Improved Internet connectivity: Vodacom Business Nigeria enters satellite deal with Intelsat

ITREALMS:

The Vodacom Business Nigeria and Intelsat S.A. have entered an agreement to expand enterprise broadband connectivity in Nigeria, reports ITRealms.

This, ITRealms gathered is in order to provide improved satellite services to its local enterprise customers.

The strategic agreement was signed at the Satellite 2018 event which took place in Washington D.C, United States of America recently. This agreement now makes Vodacom Business Nigeria the first telecommunications provider in Nigeria to lease capacity on the Intelsat 35e Satellite.

As satellite coverage increases globally, enterprises businesses are no longer limited to operating from just one location because of the high speed broadband requirements for their business operation. Through this agreement with Intelsat S.A, which is the operator of the World’s first Globalized Network and leader in integrated satellite solutions, Vodacom Business Nigeria will deploy the Intelsat EPIC^NG satellite services, which is a next generation of satellite technology; to its enterprise customers to enable them to operate from anywhere they want throughout Nigeria.

Brian Jakins, Intelsat’s Regional Vice President, Africa Sales, said that “Intelsat Epic^NG enables higher data rate applications and smaller terminals that give enterprises the avenue to expand into new regions and take advantage of business opportunities regardless of where they occur.

He further noted that with the improved performance delivered by Intelsat Epic^NG, Vodacom Business Nigeria’s customers will utilize the satellite services on Intelsat 35e to deliver fast, high quality and resilient broadband connectivity to the banking, oil and gas, and enterprise sectors across West Africa for an improved quality of service.

Speaking on behalf of Vodacom, Lanre Kolade, Managing Director for Vodacom Business Nigeria said: “With plans in top gear to deploy the Intelsat EPIC^NG satellite services, this will enable Vodacom Business Nigeria to deliver an efficient, quick, reliable, secure broadband solution with a low monthly recurring cost within the shortest time to our Enterprise customers.”

Kolade said that this agreement will further allow Vodacom to connect businesses located in places where there is no access to terrestrial and mobile networks, therefore bringing them closer to their employees, customers as well as other businesses, to help empower them to remain operational and profitable.

“As a leading provider of corporate connectivity and telecommunications solutions, Vodacom always strives to stay up-to-date with the technological needs and requirements of the changing environment hence the reason for this agreement,” said Kolade.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Buhari to open UNWTO, CAF meeting

ITREALMS:

The President, Muhammadu Buhari, has been tipped to declare open the 61st meeting of the United Nations World Tourism Organization/Commission for Africa (UNWTO/CAF), scheduled for 4-6 June 2018 in Abuja, reports ITRealms.

Confirming this to ITRealms, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, disclosed in Abuja on Tuesday when he paid an advocacy visit to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Mohammed Musa Bello, to intimate him with details of the forthcoming international event.

“The Honourable Minister of the FCT is the Minister of the Host City.

That makes it imperative for us to make his office our first port of call. Mr. President has accepted to personally declare the meeting open and that makes Mr. President the first person to be invited and also to accept our invitation. With this visit, the Honourable Minister of the FCT has become the second person to be invited,” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed said the meeting is an annual platform through which the UNWTO Secretariat informs member states of the general programme of work for the African region and presents the reports of the various standing committees.

He said the theme of the 61st UNWTO/CAF Meeting is “Tourism Statistics: A Catalyst for Development.”

While speaking on the benefits that Nigeria will derive from hosting the meeting, the Minister said it would put Nigeria, and the nation's tourism industry, under a global focus, in addition to attracting foreign research experts and promoting the necessary network that will form the basis for future cooperation.

“Also, it will provide Nigeria the opportunity to showcase itself to the world, especially in the area of its culture and tourism. And of course, we have a lot to showcase: Our tourist attractions, our rich culture, as well as our music and films, which have taken the world by storm,” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed said as the Minister of the Host City, the FCT Minister will play a major role during the meeting, which includes giving the welcome address on the official opening ceremony, another speech at the welcome dinner and also at the official opening ceremony

for the Technical Seminar on the second day.

He gave the assurance that preparations for the event are in top gear, and called for the support of Nigerians to make the event a huge success.

In his remarks, the Minister of the FCT, Mallam Bello, commended Alhaji Mohammed for his untiring effort in securing the hosting right of the conference for Nigeria.

Mallam Bello, who expressed delight that this is coming on the heels of another hosting right for the International Press Institute Annual General Assembly also in Abuja, said the gesture is a reflection of how the global community now perceives Nigeria.

“I will like to congratulate the Honourable Minister of Information and his team in the Ministry of Information for really having been able to get the hosting right of this very important conference that is coming up in June. As you know these are conferences that showcase

countries and even continents.

“For us to be able to really get this to be approved to be hosted in Nigeria is something that I am sure involved a lot of valsogood hard

work,” he said.

Nigeria secured the hosting right for the Meeting during the 59th Meeting of the UNWTO/CAF in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in April 2017.

Uboshe Uboshe/ED, Ops

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Pix: L-R: Permanent Secretary, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Sir Chinyeaka Ohaa; Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; FCT Minister, Mallam Mohammed Musa Bello and the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Deaconess Grace Isu-Gekpe, during a courtesy visit by the Information and Culture Minister in Abuja  on Tuesday.

New film project to help deaf children

ITREALMS:

A new project launched in South Africa by The University of Manchester and the University of the Witwatersrand hopes to raise awareness of the vulnerability of deaf children in the country, as well as altering society’s attitudes towards them, reports ITRealms.

Deaf children and youth, ITRealms gathered, face discrimination and exclusion from society in South Africa - they are not given adequate opportunities for acquiring language, building meaningful relationships, receiving specialised healthcare and receiving equal education. All of this vastly decreases their life chances, and infringes their human rights. 

A press statement made available to ITRealms, a multi-disciplinary international collaboration, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Medical Research Council and the Global Challenges Research Fund, is bringing together visual anthropology, social research and deaf studies in an effort to positively shift social attitudes towards deaf children and youth. 

Over the next eighteen months, The University of Manchester’s Social Research with Deaf people group and Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology - in partnership with the Centre for Deaf Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand - will explore how to research and represent the lives of deaf children through documentary film.

The work will be delivered in close partnership with NGOs HI HOPES and THRIVE, and is endorsed by South Africa’s Department of Health. Deaf people, hearing people and parents of deaf children will all work together to achieve this ambitious programme.

“Deaf young people face very particular challenges in achieving their potential and becoming full citizens,” say Professors Alys Young and Andrew Irving from The University of Manchester. “As visual people, they also have unique resources on which to draw. Through the pioneering use of community-based film methods, this project tunes in to their latent strengths as visual learners with the capacity to develop new resiliencies given the right opportunities.”

“We are thrilled to be launching this multi-disciplinary research collaboration in the year that the Wits Centre for Deaf Studies celebrates its 20th anniversary”, says Professor Claudine Storbeck, Director for the Centre of Deaf Studies, University of the Witwatersrand.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Fintech startup, Zoto, soars in customer adoption

ITREALMS:

Fintech startup, Zoto, has witnessed a soaring customer adoption through transacting user base and order volume in the last one year, reports ITRealms.

The transacting user base and order volume, ITRealms gathered, grew by 56 per cent and 200 per cent respectively, in the last financial year.

Zoto, which is a product of Hedonmark Management Services Limited and Nigeria’s fastest growing payment solution, promises to replicate an even higher growth curve in the financial year 2018 -19.

The fintech startup, ITRealms reports, processed 5 million orders in the last year which is expected to grow 300 per cent to 15 million orders in the financial year 2018-19 due to growing volume of electronic payments by Nigeria’s young and digitally savvy mobile users. Zoto has scaled quickly with over one million downloads and an app rating of 4.6. 

Nigeria has one of the fastest growing population in the world most of whom are mobile and digitally savvy due to prices of Android phones dropping by as much as 45% and data prices reducing by as much as 80%. The accessibility to mobile phones and data has led to an explosion in electronic payments, with 117 billion USD worth electronic transactions processed in Jan – Dec 2016. 

Reacting to this development, Oshone Ikazoboh, Co-Founder & COO of Zoto expressed delight at the rapid progress made by Zoto with a short time.

“These milestones will motivate us to work even harder and achieve the goal of becoming West Africa’s preferred digital payments solution. In near future we plan to expand vertically and horizontally by adding more categories and increasing the number of merchants in each category, this will help us provide better payment experience to our users and make us an indispensable channel for payments,” he said.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

AFRINIC sets up NomCom to replace West African board seat 2

ITREALMS:

The African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) has set up a four-man ad-hoc Nomination Committee (NomCom) to replace the board seat 2, on or before end of May this year, reports ITRealms.

AFRINIC, ITRealms gathered is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa with headquarters in Ebene City, Mauritius.

The replacement, according to the chief executive officer, AFRINIC, Mr. Alan Barrett, has become expedient following the recent resignation of its else while chairman, Mr. Sunday Folayan, who also is the president of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA).

Barrett disclosed that the AFRINIC Board has appointed the NomCom to handle the election for Board seat 2 (Western Africa), which is vacant following the resignation of Sunday Folayan, who was the chairman of AFRINIC until his resignation.

The NomCom members, he said, include Mustapha Ben Jemaa (Northern Africa), Douglas Onyango (Eastern Africa), Didier R. Kasole (Central Africa), S. Moonesamy (Board representative, Indian Ocean).

Currently, ITRealms also gathered that the eight-man elected AFRINIC board has only West African, Mr. Seun Ojedeji (Nigerian) representing the Non-Regional Africa since July 1, 2016 and whose tenure will expire by June 2019.

ITRealms further gathered that with the resignation of Sunday Folayan, Mr. Abibu Rashid Ntahigiye from East-Africa and whose tenure as board member is due by June 30^th, this year, assumed the position of the chairman, while Christian D. Bope from DRC Congo and representing the Central Africa is the Vice chairman and whose seat will expire by June 30, 2020.

AFRINIC, ITRealms recalled was set up in 1997 by several early Internet adopters in Africa, during an INET workshop in Malaysia.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

2019: President Buhari says 'I'll seek re-election'

ITREALMS:

President Muhammadu Buhari has declared his intention to seek re-election in 2019 general elections, reports ITRealms.

Confirming this to ITRealms, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, Alhaji Garba Shehu, informed that President Buhari made the declaration at a closed-door meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja, Monday.

Also, the President was quoted as saying he was responding to the clamour by Nigerians to recontest in 2019, adding that he wanted to give NEC the honour of notifying them first.

Equally, ITRealms gathered that shortly before making the declaration, the President presented a speech on the report submitted by the APC National Executive Technical Committee.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Realnews apps available on Google, Windows play stores

ITREALMS:

Acclaimed Nigerian-based online publication, the Realnews Magazine, has created an Android and Windows 10 Apps to boost accessibility to readers, reports ITRealms.

The apps, ITRealms are now downloadable via links available in Google and Windows Play stores, which the publishers say afford readers with national, regional and international news and breaking stories.

According to Maureen Chigbo, publisher/editor, Realnews, through the Apps Realnews will be disseminating well investigated stories on national and international issues on oil and gas, business and economic, environment, politics, youth, women and children etc.

“The Android and Window Apps can be downloaded from the Google and Windows Play Stores. Downloading the Apps will enable you access news and breaking stories at any time no matter where you are,” she said.

Further, she said, the Android and Windows, stressing that the new Apps are in line with the vision of the organization to build a reputable world class media institution whose watchword is professionalism and integrity.

“The Apps are part of the overall efforts to increase access and visibility of Realnews,” she said. 

Nenye Dom/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Offa robbery: FG promises better security for Nigerians

ITREALMS:

The Federal Government (FG) has promised Nigerians a better security following the last week robbery attack on Offa in Kwara State, reports ITRealms.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, gave this assurance that the Federal Government will leave no stone unturned to ensure better security for all Nigerians, during a visit to the community.

The Minister said on Sunday when he paid a condolence visit to the traditional ruler of Offa in Kwara State, Oba Mufutau Gbadamosi, following the recent deadly armed robbery attack in the town that left 17 people, including 9 policemen and 8 civilians, dead.

''We will learn the necessary lessons from this dastardly attack and factor them into developing a better security architecture for the country to ensure the safety and security of the people of Offa and indeed all Nigerians,'' he said.

Alhaji Mohammed said though the armed robbers killed and maimed, they did not succeed in breaking the spirit of the people of Offa, who have continued bustling with energy and their trademark entrepreneurial spirit.

He gave the assurance that while some of the robbers have been arrested, all the others who are still at large would also be apprehended and brought to justice.

The Minister had earlier paid a condolence visit to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State, as well as the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Lawan Ado.

During the visit to the Commissioner, he thanked the police for their efforts to keep Nigerians safe, against all odds.

Alhaji Mohammed also visited the State General Hospital and the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, where the nine injured persons are being treated, to wish them a speedy recovery.

Ayo Midele/ED, Ops

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Pix: Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed (right), at the palace of the Olofa of Offa, Oba Muftau Gbadamosi (seated), when the minister visited on Sunday to condole with the people of Offa, Kwara State, over the recent armed robbery in the town.

Seven Pillars of Biometrics (Part 2)

TalkingBiometrics@ITREALMS:

In this edition, we would continue discussion on the characteristics that determine the suitability of a human trait as a biometric attribute, otherwise called the seven pillars of biometrics.

4: Circumvention or Security

A measure of how easy it can be to fool a given attribute is an indication of its suitability (or otherwise) for biometric purposes. Circumvention is a quality that evaluates the ease with which a biometric trait can be fooled or bypassed by an attacker and to what extent it can withstand being spoofed or defeated. The measure or degree of difficulty required to bypass a biometric trait is an indication of its security and usability as a biometric authentication technique, and also a pointer to how vulnerable it might become to spoof attacks and identity fraud.

It is common occurrence for two separate individuals to have the similar height or exactly same weight, but it is rare to obtain a perfectly similar facial pattern or fingerprint from two persons. This is why height and weight cannot be used as classical biometric attributes, but facial pattern and fingerprints can be used because it is difficult to obtain such similar values from different persons, hence they are more secure. It is also more difficult (but not totally impossible) to fabricate fake eyeballs or retina patterns than to obtain fake signatures. 

In this sense we say that even though both offer relatively high levels of security as biometric attributes, retina patterns are more difficult to circumvent or forge than signatures, thereby making retina patterns a more secure set of biometric attributes than signatures, and a more preferred option for use at maximum security facilities. Vein patterns have also been known to exhibit a more secure biometric characteristics than voice prints.

5: Performance

Biometric performance is a measure of the speed and accuracy of recognizing the trait while in normal use even in the midst of environment effects. It is an indication of how well the biometric trait is able to compensate for inherent losses during the processing of the samples. In general biometric performance is closely tied to its efficiency to successfully complete the identification or authentication processes in a timely manner while minimizing errors. 

As an illustration, it is faster and more probable to process 3D facial patterns from babies and infants than to recognize their fingerprints. This is because fingerprint formation naturally takes time to become fully-usable as a biometric trait, resulting in the poor quality of fingerprint processes often experienced with toddlerbiometrics. In this sense, we say that facialprints have better infant-related performance than fingerprints.

… To be continued next week.

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

About The Columnist

Kenneth Okereafor is an accomplished ICT professional and Cybersecurity expert with over 20 years computing experience in Enterprise ICT innovation management in both private and public sectors. He holds dual PhD degrees in Computer Science (Cybersecurity & Biometrics) and Management (ICT Administration and Governance) with a first class Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering background. He is a United Nations trained Network Security Specialist and is proficient in Network Optimization, Data Protection, Biometric Systems and Digital Forensics. In addition to many published works and conference papers, Kenneth has participated at many international technology events, and has contributed to several national ICT development programmes including the design and development of the National eHealth Strategic Framework 2015 - 2020. He has strong research interests in Digital Innovations, Cloud Security, Cybersecurity Education, Biometric Liveness Detection and Green Computing; and may be reached at nitelken@yahoo.com

OAAN disassociates members from fallen signpost @Ilasa

ITREALMS:

The Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) has dissociated its members from the signpost which was brought down by a reckless driver leading to a fatal accident on Thursday at Ilasamaja area of Lagos which claimed lives of innocent people, reports ITRealms.

A press statement personally endorsed by OAAN President, Mr. Tunde Adedoyin, and made available to ITRealms, the earlier news report on the incident which referred to the signpost as a billboard, thus creating a wrong impression that the accident was caused by the fallen billboard.

According to him, the signpost was a directional signage and the property of the Federal Government and not a billboard as was erroneously referred to in the news reports adding that OAAN members as professionals, adhere strictly to guidelines issued by government agencies.

“The attention of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) has been drawn to news reports on the accident that occurred yesterday at Ilasa, Lagos, involving a truck and a traffic directional signage, and which unfortunately caused the death of at least three commuters.”

“OAAN sympathises with the Lagos State Government as well as with the families of the individuals affected by the mishap. The Association, however wishes to state that contrary to claims in some of the news reports, no billboard was involved. As a matter of fact, the sign structure that was hit by the recalcitrant driver is not a billboard. It is a directional signage, and it is the property of the federal government.

"OAAN wishes to use this platform to correct the misleading impression that had been given in some of the earlier reports. It is important to also add that our members are thoroughbred professionals, constantly guided by the guidelines of the Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency, LASAA, and its counterparts across the country,” he said.

Ayo Midele/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!