The Nation Newspaper

Category: e-Business

  • COVID-19: IHS Towers donates $170,000

    COVID-19: IHS Towers donates $170,000

    Our Reporter

     

    THE United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has accepted a $170,000 contribution from IHS Nigeria, the largest subsidiary of IHS Towers.

    This contribution is to support the provision of medical essentials, such as test kits and personal protective equipment (PPEs), which will be distributed to regions that have been highly impacted by the COVID-19 virus within Nigeria.

    IHS Nigeria’s Chief Executive Officer, Mohamad Darwish, said: “The provision of medical test kits and PPEs to the Government through UNICEF underscores our support for nation-wide relief efforts during these unprecedented times in modern history; and we all have an important role to play in protecting the health and well-being of everyone.

    Read Also: 60% of IDP children vulnerable, says UNICEF

     

    We appreciate the government’s interventions so far and are proud to work with both the government and  international humanitarian organisations to ensure that critical stakeholders such as front line staff are protected during this crisis, and to enable more tests to be  carried out in order to help save s lives and ultimately defeat the pandemic.”

    Through this partnership with IHS Nigeria, UNICEF will provide medical test kits and PPEs to support the Federal Government in its efforts to support frontline staff members and help increase testing of more suspected cases in a bid to prevent the spread of the pandemic across the country.

  • Telecom firms gain in COVID-19 pain

    Telecom firms gain in COVID-19 pain

    The outbreak of coronavirus(COVID-19) pandemic and embrace of social distancing to reduce its spread has led to the concept of people working from home (WfH).    LUCAS AJANAKU reports on the gains, pains and shape of things to come after the cessation of coronavirus hostilities.

     

    Before the first index case of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was recorded in Nigeria, Mrs Esther Felix usually subscribes to the monthly N1000 data plan on her mobile phone.

    Without video streaming but reading and sending WhatsApp messages and checking her Gmail account, she even gets monthly data roll over.

    But since the pandemic assumed a frightneing dimension and a forced lockdown became inevitable to tame the shrew, her story has changed. She now spends N8,000 monthly on data.The reasons for this are not far-fetched. A mother of three, the lockdown has led to all her kids learning online.

    Mrs Felix’s experience is fairly representative of the experiences of workers, parents, churches, mosques and other business organisations across the country that have been compelled to learn, work, preach and work remotely from home.

    Today, there are various clusters of social  platforms, such as Mixlr.com, Zoom.com, Twitter.com, Facebook.com, Instagram Live; Facebook Live and LinkedIn Live. Others that have enabled virtual meetings, conferences and other engagements are Microsoft Team,  and Google MEET.

    Internet traffic has gone up sharply, no thanks to the pandemic. And this has translated to huge cash to the wallet of mobile network operators (MNOs).

    According to the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), the country’s internet gateway,  internet traffic has increased by about 15 per cent.

    Its Chief Executive Officer, Muhammed Rudman, said the figures fluctuate, with a larger percentage of the spike seen in urban areas. He added that the MNOs which serve end users have largely profited from the increase.

    Rudman, however, said Internet Service Providers (ISPs), especially the Tier 2 operators, which service corporate bodies and enterprises had not seen any rise in traffic “because companies are not currently operating.Their customers are not at work because of the lockdown.

    “Some ISPs, like MTN, have direct end user customers. Of course, they have enterprises they service as well, but they concentrate more on the end users.Others like Spectranet, Internet Solutions, which deal with corporate bodies, are experiencing lull in traffic.

    For some of them, traffic has dropped. But for those dealing with end users, the traffic has been rising. The 15 per cent is the aggregate increase in traffic monitored by IXPN in the last few weeks,” he was quoted to have explained.

    He said the increase in traffic would translate to revenue increase for operators because people want to stay connected with their loved ones in and out of the country.

    The President, Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCO), Olusola Teniola,  said the increased data usage demonstrates that the traffic management and Quality of Service (QoS) are focus points in the industry.

    He said the data demand originated from high usage of over the top (OTT) applications and other collaborative tools and adoption of virtual e-learning systems from homes.

    This, he said, generates the requests and some uploads of content and mostly downloads from heavy data content providers offering video and/or live streaming services.

    Teniola said the data traffic contributed to an increase of usage on YouTube platform where most live church or mosque programmes were hosted for viewing.

    Read Also: Madagascar’s COVID-19 cure drugs sent to Nigeria

     

    “However, the spikes would occur in a particular period on a particular day. The spike during those periods causes congestion in the networks towards the edge of the network (wherever this is physically located),” he was quoted to have said.

    He however said the change in consumer behaviour and the ability of consumers to continue purchasing data would limit the height of any spike and the duration.

    However, the gains of the telcos have become the pains of the subscribers who have been at the receiving end of the improvement. The cost of the traffic spike is on the QoS which has nose-dived.

    There have not only been  persistent drop calls, the speed of the internet has not been anythong to write home about.

    According to Speedtest Global Index, the country’s internet speed has actually been slow in recent weeks. Against the global download speed of 30.47megabytes per second (mbps), Nigeria recorded 15.53mbps. Also, while the world’s upload speed is 10.73mbps, Nigeria had 7.25mbps.

    “The novel coronavirus has killed tens of thousands of people around the world since it first emerged in China last December.

    It has compelled many governments to lock down their populations to a degree unimaginable until recently. It will probably cause the most brutal recession in living memory,” London Economist writes.

    The Managing Director, Rack Centre, Dr. Ayotunde Coker and Dr. ‘Biodun Adedipe of B. Adedipe Associates Limited said, the world will never remain the same after the COVID-19.

    Coker said aside the embrace of the concept of work-from-hom (WfH), theere will also be an increase in outsourcing of non-core jobs in business organisations.

    “Outsource is one major way that will ensure business sustenance. Over the years, we have been explaining to companies the need to focus on their core-business areas and outsource the none-core areas. Lessons learnt now will reinforce and deliver that value,” he said.

    There will also be a rise in EduTech.  “Children are working and studying hard at home now because they have been sent home due to COVID-19. What they require now is the data to follow their lectures online.

    ‘’Healthcare technologies, he said,  have received massive attention now.

    “We now have high quality video augmented reality interaction with experts anywhere in the world; remote key control non-intrusive technologies are now being done by interaction through technology with our doctors here (in Nigeria).

    ‘’A key thing is that global supply chain will change.

     

  • Your business and option of childchain on secured, scalable blockchain platform (1)

    Your business and option of childchain on secured, scalable blockchain platform (1)

    Adedayo Adebajo

    Many have asked how they can link their businesses with the prevailing blockchain technology and benefit from it. They want to know how their businesses can thrive with the DLT that’s so hyped locally and internationally. These questions are even more relevant than ever with the current situation of the pandemic COVID-19 that affects the world globally.

    The current socio-economic realities brought about by coronavirus raise exponentially the needs to direct all businesses and corporate existence to online services. It raises exponentially the need to direct all businesses and corporate existence to online services. Traditionally, businesses can’t be conducted with much distancing as all senses are required up close to establish trust in the product and the parties involved before concluding the deal. But now, with the prevailing required distancing to stay healthy and important resistance to touch objects, companies without innovative ways to sustain their businesses are having a hard time as many are folding up after downsizing.

    The advent of online commerce stores among all and their many unexpected or unanticipated successes shows that Africa is ready for the electronic world. Things only be done right and enabling for customers to patronise. One other advantage about digitising a business environment for goods and services is the undisputed fact that it turns the enterprise from local to international removing its operation from the confinements and putting it on the global map and visibility. Blockchain technology today provides more edges against the usual single centralized server digital platforms in several ways.

    There are a couple of misconceptions that need to be understood and dispensed with when the adoption of the technology is considered. First, the idea that all blockchain platforms are great, you may want to look beyond the great marketing if you are ready to put your business on the platform. There are only a few that are worthy of consideration at the moment.

    Also, no such thing as fully complete system but there are few great plug and play blockchain platforms. Again, no blockchain platform is a magical platform that will make you rich overnight. It all still boils down to solutions you deploy and if they are worth anyone’s attention and patronage.

    It depends on the edge your business can have over others by:

    1. Making it easy for online customers to patronise in a secured environment.

    2. Easing the traceability of goods and origin including the involved financial transactions for all.

    3. Ease of loyalty points issuance with unbeatable transparency.

    4. Cheap/free transaction fees with lesser middlemen in the transaction processes.

    5. Unmonopolised and undiscriminating platform that promotes your product the same as others.

    Majority of confusion comes in two forms for a public blockchain solution. First is developing the solution and the second has to do with the node networks for those fully enlightened about what they are doing. With the right solution or platform, these major concerns become a thing of the past. With a childchain solution adoption, these two are solved outrightly at least on Ardor platform specific childchains.

    With this, your nodes are running even prior to the deployment of your solution based on the existing Ardor hundreds of blockchain nodes across the globe. Another interesting opportunity that comes with the solution is the customizable menu of interesting applications and usable solutions to aid your company’s online activities and customer satisfactions. We will consider a couple of industry starting with the Fintech and jointly see how they can benefit from the technology considering the prevailing crisis and dire need for supporting technology.

    Fintech industry solution:

    The Fintech space today arguably strives to replace the old banking systems but not the bank itself. One major flaw the banks possess today is heavily relying on paper transactions which often require physical contacts. What are the basic banking activities we have today and the parts most Fintech are competing to do better? The functions can be classified basically into two, Primary which include Accepting deposits, Granting advances and Secondary which includes both Agency functions and Utility functions. But to every man or customer of a bank, they are an entity that keeps funds safe and provide option to withdraw the exact or advances in loans all with an attached varying fee.

    It is a known attribute of all banks to utilize customer’s funds in business activities necessary to run and sustain the bank but most becomes faulted due to excessive bad loans both to normal customers and insiders, inappropriate risk management decisions, unsupportive regulatory issues among others. These demerits that apply to the rigid walls within which banks operate mostly do not apply in the tech space where companies offer similar financial services but only online.

    The advantage of taking the finance and banking space out of the confinement to strictly online business remains the major upgrade they offer ahead of the traditional banks. They provide an edge against all obstacles placed by both distance and time and provide ease of banking and accessibility to funds. Nevertheless, more can still be done.

    With the blockchain technology as an extensive fintech enhancement, banks are not eliminated in the whole financial processes, but interactions with them can be reduced to almost nothing through the use of geographically unrestricted cryptocurrencies accepted everywhere to transact in seconds. This means, no POS transactions issues, no bank transfer issues, no ATM issues, no inter-bank transfer delay problems. It will just be a fast business transaction where every involved party smiles away. It provides the required transparency and trust, to truly put customer’s funds in his/her total control and only provides an avenue that allows ease of spending, saving and proper utilization of their financial power.

    The blockchain technology isn’t plagued with the single point of attack and failure as exhibited among all other known platforms today. It utilizes a distributed immutable ledger that writing and recording are only done by consensus of all connected nodes which in this case can be all customers who witness the transactions from the genesis and can validate or testify to the authenticity of all subsequent transactions. This reduces the time to verify in a business environment, mitigates the lack of trust among partners and of course, provides several layers of security of platform, privacy of personal information and immutability of trusted recorded data against external attacks.

    Today with an additional layer of blockchain technology, Fintech industries can utilise the lightweight smart contract, oracle contract among others to provide self-executable actions and automate some recurring and even basic decision makings adequately with no human biases. They can automate giving of loyalty points, approval of loans, automate withdrawals with in-built smart contracts programmable by the user to stop some certain transactions. Trace all transactions within the network to curb some heinous acts and finally provide an environment where customers can completely trust that nothing hidden is happening to their funds outside the agreed activities. Provide all these and many more without having to worry about coordinated broad attacks, failed transactions and platform breakdowns.

    As a fintech startup or platform, have you considered the possibility of having a fully functional decentralized platform, marketplace, insurance, loan services among others? With several advantages attached to these not limited to reduced hands of deck, increased revenue and yet cheaper services and more satisfied customers. These decentralized platforms will soon replace what we have and win with the single preamble— “Decentralised” fintech is the option. Becoming a childchain is the best option out there at the moment on the multichain platform capable of launching your company as easy as any unique turnkey solution. Consider checking the Ardor blockchain platform by Jelurida Swiss SA and endeavor to have your Developers and other members of the team compare to other platforms before making your final choice.

    Adedayo Adebajo is the Managing Director of Jelurida Africa DLT

  • NITDA licenses Digital Encode for data protection

    NITDA licenses Digital Encode for data protection

    By Lucas Ajanaku

    A consulting and integration firm Digital Encode, has been licensed under the Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCO) by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).

    With this licence, the firm is recognised by NITDA to provide training, auditing, and consulting services throughout the country in line with the Nigeria Data Protection regulation (NDPR) principles.

    On January 25, last year, NDPR was issued by NITDA with the objectives of protecting the privacy rights and freedoms of citizens, on the one hand, and the promotion of local and foreign investments in the digital economy by safeguarding the information systems infrastructure against breaches and implementing internationally compatible rules.

    As a DPCO, Digital Encode is expected to verify self-audits prior to submission to NITDA. This is a means of decentralising compliance activities for more efficiency.

    Its Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Peter Adewale Obadare, expressed gratitude to the management of NITDA led by Malam Kashif Abdullahi, for the confidence reposed in the organisation.

    Obadare, who doubles as the Director of Governance, Risk and Compliance, said as a pan-African cyber security, Digital Encode will continue to keep assisting individuals and businesses protect their information assets.

    Also, the Chief Technical of Digital Encode, Dr. Seyi Akindeinde, said the licence is a testament to the firm’s unique methodology rooted in professionalism.

    Akindeinde, who is also the Chief Research Officer and Director of Security Assurance at Digital Encode, said while assisting firms to achieve the data protection goals through a well-defined secure process, Digital Encode will continue to translate strategic business objectives into sound, achievable technology solutions.

    “This approach ensures that the technology never obscures the business goals,” he said.

  • Call masking, SIM boxing blues

    Call masking, SIM boxing blues

    With the national Covid-19 lockdown, some people are working from home. Being online for long hours can subject one to cybercrime, including botnet and ransomware attacks. Experts say there has been an uptick cyber attacks. Amid all these, LUCAS AJANAKU recounts the war against call masking and SIM boxing in the country.

    If you receive a lot of foreign calls, chances are that quite a few of them have reached your handset bearing a local global system for mobile communication (GSM) or fixed line number. In industry parlance, what you got is called a “masked call”. What has happened is that your foreign contact has called you directly with their number, but someone has manipulated something somewhere between you and your caller, changing the caller’s number to the strange local number you see on your handset.

    SIM Boxing

    SIM Boxing or Interconnect Bypass Fraud is one of the most prevalent frauds in the telecom industry today.    It happens when calls made via the internet are sent to Simboxes (machines that house SIM cards), which redirect this illegal voice over internet protocol (VoIP) traffic onto mobile networks.

    Call masking

    A call is masked or refilled when a number is deliberately classified to a different route and SIM boxing to describe one of the many tools in use) has many dimensions.

    Acording to experts, in the first scenario, the perpetrator is somewhere between the two networks. Telecoms is a game of volumes, and some players have positioned themselves as middlemen who aggregate huge volumes of traffic bound for the country from several operators around the world. To make their margins, they compress the calls and strip them of their original numbers before terminating them on local networks.

    “In another scenario, the calls reach Nigeria in their original form (i.e. with calling line identity), but are masked or disguised by a local player who presents it to the terminating network as a local call. Thus disguised, the perpetrator pays the local player the lower domestic interconnection rate and pockets the differential between this and the higher amount he collected in foreign exchange. Call masking is complicated and widespread. Just like Nigeria, other countries are fighting the menace, deploying several regulatory, economic and technology tools.

    Analysts said the two are similar to virus attacks – perpetrators continue to devise complicated strategies; and as regulators and other stakeholders deploy “anti-masking” “anti-virus” solutions, they try to up their game.

    The CEO, NCC, Prof Garba Danbatta described call masking as a phenomenon, whereby an international call is masked to appear as a local call on any GSM network in Nigeria while SIM Boxing on the other hand refers to electronic boxes or devices with multiple SIMs that have the capacity to terminate calls at local interconnect rates.

    He recalled that SIM Boxing started at the time the Commission decided to review international termination rates from N3.90 per minute to N24.40 per minute for international inbound traffic, which provided an opportunity for technology manipulators to terminate calls at N3.90 per minute and cart away the difference, thereby cutting the revenue meant for the operators and by implication the government. A SIM box, he explained, has capacity to receive and transmit calls undetected.

    “However, the challenge is that these SIM boxes are never type-approved by the Commission, an indication that they are being used illegally in the country,” he had said.

    Interventions

    Determined to end the twin evil, the NCC had, vide a letter with Ref: TSNI/GEN/VOL.4/115, directed relevant licencees to ensure the cessation of call masking or refiling activity on their networks. A deadline was set. Furthermore, on August 3, 2017, at a stakeholders meeting organised by the Commission in which the affected companies participated, it was resolved that a comprehensive investigation would be carried out by the NCC to determine the companies/licences involved in the illegal act.

    Licencees were warned to desist from the practice. It was also agreed that identified culprits would be sanctioned as part of measures to forestall the negative impact of this incidence on national security.

    After investigation, the NCC, in a letter dated January 12, 2018 signed by Head, Legal and Regulatory Services, Yetunde Akinloye and  Head, Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement, Efosa Idehen, on behalf of the CEO, NCC, issued the Notice of Intention to Suspend licence pursuant to Section 45 (1) and (3) of the Nigerian Communications Act of some culprits found wanting. Notice of intention to suspend the interconnect exchange licences granted to six telecoms clearing houses over call masking were issued.

    The firms were Medallion Communications Limited, Interconnect Clearinghouse Nigeria Limited, Niconnx Communication Limited, Breeze Micro Limited, Solid Interconnectivity and Exchange Telecommunications Limited   were given p to January 31, 2018 to state reasons the regulator should not suspend their licences. The NCC’s letter read: “Having carefully analysed all the relevant data collected in the course of its investigation activities, the commission has established a direct and indirect evidence against your company in the illegal and unwholesome activity of call masking and refiling.”

    It added: “Consequently, the Commission, pursuant to Section 45 (1 and (3) of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 hereby gives you Notice of Intention” to suspend your operational licence.

    A major operating licence was subsequenty suspended in February 2018. Although the suspension of Medallion Communications Limited was later lifted (since it fulfilled the requisite conditions), sector analysts said it was a landmark decision.

    Other clearinghouses got censored while some were disconnected from the network pending compliance with regulatory requirements.

    The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and the Department of State Services (DSS) were involved in all these.

    SIM registration processes across networks was also tightened. A broad-based Task Force to deal with the shortcomings of the process was established, while the Force made far-reaching recommendations being implemented now.

    There were also technical interventions, which included the barring of about 750,000 numbers assigned to 13 operators from the network. This numbers were suspected of being used for call masking and NCC took a hard stance to withdraw their use.

    Cost to economy

    According to experts, SIM boxing fraud costs the industry to lose about $3billion in revenue.

    The Federal Government loses significant revenue from taxes due from operators (Nigeria does not charge surtax on international calls). The local terminating network loses significant direct and indirect revenues (for example, from the opportunity cost of masked transactions). Consumers lose from quality of service and trust while the work of law enforcement and security agencies are greatly compromised because of complexity in call tracing.

  • Rack Centre: COVID-19 spurs ‘new normal’ era

    Rack Centre: COVID-19 spurs ‘new normal’ era

    By Lucas Ajanaku

    The Managing Director, Rack Centre, Dr. Ayotunde Coke, has said coronavirus (COVID-19) has shown the elasticity of global technology infrastructure and brought about the era of the new normal.

    He said the global information technology (IT) infrastructure available has allowed people to work from home, stressing that   social media platforms, such as Instagram Live, Facebook Live, and LinkedIn Live, that have enabled virtual meetings, conferences and other engagements, while Microsoft Team, Zoom, Google MEET and other technologies, have upped their game, granting access and control routes to the users.

    Rack Centre is Africa’s premium Tier III certified co-location data centre services provider.

    According to Coker, at the base of these infrastructures are the data hosting companies and the telecommunication network operators.

    Thus, COVID-19 is spurring a ‘new normal’ where creative and innovative ecosystem is springing up and multidisciplinary thinkers at individual and group levels now come up with solutions to economic, social and sustainable development.

    Coker spoke on “Technology and infrastructure: Enabling the new normal” during a webinar call with IT editors in Lagos, described post-Covid-19 era as business unusual as it will impact on 10 major business areas, including working from home, which will lead to the growth of semi-flex offices.

    “I don’t think it is just going to be working from home. There is something I call semi-flex office locations.

    “Imagine someone travelling from Agege to a contact centre somewhere on the Island, which is about three hours journey (due to traffic situations), you will find semi-flex office locations about half an hour into the journey and walk in, put your laptop down and with your headphone you connect to the contact centre and perform some routine due to the exigencies of your assignment. So, you are kind of working from home but from a semi-flex location,” he said.

  • Konga, Unilever partner on free delivery

    Konga, Unilever partner on free delivery

    By Lucas Ajanaku

    E-commerce platform, Konga and Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) manufacturer, Unilever, have sealed a deal which will see the wide range of products on the brand’s stable placed at the reach of shoppers across the country.

    Unilever is keen to leveraging Konga’s reach, through its thriving online platform which caters to a growing clientele of online shoppers in search of genuine products at the best prices available in the market. Further increasing the appeal of Konga as a premium vehicle suited to Unilever’s ambition of reaching new and potential customers is Konga’s network of physical stores widely dispersed in the metropolises and various nooks and crannies across the country.

    Konga has also rolled out free delivery for shoppers on the various product range in the Unilever stable.

    These include products, such as Royco seasoning package, Lipton Yellow Label Tea, Close-up Red Hot and Herbal lines, Sunlight detergent, Lifebuoy, Lux, Pepsodent, Vaseline and Shea Moisture, among others. Equally important, the products can be accessed online on the Konga platform.

    Also set to excite shoppers is that Konga is throwing in free bars of Lifebuoy soap on all orders placed on Unilever products in the Konga warehouse.

    In a statement by the two firms,  Vice President, e-Commerce at Konga, Dave Omoregie, said the partnership would enrich the offerings on the Konga platform.

    ”For us at Konga, it was an easy decision signing off on this partnership with Unilever. Indeed, the Unilever brand is one whose wide product range appeals to Nigerians of all classes and status. Therefore, we are delighted to add these products to our growing bouquet of delightful offerings available to shoppers.

    ”Most importantly, we understand the difficulties being borne by Nigerians, especially with the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 crisis. Consequently, we are offering Nigerians the opportunity of stocking up on these essential products and household items at zero delivery cost. All you have to do is place your orders and enjoy free delivery as we deliver right to your doorsteps.

    ”The addition of the Unilever brand to the growing portfolio of genuine products available to shoppers on the Konga platform and the offer of free delivery is further proof of our commitment to continually push the boundaries in meeting and exceeding the expectations of our customers,” he added.

  • Airtel unveils Ultra Plus

    Airtel unveils Ultra Plus

    By Busola Aro

     

    Airtel has unveiled Ultra Plans, a new value offering designed to empower users of its Routers and MiFis to enjoy quality and reliable broadband service at highly discounted rates.

    Under the new plan, which comes in three variants, a customer who buys the Ultra 20 will get 120 GB monthly for N20,000; the Ultra 15 offers 75GB at N15,000 while Ultra 10 gives a value of 40GB at N10,000.00.

    While the Ultra 20 offers a daily bonus of 1GB, Ultra 15 and Ultra 10 offer bonus of 500mb and 250mb. This means that a customer under the Ultra 20 plan can enjoy up to 150GB data. However, the bonus can only become active upon exhaustion of the main bundle.

    It said the new Ultra Plan is consistent with its positioning as the most preferred network for everything Home Broadband and Mobile Internet and it will continue to offer customers the best value and the most innovative offering even as it currently has the largest 4G network in Nigeria.

    The Airtel Ultra plans are available to pre-paid and post-paid customers and exclusively available to Airtel Routers, Mifi’s users.

     

  • Mastercard boosts fraud detective, other skills

    Mastercard boosts fraud detective, other skills

    Mastercard has extended access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) curriculum, Girls4Tech, through a suite of new online educational resources. The programme has been designed to help parents and teachers engage and inspire kids, ages eight to 12.

    Through the new website Girls4Tech Connect, as well as through activities made in collaboration with Mastercard’s education partner Scholastic, teachers and parents can download lessons to help students learn about STEM topics, from the comfort of their homes.

    These activities are built on global science and maths standards and incorporate Mastercard’s deep expertise in payments technology and innovation – to enable children to discover a range of STEM careers, such as Fraud Detective, Data Scientist and Software Engineering.

    Now in its sixth year, Girls4Tech has engaged more than 800,000 students across the globe – including more than 100 in Nigeria – through inquiry-based activities and real-world challenges, all with the goal of inspiring more girls to pursue STEM careers and reduce the gender gap in these fields.

    Just last month, Mastercard hosted its first 2020 Girls4Tech programme in Nigeria where it reached 60 girls aged between nine and 12.

    Read Also: Closing widening digital skills gap

     

    Director, Marketing and Communications, Mastercard sub-Saharan Africa, Ifeoma Dozie, said: “We know that these are challenging times for parents and teachers on many fronts and hope that these learning resources are a fun way to engage and inspire kids about STEM while at home.

    The easy access to the website enhances what we’ve done in our many workshops across Nigeria. We look forward to building on both efforts when it’s once again safe to gather in person.”

    New activities have been posted on  weekly at the Girls4Tech website, Facebook page and Twitter handle. Lessons are available in English.

    While lessons are designed for students to work independently, materials are also available for teachers to guide online sessions.

    To date, Girls4Tech has reached more than 800,000 girls in 27 countries and on six continents.

    The programme has engaged more than 4,400 employee mentors worldwide.

    Mastercard has partnered Scholastic, Be Better China, Major League Baseball, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), R&A and YCAB in Indonesia to further scale the programme and offer STEM skills in unique ways to girls ages eight-

  • Inlaks: IT, others vital to defeat COVID-19

    Inlaks: IT, others vital to defeat COVID-19

    An integrated technology solutions provider, Inlaks Limited, has said the availability of information technology (IT) equipment  and constant power supply are critical elements to defeat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

    Its Managing Director/CEO, African Operations, Femi Adeoti, spoke during the presentation of power and information technological IT equipment worth  N12 million  to support the battle against coronavirus in the country in Lagos.

    The two units of 30KVA Uninterruptible Power Systems (UPS) as well as a multimedia digital screen the firm donated were delivered and installed at the Onikan Isolation Centre, Lagos.

    In addition, it provided a multimedia digital screen to further aid public awareness. The gadget is a channel best suited for dissemination of authentic news, updates and information related to COVID-19 and measures to curb the spread.

    Adeoti said: “From global indications, it is clear that curbing the spread of coronavirus outbreak is a responsibility for all. As cases rapidly increase in Nigeria, government, non-government institutions, and individuals need to work together to bring an end to this pandemic.

    Read Also: COVID-19: Gombe bans commercial motorcycles

     

    “Containing the spread of the virus requires aggressive and collective contribution in terms of time, energy, and resources from every sector. Knowing the importance of power supply in managing isolation centres, relying on resources from our sub brands – Inlaks Power and Inlaks Energy, we can channel our support majorly towards ensuring regular power supply to isolation centres.

    “We commend the efforts of governments, health workers and international bodies in the face of the situation. We are keen to contribute our resources to the collective effort that will ensure swift and effective response to the pandemic.”

    He said in recognition of its long-standing relationship with GTBank as a trusted business partner, Inlaks joined hands with the bank to provide clean and uninterrupted power for medical equipment at the isolation centre.

    The power system  at the Onikan Isolation Centre is expected to deliver continuous and conditioned power that can  provide life support for patients; aid accuracy in testing and data collection; ensure constant illumination of the centre; improve the life span of medical equipment as well as the productivity of health care workers.

    With the growing concerns around the spread of COVID-19 in Lagos and Nigeria, Inlaks is imploring members to observe social distancing and other safety regulations put in place by relevant government agencies across the country.