The Nation Newspaper

Category: e-Business

  • DBI workers accuse management of insensitivity, graft

    Workers of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), a man power training and development institution owned by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), have accused its management of mismanagement and insensitivity to their plight.

    According to a petition written by the workers, they alleged that since the current Chief Executive Officer, Prof Raymond Akwule took over the administration of the institute, salary payment has not been regular while promotion has been done haphazardly.

    “Training for staff has been suspended since 2010. The last promotion exercise took place five years ago until this year where some few people were handpicked for promotion.

    “In some instances the institute pays workers’ salary and allowances in piecemeal, allowances are usually delayed sometimes for over six months. DBI management has deviated from what was obtainable from inception in terms of salary and allowances of staff which used to be at par with NCC’s,” the petitioners averred.

    According to the workers, the mismanagement of the DBI has affected its fortunes so tremendously that the only income that has been sustaining the institution is from the Digital Awareness Programme for Tertiary Institutions (ADAPTI) programme which NCC has already determined to cancel any time from now.

    According to them, while NCC workers on the average go for four courses per year, the same could not be said of DBI workers who go for none. This they say is a deviation from the practice at inception when they were treated equally, adding that the situation is so frustrating that two of the vice presidents that came with Prof Akwule have since gone back to their previous employments.

    “A DBI where there is no internet services. Meanwhile, there used to be internet for all and sundry (even students) before the misrule regime. Those days, passers-by just stay by the fence of the DBI and enjoy high speed internet facility,” the petitioner.

    They alleged that before Prof Akwule assumed leadership of the training institute, there used to be both car and housing loans courtesy of the seed fund provided by the NCC), lamenting that the leadership has successfully squandered the monies meant for that purpose while the workers are left empty.

    They also alleged that the fledging post graduate programmes the Institute was running with some Nigerian universities and London Metropolitan University, London before he came on board had gone under because he could not manage the relationships, adding that DBI used to be a world class institution with faculties from Canada and other foreign countries.

    Efforts to get the reaction of Prof Akwule proved abortive. While several calls made to his mobile phone were not picked, the text message sent to him was not replied.

    Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Tony Ojobo, who later called to confirm if The Nation indeed demanded for information from the DBI chief and demanded that a copy of the petition be forwarded to him for action, has not responded. Similarly, Head, Media, NCC, Reuben Muoka’s demand for a soft copy of the petition has not elicited any response.

    But the workers appealed to stakeholders in the ICT sector to save DBI.

  • Dearth of insurance, others cripple mobile money

    Dearth of insurance, mobile money agents and low level of awareness have been identified as major challenges hindering the mobile money scheme introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) two years ago.

    Executive Director, Digital Africa, Dr Armstrung Takang, who spoke with The Nation in Lagos said the project which was designed to complement the cash-less policy of the CBN has failed to grow because the agents from whom money would be collected are not there while people don’t have confidence that when they lose their money in the course of a transaction, there will be someone to hold responsible.

    The issue of who is liable for lose of money in the course of using mobile money platform has always been avoided by the CBN, the operators and the 18 firms licensed by the apex bank to do mobile money.

    Takang said the absence of an insurance firm to bear the risk of people that may lose their money in the course of using the mobile money platform was a great dis-incenitve. According to him, the existence of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Company (NDIC) encouraged people to use the banks because they know that in the event of a failure, they will not lose their entire deposits. He recalled that several bank customers lost their life savings through the use of automated teller machines (ATMs) at the early stage, arguing that this experience may have kept people away from mobile money.

    He said: “There is need to have insurance to guarantee confidence so that I can say to you that if you use your phone to transfer money and there is a problem and you lose money, I guarantee that the money will not go with the winds. It is like when we have NDIC in banking. You and I will go and open an account and if that bank goes down, we know we can go to NDIC and get our money. If you lose money while using mobile money platform, what happens? It is still a grey area.”

    Another problem is the lack of awareness. “There is no awareness that your phone can become a banking hall and the money that is transmitted through credit on your phone is as good as the money that you get through the traditional banking halls. This is still lacking among majority of Nigerians,” he said.

    He said if those two obstacles are addressed, another constraint is the absence of mobile money agents. Mobile money agents are the last persons along the value chain. It is from them that people will collect the cash sent via the moble phone.

    “Another major aspect is that of having agents to collect cash when the cash is needed. The agents are supposed to be ubiquitous but they are not there,” he said.

    He called for the enactment of the enabling laws and provision of requisite security platforms in terms of technology to ensure that these transactions are safe enough to inspire confidence in the people that are going to perform the transactions.

  • IBM chief sees Africa driving global tech innovation

    Chief Technology Officer, Central East &West Africa (CEW), IBM, Sandra Johnson, has said Africa will lead global technology innovation if the youths take advantage of the peculiar challenges facing the continent and develop relevant world class solutions to them.

    Sandra who spoke on the sideline with The Nation at IBM Lasgidi Hackathon held over the weekend in Lagos, said the development and success of the Mpessa application in Kenya was an example of how a world class product of innovation could come out of Africa.

    According to her, Mpessa, which has become a global reference point in mobile money was a child of necessity because there were so many unbanked people in that country.

    “Africa will drive global technology. Look at Mpessa in Kenya which is a unique global product that has brought the many unbanked Kenyans into mainstream banking. This is a unique way to create a banking system using mobile phone.

    “No one in any of developed world would have thought of this because they are banked. That is an example of how you can leverage issues facing the country to come out with unique solutions. There are other issues right here in Nigeria that only Nigerians can solve or only Nigerians can say this is the problem how do we leverage technology to address the problem. There are unique issues to the continent that only the people of the continent will provide solutions that will benefit them,” she said.

    Country General Manager, IBM West Africa, Engr Taiwo Otiti, said the technology firm chose to train students drawn from various tertiary institutions in the country on Mobile Money and Smart Government Solutions because of the currency of the issues around the two.

  • Digital broadcasting: NCC set to meet deadline

    Nigeria’s telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), has assured that the nation will meet the 2015 deadline set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for member countries to transit from analogue to digital brodcasting.

    The regulator said it was collaborating with the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and other stakeholders in the information communication technology (ICT) sector to ensure a seamless transition, adding that there was no basis to fret over the issue.

    Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Tony Ojobo who spoke with The Nation on the sidelines at the just-concluded maiden edition of the Annual Conference of African Telecom Regulators on Consumer Affairs, held in Lagos, insisted that there was no basis to be afraid because the NBC and NCC were already copperating to free-up the requisite spectrums to assure a timely and hitch-free transition.

    “(There is no basis to fear about Nigeria missing the deadline as) the NCC and NBC are collaborating on the issue. They have freed some spectrum. The deadline is 2015. I assure you that before then, all the spectrums needed would have been vacated by the broadcasting segment to telecoms,” Ojobo said.

    If implemented, the transition will allow maximum use of broadcast spectrum, introduce great picture and sound quality, and permit just any broadcast activity to take place on a single platform.

    While South Africa had picked 2010 to coincide with her hosting of the World Cup, Nigeria had chose 2012, the same time with the rest of Africa and Europe but the nation missed the target.

    In 2007 late President Umaru Yar’Adua approved the digitalisation process, prompting the NBC, to flag off the process with the Cable TV operators completing their switch over by since 2008. But ITU, rising from the Regional Radiocommunications Conference (RRC 06), in 2006, is that by 2015 all UHF channels would have gone digital while the VHF is set for 2020.

    According to the ITU, any country that fails to meet the deadline will be shut out of the global village.

  • Commonwealth nations chart way forward for broadband

    Broadband availability is adjudged a major enabler of socio-economic change and key driver of development, beginning from e-governance, e-commerce, tele-medicine and even agriculture. Lucas Ajanaku reports that the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) Forum held in Abuja charted the way forward for broadband implementation for Nigeria.

    The inequalities generated by ICTs have almost become too big for us to overcome. Now is the time to make a difference. Now is the time to turn rhetoric into reality.”

    These were the words of the Secretary-General, Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation (CTO), Prof Tim Unwir, in a keynote address he delivered at the just-concluded CTO Forum in Abuja. He warned of the dangers inherent in depriving people access to the tools of ICT.

    His words: “The expansion of ICTs over the last decade has made the world a more unequal place. Put simply, these technologies are hugely powerful. Those who have access to them, and know how to use them, can benefit immensely. But those who do not have access, who only have an old style mobile ‘phone, who cannot afford the costs of connectivity, are becoming increasingly disadvantaged. This is not only a moral agenda, but also a very practical social and political one, because, sooner or later, the disadvantaged will – and I have no doubt about this – seek to redress the balance by taking (the law) action into their own hands, as we see across so many parts of the world today.”

    He stressed the need for more people to have access to ICT tools, develop new models through which such access can be provided at an affordable price to those who do not currently have. He also spoke of crafting an innovative multi-stakeholder partnerships to ensure such delivery, adding that there is a need to involve governments, the private sector, civil society, international organisations and bilateral donors in providing solutions that will serve the needs of everyone in our societies.

    According to Unwir, providing broadband connectivity is only a beginning. “If we do not work with the poorest and most marginalised in our societies, truly, to understand their needs, and then develop solutions that will be of explicit benefit to them, as much as to the privileged rich and elite , then the divisions within our societies will only increase further,” he added

    “Quite simply, we cannot deliver on the title of this forum, “Innovation through Broadband” unless we actually have broadband. Many of the CTO’s members have less than five per cent of their population connected to the internet; my own country, the UK, still has 17 per cent of its households not connected,” he said.

    Sometime in 2008, former Executive Vice Chairman (EVC)/CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr. Ernest Ndukwe, declared the year as ‘Year of Broadband.’ Subsequently, several fora organised by public and private sectors of the economy focused on how to make broadband available and accessible to Nigerians at an affordable rate.

    Wikipedia defines broadband as a ”Telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device; the broader the band, the greater the capacity for traffic.”

    The Federal Government recently took a bold step by unveiling the National Broadband Plan 2012-2018 with very ambitious targets. The government has taken another bold step of setting up another committee that will see to the implementation of the plan.

    The EVC/CEO, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, said the Commission’s strategy is accelerated broadband deployment, adding that the broadband plan of the regulator will serve as a template for implementation. He said the strategy would answer questions such as whether it is going to be private or public sector-led. Juwah added that patnership is key to a successful implementation. He also said spectrum would be allocated while incentives would be given to firms for roll-out.

    He reiterated that the ‘Open Access Model,’ an initiative that provides a framework for infrastructure sharing, will be adopted for the roll-out.

    “This structure will ensure vibrancy in the market and prevent dominance as no company will be allowed to play in more than two of the service layers and the equity participation in bidding consortia for the licences will be controlled,” Juwah said.

    Communications Technology Minster, Mrs. Omobola Johnson said bandwidth capacity in undersea fibre-optic networks has increased significantly. According to her, Nigeria had access to a potential of 4.7 6 terabytes/second (Tb/s) of international bandwidth capacity at the time the ministry was created in about three years ago. Since then, an additional 5.1 Tb/s of capacity has been added, making a total of 10Tb/s, and this total is expected to increase further to a potential 15Tb/s by next year.

    Broadband has often been described as having the potential to transform the way people live, learn, work and play. That explains why countries, especially the technologically advanced, are investing heavily on the provision of broadband access for their citizens.

    According to a 2010 US National Broadband Policy document, broadband was described as: “The great infrastructure challenge of the early 21st century. Like electricity a century ago, broadband is a foundation for economic growth, job creation, global competitiveness and a better way of life. It is enabling entire new industries and unlocking vast new possibilities for existing ones. It is changing how we educate children, deliver health care, manage energy, ensure public safety, engage government, and access, organise and disseminate knowledge.”

    Security experts say broadband access could help check growing insecurity through effective interior security system that rides on real-time inter-agency coordination, monitoring and mobilisation of personnel, especially if the broadband infrastructure is characterised by multiple carriers, multiple facilities and decentralisation. It is resilient and reliable in the event of disruption.

    In e-learning, ability to provide rich multi-media content, online examination and other modern pedagogic tools ride on broadband without being subjected to variables such as income or location. e-learning could have great impact on children and individuals in remote locations or disadvantaged communities and those with physical or mental impediments that require specialised approaches to learning.

    In tele-medicine, broadband enables the offering of medical advice, monitoring, diagnosis and training, delivered to the remotest regions over wireless networks and opening up the country to varities of medical attention.

    Analysts argue that the nation’s electricity supply could be redefined by leveraging on broadband technology to power smart grids and control electricity supplies more accurately.

    The Geneva, Switzerland-based Broadband Commission for Digital Development reported that broadband could help move the world towards a low carbon-economy and address the causes and effects of climate change.

    “The understanding of the benefits that broadband can bring is at a global tipping point. Its role in GDP growth, in enabling the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and offsetting the effects of climate change is just now starting to be understood, because finally, the deployment is there and the benefits can be realised. In today’s economic climate, societies need to develop, and with a solutions-driven approach to climate change, we can accelerate a new type of green growth while supporting global sustainable development goals,” Chairman of the Commission’s Working Group on Climate Change and CEO of Ericsson, Hans Vestberg said in the report.

    Similarly, a study by international management consultancy firm, McKinsey & Company showed that “a 10 per cent increase in broadband household penetration delivers a boost to a country’s GDP that ranges from (between) 0.1 per cent to 1.4 per cent.” It added that for much of Africa, broadband boost to GDP calculated by the World Bank stood at 1.38 per cent.

    Director-General, National Office for Technology Acqusition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr Umar Bindir, warned that Nigeria may miss the MDGs and Vision 20:2020 if the government fails to change its approch to science, technology and innovation (STI).

    Former Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Prof Cleopas Angaye, said broadband is an indispensable tool to modern eonomic development, lamenting that its penetration still remains low.

    “Broadband is the driver of the major benefits of connectivity but the trend of its penetration in Africa is not only very low but also reflecting a widening gap between the average African country and the more advanced countries in terms of ICT.

    “A veritable means of improving access to ICT and associated tools such as the internet is the development and deployment of broadband technologies. Through broadband, wide frequencies are available to transmit multiple and huge information concurrently within a given amount of time,” Angaye noted, suggesting the building of a clear-cut broadband development policy.

  • Sage decries high opex, legislation, others

    Leading provider of business and human resource management software to companies in the small medium enterprises (SMEs) to upper mid-market, Sage Africa, has identified high operating expenditure (Opex), complex legislation, language barrier and local skills development as some challenges confronting investors in the country.

    Its Chief Executive Officer, Australia, Middle East and Asia (AAMEA), Ivan Epstein who made this dsclosure in Lagos when the firm formally opened an office in the country, said investors will however always be driven by retuns on invetsment (RoI).

    Epstein said Sage has solid market share in South Africa and will continue to explore the many exciting business opportunities that exist in Africa. He said: “There will always be challenges to overcome, such as high travel and operational costs, complex legislation, language barriers and local skills development, but the return on investment remains substantial. Key to investing in Africa is thorough research of the prospective market and I am confident that our team is prepared and will continue to offer our clients solutions that effectively address their specific needs.”

    Acording to him, Sage is already an established brand with a strong presence in Africa, adding that establishing another local office, in addition to that of Kenya, is an important step in the firm’s growth strategy at establishing global footprint.

    He said the newly established office comprise Sage ERP, Sage HR Africa and Sage Pastel Accounting, adding that though each product has a very specific focus, ensuring for a diversified client-focused product map, the team will actively work together to ensure for an even stronger collective position on the continent.

    Speaking at the event, Managing Director, Sage ERP Africa, Jeremy Waterman said the African landscape typically comprises businesses that are no larger than upper mid-market in size as measured by global criteria.

  • NFMC, NCC, NBC plan spectrum auction

    The National Frequency Management Counci (NFMC) in collaboration with the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) will put for auction, free spectrums very soon.

    To achieve this, a spectrum audit has been initiated and will be completed within six months.

    This is part of the high point of the decisions reached at the second meetig of the Broadband Council inaugurated by the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson about four months ago.

    According to the Office of the Minister, top on the agenda was the progress of public and private sector efforts to achieve the broadband plan. President Goodlcuk Jonathan wishes to see broadband penetration increase such that 80 per cent of the population would have got access to mobile broadband and 20 per cent to fixed broadband by 2017. This milsetone was also re-emphasised.

    Another issue that came up for discussion was accelerated work on a Critical National Infrastructure Bill (CNIB) that covers damage to all infrastructure including telecoms, a spectrum audit and a wholesale pricing audit that will lead to the reduction in the cost of deploying telecommunications infrastructure.

    The NCC has been active and pivotal in promoting this agenda having just concluded the hosting of the CTO Forum with Broadband at the forefront of its programme. Raising awareness that leads to growth in demand is still a critical part of the process of encouraging operators and licensees to build services to unserved areas. A planned awareness campaign will communicate transformational benefits of broadband to encourage its use and adoption.

    The Council noted that on the issue of policy and regulation, a nationwide publishing and communication of the agreed Right of Way Guidelines will commence next month while a legal services firm has been appointed to draft the CNIB.

    The Council is also looking into resolving thorny issues that have to do with the speedy roll out of base transmission stations (BTS) between National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), NCC and the Ministry of Environment.

  • Senate, NCC differ on need for law to protect telecoms infrastructure

    The Senate and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) have diagreed over the necessity of a law to classify telecoms infrastructure as critical national infrastructure to insulate it from vandalism which the regulator said is part of the reason for poor service quality in the country.

    While the Upper House said there were laws to address vandalism, the regulator said it was fine-tuning a bill that seeks to classify telecoms infrastucture as critical national infrastructure so their vandalism will attract severe punishment equivalent to that of the infrastructure of the Power Holding Compnay of Nigeria (PHCN).

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Gilber Nnaji, said there were laws that take care of vandalism, insisting that there is no need for another law to address the issue.

    “Already, there are laws taking care of vandalism in this country and we cannot continue making laws. The only thing now is that it is left to the security agents to be more proactive, more vigilant and watch the telecoms infrastructure. The National Assembly has been doing a lot. We have even hold security meetings with the National Security Adviser (NSA). I am a member of National Security and Intelligence (Committee) in the Senate. So we have held several meetings and we have the issue of telecoms infrastructure being vandalised,” the senator told The Nation on the sideline at a forum last week in Abuja.

    He said what was needed was the will by law enforcement agents to carry out the relevant laws by arresting and prosecuting those who breached the law.

    But the Execuive Vice Chairman, NCC, Dr Eugene Juwah, disagreed. He said a bill to address the issue was at its final drafting stage and would soon be presented to the legislature.

    He said: “The NCC is preparing a bill to classify telecoms infrastructure as critical national infrastructure. The bill is in its final drafting stage. And I am sure that very soon, the bill will be presented to the National Assembly. A lot of work has been done on this in the Office of the NSA in conjunction with the Ministry of Communications Technology and the NCC and other important infrastructure that also important in Nigeria. It is not only the telecoms infrastructure. Others are military infrastructure, aviation infrastructure and others.”

    According to him, the passage into law of the bill halt vandalism of telecoms infrastructure be it metropolitan/rural optic fibre cables (OFC) or base transmission stations (BTS).

  • ‘Why spectrum is not free in Nigeria’

    Minister of Communications Technology Mrs Omobola Johnson has said broadband spectrum will not be made available freely to operators because of government’s desire to generate revenue.

    The minister who spoke in Abuja, said spectrum ought to have been givem to operators freely as done in some parts of the world to drive economic griwth and development but lamented that government needs revenue to prosecute its economic aagenda for the country.

    She therefore urged the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the operators to come together and agree on terms that will make spectrum auction less disincentive to investment in the country.

    According to her, mobile broadband is expensive but stressed that in the absence of fixed broadband, the country will have to make do with mobile broadband since there is no ubiquitous optic fibre cables (OFC) in the country.

    She decried the punitive cost of obtaining access to lay OFC by telecoms operators in the country, warning that if the cost is not reduced, it will continue to discourage investment in that area. According to her, out every $1 spent on laying OFC, between 60-80 cents is spent on access.

    Mrs Johnson promised to continue to encourage operators to embrace infrastructure sharing as a way of lowering cost of deploying infrastructure, adding that the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) will continue to offer subsidy to operators to roll-out services in rural and underseved communities across the federation.

    She also pledged the support of the Federal Government in ensuring accelerated roll out of broadband in a cost-effective manner.

  • MTN unveils VISA 3000 to deepen reach

    To spread its retail outlets across the country, MTN Nigeria has launched a new service channel tagged VISA 3000 kiosks.

    The project aims to help increase visibility and availability of MTN offerings across foot and vehicular traffic channels, whilst providing more impactful merchandise deployment for easy access by customers.

    It is expected that the deployment of the kiosks, which would involve the creation of MTN sales and relationship kiosks in the over 500 Forte Oil fuel stations across the country would provide a platform for the telecoms company to enhance the accessibility of its products and services.

    According to a statement, this latest effort is in partnership with Forte Oil, a marketer of refined petroleum products with a strong presence in the 36 states of the country and Abuja.

    Chief Executive Officer, MTN, Michael Ikpoki, said: “This relationship is a strategic one that counts in achieving our vision as a company, and we are convinced that this will help better the lives of our customers.

    “We are in the same kind of business, which is about brightening the lives of customers; making it more convenient as they go from place to place. And if you look at what we do in terms of communication and ICT, we help to fuel that because without fuel, people would not move from place to place. At MTN, relationship is a core value and that is why this relationship is very critica.l.”

    Sales and Distribution Executive, MTN, Mr. Omatsola Barrow said the partnership was forged to realise the mission of MTN to lead the delivery of a bold new digital world, which makes it important to get closer to customers irrespective of location. He also mentioned that MTN wants to be close to the communities in which it does business; and one of the ways to achieve this is by engaging customers through excellent retail experience.