NIRA, NIG endorse Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable

Industry sector support has continued to trail the forthcoming Nigeria Internet Protocol Version Six (IPV6) Roundtable, slated for Thursday, June 2 at the Planet One MaryLand, Lagos.

The latest industry support is from the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) and Nigeria Internet Group (NIG).

President of NIG, Engr. Adebayo Banjo said that his group is pleased to endorse the Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable in commemoration of the World IPV6 Day also known as ‘Test Flight Day’.

He also said the IPV6 Roundtable offer a first-class platform for networking to stimulate public awareness on the importance.

More interesting, he said, is the theme for the roundtable ‘IPV6-Join The Players’ scheduled to hold at the Planet One MaryLand, Lagos being organized by the DigitalSENSE Africa, stressing that Nigeria should join the IPV6 world and not wait to do leapfrogging.

NIG in a letter to DSA dated April 15, 2011, Banjo said, they foresee the roundtable as a platform for Nigerian Internet stakeholders in which issues concerning the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector issues are raised and addressed with particular reference to the Internet Protocol version 6.

He, therefore, solicits the support of all Internet stakeholders to take active participation at the roundtable.

Equally, NIRA, in its letter of endorsement signed by the Head, Corporate Services, Ms Ugo Akiri commended DigitalSENSE Africa for the foresightedness in enlightening Nigerians on Internet-related developments.

She noted that this is coming shortly after the Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum on Internet Governance and Development (IGD).

NIRA, she also said, has every reason to back the Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable and enjoined members of the association to actively participate in the event scheduled for Thursday June 2, this year at Planet One under the chairmanship of the former Minister of Communications, Chief Olawale Ige, who doubles as the chairman, board of trustees, Nigeria Internet Group.

Reacting to these development, the Executive Director, Operations, DigitalSENSE Africa, Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, applauded both organisations for the endorsements.

She noted that following the recent allocation of the last batch of the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) it has become imperative for the deployment of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) and Nigeria cannot afford to be left out.

“The Internet is now the global communication network and to join this evolution, Nigerian stakeholders need to integrate IPv6 in all areas,” she said.

Mrs. Nweke pointed out that based on the abovementioned, the Internet Society (ISOC), the organisational home for the groups responsible for Internet infrastructure standards, including the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) came up with the World IPV6 Day, which this year would be commemorated on Wednesday, June 8, 2011.

She explained that why Nigeria IPV6 Roundtable is holding on Thursday, June 2 is to drum support for the global commemoration on June 8.

“We needed to get this earlier so that our people would start in good time to prepare their minds for the test-flight day,” she declared.

The Roundtable, she said, would stimulate public awareness on the importance of the World IPV6 Day also known as ‘Test Flight Day’ in addition to providing networking opportunities.

On June 8, she noted that the World IPv6 Day is a strategy to encourage successful migration to IPv6 through participation of some key Internet Service Providers like Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Akamai and Limelight networks to offer their contents over IPv6 only for a 24-hour period.

“The goal of the Test Flight Day is to motivate organizations across the industry – regulators, operators, Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors, content providers, manufacturers, web companies and key stakeholders; to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out,” she said.

Further, she urged Nigerians, especially the industry players to maximize the opportunity to showcasing their plans for IPV6 migration in Nigeria.

Remmy Nweke
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eNNovators examines mobile phone benefits to insurers

As Nigeria prepares to celebrate 10 years of GSM revolution in few months, financialtechnology eNNovators Breakfast (FTeB), a quarterly breakfast event designed for Dreamers-Drivers and Doers (3Ds) of technology business in financial services industry across Africa, has announced that the June edition of the knowledge acquisition event will examine the relevance of cellular technology to the insurance industry in Nigeria.

According to editor-in-chief of financialtechnology magazine, Mr. Sola Fanawopo, FTeB offers opportunity for networking and strategic planning. Every quarter, leading industry thought leaders and opinion molders meet in an intimate and relaxed environment to disseminate cogent information on topical issues, create new relationships and promote their businesses.

The first edition of the event held on March 29 focused on harmonizing SIM registration and mobile payment KYC for secure mobile payment service in Nigeria. Representative of director of Banking and Payments System, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Abayomi Atoloye and the Director General of National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) Dr. Chris Onyemenam delivered position papers.

Fanawopo informed that the second edition with the theme “What do 95 million Active Mobile Telephone Lines Mean for Insurers in Nigeria?” would hold in Lagos at the Prestigious Oriental Hotel, Lekki-Epe road on June 28, 2011.

Speaking on the theme for the second edition, he said that mobile telephone has dramatically changed the way Nigerians conduct businesses. “Businesses are investing in innovations to keep up to date with changing trends in consumer behaviours. Insurance industry cannot afford to lag behind. The impact of mobility on insurance operations is huge such that insurers will have to adapt to the increasingly prevalent use of mobile devices,” he said.

He said insurance companies in Nigeria should invest in mobile channels in order to service their customer base and mobile technology presents the insurance industry with an opportunity to meet two
familiar and linked challenges: “how to adopt new technology and market to huge based of young customers.”

Handset owners constitute an extensive technology infrastructure that many insurers are not pursuing aggressively enough. However, the decision to invest in mobility requires a complex subset of decisions
regarding competing and complementary technologies.

For example, he offered, insurers should choose whether to focus on optimizing their existing websites for use on mobile devices or to develop applications for specific mobile operating systems, such as
the iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7.

He said that the event would address all the issues around the impact of mobility in insurance services. The event would be case study-led, which include the over 95 million mobile phones in Nigeria, mobile

insurance services in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Ghana, and the available options for Mobile insurance services in Africa.

The event would also examine the roles of MNOs, insurers, banks, switching firms and mobile money operators’ provision of mobile insurance services, and how to make Nigerians to buy life insurance
policies and the place of regulations in the use of mobile devices to provide insurance services.

Remmy Nweke
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MTN relaunches VTU with 5% promo

MTN Nigeria has relaunched its Virtual Top-Up (VTU) at the weekend in Lagos, with a five per cent promo to last for three months.

General Manager, Consumer Sales, Mr. Richard Iweanoge, who disclosed this, noted that in 2004, MTN was the first to launch VTU into the Nigerian telecommunications market, which he described as a way of topping up credit on a mobile phone without scratching cards or entering *555*1#.

He also said that in 2007, MTN took VTU further up the ladder by making it open for all subscribers on its network including post and pre-paid users.

This, he said, enabled most subscribers to pay their usage bills like water rate and NEPA bills. While in 2008, Iweanoge, MTN went into alliance with Interswitch to avail customers to top-up via the Automated Teller Machines (ATM).

He pointed out that since May 3, subscribers on MTN who recharge through the VTU would get 5 per cent extra on any denomination recharged from N50 and above.

The trade partners of MTN cutting across key distributors, sub-distributors and resellers have extra bonus awaiting them, which mostly depends on the volume of VTU airtime disposed through their trade networks.

Iweanoge explained that one of the key advantages of being a VTU dealer is that even if the mobile phone being used for VTU is stolen, the value of VTU would remain intact due to some security features imbedded on it.

“If you have N1m and your phone get stolen, your airtime remain intact,” he assured, stressing that if such a phone is stolen, all the subscriber need to do is to approach any of the MTN Friendship Centre and do a welcome back.

Also speaking, Channel Manager, MTN Nigeria, Mr. John Anyafulu, said that there is no limited to the amount to be sent or transferred via VTU beginning with N50.

“There is a transfer and vending accounts in every VTU phone,” he said.

Anyafulu listed some of the benefits of MTN’s VTU to include creating efficiency in airtime distribution and ventory, purchase value not denominations, control and tie in distribution network as well as possibility for web interface.

Equally speaking, Senior Manager, Sales Channels for MTN, Mr. Gbenga Olalandu, assured of media campaign to further drum the message home.

According to him, with the latest VTU, MTN Nigeria has improved the stage for delivery of its VTU messages to customers with full details and Short Messaging Service (SMS) platform, especially using the USSD.

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Zinox boost citizenship education with 50,000 constitutions

Zinox Group has concluded plans to boost citizenship education in some schools with the donation of 50,000 copies of Nigerian constitution.

Group Corporate Communications Adviser to Zinox, Mr. Echika Ezuka, said at the weekend that citizenship education plans to supply free 50,000 copies of the Nigerian constitution to select schools across the nation has been finalised.

According to him, the Nigerian constitution, paperback, has simplified explanatory notes making it legible to primary school pupils, hence, Zinox Group would supply the constitution to schools as soon as the new academic session opens - to further deepen the on-going democratic experience, stimulate interest in citizen education, and ultimately contribute to the development of a new breed of Nigerians.

He said that Zinox considered herself inextricably bound to Nigeria’s democratic experience with the successful provision of the technology backbone for two voters’ registration exercises; in 2006 and 2011.

Also, he said, that the supply of the constitution to schools would complement the commitment of the hardware providers to the development of a knowledge economy where every Nigerian has an equal opportunity to aspire to the top.

“The gesture intends to seize the public focus on the just concluded elections to draw attention to citizen education, a much neglected field of study in the Nigerian curriculum,” he said, stressing that a citizenry aware of its rights and duties would be more likely to provide effective leadership and followership, maintaining that such a citizenry would also exhibit traits of patriotism that would drive economic growth.

Further, Ezuka said that Zinox is poised to play an active role in the new resurgent Nigeria by capturing the aspirations and symbols of nationhood in the design and functionality of the brands that are about to be launched.

He pointed out that the architecture of the hardware would reinforce the patriotism that is evident in the product delivery of Zinox over the years.

“Every Zinox laptop or desktop would give the Nigerian a sense of pride and ownership in statehood. This benefit would be an addition to competitive pricing, unequalled after sales support, and flexible purchase conditions,” he said.

Ezuka emphasised that Zinox Computers pioneered the local manufacture of computers in Nigeria barely ten years ago as the country’s first internationally certified branded computers.

Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Ghana to host second annual AfPIF Confab

The city of Accra and capital of Ghana would this year, play host to the African Peering and Interconnection Forum (AfPIF) to be held between 8 – 9 August this year.

AfPIF being organized by the Internet Society (ISOC) would be hosted by the Ghanaian National Information Technology Agency (NITA), with the theme: “Regional Interconnection: Outlining the business case.”

Senior Manager, Access and Development, Internet Society, Mr. Michuki Mwangi, noted that the world’s trusted source of Internet leadership, would be hosting the second African Peering and Interconnection Forum, scheduled to take place in Accra.

“Currently only 30 per cent of West African countries have national Internet Exchange Points, a low percentage compared to East and Southern Africa. We hope that this event will serve as a platform to examine the related issues and to identify strategies to remove the barriers to implementation,” Mwangi said.

He said that this event will address the key interconnection opportunities and challenges in the Africa and provide participants with insights into maximising regional opportunities, stating that the theme: “Regional Interconnection: Outlining the business case,” is aimed at foster a robust discussion on cross-border interconnection approaches, economics and challenges.

As a multi-stakeholder forum, he said, the event will bring together a range key players, such as infrastructure providers, service providers, IXPs and regulators and will aim to build on the success of the inaugural AfPIF event held in Nairobi, Kenya in August 2010.

ITRealms Online recalls that this second AfPIF conference is conceived as a non-profit event.

Remmy Nweke
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DCC, Gamatronics showcase higher efficiency UPS

The communications subsidiary of the Computer Warehouse Group (CWG), DCC Networks and Gamatronics recently showcased higher efficiency Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) in Lagos.

The UPS, they said at the Energy Saving Summit, was specially made as an upgradable power supply. Gamatronics is a leading provider of cutting edge power module solutions and technology from Israel.

The forum, which was used to introduce the various ranges of modular UPS systems from Gamatronics, focused on engendering “Higher Efficiency in back-up solutions using Modular Uninterrupted Power Supply.”

Presentations enlightened participants, who are professionals from different sectors of the economy, on the various opportunities that can be generated from within a tightly integrated and tested solution with simplified management that reduces complexity, risks and costs of running a data centre.

The energy saving summit also availed the participants innumerable ways through which power efficiency can be increased and asset better utilized. It opened vista of opportunities for business enhancement and increase in productivity. The solution meets the growing complexity of the 21st century power needs, especially in heavy power dependent industries such as Information Technology (IT) centers, Datacenters, telecom companies among others. It is a complete solution that comes with power, control and management.

Sales Manager for Africa at Gamatronic, Mr. Mahmud Subhi, said, “the company offers full range of cutting edge power solutions such as Modular UPS+ solution in multiple capacities, wide range of non modular UPS systems, Modular Power systems for the telecom industry, Modular DC/AC inverters and converters, to name a few.

The Power+ is a parallel redundant UPS, which comprised of 1 to 10 UPS modules of 10kVAva each, a system controller, static switch module, and distribution block. The flexible system is user upgradeable from 10Kva to 100Kva, and the modules are designed for hot insertion.”

He explained further that the solution remained the true online battery in which the inverter supplies the power to the load and takes its power either from the AC input (via the rectifier) or from the battery. The rectifier is controlled to recharge the battery and maintain it in the charged condition. The battery is connected between the rectifier output and the inverter input on a common DC link.

“The unit is based on the successful Power+ technology developed in-house by leading Gamatronic research and development engineers, and is further improved by implementing latest power elements and algorithms available on power electronics market. The performance is extremely awesome and hence the unprecedented demand,” he said.

The General Manager, DCC Networks, Mr. Oladipo Raji, said it was essential for businesses to deploy the latest technological innovations to drive their operations in the current competitive ICT driven global market.

“Technology as we all know grows faster than businesses can easily catch up with. Technology growth responds to global trends and not local dynamics, whereas business responds to change in both local and global environment. There is need, therefore to improve on operational efficiency while reducing the cost of doing business and the cost of managing infrastructure to ensure high optimization,” Raji said.

Gamatronics, he said, is the power savings solution being introduced into the Nigerian market in partnership with Gamatronics is scalable and efficient. Computer Warehouse Group has a five year agenda for the African market and with the current workforce of 550 employees, the company has transited from being a hardware company to becoming a major player in managed services, offering innovative solutions to the African market.

Remmy Nweke

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Freedom House says Nigeria is partly free Internet Society

The United States-based Freedom House has described Nigeria as partly a free society when it comes to Internet Freedom.

This was indicated in its latest report titled “Freedom on the Net 2011: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media,” made available to ITRealms Online covering the period 2009 through 2011 when the online penetration of Nigeria has soared unprecedentedly with the mobile internet access now available to the greater number of mobile subscriptions in the country.

According to the report, endorsed by the executive director of Freedom House, Mr. David J. Kramer, within this period, Nigeria has not molested citizen journalists otherwise call bloggers or people who are just online users and enthusiasts with arrest or threat.

Although Freedom House noted that Nigeria partly have press freedom, there has not been substantial political censorship on internet usage in the country.

In addition, Freedom House commended Nigerian authorities for not blocking any Web 2.0 applications in the last over two years, which includes users of web-blogs, social media networks like Twitter, Facebook to name a few.

They pointed out that in 1999, Nigeria returned to civilian governance after almost 30 years of military rule, just as the internet was first introduced in the early 1990s, and usage had grown more rapidly following an internet workshop organized by the Yaba College of Technology in 1995.

Freedom House said that press freedom and the space for free expression have since increased, the legal and political environment for traditional media has remained harsh with a number of journalists killed in recent years.

Yet, “Online media have been comparatively free from such restrictions to date, though two bloggers were detained for questioning in late 2008,” the report stated.

Equally, the report showed that the Nigerian authorities do not carry out any filtering of content, and while access to information technology is still limited for many Nigerians, the number of internet users nearly quadrupled between 2008 and 2010.

“Several recent legislative initiatives have raised concerns that the relative freedom and privacy enjoyed by online journalists and writers may come under threat in the near future,” part of the report read.

They said that Internet access expanded as cybercafes sprang up in major cities across Nigeria in 1999, though it was still expensive and connections were very slow.

“The introduction of internet access via mobile-phone service in 2004 spurred further increases in internet use,” Freedom House said.

Under this period, about 13 obstacles to access were highlighted, likely limits to content were 10 and violations of user rights got 12 scores, while the Internet Freedom Status ranked Nigeria partly free.

Though the report stated that Internet access in Nigeria has grown exponentially in recent years, particularly after the introduction of mobile-phone data services and Fixed Wireless
Access (FWA) services, there were about 100,000 users in 1999, but the figure grew to 11 million in 2008, and reached almost 44 million in 2010.

“This large jump in access is due to an increase in mobile-phone usage and data services over this period, private sector and government investment in technology, and increased competition between FWA providers,” the report showed.

Freedom House emphasised that the penetration rate is only 30 percent of the Nigerian population, and access is greater in urban areas than in rural regions, whereas cost is a key barrier to access for many Nigerians, the price for internet use ranges from US$1 per hour in cybercafes to an average of US$7 per megabyte of data on Global System for Mobile (GSM) networks.

Further, the report showed that FWA service costs an average of US$80 per month, which entails in comparison that the new minimum wage announced by the government in July 2010 which is US$120 per month, may still not be enough for citizens to offset family essentials and accommodate access t the Internet.

Literacy, however, Freedom House said, remained an obstacle as well, as 28 per cent of the population is illiterate, particularly in English, the main language used by Nigerian online news outlets and blogs.

A May 2009 survey of internet users, was quoted as showing that most Nigerians access the internet from cybercafes or their workplaces, while only 17 per cent do so from home.

Among these users, the report said, a large percentage is well educated, with 41 per cent holding secondary school degrees and 32 percent holding bachelor’s degrees.

In recent years, they said, frequent power cuts have become an impediment to internet access, with many users reportedly using private generators to stay online during outages.

“A number of cybercafes have closed due to difficulties paying for such expensive backup power generation in addition to internet service. The loss of cybercafes has been somewhat offset by the rise of mobile internet usage and affordable packages offered by FWA service providers,” part of the report read.

Freedom House report went on to suggest that although many internet service providers in Nigeria use the word “broadband” in their promotional materials, in practice there is limited broadband service available in Nigeria, with some estimated to be placing the number of broadband subscribers as of December 2009 at only 67,800.

In a related development, the Washington, DC-based Freedom House said that globally, cyber-attacks, politically motivated censorship, and government control over internet infrastructure are amongthe diverse and growing threats to internet freedom.

Mr. Kramer said, these encroachments on internet freedom come at a time of explosive growthin the number of internet users worldwide, which has doubled over the past five years.

“Governments are responding to the increased influence of the new medium by seeking to control online activity, restricting the free flow of information, and otherwise infringing on the rights of users.“These detailed findings clearly show that internet freedom cannot be taken for granted,” he warned, stressing that nondemocratic regimes are devoting more attention and resources to censorship and other forms of interference with online expression.The Freedom on the Net 2011 identified key trends in internet freedom in 37 countries, follows a pilot edition that was released in 2009; evaluating each country based on barriers to access, limitations on content, and violations of users’ rights.

Remmy Nweke
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