The Nation Newspaper

Category: e-Business

  • Uber: technology is driving urban mobility

    IN many bustling urban cities around the world, policy makers and regulators are becoming increasingly focused on creating sustainable solutions that effectively address the rising vehicular congestion that these cities experience.

    In Lagos, traffic and congestion    are what inhabitants grapple with  daily. According to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, the population of the state stands at over 24 million. This is equal to 30 African cities combined.

    Uber General Manager West Africa, Lola Kassim, said by 2050, it is estimated that the state population  could hit 35 million. This growth will no doubt put more pressure on the city’s infrastructure. Perhaps a crucial question is: how will the inhabitants of Lagos get from point A to B? What transportation systems and infrastructure are needed to serve the rapidly-burgeoning population?

    Last year, the governor reinforced this sentiment in his plans to replace the yellow buses, popularly known as “Danfo”, with a more efficient bus transport system. This is no doubt a positive development as it is indicative of an intention to reduce congestion and pollution, as well as pave the way for an efficient mass transportation system that would move Lagos faster towards its goal of becoming a Smart City.

    She said in envisioning Lagos as a Smart City, specifically within the transportation and mobility sectors, it is important to begin to think of a city where there are fewer vehicles on the roads and there is convenient access to other mobility options such as rail, waterways, air, etc., for people to move around.

    “We must also begin to think about the fact that fewer cars on the roads naturally means a decrease in carbon emissions and congestion.This also means that places in cities previously set aside and designed around cars, such as wide roads for high traffic volumes as well as space-intensive parkades and parking lots, can be given back to the city and its people. What could this mean for a city like Lagos? Think of a greener, less congested, and more liveable city.

    “At Uber, we believe that a better future is within our grasp. One of our core objectives is to support and complement existing public transportation infrastructure. Through cars registered to use the Uber App, we are helping commuters cover the “last mile” of their journeys around the world.

    In cities like Amsterdam and London, for example, over 25 per cent of Uber rides during morning rush hour go to and from local train stations, further establishing that people use Uber to complement existing forms of transportation. We believe that shared mobility enabled by technology has the potential to contribute to better and more efficient cities. This is why we are partnering public transport providers and other app-based mobility solutions (such as car and bike sharing services) around the world,” she said.

    According to her, in the near future, it will be possible to complete certain journeys across cities using many options made possible via the Uber Platform App. A rider’s daily commute could be completed using one or more options, such as a shared JUMP bike, uberPOOL or, uberX. While not all of these options are available in Africa – it does mean that some of the solutions to creating less congested cities already exist. And for a megacity like Lagos, this is definitely a positive development, she explained.

    Uber, she said, is expanding its offerings to help create a new future of transportation – one that reduces individual car ownership, expands access to transportation and helps governments plan future transportation investments. “From bikes to pooled rides, we are always looking to offer more ways to get around without needing to own or buy a car. A year ago at the first Uber Elevate Summit, we announced our initial partnerships with companies that make aircrafts, high speed chargers and manage major real estate portfolios. We also unveiled a collaborative plan with the cities of Dallas and Fort-Worth to create the first metropolitan area in United States with an urban aviation rideshare network,” the CEO said.

    According to Lola, at this year’s Elevate Summit,  CEO Dara Khosrowshahi affirmed an upward shift in the mobility conversations saying: “We think cities are going to go vertical in terms of transportation, and we want to make that a reality.” With products like uberAIR we want to make it possible for people to push a button and get a flight – uberAIR takes that approach and our technology to new heights.

    “Technology is increasingly at the core of how people move around cities and we must harness it  to create sustainable options to drive transportation systems around the world. As Lagos, Nigeria and indeed the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa make the move towards enabling smart cities – technology will play a critical  role in improving urban mobility,” she said.

  • Bracing for machine learning, artificial intelligence era

    Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) will be key enablers in a new era of digital experiences and value propositions, but the revolution needs human interaction. Experts say keeping the interactions between AI and clients in a fair and unbiased manner will be critical to the success of businesses, LUCAS AJANAKU reports.

    Machine Learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are two very hot buzzwords right now, and often seem to be used interchangeably.
    They are not quite the same thing, but the perception that they are can sometimes lead to some confusion.
    Both terms crop up very frequently when Big Data, analytics, and the broader waves of technological change which are sweeping through our world.
    But a contributor to Forbes, an online platform, Bernard Marr, said AI is the broader concept of machines being able to carry out tasks in a way that we would consider “smart”.
    He added that ML is a current application of AI based around the idea that machines should be given access to data and let them learn for them learn for themselves.
    Accenture Nigeria Managing Director, Niyi Tayo, said though machine learning and AI will be key requirements in the future of business, the digital revolution needs a human touch.
    Why are human values so important to the success of AI, and what does this mean for business? What can you do to eliminate bias in machine learning and ensure that your AI behaves as a good citizen? He said answers would be provided in Citizen AI, as illustrated in Accenture’s Technology Vision for this year.

    Needs for human touch

    AI is expanding into every facet of our human, driving better business decisions and user experiences throughout a wide range of markets and industries. It has effectively become a new user interface, making people’s interactions with the increasingly advanced technologies around easier and more seamless.
    Intelligent digital assistants, such as Google Now on smartphones, helps users to reach out to others, find information, make notes and navigate the physical world.
    Meanwhile, Amazon Alexa and Google Home have also given the world the ability to order goods and services without ever seeing a screen.
    “These developments are constantly making it easier to use advanced technology effectively. Instead of adapting to our machines, we are teaching our machines to adapt to us. “But as we train our artificial intelligences to approve loans, identify job candidates and treat patients, we must be mindful of our responsibility to society. In a future where AI has the power to facilitate every touch point from commerce to public services, we must strive to ensure it remains a force for good. We, therefore, have to nurture our AI as with great power comes great responsibility. We call it “Citizen AI,” he said.

    Danger of bias

    Simply, an AI is a learning system. It grows and matures through data, acquiring new insights and capabilities based on the inputs we feed into it. In order to guide the training process in the right direction, data scientists carefully tailor those datasets to promote the goals an AI is meant to achieve. But that data can also confer unconscious bias and hidden prejudice.
    Tayo said last year, researchers at Carnegie Mellon found that Google’s advertising algorithms were six times more likely to display ads for high-income jobs to men than they were to women. In another well-publicised incident, the first version of Google Photos tagged people of color as gorillas. And when ProPublica dug into the workings of COMPAS, a tool used to predict recidivism rates among criminals as part of the parole process, they were shocked to discover it discriminated against minorities.
    According to him, these are extreme examples, to be sure, but they illuminate a fundamental challenge in AI. “As we continue to expand our use of these technologies, we must create a strong ethical framework for AI and maintain control over the choices it makes,” he said.

    Unlocking black box

    He argued that training AI is a complicated process. Take deep learning, for instance: a pattern recognition method that mimics the way the human brain works and applies those principles to neural networking. This technique has allowed businesses to make substantial progress in highly complex fields such as image recognition. “Where humans see a cat, a goat or a tomato, a computer will only see a field of pixels. Deep learning has given computers the ability to recognise what those pixels represent – but we can’t fully explain how the system works, even though we programmed the basics ourselves,” he said.
    According to him, this is a surprisingly common phenomenon. The neural network powering Google Translate invented its own common language to aid in translations, even though it wasn’t specifically instructed to do so.
    Naturally, this lack of insight into the inner workings of AI is rarely a problem when the results are positive. If efficiency is up and users are happy, why worry? The Accenture Nigeria chief said but the case of Microsoft’s Tay chatbot reveals that things aren’t quite so simple. Within just 24 hours of the chatbot’s Twitter debut, it had transformed from a capable conversationalist into an equally capable racist. Although the project was intended as an experiment from the start, it clearly illustrates the potential for disaster when AI is sent out into the world without proper guidance.
    He explained that these AI examples can apply to biases in Nigeria as well. Biases in terms of ethnicity, religion, place of residence, income levels etc. “Ensuring that AI solutions deployed by organisations are free from these biases is important as the impact of not doing so goes beyond financial to the brand of the companies.
    “It goes without saying that parents are highly motivated to raise their children well and teach them how to be responsible adults. Companies should feel the same duty of care towards their AIs,” he said.

    Raising responsible AI
    To seize the opportunities that AI provides, companies will need to address core ethical considerations and establish a set of value-driven requirements to guide the deployment of your AI.
    He said Accenture has developed the Responsible AI approach to help its clients create the proper governance frameworks to evaluate, deploy and monitor AI. “Our methodology focuses on architecture and solutions that emphasise people and human values. Using this approach will help you guide the implementation of AI in a positive direction and establish the prerequisites for future growth,” Tayo said.

    Robust governance
    AI must be anchored to the core values the company. Establishing strong governance with clear ethical guardrails and accountability frameworks will allow AI to flourish.

    Trustworthy design
    Consumers will only be able to trust your AI as far as its actions and decisions are explained. Achieving that trust requires privacy, transparency and security to be built into the design by definition.

    Effective monitoring
    Once the AI is out in the wild, monitoring its performance against value-driven metrics is critical to its success – and yours. Organisations must guard against bias while ensuring accountability and security.

    Workforce reskilling
    Introducing AI will impact individuals within organisations as well but with Accenture’s myLearning technology, you can democratise AI learning and reduce barriers to entry, he said.

    Why responsibility is key

    In future, organisations will have an enormous opportunity to weave technology into the fabric of our lives in ways that are responsible, empowering and fair. But the ability to reap the rewards of AI will depend on the company’s ability to guide and control it.

  • Investors: five amazing innovations from Nigerian fintech entrepreneurs

    ice President Yemi Osinbajo recently addressed key players in the technology arena at the Silicon Valley to support and investment into Nigeria’s budding technology companies, Hence, Paul Oluwakoya in this report analyses some of the home-grown(Nigeria) Financial Technology innovations for the global market.

    The Vice President of Nigeria, Prof Yemi Osinbajo recently visited Los Angeles, USA with a delegation drawn from both public and private sectors. He visited a couple of places in the smart city, including Hollywood and the Silicon Valley, with a mission to showcase and promote Nigerian creative and technology industries.

    The technology industry in Nigeria has come of age, and the vice president has recently spoken about some of the amazing Tech products emanating from the country, especially in the area of financial services. The Financial technology sector in Nigeria is growing and this is evident in rates at which solutions to harness financial ecosystem are being developed even as the digital payment adoption increases by the day.

    Between 2014 and 2016, FinTech investment in Africa increased from $198 million in 2014 to $800 million. And industry watchers said a number of factors influenced the fintech boom, stating that the cashless policy of the government encourages the adoption of digital payment processes rather than the use of cash for transactions.

    Also, Nigeria and indeed the rest of Sub-saharan Africa is increasing its capacity to make use of ICT. About 70% of Nigerian traders own a mobile phone and smartphone penetration has hit 28%. With many Nigerians connecting with friends and family overseas, there is a huge amount of money flowing from other countries into Nigeria.

    In 2015, annual diaspora remittances to Nigeria was estimated at $21 billion. There has also been a large flow of investments into the sector, with over $100 million raised from Venture Capital investors by Nigerian Fintech startups.

    As the Vice President addressed the key players in the technology arena to canvass for support and investment into Nigeria’s budding technology companies, here are five innovative Fintech products that investors may eye

    1.       Remita

    Remita is the flagship brand and product of one of the oldest technology companies in Nigeria; SystemSpecs. It attained prominence when it was adopted by the Federal Government in 2015, as the technology infrastructure for its Treasury Single Account(TSA) policy whereby all government revenues are collected and remitted to a single integrated account. Remita has achieved some tremendous results as the TSA’s technology backbone. Since 2015, it has processed over N8.9 trillion for the Federal Government and saves the government over $11 million monthly from bank charges that it would have paid without the TSA. Its distinct feature, which enables access to multiple accounts via a single platform was incorporated in a mobile app recently released by one of the largest banks in the world; HSBC and touted as a laudable achievement.

    Remita is a payment system, as well as a gateway and a financial infrastructure. As a payment application, it is available as a web and mobile-based solution for individual consumers to make and receive payments via multiple bank accounts. As a payment gateway, Remita facilitates end to end connection for various payment systems. As a payment infrastructure, Remita carries out integrated financial functions in one seamless system.

    2.       Paga

    Paga is a mobile payment solution to send money, pay bills and receive payments. The company was founded in 2009 by Tayo Oviosu but was publicly launched in 2011. Paga enables users to send as little as N500 to N1 million to anyone, anywhere in the country using their phone number. Recipients can collect their money at any Paga agent or at an ATM without a card. Paga prides itself as the ultimate cardless payment system. With Paga, users can buy airtime and data, pay electricity and other bills, and make deposit into their bank accounts. It has agents across the country who help people to facilitate remote financial transactions. Users can also shop at any Paga-compliant store using their phone numbers. As at July 2018, Paga has 8,793,181 subscribers and over 16,331 agents spread across the country.

    3.       Flutterwave

    Flutterwave is a Nigerian digital payment technology firm with the aim of changing payments in Africa. Its main product is an Application Programme Interface(API), which connects different payment systems together to facilitate seamless transactions. Flutterwave says is building the software infrastructure that allows two different applications to talk to each other. This enables businesses and individuals to make and accept payments from cards, mobile money wallets, and bank accounts, from anywhere in Africa and around the world, all from one integrated platform. With Flutterwave, Nigerians can pay online for anything in any country in their own currency. Flutterwave has received a lot of international attention, including a special feature on CNN in which its co-founder, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji was interviewed. In August 017, Flutterwave raised over $10 million in funding from American Venture Capitalists.

    4.       Piggybank

    Piggybank is an online saving platform that combines discipline and flexibility for its users to grow their savings. The online platform gives users direct access and visibility to their account, making the process clearer and more transparent. Savers can deposit as little as $1 a day into a their online Piggybank.ng account, and cannot touch their savings, until an agreed withdrawal date. The penalty of premature withdrawal is a withdrawal charge of 5% on the savers account. There is also an annual interest of 6% accruing on the money saved in the Piggybank. In 2018, Piggybank was able to raise up to $1.1 million from almost exclusively Nigerian investors.

    5.       PayStack

    Paystack is an innovative online payment solution that enables Nigerian businesses to accept payments from anyone, anywhere in the world. It acts as a gateway to facilitate seamless transactions between two different people using different payment interfaces. With Paystack, Nigerian businesses can receive payments from verve, visa and mastercard branded debit cards. Their customers can also pay them directly with bank accounts. Recently, the company partnered with mobile phone identity firm, Truecaller to increase the capacity and security of its services. Paystack subscribers can now verify the mobile identity of their customers. In December 2016, Paystack secured a $1.6 million seed investment from both local and foreign investors.

  • Picketing: MTN takes case to United Nation-ILO

    MTN Nigeria said its assets worth millions of dollars have been vandalised following the three-day picketing by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) at some of the telecommunication company’s offices across Nigerian states.

    The mobile communication company may have however considered to approach the United Nation – International Labour Organisation(ILO) to make case for an alleged display of violence, disregard for the ILO code of conduct, and vandalising of its assets in the name of picketing.

     MTN said in a statement that, NLC contravenes ILO principles concerning the right to strike section 8.1 which focuses on picketing which states;

     “Taking part in picketing and firmly but peacefully inciting other workers to keep away from their workplace cannot be considered unlawful. The case is different, however, when picketing is accompanied by violence or coercion of non-strikers in an attempt to interfere with their freedom to work; such acts constitute criminal offences in many countries.

     The requirement that strike pickets can only be set up near an enterprise does not infringe the principles of freedom of association (ibid., paras. 586 and 587).”

    The MTN statement read further that, “officials of the NLC were at the MTN offices to picket however, the protest became violent and disorganised as property within MTN premises were vandalised.

    Damaged gate at MTN office

    “Doors and gates were destroyed, several staff of the company were manhandled and in the Ikoyi head office, the MTN flag was lowered and the NLC flag hoisted in its place.

     “Critical national infrastructure across the country were breached and attempts were made to seriously compromise them like turning off the independent power plants at the Ojota switch station, Lagos.”

    Founded in 1919, the ILO’s main goal is to bring together governments, employers and workers of its member states to set labour standards, develop policies and design programmes promoting decent work for all women and men.

    Meanwhile, renowned UK based accountant and social commentator, Feyi Fawehinmi and veteran radio presenter, Jimi Disu have openely condemn the picketing.

    In his words: “As far as I am concerned, they went on a fund-raising exercise. Now it didn’t just end there, if you are going to picket a company let’s just say for all intents and purposes, does it then mean that you must go on a destroying mission?

    Broken entrance door at MTN office

    “You went in there and destroyed their properties. Here we are, our existence economically is somewhat premised on what we call foreign investment, now is this how you are going to treat companies that come?”

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) as well as the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has also learnt their voices.

    ALTON advised MTN Nigeria to consider preventive shutdown of network if telecoms facilities are damaged.

    Tony Ojobo, the spokesman of the NCC in a statement confirmed that on Monday night the NCC activated the MOU with NSCDC to protect the switch stations and BTSs belonging to MTN and other telecom operators.

    Tony also added that, “NCC has also briefed the security agencies on developments particularly the implications of the attempt to shut down the Ojota switch station. A collapse of the telecommunications grid is likely if these attacks on MTN and other telecom facilities are not abated.”

    Tobechukwu Okigbo, Corporate Relations Executive, MTN Nigeria reiterated that MTN has a credible position on unionism.

    He said, “We do not prevent our employees from associating amongst themselves as they deem fit and owe our employees the obligation to ensure they are not compelled to join associations. MTN supports the freedom of association as enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution.”

    All workers have rights that should be protected. We work hard to not only ensure that this is done but also to ensure that our company is a Great Place to Work. We will continue to champion our peoples’ rights, whether they are part of a union or not and work hard to minimise disruptions in service to our customers.

  • Why Ericsson Shares Global Reports on Mobile Data Traffic

    In this interview, Chafic Traboulsi; Head, Networks; Ericsson, Middle East & Africa Gives Insight on the Importance of Regular Mobility Report on Live Networks across the Globe.

    Excerpts

    How did you arrive at the numbers released in the report?

    The Ericsson figures for actual and net added subscriptions are based on several data sources including regulators and operators, as well as macroeconomic factors.

    Ericsson performs forecasts on a regular basis to support internal planning as well as market communications. The subscription and traffic forecast baseline in this report is based on historical data from various sources, validated with Ericsson internal data, including extensive measurements in customer networks. Future development is estimated based on macroeconomic trends, user trends (including research by Ericsson ConsumerLab), market maturity, technology development expectations and documents such as industry analyst reports, on a national or regional level, together with internal assumptions and analysis. Updates to the subscription and traffic forecasts are announced regularly.

    Ericsson regularly performs traffic measurements in over 100 live networks in all major regions of the world. Detailed measurements are made in a selected number of commercial WCDMA/HSPA and LTE networks with the purpose of analyzing various mobile traffic patterns. All subscriber data is made anonymous before it reaches Ericsson’s analysts.

    Why is Ericsson doing these measurements?

    Ericsson is constantly aiming for solutions and products with superior performance. Understanding the traffic volumes and patterns are crucial to improve product development as well as network dimensioning and optimization. In these measurements, Ericsson works together with operators as well as directly towards device manufacturers and application providers.

    In 2023 there is still a gap between the number of smartphone subscriptions and mobile broadband subscriptions of around 1.2 billion subscriptions, what is the reason for this

    A part (25%) of the gap is due to mobile PCs, tablets and mobile router subscriptions, but the majority are related to 3G/4G phones that do not fulfill the definition we have used for smartphones (i.e. having an open OS capable of downloading and running “apps”, like iPhones and Android OS phones). Many of these devices are probably still relatively “smart” and with good screen, but do not have an open OS etc. as defined.

    Why do you expect US, South Korea, Japan and China to lead the uptake of 5G subscriptions?

    All four major operators in the US have publicly announced that they will begin providing 5G services between late 2018 and mid-2019. It is likely that there will be a fast take up of 5G services in the country

    In South Korea, a large-scale 5G trial network was used during the winter Olympic Games in February 2018. Operators in the country have announced their intention to launch commercial 5G services early. Japan have stated they will have 5G ready for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic. The Chinese government, meanwhile, has also pushed for the aggressive deployment of 5G technology. China is hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

    Mobile data traffic is expected to have grown by a factor of 8 by the end of 2023. How should we look at that in relation to expected mobile equipment market growth and Ericsson mobile equipment sales?

    The development of the mobile equipment market is not solely a function of traffic volume growth. Other factors including coverage build-out, network efficiency, speed and quality requirements driven by new devices and applications, also play an important role.

    How do you calculate when stating that 20 percent of mobile data traffic will be carried by 5G networks in 2023?

    The traffic carried over 5G networks is the traffic actually using the 5G Radio Access network (RAN) – subscribers with 5G subscriptions will in addition to this also generate traffic that use the 4G (LTE) network (or 3G) when in areas where 5G coverage is not yet established.

    Could you share the data for regions/countries not displayed in the report?

    We don’t share data on country level (with a few exceptions of large countries, such as China). One reason is that the uncertainty of forecasts reaching to 2023 increases when drilling down to country leve (l. More detailed data behind some of the graphs is available via the Ericsson Traffic Exploration tool.

    What is the relation between VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling?

    Both VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling rely on an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network to deliver the voice services, and other communication services like video calling. Operators that have launched VoLTE over their LTE network (the telephony service is delivered via the IMS network), could extend the same voice service (same SIM card) into buildings using Wi-Fi where there is poor LTE coverage. Operators that have not yet launched VoLTE, could also start to offer Wi-Fi calling services in users’ homes over their own Wi-Fi access point, if the users have bad 2G/3G coverage in their homes. When operators later deploy VoLTE, the voice service can work seamlessly between LTE and Wi-Fi access, which means that when users leave their house while being on a phone call over Wi-Fi the voice call will continue automatically over LTE when the signal becomes too weak.

    VoLTE uses network mechanisms to make the service predictable and independent of load from other mobile data services, while for Wi-Fi calling, the service quality will be dependent on the local radio environment and load from other users connected to the same Wi-Fi access point. Thus, Wi-Fi calling is recommended for residential usage and smaller enterprises, while larger enterprises are recommended to use 3GPP-based small cell solutions to guarantee high-quality real-time voice and video calling services.

    How will VoLTE work in 5G networks?

    3GPP standardization for 5G is ongoing and the aim is that IMS/VoLTE will also be used as the service engine to enable voice and communication services over 5G access. This means that operator voice services will be carried over 5G access and delivered via IMS. There will be different phases in the network and device evolution when it comes to offering voice services over standalone and non-standalone 5G access.

    Ericsson is exploring new use cases and business ideas on how communication services could be used and improved when 5G access is deployed, i.e. using the higher capacity and lower latency in 5G networks. It could for example be use cases combining voice with augmented reality, different types of IoT use cases, and other services relevant for industries and enterprises.

    What do you categorize as IoT?

    Typical examples are connected cars, remote metering (e.g. utility meters), Point-of-Sale terminals, Security systems, Tele-health devices, smart TVs as well as other connected consumer electronics.

    How many of the forecast IoT devices will have cellular connectivity in 2023

    We estimate 3.5 billion cellular IoT connections, which is around 85% of the wide-area category. There is a considerable upside potential considering ongoing deployments of massive IoT networks, driven by China.

    The market size (value) of use cases/applications that utilize cellular IoT How many connected cars will there be in 2023?

    Our forecast does not currently publish details on each sub-segment. Worldwide there are around 80 million new cars sold every year. If 50% of those are connected from now until 2023, this would mean a few hundred million more connected cars compared to today.

  • ‘Software can displace oil’

    Over the years, there have been issues around little or no emphasis on the software industry and preference of offshore software to local ones. Countries, such India and the United States, have taken advantage of the software industry to make huge dollars. The Managing Director of Upperlink Limited, an indigenous software development company licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as a Payment Service Solution Provider (PSSP), Mr. Segun Akano, says the software industry has the potential to displace oil as Nigeria cash cow. He sees Nigeria becoming the power house of software in sub-Saharan Africa. LUCAS AJANAKU met him in Lagos.

    In August 2016, Upperlink developed Paychoice, an enterprise suite of payment and collections solution specifically designed and built to address challenges usually experienced by the three tiers of government including MDAs, large and small corporate bodies, religious and educational institutions as well as other business entities in processing their payments and collections. What are your thoughts about reliance on imported software in Nigeria?

    As a patriotic Nigerian, if we must be honest with ourselves, we must stop capital flight. Remember, when CBN banned those 43 items about two or three years ago. The mindset was that, if we can produce some things here, why do we bring them from abroad? Because, it is depleting the hard earn foreign exchange. Unfortunately, software is not a tangible product, I am sure, if it is something physical, it probably would have been in the CBN list. However, so much money is still going out of Nigeria through software acquisition and we saw that as far back as four, five years ago. And we know, the solution may not be through an order, why? Every business has the liberty to run the business the way it wants to run it, because it is not government that is paying them. The solution is developing your own capability to measure up and offer it at a lower price, so that a reasonable person will ask himself, if I can get this thing for N10 million in Nigeria, why am I paying $1 million for it from India? That is why we have to invest in our own processes. We have Capability, Maturity, Modelling, Integration (CMMI) level three maturity. It is a benchmark to measure efficiency of any software internationally. The highest level is level 5. But that level is good enough to say, this is fit for purpose quality for any software you want to design. So, when we have it, we can raise our head up that the software is going to measure up and there will not be any deficiency. So, when the industry users now begin to see the alternative in terms of its quality, they will opt for it. This is the pain we have gone through to ensure that we have all it takes to develop software the way any other company across the world will, and that is the CMMI modeling.

    So how is it going to be chaieved?

    It is simple. It is through competitiveness an dnot by decree.  There is no order from Abuja that will do it except maybe their own parastatals but how many are government parastatals. The bulk of the market is in the public space. Look at the insurance sector today, all the software they are using, who owns it? Are they from Nigerian firms? And all the eateries, the likes of Shoprite, who owns it? Are they Nigerians? The money on software is more than the money on oil because these are real dollarise item across the world. Indians have seen that and they have gone all out to harness it. In the United States (U.S.) today, if you are not a citizen, Google will give you job if you are a programmer but other jobs, they want you to have their citizenship before they give you job. That exemption for programmers is a key thing across the world. Luckily, the crop of new students we are having in Nigeria are also good. In fact, that is the new paradigm shift that people may not know. In or organisation today, we have graduate from both private and public universities and even those that come for IT, once they do the job for just six months, they catch up. The idea that we have graduates that are unemployable, I can’t support it again, as far as software development is concerned. This is because, these students are already exposed to quite a number of all these gadgets while in school unlike when we went to school that it was rare to have access to laptops. So, they are already in tune, all we need to do is to have that enabling environment for them to be exposed and be coached. For us, we spend time with them here now and we have an ample of them that are talented. So, I foresee that in the next five years, you will find out that Nigeria is having a pool of talents that can migrate to other parts of Africa and form a formidable force that bring up software in all these countries.

    Security has become a global concern. This might be one of the reasons there is the craze for foreign software. What is your reaction to this?

    The development of any software must follow fundamental processes and when you follow CMMI processes, you can be rest assured that your software is fit for purpose. We also have the angle of other third parties in the industry. Because there is no software that is an island, we are connected to one another. So, every note point must be sure of what it is doing. When you hear of security breaches, systems alone no matter how secure are still vulnerable, so, we put in controls. You can only be lucky that it is not a lot of your control is fraudulent. So far so good, we have got a clean slate. So, in Nigeria today, the breaches that are reported, if you probe very well, you will see that they are as a result of insider abuse, I mean some bad eggs within in connivance with outsiders.  But, there is no room for them, once you are discovered, you are gone. So, we are proud to say that in Nigeria, we have high level of efficiency of payment services and the level of fraud is within the error margin.

    In the tech space, there has been so much talk about innovations and remaining relevant. How innovative are you?

    Yes, the philosophy driving Paychoice today is self-service, comfort when and where you want it. We are relying on the Nigerian central switch which is managed by Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBBS) and they have done a lot of work to make sure we have speed, security underlying the services. What we have just done is to be patient enough to understand the technology in NIBBS and we make use of it now effectively. It has taken us like two years trying to understudy them and by the time we understood how they work, we found out that there is a lot that have been put in place by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to enable NIBBS to be what it is today. So, we are riding on that on that infrastructure. As you have said earlier, we are small, if we are to build our own infrastructure, we probably would not be anywhere. But, the truth is that, everybody doesn’t have to be building infrastructure, it is a waste of resources. Why don’t you leverage the existing infrastructure and entrench on your skills with the front-end people? That is exactly what we are doing. We want to make use of our energy to satisfy our customers in terms of customer service. We run 24 hour service, it is laid down by the CBN, we make sure that every complaint is treated appropriately and we make sure that we follow up with our customers.  We ensure that we get feedback from them, that is, what next do you want and because we code our programmes by ourselves, we don’t need to wait for anybody from South Africa or Canada, it is not costing us all that, it is only costing us the patience to meet the needs of the users. And so, we look at every sector, what we give the education sector is different from what we give the health sector. Today we have a product called EduChoice that services the education sector; we have another one called e-hospital solution that services the health sector and the rest of them. So, we have workers that understand the market; and that is the difference. This is why we need to let government know that, it is not enough to bring SAP, Oracle. They don’t understand our environment, we need people here, who have been living here, who understand the way we do our things and begin to convert manual process into automation. So, that is the innovation we are bringing to the market.

    How are you coping with your competitors in the industry?

    We are close to the users and one thing about software is that the best software is the one that is defined by the users. So, we are close to our customers and we move with them. Every step they want to move forward, we move together. We believe with that, we are going to sustain the bond between us and our customers which is very important. So, if you see our software now, what it was in June 2017, is not what it is today. So, we do a whole lot of upgrade and expansion and it will continue. So, any other person can come up with his own but we believe that as long as we give our customers what they need any time they need it, and that efficiency of speed is there, we will continue to be in business.

    Paychoice won the CBN Electronic Payments Incentive Scheme (EPIS) Efficiency Awards, topping other 10 licensed PSSPs. What is it that stands this product out?

    Paychoice philosophy is about self-service that gives comfort to the users. There are three major variables that would determine the acceptability of your product in the market and they are comfort, speed and security. If those three are there for you, there is no way people will not patronise you. So, when we talk of Paychoice, we talk about comfort, the comfort is about me at any point in time, anywhere I am and irrespective of weekends, I make my transactions. So, it gives that freedom for you to make use of the service without having to look for assistance and that’s the philosophy that we are trying to entrench in the financial landscape. Up till now, some states would be rushing to do their transactions by Friday. Why? Because they know over the weekend, the banks will not open and they want the state employees to have their monies before the weekend especially if it is running towards the Ramadan period or Christmas. You see that rush, once they do not do it by 12 noon Friday, the rest will be Monday and you see some workers crying because they would have loved to have their money due to one reason or the other. So, that is the stress we have removed from the public because your financial transaction, no matter how huge, doesn’t have to wait till Monday. And you don’t need to say that because I have meeting at this place, I cannot make it to the office to sign those documents to take it to the bank because Paychoice has taken care of it. We see this as a major setback to efficiency among the directors who approve final payment, so, this lack of freedom is what we have removed because even while in a meeting, such a director can still do his work with Paychoice and it doesn’t have to be in Nigeria, it can be outside the country.

  • ‘How to beat cyber criminals’

    With so many cyber threats out there, today’s organisations need a consolidated view to detect, report on and prevent attacks on their networks.

    This is because businesses are investing heavily in gathering threat intelligence in an effort to stay ahead of cyber criminals.

    A cyber security expert and Manager at Infoblox Africa, Rene Bosman said upfront knowledge about current and potential threats can help people identify security risks to your business so you can make informed decisions and defend against them.

    To proactively detect and combat cyber attacks like ransomware or malware, an organisation must actively collect threat intelligence from a variety of sources and rapidly disseminate information about those threats throughout the entire security infrastructure. Threats can come from internal as well as external sources, and can come in the form of malicious IP addresses, host names, domain names and URLs.

    However, the usefulness of that threat intelligence is all too often hampered by siloed information, lack of context to make actionable decisions, and an inability to categorise by category. The result is slow, if any, remediation.

    Bosman, said: “The majority of businesses have access to different types of threat intelligence that come standard with certain solutions, such as next-generation firewalls, Web proxies, SIEMs, network access control, vulnerability management, advanced threat protection, and endpoint security. However, each of these data feeds need to be regularly updated or there’s no point in having them. If regular updates aren’t carried out, the threat intelligence won’t be accurate or current.”

    It’s also possible to miss something that’s happening on the network if the threat intelligence is coming from disparate systems that don’t speak to one another.

    Secondly, he continues, businesses often face the challenge of how to prioritise threats by category, ie, is it a firewall threat, an application layer threat or a DNS threat? Finally, there’s the matter of what action to take around the threat.

    Bosman says in order to stay on top of cyber threats that are out there, businesses need to deploy a platform that integrates and consolidates multiple threat intelligence data feeds and communicates the relevant information with the right level in the organisation. “Providing a single pane of glass view of current and emerging threats makes it easier for the business to respond to those threats more quickly and in the right way.

    “The platform needs to consolidate all the data that customers have access to, both internal and external. The more feeds that are plugged into the platform, the more accurate the data becomes. If you only rely on one feed, you’ll get false positives, which you want to eliminate as much as possible.”

    There are several key benefits to implementing a platform to manage threat intelligence. These are collection and managing real-time curated threat intelligence from internal and external sources in a single, open and flexible platform; it enables threat prioritisation with context by providing over 300 distinct threat classifications and over 20 properties leading to faster threat remediation; improves security posture and situational awareness of your organisation by sharing the curated threat intelligence data with the security infrastructure; and prevents malware communications with C&C sites and data exfiltration by providing real-time threat feeds at the DNS control plane.

    Failure to take additional measures to help your business manage its threat intelligence could place the business at risk of a Liberty-level data breach, in which 40 terrabytes of data was compromised and held to ransom. “The higher the quality of the data feeds and the ability to share this data with its right function, the easier it is to integrate and consolidate them, the greater the likelihood that your business will be able to take action much sooner, thereby shortening the kill chain as much as possible,” he added.

  • Glo partners CIPM on HR

    Nigeria’s fully integrated telecoms company, Globacom, has lent its support to the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) to organise a capacity-building forum for top-level human resource professionals in the country.

    The forum, co-sponsored by Globacom, featured one of the world’s most renowned executive coaches, John Mattone, among other resourceful persons who addressed an august audience of Nigeria’s foremost human resources professionals.

    Globacom in a statement from its head office in Lagos said it decided to partner with CIPM to facilitate the forum as a way of contributing to the development of transformational leadership culture in Nigeria’s corporate environment.

    “Nigeria is blessed with diverse human resources, bursting with amazing talent, boundless energy and incredible passion. Forums such as this one put together by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management are immensely useful in optimising efficiency in the workplace,” Globacom said.

    The telecoms company pledged to continue to support initiatives that seek to elevate the quality of corporate leadership in Nigeria.

    The forum, with: “Talent and Intelligent Leadership: Roadmap to unleashing greatness in your current and future leaders,” as its theme, was held at Lagos Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, and drew participants from key sectors of the economy, including telecommunications, oil and gas, banking and media.

    In his opening remarks at the forum, CIPM Vice President, Mr. Wale Adediran, who represented the President of the Council, said the 10th Special Human Resource Forum was organised in pursuance of the institute’s mission to promote excellence in the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills by practitioners.”

    He thanked participants and the sponsors, including Globacom, for partnering with the institute to make the forum a reality.

  • MTN, Nokia term up on customer experience

    With the increasing demand on telecoms network services and the subsequent rise in customer related issues, MTN, in partnership with Nokia, has launched a revolutionary cognitive analytics solution for customer insight.

    The proprietary solution was designed to provide a complete view of customer experience, device analytics, network experience and usage. This will help the company better and much quicker understand network quality/user issues, reduce customer churn, grow usage, achieve best experience in the market and lead to a more positive net promoter score (NPS).

    The project, which commenced in MTNN late last year with the deployment of platforms and a Service Operations Centre (SOC) at VGC, was presented to media, stakeholders and regulatory agencies present at the Intercontinental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. After presentations and a brief question and answer session, the guests were conveyed to the Service Operation Centre (SOC) in VGC, Lagos for the commissioning and use case demonstration.

    Commenting at the launch,  Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Ferdi Moolman, said: “We have always been a customer-centric organisation, placing unmeasurable value on our customers and their experiences, and constantly seeking ways to better serve them. We are very excited about this launch today as it marks a new era in customer relations not just for us as MTN and our customers, but also for telecommunications and the technology ecosystem as a whole”

    Also commenting at the event, General Manager, Customer Experience, MTN Nigeria, Kola Oyeyemi said: “Our customers are our most critical asset as an organisation, and this has driven us to seek for partnerships that will make our customers delighted. The new CEM system will help us anticipate the problems customers might face even before they experience it, and this helps us tackle those problems ahead of time. This means customers don’t have to go through any nasty experience and the service is also at no extra cost to the customer.”

  • CPN to govts: embrace IT for 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 2018 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 the occasion of its 25th anniversary celebrations. He said governments all over the world are increasingly 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 in Nigeria, 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.