The Nation Newspaper

Category: e-Business

  • Digital currencies, regulation closing access gaps

    Digitalisation and connectivity are twin-words shaping the new era of business transaction. There are gaps to be filled in the provion of financial services to adequately address the Federal Government’s financial inclusion goals for 2020. But financial technology (fintech) firms are springing up to close access gaps in the provison of financial services. LUCAS AJANAKU reports.

    Technology-driven advances in providing financial services, widely known as “fintech,” are making it easier for ordinary people to gain access to new and more efficient financial products.

    Like all technological advances, however, the benefits are distributed unequally and consumers worry about both their digital assets and the information about them that may circulate along with those assets.

    At the weekend, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a policy paper on fintech that reviews the technology and considers fintech’s implications for the IMF and the World Bank. The paper is based on a survey of central banks, finance ministries and other government agencies in 96 countries that responded (out of 189 that were asked).

    Top on the mind among respondents were security and data protection risks.

    Nearly four of five (79 per cent)respondents in high-income jurisdictions said that fintech’s cyber risks were a problem for the financial services sector. However, only a third of all respondents have examined the “technological interdependencies between networks, systems or processes within the financial sector, or looked at concentration risks among big technology providers that could threaten financial infrastructure.”

    The most famous cyberattacks of all time have affected millions of people.

    The IMF cited positive impact on consumers in emerging economies brought on by the development of mobile payments.

    Non-financial services firms are challenging traditional financial institutions by offering services such as AliPay and ApplePay. The IMF expects large technology firms (like Apple and Facebook) “to play an increasingly greater role in the provision of financial services” although it is not clear how this new competition will affect traditional financial services firms.

    Both ApplePay and Facebook’s proposed Libra digital currency are backed in one way or another by a traditional payment (e.g., a credit card) or by a fiat currency.

    The effect on monetary systems and financial stability from central bank-issued digital currencies is another concern for stakeholders.

    The IMF noted that no clear case has yet been made for a central bank-backed digital currency, but that about 20 per cent of respondents are “actively examining” the possibility of doing so: “The main reasons cited in favour of issuing digital currencies are lowering costs, increasing efficiency of monetary policy implementation, countering competition from cryptocurrencies, ensuring contestability of the payment market, and offering a risk-free payment instrument to the public.”

    One central bank-backed digital currency that is moving to a new stage of development is the Utility Settlement Coin.

    The report also provided regional perspectives on fintech developments. Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, is the global leader in “mobile money innovation, adoption, and usage.”

    Between 2014 and 2017, the share of adults in these countries with a mobile money account nearly doubled to 21 per cent. Mobile money transactions in sub-Saharan Africa represent nearly 10 per cent of total gross domestic product (GDP), compared with just seven per cent in Asia and less than two per cent in other regions.

    The Asia/Pacific region “is ahead of other regions in nearly every aspect of fintech.” What’s missing is homogeneity in technology adoption. In Europe, the fintech market is “growing rapidly but is unevenly distributed,” with non-European Union (EU) countries trailing their EU peers in technology adoption.

    In the Middle East and Central Asia, the fintech industry is now “growing rapidly” after a slow start.

    In Latin American and Caribbean countries, the story is much the same.

    The United States (U.S.) accounts for the vast majority of fintech patents registered and about half of the $85 billion in venture capital financing for fintech startups.

    Most of the rest is divided roughly evenly between Asia and Europe. Nearly all the Western Hemisphere’s venture financing for fintech startups (97 per cent) is passed out in the U.S.

    The IMF also recently took a closer look at the U.S. economy, voicing in particular concerns about trade and debt.

    In Nigeria, during  the first quarter (Q1) of last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said to reach the goal of 80 per cent inclusion by 2020, an additional 7.6 million adult would need to be financially included.

    Factors such as illiteracy, security challenges and slow penetration of financial services in rural areas had slowed the pace of inclusion.

    General Manager of Mobile Financial Services at MTN Nigeria, Usoro Usoro, said by the end of the year, Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access’s (EFInA) biennial results illustrated that the progress made towards this goal had been modest, with only an additional 3.5 million individuals included between 2016 and last year.

    He said it was imperative to look at the developments that brought about  the limited and provided a strong indication of what to expect from the various industry players, as well as the most suitable next steps to help realise the goal.

    According to Usoro, the establishment of agent networks served as proxy channels for banks, to enhance their reach of marginalised communities. Yet, despite having up to 10,000 agents in 2017, the impact of this reach was yet to be felt, as most of these agents delivered their services in semi-urban or urban areas. The slow growth of this initiative led to the launch of the Shared Agent Network Expansion Fund (SANEF) Initiative – it was designed to introduce an  extra 500,000 agents by 2020, to cater to an additional 60 million Nigerians in rural and underdeveloped areas.

    According to him, with the limited time, there was some skepticism about how quickly the agents could be trained, on-boarded, licensed and begin to operate, especially as the process of establishing 10,000 agents had taken up to seven years. This initiative, while capable of enhancing access for the financially excluded, lacks the required trajectory that will enable Nigeria to meet the 2020 target.

    Unified financial data base

    The Know-Your-Customer (KYC) requirements of 2015 which was largely anchored on the Bank Verification Number (BVN) had provided a way to achieve the primary objective of creating a unified national financial database; enhancing e-payments and reducing fraud risks.

    Last year, the effective implementation of the Tiered KYC Requirements still required an additional review – the challenges remain for customers based in rural areas, who have limited access to physical bank branches, and the capital intensive nature of BVN registration also reduces the ability for banks to ease this challenge. The enforcement of BVN registration for these groups of customers (usually Tier 1 account holders with the lowest verification requirements and account limits) potentially reduces the rate at which financial inclusion is achieved.

    Other stakeholders

    Usoro said with banks dominating the activities of the financial inclusion agenda, key stakeholders in other industries identified the need for collaboration to accelerate efforts.

    Nigeria’s largest telecoms operators – MTN, Globacom, 9mobile and Airtel  under its umbrella body, the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) resolved to leverage their vast reach and resources to deliver access to financial services to 90 million customers by 2020, and deepen financial literacy across the country. This readiness for participation by non-financial stakeholders was timely, as it coincided with the CBN’s launch of the Payment Service Banking (PSB) licence months after.

    This development was significant, considering that the licence would enable non-banks – including telecommunications companies, retail chains, postal and courier service companies, mobile money operators, and FinTechs – to obtain a licence to operate in the financial sector.

    Lenders kick

    But the PSB initiative doesn’t appear to go down well with commercial banks in the country the way they resisted resort to operator-led mobile money scheme.

    Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank)  said the decision of the apex bank to license telcos for payment services is a threat to banks’operation.

    In a report, titled:  Nigeria Macro-Economic and Banking Sector Themes 2018, the banks said PSBs will compete with commercial banks for earnings.

    “A more compelling threat, however, relates to the recent decision by the CBN to license PSBs to facilitate transactions in remittance services, micro-savings and withdrawal services in rural areas,” it said in the report.

    Though it’s a positive move for customers, the report said it would improve customer service and digitalisation of banking services while enhancing financial inclusion.

    Last year, MTN Nigeria and Airtel  announced plans to delve into mobile money services with the former expressing hopes that it would get the CBN’s approval and launch in Q2 of this year.

    The PSB licence will, however, not allow the telcos to offer lending services and participate in the foreign exchange market.

    In the report, the tier 1 lender said the capacity of FinTech firms to gain a significant market share would be limited in the absence of collaborations.

    But Usoro said these developments set the pace for the years ahead. While optimistic about the progress made so far, there should be an increased alignment between the need and the delivery of the required services. By ensuring that more seamless approaches to BVN registration and account opening processes are established expediently using agents, industry partners, and other available networks; and providing an enabling structure and environment for the participation of payment service banking licensees.

    “As we approach the 2020 deadline for achieving the financial inclusion targets, our current position is prime for making significant headway towards 80 per cent financial inclusion.

    ”The CBN recently launched a revised National Financial Inclusion Strategy, which will tackle the challenges that have thus far hindered a quicker pace of inclusion – data privacy and security; a lack of transparency; and limited financial education and literacy. There might be need for additional policies to support these new entrants that are mobilised to address these challenges and bridge the gap in financial inclusion.

    “The feasibility of a 20 per cent financial exclusion rate over the next 11 to 20 months may appear doubtful; but if the participating stakeholders are able and encouraged to effectively leverage their positions in the national financial inclusion agenda for the ultimate good of the Nigeria populace. We just might be closer to seeing the needed changes that would enhance our economy and society,” Usoro said.

  • Experts seek investment in fibre infrastructure

    Investment in terrestrial fibre infrastructure is very important if Nigeria and other African countries will ever achieve digitalisation and its accompanying economic prosperity, experts have said.

    The experts who spoke during a panel discussion at the Africa Panel Session, 2019 International Telecoms Week (ITW), in Atlanta, United States (U.S.), said the importance of broadband infrastructure investment in facilitating the growth of Africa’s digital economy cannot be overemphasised.

    Speaking on: Enabling Africa’s Digital Economy, Principal Analyst at TeleGeography, Patrick Christian, said an evaluation of the African digital economy showed that  though the continent still maintained its position as the fastest growing region in terms of internet usage, its data volumes remained lower than other parts of the world.

    Christian underscored the importance of the role content providers such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook, play in driving internet traffic and the expectation that their traffic on the continent will increase with the growth of digital economy. It is expected that having more content beginning to reside and be exchanged within Africa, will add tremendous benefits to the ecosystem.

    A panel that included high-level representation from MainOne, Google, Avanti Plc, Angola Cables, CSquared Africa, and WIOCC highlighted other key factors for development in Africa’s digital economy.

    They unanimously agreed that the development of terrestrial network is key to growing the digital economies of all African countries.

    MainOne’s CEO, Funke Opeke,  said  the firm is currently working in Lagos to enable digital transformation through the deployment of 2500km of fibre across the state. This she said in additon to the almost 1000km of fibre currently deployed.

    Opeke said: “Our immediate focus is to ensure we have fibre to the towers, fiber to schools, health care facilities, and other government agencies, fiber to the enterprise/business districts, and with a density to reach within 1km of the majority of citizens in Lagos.

    “We envisage having network density whereby over 60 per cent of the population is within 1km of fibre access with the planned deployment.”

    The 2019 Africa Panel session at ITW was co-sponsored by MainOne and it continues to provide a platform for key global players to share perspectives on the opportunities and challenges of telecoms development on the African continent. This year makes it the eigth time in a row that MainOne has sponsored the session.

  • NCC gets new Director, Public Affairs

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has appointed Dr. Henry Chukwudumeme Nkemadu as its new Director,Public Affairs (DPA).

    His appointment, according to the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, is in line with the Commission’s policy of putting round pegs in round holes for optimum delivery of responsibilities especially now that the stakes are getting higher for the Commission’s regulatory oversight.

    “Dr. Henry has had a rewarding opportunity of traversing the entire telecom regulatory ecosystem, which experience he will find handy as the new spokesman of the Commission.” Prof. Danbatta added.

    A well groomed professional, Nkemadu who is a consummate communicator, joined the NCC as Principal Manager in Business Development in September 2003 with responsibilities as strategist for the department, evaluating, regulating and managing all departmental requirements. He handled proposals on capacity building initiatives in liaison with international agencies for capacity building. He became a full Director, a few weeks ago.

    Read Also: NCC bankrolls research, devt in varsities

    He, holds multiple degrees/certificates in several disciplines from three universities both in Nigeria and the United States of America (USA). He has transversed several departments within the NCC and garnered wide and varied experience in the workings of the commission. He was Deputy Director/Head, Special Intervention Projects of the Project Department where he superintended the initiation, planning, execution, monitoring/control and close out of intervention projects carried out by the Commission.

  • Tecno Pouvoir 3 Review

    The latest device from the stable of Tecno Mobile, Tecno Pouvoir 3, is a device the combines software and hardware innovation with ultra-long lasting battery. With 5000mAh battery, it gives users an uninterrupted four days of usage on just one single charge.

    The unique selling point of the device  in the smartphone market is its long-lasting battery capacity, advanced security set-up,plus smooth performance, according to empirical experience.

    With the new Pouvoir 3, Tecno has  taken the Pouvoir experience to a whole new level by incorporating the latest  Artificial intelligence (AI)  technology, in addition to its monster-large, ultra long-lasting battery and pocket-friendly cost.

    Smartness

    Compared to Tecno Pouvoir 2, its predecessor, the new device – Tecno Pouvoir 3 – spots a 13MP front camera +13MP back camera enhanced by Artifical Intelligence (AI). The camera’s interface can detect a subject in the frame whether it’s an outdoor landscape, an indoor plate of food or a live subject, and automatically adjust the settings to produce the most beautiful version of the subject.

    It also has a wide-angle lens and an adjustable LED flash. The new device further combines AI technology with High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology to improve image quality in environments where there is poor lighting as well as environments with strong backlight.  The AI-based algorithm is also useful for its Face ID Unlocking system that ensures bank-level security within the smartphone. To further boost security, there is a Fingerprint Reader at the back.

    Speed

    With a Quad-core MT6739 processor, the high-performance Android 8.1, a smart HiOS 4.1 user interface plus a 32GB ROM + 2GB RAM, this smartphone has everything it needs to run smoothly for a long period of time, even when two or more apps are running at the same time. The sizeable RAM and ROM also help it run faster while creating plenty of space for videos, pictures and other files.

    The device flaunts a 6.2 inch super bright display and is encased in a glossy cover, with colour options such as city blue, midnight black and champagne gold available. In all, it’s a great device and it comes at a price that doesn’t hurt at all. No wonder they say Tecno is a device for Nigerians.

  • ‘Infrastructure critical to digitalisation’

    The world is moving towards digitalisation and connectivity to enhance seamless business transaction. The Vice President of Sales, Europe, Middle East, Africa and India (EMEAI), Western Digital, Nigel Edwards, says infrastructure is critical for the country to achieve digitization. He spoke with LUCAS AJANAKU on the sidelines of a programme in Lagos.

    The next phase in technology is digitization, how would a country like Nigeria achieve this?

    Your infrastructure in many cases is ahead or parallel with the rest of the world. What we need to do as a company is make sure we continue to deliver products that are affordable, that open up these markets, to enable the consumers, companies and corporations embrace the new technologies. That is absolutely our goal as we want our products and technologies to be available to everybody. Locally, our job as well is to communicate more, we need to help through our distribution network to educate communities about what’s available and what’s possible today.

    One of our slogans is: “The possibilities of what we can do with data today is endless”. We want to make sure we continue to educate and grow the market here, and I think if we do that it will naturally digitize itself. The day to day usage of people on their mobile devices is much greater than what we see going on in many developed European countries. The market is here in Nigeria today, in the United Kingdom (UK), France, and Germany, more people are moving now to the mobile phone as their main device, but still many use their laptop or home computer as their main device.

    But Nigeria on many fronts will be more advanced and more mobile than those developed countries. We just need to make sure we continue to develop great products as much as possible, that’s what we’re trying to provide to all our customers worldwide.

    You’ve been in this market for more than a year now, how has it been?

    From a SanDisk perspective we’ve been here nearly three years, but really we decided to put more of a business strategy and really target the market about a year and a half ago.

    What are your strategies for the market?

    We have a three staged approach to targeting the market. First of all, coming to the market to understand how it works and then trying to understand how products are distributed and sold across the market. We can then start to think about; okay which partners do we believe locally would be good for us to engage with? Initially, we start with quite a small sub-set of our products and then once we see that is working and we are building momentum, then we expand the range and coverage. We have taken that approach across North Africa, as we’ve expanded across that area as well, and that works very well for us. We did that a lot earlier last year with the SanDisk brands and we are now just about to launch the WD brands aggressively across Nigeria as well, and we will use the same approach for the external HDD products, Passports, etc.

    So far what has been the market response to your products?

    Really fantastic, I would say even above expectation. The Nigerian market is clearly very educated and have a high understanding of the technologies. Everyone is living their lives by their mobile phones, so data and storage are initially for everybody as there is never enough. We have been able, with our products and range of products, to really tap into that requirement for people to just transact their daily lives to enable them function. We have seen pretty dramatic growth of our business across the region, for the dual drives, androids and ixpand products for the iPhone devices and we’re hoping we can do exactly the same with the WD brand as well.

    Can you shed more light on the SanDisk WD relationship?

    SanDisk was the inventor of flash and the Western Digital Corporation bought the SanDisk Corporation nearly four years ago now. They bought them for nearly $18 billion, but the SanDisk brand was always very well known in the consumer retail space, when Western Digital acquired them the view was rather than kill the brand, we should continue to leverage the brand, so we decided to keep the SanDisk name and still drive it through our consumer business and that’s why you still see the SanDisk brand under the Western Digital corporate umbrella.

    It is said that data is the new oil, how secure are your products?

    Yes, I would say we are a data technology company as we don’t want to be just seen as a storage only company, we offer a lot more than just storage. Companies have realized how critical their security is for their data and therefore, across most of our products, we offer various levels of security, encryption and more. Across our range of products they are available, it just depends on which particular product you are buying, it is critically important for our customers, partners and communities around the globe to be assured that our products have security features built in.

    What are the unique selling points?

    We make all of our products ourselves. There are many others that are seen as flash companies, but actually they are buying raw from either us, Toshiba or probably Samsung. However, they are not actually developing, creating or controlling their own technology they’re buying from someone else.

    The great thing with Western Digital is that across our whole portfolio whether it’s flash or hard drives, our platforms or systems, everything is built, developed and manufactured by us. I think that is our first unique selling point and second, that those products work slightly differently than they would in a generic design. For example, in our platform products, if we build J-bods there’s certain technology in that J-bod that is specially attuned to work with our hard disk drive products, so the hard disk drives perform better because the design of the box is geared around the way our hard drives perform and therefore if you were to put a competitor’s product into the box it wouldn’t perform the same way. So, the focus now is developing the complete solution, not just the chip but the complete product and that I think is unique of Western Digital.

    How do you intend to launch your products into the local market?

    As you can see we have a vast range of storage products. When we first targeted the Nigerian market, we focused heavily on the consumer space with the SanDisk brand, now we will start to expand that into the WD line so it very much depends on the product. At the moment, our core focus is to develop and continue to develop the consumer based products, using the distribution network the local team have started to establish and my hope is that down the line, when the local team is more established, there will be opportunity and as we sign new distribution partners, some of them may be specialist distributors in different areas. They might be specialists in security, CCTV, servers and data centers.

    We have products that cover all of those areas so I’m hoping over the coming years we will start to encroach on some of those other business areas not just the consumer space.

    What is the importance of storage to organisations and businesses?

    Data is the new oil and the amount of data being created is exponential. Whichever way you look at it, that has to be stored somewhere and over the last 10 years, companies have realized doing something with that data is critical, not just storing it, that data has a worth, and it has a value. It is critically important that we make our products available, so that people can store their data easily, that they know it is secure, that they know the quality is there so when they want to mine something three to five years down the road they’ll be able to access their data without any problem.

    I actually think that we as a corporation have a huge responsibility to the world, to the customers with our portfolio today, I think the world is really waking up to just how important data is. I think we’re only at the forefront of this, today only 10 per cent of all data created is used. But we know that is growing dramatically, that means people need to store more and more, it’s fantastic for the industry and Western Digital in particular, our focus is to make sure we can provide to our partners, customers and distributors the best technology, the highest quality products that enable other businesses to do everything they need to do around storage that’s our core goal.

    Do you have products tailored for small businesses?

    All of our products can be used across any size of business. Our worldwide business is absolutely fragmented across all of those businesses anyway, depending where you sit. I guarantee we will have a solution of some sort for whatever business you’re in. We do want to look at targeting some specific areas like small and medium businesses in Nigeria.

    Are your products affordable?

    We might not be the absolute cheapest product on the market, but we will always be competitive and I believe if you can demonstrate great support and quality in a product, people will pay the extra few cents knowing they’re getting a genuine product that has the highest quality in the industry. But we have to be competitive, there’s no way around it, we can’t charge $10 for something when everyone else is paying $5.

    Is it short, medium or long term plan to open an office in Nigeria?

    I would say it’s a long term goal that we would like to achieve as we’re still very much in the early days of setting up our distribution network in the region. The team has made tremendous progress in a couple of years, we would want to continue to expand that team locally and our distribution network. I think if we are successful with that, as I believe we will be, then the natural progression is for us to look at whether we want local representation in an office.

  • Huawei mulls OS to rival Android

    Following the blacklisting of Chinese Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) by the United States (U.S.) government, the future of its smartphones appears to be hanging on the balance.

    The OEM was placed on the U.S Entity List last month, stopping U.S tech giants such as Google and Microsoft from conducting business with it.

    The most immediate consequence of this trade blacklisting for consumers is the revocation of Huawei’s Android licence, which will prevent it from launching new smartphones with Google-certified versions of Android installed.

    This also implies that Huawei’s devices will not come pre-loaded with Google apps and services such asYouTube, Chrome, or the Play Store.

    Social media giant, Facebook, has also suspended the pre-loading of its apps on Huawei devices, meaning new Huawei smartphones will not be able to ship with Facebook, WhatsApp, or Instagram installed.

    The full effects of the trade ban have been postponed for 90 days, thanks to a temporary licence granted by the U.S government.

    Huawei founder, Ren Zhengfei, appears unfazed. He said the company was prepared to take on the U.S and would not be too adversely affected by the trade ban.

    He added that Huawei has prepared for this eventuality and has certain backup plans in place to continue its operations as normal should the U.S prove uncooperative.

    Huawei, however, has been investing a large amount of resources into research and development (R&D) and has been working on its own operating system over the past few years to accommodate the possibility of US action against the company.

    The operating system being developed by Huawei will need to run across its desktop and mobile platforms to ensure that it can continue to deliver smartphones and PC hardware to customers without the support of Microsoft and Google.

    Information surrounding the operating system has started to surface, following the escalation of US actions against Huawei, and many reports state that the operating system was initially code-named HongMeng OS.

    Huawei has since filed patents across the European market for a new operating system named “Ark OS”. It has been speculated that the OS would launch in the western market under this name.

    The company’s patent filings include screenshots displaying the operating system’s interface, which shares some features with Android’s UI.

    Some reports have also likened the clean layout of the leaked screenshots to iOS, although there is no official information available on the entire platform’s design and features.

    The design portrayed in the Ark OS features similar functionality to Android, and this has led many to speculate that Huawei is building its OS on the open-source version of Google’s operating system.

    This is a possible solution, which would result in the new operating system being compatible with Android apps, but Huawei will still be unable to pre-load Google apps and services on its devices.

    HuaweiCentral recently reported that Huawei’s upcoming operating system would be compatible with all Android applications, including Google’s apps.

    The Global Times had also reported that Huawei’s upcoming operating system would be much faster than Android.

    According to this report, HongMeng/Ark OS is 60 per cent faster than Android and is being tested by companies including Oppo, Vivo, and Tencent.

    Reports have placed the potential launch date of Huawei’s upcoming operating system at anywhere from as early as Q3 2019 to March 2020, when the company is expected to launch its new flagship smartphones.

    Huawei has not issued any official statement regarding the launch date or rollout of its upcoming operating system for smartphones and PCs.

     

     

     

  • ITU: e-waste holds $62.5b revenue potential

    The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has  said electronic or e-waste presents an opportunity valued at over $62.5 billion per year if treated through appropriate recycling chains and methods. It also has a potential to create millions of decent new jobs globally.

    The global telecoms body, through the Global E-waste Statistics Partnership, has, therefore, launched a major campaign to address the menace of global electronic or e-waste threat.

    ITU, which is a founding member of Global E-waste Statistics Partnership, launched globalewaste.org, an open source portal that visualises e-waste data and statistics globally, by region and by country, for policy-makers, industry, academia and the public.

    Discarded equipment, such as phones, laptops, fridges, sensors and TVs, are referred to as e-waste. E-waste contains substances that pose considerable environmental and health risks, especially if treated inadequately.

    On globalewaste.org, users can now access e-waste data from Global and Regional E-waste Monitors for most countries on earth. Data include the amount of e-waste generated in total and per capita and discarded prior to any collection, reuse, treatment, or export; the amount of e-waste formally collected in total and per capita and regulated by environmental protection laws specifically designed for e-waste; and e-waste legislation by a country, where applicable.

    ITU Secretary-General, Houlin Zhao,  said: “Reliable and official data and statistics on e-waste provide the foundation for sound e-waste legislation and management at the national level.

    “To date, 41 countries report compiling comparable national statistics on e-waste. Better e-waste data will help track progress towards global ITU e-waste targets that Member States have set for 2023. With its extensive private-public membership, ITU is pleased to be part of the Global E-waste Statistics Partnership, and the new portal is a vital step towards addressing the e-waste challenge.”

    The Global E-waste Statistics Partnership comprises ITU, the United Nations University (UNU) and the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA).

    United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General, Rector of the United Nations University, David Malone, said: “Our research and advocacy on sustainable e-waste practices are helping to place this issue on the global political agenda, but more action is needed to stem the ever-increasing tide of e-waste. We need to develop innovative e-waste policies, establish and monitor waste-reduction targets, and forge new multi-stakeholder partnerships for action including with the private sector. We hope the Global E-waste Statistics Partnership and the new interactive online platform will support these needed next steps.”

    International Solid Waste Association President, Antonis Mavropoulos, said: “ISWA welcomes the new globalewaste.org portal as the next step for the development and the increase of the added value of the Global E-Waste Statistics Partnership.

    “We hope that this new initiative will further stimulate the on-going efforts to tackle the e-waste challenge and drive resource recovery policies and activities towards a circular economy in the IT industry. We know that our capacity to deliver sound e-waste management is also measure of our response to the new waste streams that are already delivered by IND4.0, thus, we consider that the Global E-Waste Statistics Partnership demonstrates a role model for other industrial sectors too.”

  • NOTAP, Medallion seek tech adoption to boost tourism

    Two organisations in the private and public sectors Medallion Communications Limited and National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) have advised the deployment of technology in the tourism and travel space to boost buinsesses in the sector.

    They spoke at the maiden edition of Tourism and Technology Summit in Lagos.

    President/CEO of Medallion Communications Limited, Mr. Ike Nnamani, said advances in technology has changed the way people travel, adding that the new innovations offer an interactive and exciting experience.

    Represented by the Chief Financial Officer of Medallion Communications, Mr. Olatunji Sulaiman, he said mobile technology has brought about significant changes in tourism and hospitability industry, noting that mobile phone has become “our tour guide, travel agency, best restaurant locator and maps”.

    According to him, internet of things (IoT) promises to bring significant changes to the tourism industry. “They include integrating sensors connected to the internet items like cars, suitcases and luggages, building and home equipment. All these enhance the security of the travelers, which makes an holiday to be  spent with relaxed minds,” he said.

    He also said virtual assistant technology insight into weather brings exciting moments on vacations.  According to him, it is possible to “teleport” to the most remote corners of the globe without getting off the couch.

    The Director-General, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr Dan-Azumi Ibrahim,  identified six trends to watch out for in the industry.

    The trends include Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), IoT, Voice Technology, Wi-Fi connectivity and wearable devices.

    Represented by the Principal Technology  Officer  at NOTAP,  Mr John Omesili, the DG said the country has the best brains around the world and must use them. He said the country could be the first to sell or franchise VR software for the digital tourism in the world.

    He  said the agency was working towards ensuring that all technologies in the country run on indigenous software.

    He said: “Today, using pay stack, we can directly charge cards and allow payments to be made to local businesses.

    “We have an online travel websites, such as Wakanow and hotels-finding service, hotels.ng. These brands use software to run their businesses; they show how ICT and Tourism can work together to bring desirable products to the market place.”

  • NIMC joins global identity group

    The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has joined the Secure Identity Alliance (SIA), as advisory observer.

    SIA is the global identity and secure digital services advisory body, which promotes legal, trusted identity for all.

    Making the announcement today (Monday), the organisation named the Director-General/CEO of NIMC, Aliyu Aziz as the Chair of the Advisory Committee of the Open Standards Identity API (OSIA) initiative, in his capacity as an advisory observer and the representative of NIMC.

    The meeting is SIA’s ground-breaking global programme that set the standards guarding against vendor lock-in for technologies and solutions used by government agencies worldwide in the implementation of their identity programmes.

    The organisation explained that by allowing governments to exert  control over their national identity programmes, the OSIA initiative provides the standardised data formats and open interfaces that eliminate the interoperability challenges, which all too frequently hamper the evolution of national Identity systems.

  • NCC bankrolls research, devt in varsities

    THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has awarded N65 million  research grants to 11 universities.

    The regulator has also endowed N100 million professorial chairs in two universities. The professorial chair and the research grants are for the development of the Information Communications Technology (ICT) sector, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and the nation’s economy through local content.

    As part of  its mandate to “promote and enhance public safety through the use of a particular number which shall be designated as the Universal Safety and Emergency Assistance Number for telephone services generally”, the regulator said it will also launch Emergency Communications Centres across the country.

    When launched, citizens will be able access help from any response agencies such as the Police, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Fire and Ambulance Services by simply dialing a toll free number 112 from any network.

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the establishment of the National Emergency Communications Agency (NECA) to set up an Emergency Communications System for Nigeria. Members were drawn from the Ministry of Communication, NCC, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), security agencies, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), and other relevant agencies for the adoption of a three-digit emergency number, 112.

    The universities that benefited from the grants are Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Abubakar Tafawa Belewa University, Bauchi,  University of Nigeria,  Nsukka, University of Lagos, University of Ibadan, University of Port Harcourt, Federal University of Technology, Akure.

    Others are University of Jos, Federal University of Technology, Minna, and Bayero University, Kano. Two researchers were picked from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

    Presenting the grants to the beneficiaries at the headquarters of the NCC in Abuja, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Commission, Prof Umar Danbatta said the Commission received 63 research proposals for last year’s grants, out of which 11 were found to have met the criteria for approval.