Category: e-Business

Early exposure of youths to emerging technologies remain one of the surest way to tap into the fourth industrial revolution, Vodacom Business Nigeria has said.

Its Managing Director, Wale Odeyem, who spoke in Lagos at the end of the firm’s second yearly Inter-School Robotics Training Workshop for students across nine Lagos secondary schools, said the firm remained committed to ensuring that the country kept pace with the evolution of telecoms technologies.

Odeyemi said: “As an organisation, our aim is to help empower the next generation, with relevant technical skills in order to drive positive change in the economy through the use of communications technologies.

“As the world progresses further into the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there has never been a better time to infuse some much-needed STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) training in the education sector through such initiatives as the annual Inter-School Robotics Training initiative. This initiative further demonstrates Vodacom’s support for education at the grass root level to encourage further budding of aspiring youths who are interested in participating in the digital revolution.”

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Among the schools that participated in the workshop were Dansol High School, Avi-Cenna, Holy Child College, Edgewood College, and Adrao International School.

Others were Rainbow College, Greensprings International School, D-Ivy College, Halifield College and Chrisland College.

The participating students, between 12 and 15, had firsthand opportunities to immerse themselves in the complexities that surround the Internet of Things (IoT) and how these will shape society in the near future.

As part of the programme, students were taught how to build, programme, and control various kinds of robots which are being used to perform numerous functions in today’s world. This demonstrated the essential use cases of such technologies in everyday life, ranging from manufacturing to transportation, as far as securing lives and property.

The workshop provided participants the opportunity to explore various ways in which technology is shaping the world. The training covered areas, such as Robotics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Iternet of Things (IoT) and Virtual Reality (V.R.).

The students were also equipped with useful mechanical and programming skills, which can be honed and developed as they progress through the various levels of education. Edgewood College, Lekki came top in the competition that took place after the training. Holy Child College Obalende and ADRAO International School, Victoria Island were first and second runners-up.

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is to hold its first Emerging Telecoms Technologies Research and Information Communication Technology (ICT) Innovation forum at the University of Lagos from June 10 and 11.

The forum’s theme is: Developing Nigeria’s Tech ecosystem; Imperative for improving local content.

NCC said the event is in line with its commitment to promoting ICT innovation and investment opportunities and facilitating strategic collaboration and partnership.

The forum will present opportunity for NCC to bring together key players/actors in the tech-ecosystem to deliberate and suggest policy, framework/strategy that could further develop the sector. It will also  serve as a catalyst for improving local content in ICT/telecoms sector.

The stakeholder’s meeting is a two-day event.

The first day is to identify the gaps in the ICT/telecoms sector, and further strengthen the collaboration between stakeholders and the NCC. The second day will have a breakout session to discuss possible solution to the identified gaps.

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NCC Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, is expected to address the gathering comprising stakeholders drawn from the tech ecosystem; Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and tech hubs. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), consumer advocacy groups and experts from the financial sector will also be in attendance.

A lead paper on theme of the event will be presented by the CEO, Main One, Ms. Funke Opeke.

Panelists will discuss: Digital skills imperative for retooling national Workforce and developing capacities for future work, Innovation hubs as the Fulcrum of local content development, Digital inclusion, employment and national survivability.

Legislative and government support for enhancing tech eco system in Nigeria will also be discuseed.

The Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) said it has secured the commitment of a South Korean technology firm to build set-top boxes (STB) in-country to prosecute the country’s digital switch over (DSO).

Its Director-General, Is’haq Modibo Kawu, who spoke on the sideline of Telecoms Leadership Summit organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in Lagos, also said the Federal Government has okayed fresh N30billion for the programme.

He said the Commission has completed the digital mapping of the whole country, a development that will enable it to deploy transmission facilities.

Kawu said: “Over the last three months, we were in discussion with a company from South Korea and they have accepted to come and put in place facilities to produce one million set-top boxes in Nigeria so that, we can have the boxes that will serve for the rollout of DSO in different locations, especially Lagos and Kano which are major centres.

“The boxes will be produced by the companies that are licensed to produce in Nigeria. They are going to give facilities and the payments will be after the sale of the boxes. In the past, the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) from China insist they are paid before production but now, the Koreans are saying, we will give you the facility, we produce in Nigeria then you can sell and give us the money. That is very significant for all the companies because there is no money for them from the banking system and that makes our task easy in terms of being able to roll out Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt which are the three major economic and population centres in Nigeria.”

According to him, this is a milestone in the journey to achieving analogue switch off in the country because the Chinese OEMs earlier approached over the set-top-boxes insisted on payment of cash before service.

“What we did in the last couple of months is to conclude a couple of things, first of all to finish the digital mapping of Nigeria. That means we now have a total plan for all the points and locations where we are going to have transmission facilities, the major population centres in the entire country. If you look at the demography of Nigeria right now, majority of Nigerians for the first time in history now live in the urban areas and so, what we have decided to do is to look at taking bits of broadcasting to all these major population centres. In the past, we started with regional rollout so we choose a state in a geo-political zone but with the digital maps in process, we now have all the major population centres,” he added.

He said over the next 25 months, the Commission is working out the possibility of doing the regional plan on how it should be and be able to launch in Lagos and Kano, the most important population centres in Nigeria as well as the most important economic locations in the country.

“The Federal Government is also working on the possibility of actually releasing to the NBC a total sum of N30 billion in two folds, a N15 billion and another N15 billion, which we will repay from the resources coming out from the frequency.

“The issue about target that we were all fidgeting about has actually moved on because the whole thing is that, in the context of West Africa, are we rolling out in such a way that it will not affect other countries? We are far ahead of the countries around us because it is usually the problem of trans-border in signals and that is not the problem we have now,” he said.