The Nation Newspaper

Category: e-Business

  • MTN, Microsoft partner to lift SMEs

    MTN Nigeria and Microsoft Nigeria have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on creating sustainable and scalable initiatives to drive the growth of  Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment of the Enterprise Business in Nigeria.

    The partnership, will leverage Microsoft’s technologies and MTN’s innovative expertise to create strong value propositions for SMEs. These propositions will address the needs of SMEs around capability development, access to markets and business networks across Africa. It will also tackle some of their challenges through the creation of innovative solutions.

    Top executives from both Microsoft and MTN in attendance signed the MoU.

    The General Manager, Enterprise Marketing at MTN, Mrs. Onyinye Ikenna-Emeka, expressed the telco’s commitment to the success of businesses, be they SMEs, Large Enterprises or in the public sector.

    She said: “We launched the MTN Man-In-The-Box Initiative to further demonstrate our commitment to the development of businesses and ensure their sustained business growth.”

    She said the Initiative was designed to create and sustain awareness for MTN’s Enterprise Business and its focus to provide and facilitate access to technology, new markets, information and finance for SMEs.

    Country General Manager, Microsoft Nigeria, Akin Banuso, said: “Our approach at Microsoft has been one of empowerment and collaboration; we work with SMEs and as we learn from them, this makes us poised to provide tailor-made solutions to the challenges they face on a daily basis.

    “We are excited about this partnership and looking forward to provide support to the SMEs through the Microsoft 4Afrika initiative.

  • ‘Telcos must pay 0.005% cybercrime levy’

    A professional group, Information Technology Security Professionals (ITSSP), a group within the Nigerian Computer Society (NCS), has said telcos must pay the 0.005 per cent levy specified in the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act 2015 because the fund was designed to train the requisite man power to fight the scourge of cyber-criminals in the country.

    Its Executive Secretary, Rogba Adeoye, said the Cybercrime Act was promulgated in 2015 and that component of it which is a fund is actually dependent on the setting up of a board and the board has been constituted since last year. “The Act states that there should be a board in place. This board is charged with the responsibility of managing the fund has probably directed the CBN or they have opened the account which must be in place before you the collection of the fund,” he said.

    The Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) had threatened to hike service charges should the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) compel its members to pay the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act 2015, Section 44 that states in Section 44 an establishment of a National Cyber Security Fund. “In Section 44.2 (a), a Levy of 0.005 of all electronic transactions by the businesses specified in the second schedule to this Act. Schedule five categories including GSM service providers and all telecommunication companies and Internet Service Providers are to apply this charge,” according to the law.

    According to him, the money is meant to develop capacity in the area of cybercrime issues, arguing that if that was the case, why would the telcos kick against it since they are not the only one that would contribute to it for development.

    “We view this seriously and as an advocacy group, they don’t have the right to stand up against a law that was passed and remained only to be complied with.

    “ATCON should reexamine its position on this and have a rethink that there is need to develop the infrastructure and human capacity in the area of cyber security. We are of the opinion that development necessary in cyber security will be to secure their networks too,” he said.

    According to him, cash are daily lost to cyber-crooks using the infrastructure provided by the telecoms services. “The telecoms operators should not be seen as organisations not cooperating with the Federal Government in the fight against cybercrimes. Sadly, they are not cooperating because the step they are not taking the step they are expected to take. Where is the funding needed to build capacity to tackle cybercrimes going to come from if they insist they will not pay?  Everybody needs protection whether you are a telecoms operator, or a private citizen. Cash sent through electronic services does not discriminate. If the necessary steps are not taken to prevent losses, people will lose their money through the cyberspace,” Adeoye said.

     

  • China invites Nigerian students to global IT contest

    The China Association of Science and Technology has reached out to three secondary school students to represent Nigeria at the upcoming World Adolescent Robotics Competition in China.

    The students Tawakalitu Giwa, Oluwaseun Omotayo and Ayomide Adetunji were members of Team Nigeria to the First Global Robotic Olympics in Washington DC, United States (US.) last year, sponsored by Aramex and Doculand Nigeria.

    The students were picked based on their outstanding performance at the First Global Robotic Olympics where Nigeria placed 25th out of the 163 teams from 157 countries, emerging third of the 41 African countries in attendance.

    Similarly, five students will be representing Nigeria at the next First Global Robotic Olympics coming up in Mexico City this  month.

    Founded by philanthropic inventor Dean Kamen to inspire a passion for science and technology leadership and innovation among the world’s more than two billion youths, FIRST Global provides the framework for an Olympics-style robotics event that drives home the importance of obtaining the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills needed by future leaders to overcome the greatest challenges facing our world – today and tomorrow.

    National Coordinator of the programme Mrs. Remi Willoughby, CEO, Roboglobal Educational Consulting said: “Without any doubt, Nigeria is slowly but gradually establishing herself on the map of technology developed nations. This may not be presently evident, however, it is an indication that progress is being made.”

    According to her, “we have the right talents to compete successfully on the global stage and move Nigeria to a technology advanced nation, but we need the right support and encouragement and to do this, we need to quickly address the evident deficit in science, technology, engineering and mathematics in our educational system.”

    Aramex  and Doculand Nigeria  Managing Director and co-sponsor of the First Global Project in Nigeria, Faisal Jarmakani said: “These children are building the foundation blocks for a technology advanced nation and in the next few years will become global icons paving the way for other children to follow. If they keep getting the right support and encouragement, without any doubt, we will soon join other countries of the world where science and technology have become the backbone of their economic development.”

  • Nine-year-old-girl develops website, mobile app

    A nine-year-old child and grade five pupil of Skycrest School Lagos, Miss Emmanuella Oziofu, has showcased  her  website, www.emmasacademy.com,  and her mobile app,  Emma’s ICT Academy.

    The occasion was at Ladi Lawal Press Centre, Alausa, Ikeja.

    Showcasing her website and mobile app to journalists, Oziofu said they were created to  make the younger generation to develop interest and teach them about Information Communication Technology  (ICT).

    She said her mobile app is available for download on google play store.

    According to her, “the purpose of the mobile app is to teach the younger generation like me on the ICT skills I’ve acquired, the app is free and adults can also download and use it as well.”

    Oziofu, who possess uncommon intelligence and passionate about ICT, has diplomas in Desktop  Publishing, Advance Excel,  Adobe Page Maker,  Advance Power Point and Corel Draw.

    On her plans for the near future Oziofu said “My plans are to build some websites focusing on health,  offer free ICT training for children my age on Saturdays,  Sundays and during holidays.

    “I ‘m also planning a boot camp for young people in the near future. My target was to become a professional web designer and analyst at age nine and I have accomplished it,” she said.

    Oziofu said at the eight, she created three websites for her former school, Fortune Schools, Benin, Edo;  had her own chat site and  a personal website.

    She disclosed further that she was  on a quest to gain more knowledge  about programming languages and artificial intelligence.

    The Nation Online Editor,  Mr Lekan Otufodurin,  who was the chairman on the occasion,  said  young people  should be given the necessary support to develop their talents to put the country in a positive light.

    Otufodurin, who is also passionate about ICT, urged journalists to develop themselves and learn more about communication technology and multimedia skills to keep abreast of developments and at par with global trends.

    He stressed the need for journalists to stop content providers from taking over the profession, adding that this was the only way they could remain relevant in the profession.

  • Konga to re-launch pay on delivery

    Konga, ecommerce platform is set to relaunch Pay On Delivery (POD) from tomorrow, starting with customers in Lagos before extending the service to other states from September 1.

    This is after effectively achieving same day delivery of approximately 97per cent of product orders in major cities in the last 30 days.

    Confirming the development, Mr. Nick Imudia, CEO Online, disclosed that Payment On Delivery was suspended when erstwhile owners – Naspers and AB Kinnevik were in discussions before the acquisition of the business by the Zinox Group.

    “We have taken our time to restructure, improve our technology and capacity in terms of our own staff and logistics to meet customers’ expectations. We have invested substantially in our logistics arm, K-Express culminating in the acquisition of new line-haul trucks, delivery vans and motor bikes to meet the commitments of not just POD, but also achieve a minimum of 85 per cent same day delivery of major products categories by July 2019 across the nation as mandated by the Board of Konga.

    “Someone must make it happen, and we have decided to take the bull by the horns with new mega warehousing and storage facilities being opened across the country with best in class technologies,” he affirmed.

    Mr. Imudia also stated that Konga, in line with its status as the biggest composite e-commerce company in Africa, is expanding its retail network as promised by the company’s Management, with a target of 100 stores before the end of 2019 but with a long-term ambition of achieving 774 stores by 2022.

    “Effective August 1st 2018 and considering Nigeria’s deficient payment system, Konga customers have several payment and delivery options. This will go a long way to excite our customers and expand the numerous order fulfilment channels available to our customers.

    “In addition to pre-payment and payment on delivery, you have the additional option of ordering online to pay and collect from the nearest Konga retail store.”

  • Three start-ups win Visa’s contest

    Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments,  has announced Nigerian startups CredPal and Zowasel as winners in the Merchant Payments and Financial Inclusion challenges of its first  sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Everywhere Initiative, a global programme aimed at startups and designed to encourage the development of the next big thing in payments. The winning solutions beat 10 other contenders selected from 238 submissions to emerge as champions.

    The programme was structured around three real-life business challenges, which are Merchant Payments Challenge dealing with  how to enable smaller merchants to accept payments in-store digitally or provide a safe and secure solution for online merchants to drive eCommerce and reduce cash on delivery.

    The second was Social Business Payments Challenge, which also dealth with how startups use Visa’s APIs to leverage mass reach and social media partner platforms like Facebook to help businesses operating in fast-paced consumer centric environments improve cash flow and receive payments.

    The last is the Financial Inclusion Challenge that explored how startups leverage technology to provide services that are functional for illiterate customers to provide them with secure transaction experiences that build and enhance their confidence in the banking system.

  • Group to govt: deploy IT in economic development

    The Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN) has urged the three tiers of government to embrace technology to deliver services to the people. It warned that governments that failed to embrace technology have fallen while those that deploy technology have continued to rise.

    Its Registrar, Mr. Allwell C. Achumba, who spoke during IT Professionals’ Assembly in Abuja,  said: “We live in a world driven and powered by intellect and technology, a world where we see nations rise and fall as a result of its embrace or neglect of IT. Therefore, we need to intensify our efforts at developing the IT profession in Nigeria. We should not pay lip service to our efforts at building a solid and highly respected IT profession in Nigeria. It is for the good of the profession, the nation as well as the professionals and practitioners who will be reaping the dividends of their sacrifice. IT profession has lots of prospects in Nigeria. Therefore, we should not be tired of putting more efforts and sacrifices especially in terms of effective regulation of the IT profession as well as discharging our financial obligations to the profession in order to make it what it should be in the country.

    Also, speaking on the occasion which had: Professionalism in Information Technology; Past, Present and Future as its them, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu said the Federal Government recognised the critical role of IT in its developmental agenda, and has therefore made IT a priority.

    The minister lamented the poor state of IT in the country and challenged Council to work with government towards the attainment of the national goals and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He also challenged the participants at the Assembly to discuss how the nation can facilitate technology – enabled learning as a way of preparing the youths for the future workplace.

    In his opening remarks, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha congratulated CPN on its 25th anniversary celebrations. He said governments all over the world were becoming smart, efficient with the adoption of appropriate technologies to drive governance and create the requisite enabling environment for national change and the much needed transformation.

    He said, as the agency of government established to control and regulate the practice of Information Technology (IT) profession, the role of CPN in the scheme of developmental goals of government cannot be over-emphasised. He said IT is a critical sector and the flagship of other professions, and one that is viewed seriously in the course of the nation’s drive for sustainable national developments.   Mustapha said the establishment of CPN is government’s way of demonstrating its commitment to the development and deployment of IT in Nigeria. He expressed the confidence that the Council would keep aligning itself to the Federal Government developmental goals, especially in Science, technology and innovations.

    In his opening remarks/welcome speech, the President/Chairman-in-Council, Prof. Charles Uwadia said that this year’s 2018 of the IT Professionals’ Assembly was special in many regards.

    Firstly, it was the first since his election into office at the 23rd AGM.

    Secondly, he said the Assembly coincided with the 25th Anniversary of the establishment of the Council. The President/Chairman-in-Council said the choice of the theme for this Assembly, therefore involved an assessment of the progress that IT practice has made in the past 25 years in the country, where the country presently is regarding bridging the digital divide and deploring IT for our common good as a people, and also foraying and projecting into the future, regarding the boundless opportunities that our profession, IT practice portends for our dear nation, and her future.

  • ‘How Osun is using technology to checkmate farmers/herders clash’

    Osun State has taken refuge in technology to nip potential farmers/herders clash that has claimed millions of lives in some parts of the country in the bud.

    Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Technology, Oluremi Omowaye, who spoke in an interview with The Nation in Lagos, said the government has put in place an inquiry call centre and invested heavily in unmanned aerial vehicles that would gather data and relay same to the centre which would be analysed for action.

    According to Omowaye, the response of the Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s government to the menace of herder/farmers incessant clashes was to think out of the box for a technological solution that would allow seamless flow of information about the movement of livestocks and their owners across the state.

    He said: “We needed to set up an inquiry call centre and we needed a short code so that it will be easy for people to reach us.  We approached the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) which granted us the code after detailed presentation by our team.

    “This technology will be deployed this week using unmanned aerial vehicles that would interface with the call centre. We want a scenario whereby all livestock in Osun would have a unique individual identity so that when a livestock strays into your farm, all you need to do is text the first three digits to the short code issued by the NCC and once you do that you will get a response from the call centre to check the owner.

    “From the call centre too, the owner would be called. Aside that, we are also going to use it for other services such as ambulance services because in the call centre, you have the security operatives too so, we thank the NCC for quick response.

    ‘’I know the NCC is trying to establish a call centre at in Osun so we have an agreement that when they come up with their own, we will.’’

    On supportive infrastructure on which the technology would ride, he said the state is one of the leading states in the federation in terms of the providing infrastructure.

    He said:  “Osun is one of the leading infrastructure states in Nigeria. Governor Aregbesola has opened up a lot of roads, health and educational infrastructure. The government is even working in the area of electricity since it is the major challenge IT has. We are working on boosting power generation in the state but one thing that is unfortunate is that companies do not pay tax.

    “There is no government that can function well without paying tax. What is coming from Abuja cannot pay salaries so we enjoin the companies to cooperate with the state government and pay tax. I am sure with the level of investment in infrastructure so far, Osun is the place to be for investors, both local and foreign.

    “We are deploying IT solutions to ease tax collection but no matter the solution you deploy, computer is garbage; garbage out, if they do not cooperate, it won’t work. But we have deployed a lot of solutions that will enhance tax collection. There is always this allegation of multiple taxation by state governments too. We have also deployed solution that would end the regime of multiple taxation in the state.”

    On the monthly internally generated revenue (IGR) of the state, he said it is less than N1billion while the wage bill for both employees of the state and local governments is above N5billion, stressing that a lot needed to be done in the area of increasing the state’s IGR so that the monthly wait for Abuja would become a thing of the past.

    On the state of the art infrastructure put in place in the state, he said: “What Governor Aregbesola has done Osun is a world-class design, world class standard. The government encourages that the two ducts were built so that not only fibre optics would fly. The government is also thinking of building an industrial park so that the infrastructure would not be scattered all over the state. We are working on the industrial park. We are also talking to some Chinese investors for the industrial park and in the park, there will be a segment for IICT park,” Omowaye said.

  • Telcos renew push for OTT regulation

    These are not the best of times for Nigerian carriers. While average revenue per user (ARPU) continues to face steep decline, competition by platforms that neither erected a single base station, pay taxes to government nor are licensed by the regulator to provide services pose daunting challenges to the health ot telcos, LUCAS AJANAKU reports.

    Nigeria telecoms operators have renewed the push to get the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to regualte the activities of Over-The-Top (OTT) players.

    The carriers, including MTN, Globacom, Airtel, 9mobile and others, acting under the aegis of Association of Licensed Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ALTON), said the time has come for the regulator to re-examine its position on issuing technology neutral licences because of emerging issues in the industry.

    Its Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, in an interview with The Nation, lamented the high moprtality rate of telos. He said the number of operators has dipped by half over the past years because of issues that are not entirely their making.

     What is OTT?

    Online knowledge bank, Wikipedia, explaines that “OTT is where a telecoms service provider delivers one or more services across an IP (internet protocol) network. “The IP networks is predominantly the public internet, although sometimes telco-run cloud services delivered via a corporation’s existing IP-VPN (virtual private network) from another provider, as opposed to the carrier’s own access network. It embraces a variety of telco services including communications (e.g. voice and messaging), content (e.g. TV and music) and cloud-based (e.g. compute and storage) offerings.”

    It said stimulated by the availability of high performance fixed and mobile broadband networks as well as the rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets, telco-OTT is viewed by a selection of industry analysts and media commentators as the mechanism that mobile network operators need to employ in order to compete with the vast and growing range of over-the-top (OTT) services provided by non-telco companies.

    Telco-OTT is a response to the fact that users will have multiple devices (smartphones, laptops or other connected devices such as TVs, games consoles) which almost inevitably will have various different access providers (especially with the growth of public-access Wi-Fi).

    According to Wikipedia, to deliver consistent telco-branded services, at some points at least, they will need to be delivered over third-party access, Wikipedia submitted.

    ALTON’s position

    Adebayo said the regulator has said continuously that it is neutral about technology. This,  in essence, means it licences for services and not for technology.

    He said today, the reality is that technology is driving the market. It is no longer services. There is a need for the regulator to begin to look at issue of regulating technology and not services.

    For example, OTT as it is called, the likes of YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, BlackBerry Messenger and others, all of these are OTT and not part of the core services for which operators are licensed.

    “Those kind of services have social implication, economic implication, security implication and if they are not licensed, that means they are not regulated and if they are not regulated, there is no limit or scope to what they can do.  And no control over ther services and content they can provide.

    “We are therefore saying there is a need for the regulator to begin to look away from the neutrality of technology and technology certification and regulattion  than just licensing for service not only because of the social security implication but also because of the economic implication for the operators.

    “Today, more people send WhatsApp messages, they send messages over the social media platforms than they do on the conventional SMS platform.

    “Operators have been licensed to provide voice, SMS and data services for which they are licensed and being charged annual operating levy. OTT don’t have such and there is even loss of revenue to the regulator of the country too because they are not paying for rendering those services.

    “That is why we are  saying that our regulator must begin to look away from technology neutrality but

     Health of telecoms industry

    He said studies and report had shown that in a market such Nigeria’s, bigger operators survive better than smaller opeartors.

    “When I took up this role as the Chairman of ALTON, there were 35 companies in our group. Today we are 16, meaning that we have lost half of our members due to problems not of their own making,” he lamented.

    He said this might be forces of competition, this might be forces of nmarket forces, the challenges of investing, it might be access to fund, it might be anti-competitve prices of on the part of some of the big players.

    “We just think that studies such as the Study of the Level of Competiton in the Telecoms Industry in Nigeria organised by the NCC should dwell into those areas so that we begin to see the issues leading to the death of telecoms campanies.

    “The challenge we have now with one of the big operator attests to the fact that the industry may not be as healthy as we are thinking and therefore studies such as this are very important first as health check, to see where we are and to see where and how we can further adjust and tune things for a more competitive industry and for a more robust market and for the greater interest of the consumers,” Adebayo said.

  • High spectrum prices hit Nigeria, others

    Spectrum prices in Nigeria and other developing countries are, on average, more than three times higher than in developed countries when income is taken into account.

    This is according to Spectrum Pricing in Developing Countries, a new report released by the global system for mobile communication (GSM) Association (GSMA).  It found high spectrum pricing as a major roadblock to increasing mobile penetration in developing nations.

    The study was designed to identify and investigate trends in spectrum pricing in developing countries, their drivers and potential impact on consumers.

    Government and regulators were found to play a key role in increasing spectrum prices through policy decisions. Administrations are able to do this by setting very high reserve prices for spectrum auctions, constricting the supply of spectrum, which forces operators to overpay, not publish a spectrum roadmap and use poor award rules.

    The organisation says policies that seek to maximise state revenues can have a negative influence on consumer outcomes, including more expensive mobile services and reduced network investment.

    Better spectrum pricing policies are needed in developing countries to improve the economic and social welfare of the billions of people that remain unconnected to mobile broadband services, highlights the report.

    Head of Spectrum at the GSMA, Brett Tarnutzer, said: “Connecting everyone becomes impossible without better policy decisions on spectrum.

    “For far too long, the success of spectrum auctions has been judged on how much revenue can be raised rather than the economic and social benefits of connecting people. Spectrum policies that inflate prices and focus on short-term gains are incompatible with our shared goals of delivering better and more affordable mobile broadband services.

    “These pricing policies will only limit the growth of the digital economy and make it harder to eradicate poverty, deliver better healthcare and education, and achieve financial inclusion and gender equality.”

    The GSMA analysis is based on the assessment of over 1 000 spectrum assignments across 102 countries, including 60 developing and 42 developed countries, from 2010 through 2017.

    Among the countries included in the analysis are Algeria, Cameroon, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, India, Jordan, Mexico, Myanmar and Thailand; all markets where spectrum licensing is a priority.

    Concerning Nigeria, the report recalled that in May 2016, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) auctioned 2×70 negahertz (MHz) of spectrum in the 2.6 gigahertz (GHz) band. The spectrum was split into 14 lots of 2×5 MHz with a reserve price of $16 million per lot. Although the price was not particularly high when benchmarked, the price denomination in US dollars made the potential investment riskier given the instability of the local currency exchange rate against the US dollar over that period. The naira depreciated by more than 20 per cent in the two years preceding the auction and experienced an even more severe drop (42 per cent) over the two years after, making it more expensive for operators to finance their spectrum payments

    Eventually, one bidder (MTN) secured six of the lots available (equivalent to 2×30 MHz of spectrum) at the reserve price, while the rest of the spectrum remained unsold. Leaving a large amount of capacity spectrum unsold will likely hinder the development of the mobile market in Nigeria, which is one of the world’s most populated countries. Nigeria’s 4G market penetration trails the average for sub-Saharan Africa.

    Way forward

    The GSMA is of the view that a well-designed spectrum policy is a critical input for a thriving digital economy.

    The report notes high spectrum prices and lack of transparency in assigning spectrum can discourage LTE rollouts, constrain consumer welfare and delay the closing of the digital divide.

    It said: “Making substantial amounts of spectrum available at prices that lead to an efficient and growth-promoting allocation of spectrum can help realise vital digital development goals through affordable, high-quality and widespread broadband services.

    “With advanced 4G technologies requiring increasing amounts of spectrum, it is crucial that spectrum policies in developing countries support fast and sustainable development of the mobile sector. This helps realise maximum benefit for citizens, particularly the digitally excluded.”

    The GSMA report puts forward four ways to remedy issues of high spectrum prices for developing nations. The first is to set modest reserve prices and annual fees, and rely on the market to set prices. Number two is to license spectrum as soon as it is needed and avoid artificial spectrum scarcity. The third is to avoid measures which increase risks for operators; and lastly to publish long-term spectrum award.