases and various user requirements, challenges, security and privacy issues and obstacles that could enrich the discussion in this worldwide IoT session. 

ZINOX projections is that the world has just at the embryonic stage and process of the global digital transformation and beliefs that no other strategy is capable of securing the economic empowerment, massive Youth employment, future development progress and national security of Nigeria and Africa.

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Cyber threats Masterclass for journalists underway - NASCAM

ITRealms:

A not-for-profit organisation, the National Cyber Security Awareness Movement (NASCAM) has advanced plans for a Master Class programme for Nigerian journalists to acquaint practitioners with the provisions of the Cybercrime Act 2015, as it relates to media practice, particularly online journalism, reports ITRealms.

Confirming this to ITRealms, the Executive Director, NASCAM, Mr. Aaron Ukodie, said the plan to empower media practitioners with the requisite capacities for maintaining legal decorum online.

He also said that the theme of the workshop would be “The Nigerian Cybercrime Law: What Journalists Need to Know” stressing the workshop media practitioners shall be educated and engaged on the rudiments of the cyber law.

For Ukodie “this workshop has become necessary following the fact that numerous media practitioners are not aware of the provisions of the law, regarding their practice such that many have recently fallen foul of the law.

“Going by the tracked trends, Public officers, including the President, Vice President, Governors, legislators (State and National Assembly members), Judges and lawyers, Corporate brands, CEOs and senior officials of organisations and religious leaders are vulnerable to the dearth of knowledge on the cybercrimes Act 2015 by the ‘citizen journalists’ on the prowl in Nigeria.

He said that the damage to brands and individuals could have multifarious implications if ‘citizen journalists’ are not immediately given the knowledge backing to disinfest them of the dangers inherent in the unbridled dissemination of unveted information online. 

According to the Director, Communications and Mobilisation at NASCAM, Olubayo Abiodun, in a press statement made available to ITRealms, equally quoted Ukodie as saying the workshop has been scheduled to hold on June 23, 2017, at the Sheraton Hotels Ikeja, Lagos.

This would be hosted in close collaborations with the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), the Nigerian Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA) media and public relations officers in the private and public sector, lawyers and members of the National Assembly.

Further, he stated that the faculties would also be drawn from the key institutions including the judiciary, parliament, academia, media, public and private service institutions.

While NASCAM acknowledges that the evolving and growing threat certainly requires legislation that defines offences and establishes structures for reporting and investigating cybercrime, he underscored the importance of building capacities for the media practitioners in order to create a robust environment for the stakeholders in the media industry.

“It is also imperative that within the constantly evolving cyber landscape, knowledgeable and responsible public information are needed more than ever to frame ethical debates around new digital trends and complex security issues.

The Master class will deepen the understanding of these challenges and also increase knowledge, accuracy and accountability with regards to reporting on cyber threats and foster dialogue and exchange lessons between the sectors in this area,” he said.

The NASCAM Executive Director said that the Master Class has been designed to raise awareness among the journalists and media officers in the public and private institutions. He said that the programme will increase the awareness about their vulnerabilities while working online or using digital devices; and provide them with resources to plan their own security protocols for dealing with complex threats.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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