The Nation Newspaper

Category: Infotech

  • Nitel/Mtel: committee, liquidator fight over creditors’ funds

    The liquidator for the defunct state-run national carrier, Nitel/Mtel, Olutola Senbore & Co., and the ad hoc committee assigned to the liquidator, are at war over creditors’ funds.

    The four-member committee was set up by President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that NATCOM Consortium complied with the upward review of the $252 million price, which the last administration sold the firms to the consortium.

    Findings revealed that NATCOM has been making additional payments through the adhoc committee, for onward disbursement to the creditors in tranches.

    Indications, however, emerged that the committee and the liquidator are at war over issues bordering on payment to the creditors.

    Some of the creditors, who spoke with reporters in Abuja, lamented that over 300 of  them may be forced to send representation to President Buhari for mediation.

    They decried a situation where those charged with the responsibility of ensuring a seamless process would frustrate same with impunity.

    One of the creditors, Alhaji Kabiru Usman, lamented that the matter may be taken to Buhari if it continues this way.

    He said: “We may be forced to drag the liquidator and the committee members before President Buhari, for them to explain why they are still holding on to our money.

    “The liquidator has continued to evade questions on why they are still holding on to our money. We don’t know the identities of the committee members, but the President knows them because he appointed them. They should be called to order.

    “For now, we can only appeal to them to stop acting in ways and manners that tend to create the impression that the fight against graft and impunity is a one-man war being fought by the President alone.

    “President Buhari was voted into office on the strength of his honour, integrity and character; therefore, it would be a disaster for a few privileged appendages to hide under the president’s hard earned reputation to covet.

    “Today, we are all witnesses to the self-inflicted woes of some untouchable men of yesterday, who reveled in impunity, to the detriment of the Nigerian people. This ought to be enough deterrent for those who cherish their reputation.”

    Alhaji Usman recalled that the creditors were paid 15 per cent of their claims in May 2015, shortly before the exit of the last administration, with assurances from the liquidator to pay the outstanding 85 percent in due course.

    He also recalled that the money  available for payment in December last year was used to settle part of the claims of a few telecom giants who are also creditors to Nitel/Mtel.

    The principal liquidator, Otunba Olutola Senbore, however, denied being under pressure by the committee members.

    Speaking on phone from the United States (US), he said:  “Nobody is putting me under pressure; there is nothing like that; we are still waiting for approval from the Committee of Inspection to enable us pay the creditors. We are going to present request for approval anytime from June so that we can pay them by July.”

     

  • Airtel, Ericsson seek affordable broadband

    Airtel, Ericsson seek affordable broadband

    With over 90 per cent of the world’s population to be covered by mobile broadband networks by 2021, Airtel Nigeria and Ericsson are seeking affordable and ubiquitous broadband that will boost Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP).

    In the second half of last year, Nigeria was among the top five countries worldwide in terms of mobile subscription additions, while Nigerian businesses are increasingly adopting mobile-first strategies.

    According to Ericsson Mobility Report Sub-Saharan Africa unveiled last year, 83 per cent of mobile phone subscribers in Nigeria rely solely on their mobile device for their internet connectivity.  To address this growing demand and increase access to affordable mobile broadband internet service, Airtel Nigeria and Ericsson are rolling out Ericsson Radio System (ERS) across the country.

    ERS’s multi-standard platform will enable the telco to cost-effectively leverage the reach, maturity and increasing affordability of 3G technology, while laying the foundation for their 4G and 5G evolution. The network-wide solution incorporates a broad range of products including: radio, baseband, small cells, backhaul, fronthaul, enclosures, power site equipment and the controller. These products are augmented through twice-yearly network software updates, and through Ericsson Global Services offerings.

    Chief Commercial Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Ahmed Mokhles, said: “Mobile broadband access is really a prerequisite to achieving our key objective of enriching the lives and empowering the people of Nigeria to benefit both consumers and industry.  Ericsson Radio System provides the performance and efficiency to support this objective while also ensuring a future-proof evolution as Nigeria continues to establish itself as a progressive and innovative ICT-driven country.”

    By 2021, it is forecast that more than 90 per cent of the world´s population will be covered by mobile broadband networks.  Meanwhile, cost points for entry-level cellular devices reduced by 85 per cent over the last 10 years.  This increasing device affordability addresses the major barrier to entry and is achieved through the global economies of scale enabled by cellular standards.

    Head of Business Unit Radio, Ericsson, Arun Bansal, said:  “Airtel Nigeria and their customers are directly benefitting from the performance and efficiency innovations designed in to the Ericsson Radio System – network-wise, its future-proof multi-standard platform ensures a smooth evolution, while its compact, modular design reduces operating costs enabling Airtel Nigeria to offer more affordable mobile broadband access today.

    “Ericsson Radio System has already won both the Global Mobile Award for Best Mobile Infrastructure and the Red Dot Award for Product Design, but it is the recognition of our key customers like Airtel Nigeria that matters the most.”

    Ericsson Radio System was launched at MWC 2015, and started shipping to customers in Q3 2015.  Its innovative rail system enables the Ericsson Radio System to adapt to any site, with zero floor footprint and easy one-bolt installation while its modular, compact and energy efficient radios reduce both operating and capital expenses, delivering three times the capacity density with 50 per cent improvement in energy efficiency.  As operators, such as Airtel Nigeria, strive to deliver the best possible performance and quality of experience in the most cost-efficient way, Ericsson Radio System’s multi-standard, multi-band, multi-layer architecture supports their requirements today and on the road to 5G.

    Ericsson has also launched software and hardware innovations, including Intelligent Antenna Sharing, aimed at lowering the cost of mobile broadband access, and a Managed Rural Coverage services offering focused specifically on addressing the economic challenges of delivering mobile broadband access to rural areas.

  • Facebook… replete with fakes

    Facebook… replete with fakes

    Ever wonder why so many people like certain Facebook pages, no matter how boring or badly updated they are? They could well be the subject of ‘like farming’, the process of artificially inflating the number of Facebook page likes.

    Researchers have developed computer algorithms that can tell genuine likes from artificial ones generated by farm-controlled accounts.

    But it turns out that more sophisticated farms are evading detection tools, including those deployed by Facebook itself.

    A Senior Lecturer in Security and Privacy (Computer Science), University College London (UCL), Emiliano De Cristofaro, in The Conversation said an experimental way of looking for farmed accounts, including those that are run by real human users, has now been developed.

    Facebook pages allow owners to publicise products and events, communicate with customers and fans and promote themselves using targeted ads.

    More than 40million small businesses reportedly have active pages, and almost two million of them use Facebook’s advertising platform possibly to broaden their audience and engage more customers.

    “If someone wants to quickly increase his page’s number of likes, he can also purchase them from farmers for  between $10 (£7) and $100 (£70) per 100 likes, depending on whether they want to target specific regions.

    “For example, likes from U.S-based accounts are usually more expensive. You can even buy entire pre-liked pages with large numbers of followers that you can then adapt to promote your own organisation.

    “While these paid-for likes may not come from engaged customers, they can  make the page or its owner appear more popular, in turn increasing its appeal to potential customers or followers,” he said.

    There are several ways that farms can generate fake likes, and the method they use significantly affects both their cost and how hard it is to detect them.

    One obvious way is to create fake accounts, although this is somewhat cumbersome because Facebook has checks in place, such as having to input a code displayed on screen or sent to a mobile pDeCristofaro automatically by computer “bots”.

    Another strategy is to take control of real accounts, whose passwords have been leaked or captured, using software that spies on people’s computers.

    But, importantly, there are also networks of real users, who will like pages on request in return for other services or small payments.

    Users could also be lured to like a page by promising them access to lotteries, discounts or exclusive content.

    Different farms also use different strategies to avoid detection. While some deliver likes in bursts and employ accounts that are not really connected to the rest of the social network, making them easier to spot, others use a stealthier approach, mimicking regular users’ behaviour such as liking genuinely popular pages and paid adverts.

    Each account only likes a small number of pages and relies on many accounts, each connected with many different friends, to gradually deliver likes.

    This strategy of using fake accounts to like genuinely popular pages can cause embarrassment if exposed.

    For example, Hillary Clinton was criticised when her Facebook account suddenly received thousands of likes from Thailand and Myanmar overnight.

    But it can also harm legitimate Facebook users running advertising campaigns, who pay for clicks from real users but receive them from fake ones.

     

    Facebook steps in

     

    In an attempt to counter farming, Facebook, in collaboration with university researchers, has developed and deployed several tools to detect spam and fake likes.

    One, called CopyCatch, detects groups of fraudsters acting together, generally liking the same pages at around the same time.

    Another method, called SynchroTrap, relies on the fact that malicious accounts usually perform similar actions around the same time. So, the algorithm can detect these fakes when it spots a cluster of them acting together over a sustained period of time.

    The problem is that these methods are unlikely to spot the stealthier (and more expensive) farms that rely on the accounts of real people rather than fake or compromised profiles.

    This is because focusing on activity patterns of pages and users fails to capture important characteristics of these “real” accounts used by the farms.

    These profiles are often created mainly as a money-making tool and their activity is different from a typical account used for social networking.

     

    Not so ‘real’ users

     

    De Cristofaro said: “In our recent study, my colleagues and I set out to address this gap by looking at how and what users post on Facebook, in order to improve the accuracy of detection mechanisms.

    “We found that posts made by these “real” farm accounts had fewer words, a more limited vocabulary, and lower readability than normal users’ posts.

    “Their posts were also highly focused on some specific topics, generate significantly more comments and likes, and a large fraction of their activity was simply sharing content such as articles, videos and posts made by other users.

    “We then trained machine-learning algorithms to use these patterns to analyse a set of accounts we knew included farmed likes.

    “We found that the algorithms were nearly perfectly accurate at detecting farm accounts, including the more stealthy “real” ones.”

    He added that the team was yet to see if the same techniques could be used to accurately detect farmed likes across Facebook’s 1.2 billion users and many billions more posts.

    “What we may find is that as these techniques become better at spotting farmed accounts, those accounts find new ways of changing their posting behaviour to become even better at mimicking “innocent” users, in an economic game of cat and mouse.

    “The question is how much this will cost them and whether creating even more realistic farmed accounts will be worth it,” De Cristofaro said.

    Culled from The Conversation

     

  • ‘NigComSat ‘ll boost broadband penetration’

    The Managing Director, Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat), Mrs. Abimbola Alale, has said the firm will continue to champion the provision of affordable and ubiquitous broadband for economic growth.

    According to her, if well supported by the government and patronised by local and foreign organisations, the satellite technology firm will provide broadband links to people who could not be reached with fibre cables.

    Alale, however, noted that though NigComSat-1, which was reported to have been lost in space in 2007 after 18 months of operation was only de-orbited because of technical challenges especially power supply, the new NigComSat-1R is a direct replica of it with similar functions.

    According to her, NigComSat-1R launched in 2011 was built from the proceeds of the fully insured NigComSat-1 without any additional cost to the federal government.

    She maintained that NigComSat-1R, which has been in space in the past four years would support the activities of China Great Wall Industries Corporation (CGWIC), by providing necessary facilities to test communication payload of the Belintersat-1 Satellite, recently launched in China, over Africa using its ground station infrastructure located in Abuja.

    She further stated that besides other traditional services to various institutions including universities in the country, banks, security agencies, and the Republic of Gabon for the tracking of its rail system, NigComSat-1R facilities could also be deployed to perfect the country’s e-voting system ahead of the 2019 general elections.

    She, however, said this could only be made possible if there was a collaboration between the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and NigComSat Limited.

    She said Nigerian engineers are now fully in charge of NigComSat-1R, describing the system as “a high-powered, hybrid (L, C, Ku and Ka Band) geostationary satellite with service life span of at least 15 years and an orbital location of 42.5 degrees east.”

    According to her, the satellite was built with radiation-hardened technology, high reliability, on-board software re-programme ability, fault tolerance and redundant amplifiers. NigComSat-1R’s payload has active and 12 redundant transponders.

    Contrary to fears being expressed in some quarters, the management of the firm  said the satellite resources are primed to help the nation to accelerate robust ICT infrastructure to boost economic development for the country.

    “As an organisation, we are committed to using the country’s satellite resources towards developing the needed infrastructure platform for engendering overall economic development,” Head, Public Affairs of NigComSat, Mr. Adamu Idris, said.

    Already, the Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, has said that in the current Communications Sector Roadmap for 2016-2019, satellite resources owned by Nigeria will play a critical role in catalysing broadband growth, as it will be put into full usage to the benefits of the country’s economic growth.

    With just 10 per cent broadband penetration in the country, Nigeria’s satellites resources both existing and soon-to-be-acquired, would be put into playing even greater role in the country as the country braces to acheive the targets of the National Broadban Plan (NBP).

  • CPN: Nigeria loses N4.5b yearly to quacks

    The Computer Professionals (Registration Council of Nigeria) or CPN believes that the Federal Government loses over N4.5billion yearly to quacks in the information communication technology (ICT) industry.

    CPN is a body under the Ministry of Education, charged with the control and supervision of the computing profession. The council is primarily charged with responsibility for building up local Information Technology (IT) capacity as well as the regulation of IT practice.

    Its President/Council Chairman, Prof Vincent Asor, who spoke in Lagos to unveil activities for the 2016 IT Professionals Assembly with Towards a Dependable and Sustainable National IT Infrastructure as its theme, said with Federal Government’s support bolstered by the private sector, the CPN has the capacity to stop the over N4.5 billion yearly loss through regulation of the industry. The Assembly is scheduled for next month in Kaduna, Kaduna State.

    Prof Asor, who condemned quackery in IT practice, said to halt the needless financial loss, the government should sack any person or group engaging in IT practice without registration immediately.

    He said: “Quackery has been the bane of IT practice in Nigeria;  it is worrisome. Quackery in IT practice must stop. The Federal Government says the country is broke; ICT is a sector that can boost government’s revenue; CPN can raise billions of naira for the government yearly.

    “We have more than 100,000 IT professionals in the country with less than N10, 000 annual fees for individuals. We also have about 20,000 corporate IT professionals with N150, 000 annual fees. There is no reason we cannot raise the said amount if all IT professionals registers with the CPN. This Council can support the government with this amount without moving out of the office.  It is time the Federal Government woke up.  IT is open to everybody in the information highway but it must be regulated accordingly. If practitioners are registered, cyber crime will reduce to the barest minimum and we will make money for the government.”

    Noting that it will no more be business as usual for quackery, he said: “IT Assembly is an exclusive networking event for senior IT decision makers, IT consultants, upcoming IT entrepreneurs, IT practitioners, teachers and IT systems administrators.”

    Prof Asor said the Assembly would provide a platform for some of the industry innovative technology distribution and service providers to showcase their products and services and for participants to appreciate the emerging technologies, trends, and risks that are associated with transforming the various industries using IT.

    Speaking on CPN’s mandate, he said: “As the regulatory authority in IT education and practice in Nigeria, the Council’s mandate is to provide a regulated and standard-driven environment for IT education and practice in Nigeria such that socio-economic development is engendered.

    “Council is also to determine the standards of knowledge and skills to be attained by persons seeking to become members of the computing profession and improve those standards from time to time as circumstances may permit; As the regulatory authority in IT education and practice in Nigeria, the Council’s mandate is to provide a regulated and standard-driven environment for IT education and practice in Nigeria such that socio-economic development is engendered.”

  • ‘Communication Service Tax ‘ll widen digital divide’

    ‘Communication Service Tax ‘ll widen digital divide’

    A new information communication technology (ICT) tax being considered by the National Assembly, Communication Service Tax (CST) Bill 2015, would prevent over 50 million Nigerians from being able to afford basic broadband connection and widen the digital divide, the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI)-Nigeria Coalition, has warned.

    Former Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Ernest Ndukwe, who is also the National Coordinator for the coalition, said policies that would move the sector forward must consider affordability.

    He said: “Balanced fiscal policy must consider affordability of broadband and ICT, and should not put into place additional barriers that would make internet access unaffordable for hundreds of millions of Nigerians. Nigeria is far behind the more developed countries of the world when it comes to broadband use, and the introduction of the CST will only widen this gap. The National Assembly must reconsider the passage of the CST and its impact on the development of broadband in Nigeria.  After such a review, if the introduction of a CST is deemed an absolute necessity, it must consider a lower tax rate than nine per cent: one that would enable it to achieve fiscal revenue targets without undermining broadband affordability and access.”

    The group’s analysis showed that the proposed nine per cent tax to be levied on consumers of communications services would result in an additional 10 per cent of the population — equivalent to nearly 20 million Nigerians — being unable to afford a basic broadband access. The analysis suggested that the passage of such a tax is likely to threaten Nigeria’s ability to achieve its goal of 30 per cent broadband penetration by 2018 and undermine the socio-economic progress spurred by increased connectivity.

    The CST Bill , currently before the National Assembly, would require consumers of voice, data, short message service (SMS), multimedia service (MMS) and pay TV services to pay a nine per cent tax on the fees paid for the use of these services. This tax would be collected in addition to the five per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) that consumers already pay when they purchase devices and communication services, the 12 per cent import duties paid on ICT devices, and the 20 per cent tax levied on subscriber identity module (SIM) cards. Mobile operators and service providers will be responsible for collecting consumer payments and must fulfill additional reporting obligations that are likely to increase operational costs and therefore service fees for consumers, the group warned.

    Increasing access to internet and communication technologies is central to Nigeria’s development agenda. Though Nigeria can currently claim to have some of Africa’s most affordable internet prices (500MB priced at 5.4 per cent of average income in 2014), broadband penetration stands at just 12 per cent. The reality is that 40 per cent of Nigerians earn less than half of the average income; this means that a basic mobile broadband plan actually costs the majority of Nigerians anywhere between seven per cent and 18 per cent of their monthly income. The addition of this tax would increase the cost to connect across the board, with women and low-income populations likely to be the hardest hit, the group added.

    Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), Nigeria brings together prominent players from private and public sectors and civil society to provide a unified approach and coordinated focus in addressing the shared goal of open, affordable access to the Internet in the developing world.

    A4AI ranks as the world’s broadest technology sector coalition with the desire for everyone, everywhere, to be able to access the life-changing power of the Internet affordably.

    Its goal is to achieve the UN Broadband Commission target of entry-level broadband priced at less than five per cent of monthly income, thereby enabling billions more people to come online.

     

  • Slow, sluggish mobile money uptake

    Slow, sluggish mobile money uptake

    Some years back, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) licensed some firms to offer mobile money services. The most successful model is the telco-led, but Nigeria has chosen the bank-led model which appears to be slowing down uptake, LUCAS AJANAKU writes.

    Once beaten; twice shy. This is a very common saying. So when a housewife, Mrs. Eugene Idoko, publicly destroyed her automated teller machine (ATM) card in the banking hall a few years ago at Egebeda, a Lagos suburb, she was protesting against what the card did to her.

    A mother of two, her husband was based in the United States (U.S) and sends money through Moneygram to her monthly for the upkeep of the family. Since a CBN policy has stopped the payment of money in the currency in which it was sent, her U.S dollars would automatically be converted into naira and paid at CBN’s official rate. Though the customer has an option to collect in cash at the counter, banks always advise against that, instead urging customers to use their ATM cards.

    She said: “I was collecting my dollars and going to Mallams to change it but one day I got to my bank and they suddenly said I could no longer collect dollars. I protested to the lafy on counter but she explained that it was beyond her control. She did her calculation and since it was Friday, I asked her to pay me N10,000 on the counter while the balance was paid into my account with the bank.

    “I left the banking hall. But by Saturday night, I got the first alert of the withdrawal of N40,000. I thought I was dreaming because my ATM card was in my wallet secured in my husband’s wardrobe. Few minutes later, another N40,000 was withdrawn through ATM. Then the third withdrawal was made at about 8p.m. I was disturbed. My blood pressure rose to the rooftops. It was a Saturday.

    “By Sunday morning, the withdrawals continued until I was left with N5,000. They left N5,000 in my account because they just felt they should leave something there so I could use that to buy airtime and call my Oga in the U.S.

    “I was sleepless. Sunday night was my longest night ever, I couldn’t wait for day to break. I got to the bank very early and waited for them to open for customers. When I complained, I was shocked that the bank pushed the blame on me.  They said I compromised my ATM PIN; gave me a form to fill. After fruitless trips to Marina, Lagos headquarters of the bank to get justice, I went into the bank one day and caused a stir by openly destroying their card. Nothing will ever make me use ATM card.”

    Mrs Idoko is just one out of several millions of Nigerians that had lost their life savings to ATM fraudsters, who collude with insiders to clone customers’ cards with which they wreak havoc on their accounts.

    While the CBN said ATM-related frauds have gone down tremendously to about 98 per cent because of its insistence on improving the security features of the cards, cybercrime has replaced it.

    According to the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj Gen Babagana Munguno (rtd), between 2013 and 2014, the activities of criminals who chose the cyberspace as their platform cost the nation N127 billion. The funds were lost through intellectual property theft, malware attacks, electronic payment funds and software piracy.

    “A report published in 2014 by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, United Kingdom, estimated the annual cost of cybercrime to Nigeria at about 0.08per cent of our GDP, representing about N127billion. Also, the 2014 annual report of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) showed that between 2013 and 2014, fraud on e-payment platform on Nigeria’s banking sector increased by 183 per cent,” Monguno said while inaugurating a 31-man Cybercrime Advisory Council in Abuja.

    He said the activities of cybercriminals posed very serious threat to the national economy and efforts to boost financial inclusion through the use of alternative payment channels such as point of sale (PoS) terminals.

    The threat to online payment is increasingly becoming worrisome. A report of global information technology (IT) security firm, MWR InfoSecurity is also intimmidating.

    Mobile banking on Android phones could put consumers at risk of fraud and cost banks millions a year, MWR InfoSecurity warned.

    MWR Labs, the research arm of MWR InfoSecurity, investigated the security standards of leading Android mobile phone brands to determine the overall exposure to risk of consumers who use mobile devices phones for online banking, Mybroadband, noted.

    According to recent research, Android is now the leading phone platform with over 50 per cent market share, driving the development of mobile banking apps for the Android ecosystem while  results indicated that on some handsets, as many as 64 per cent of manufacturer-added applications or apps were exposing users to serious security issues.

    Commenting on the development, Managing Director, MWR,  South Africa, said: “We found that while banking apps were generally well written and had very few security issues, the integrity of consumer phones was often compromised by software provided by the phone manufacturer or additional software added by the network provider, exposing online banking customers to potential fraud.

    “Some of the leading Android handset manufacturers are already looking at shipping mobile devices with native near-field communication (NFC) payment functionalities but if the software in the phones is not secure, the risk will then be even higher.”

    According to him, the increasing number of merchants migrating to smartphone based Point of Sale (PoS) devices, by using Bluetooth or directly connected chip-and-pin accessories for iPhone or Android, for example, is symptomatic of the fact that mobile phones will become a critical element in the payment chain, warning that if they are not adequately protected, they could introduce additional risks for card fraud that could cost banks millions a year.

    These findings were illustrated by the ruling on HTC by the Federal Trade Commission in the United States of America (USA) that directed that HTC take immediate action to address security weaknesses in the software developed for its mobile devices that allowed location tracking and the theft of personal information stored on users’ phones.

    According to MWR Labs, six classes of potential vulnerabilities in apps and packages in the leading brands and mobile phones were looked at using a modified version of Mercury, its security testing framework, to automatically scan the devices and identify security weaknesses, adding that it discovered security vulnerabilities in software added by phone manufacturers or network providers which could be targeted by a malicious application inadvertently downloaded by the user.

    The report added that these weak apps often have more permission that allow them to access contacts, make telephone calls and even record the content of those calls, meaning that the potential consequences are serious and sensitive data could be compromised in the process.

    Other apps were also discovered that allowed further apps to be installed with an arbitrary set of permissions, essentially leaving consumers fully exposed to fraud.

    “The move by consumers away from PC’s for online banking to mobile platforms will inevitably be followed by the criminal gangs who have been successfully targeting online banking for years. We have already seen many examples of malicious apps sending premium rate text messages and expect there will be a natural progression to higher value areas such as payments and banking,” Grobbelaar said.

    Managing Director, New Horizons, Tim Akano says the banking industry will continue to be the target of attack by online fraudsters. According to him, hackers, who are also not resting on their oars will compromise the network of the lenders, steal data make profit from it.

    According to Visa Incorporated and Fundamo, the Visa-owned mobile money platform, while the Nigerian market has potential to lead the world in mobile money, only 35 per cent of the citizens are aware of mobile money

    A study by Visa revealed that only 35 per cent of respondents were aware of mobile money versus an average of 56 per cent across all six of the emerging markets surveyed.

    According to the study, there were 110 million mobile subscribers in Nigeria, but only 56 million of them had bank accounts, making it one of the most exciting mobile money markets in the world because of its huge potentials. The report noted that “Consumers’ needs for financial services are far more sophisticated than previously believed and go well beyond the established transaction set offered by mobile money services today.”

    The Visa study suggested that the success of mobile financial services was determined by how deeply a mobile money provider understood its customers and tailored the service to their needs as well as those of mobile money agents from service menus to marketing and education.

    To raise awareness and drive adoption, it said providers needed to educate consumers on the key benefits and uses of mobile money services, whilst tackling barriers to uptake. According to the study, 83 per cent of respondents in Nigeria cited “safety of not having to carry around a lot of cash” as the primary benefit of mobile money, adding that the greatest barrier to adoption in the country was whether those money was sent to would know how to receive it.

     

  • 16-year-old develops app for visually-impaired

    16-year-old develops app for visually-impaired

    A 16-year-old female student of Clemmy High School, Agodo-Egbe, Lagos, Peace Agboola has developed an application (app) that will take care of the visually impaired.

    The Ado-Ekit born senior secondary school (SS2) wiz kid said she was inspired to write the app because of her desire to touch the lives of people living with disability, especillay the visually impaired.

    According to her, the app, Talk to Me, comes in audio form, adding that it was written for visually impaired but who could hear. Through the app, information passed across in the online space will be passed on to them through hearing.

    She said the app would also help improve learning as the gates of education hitherto shut against them because of their inability to afford Braille designed for special education would also be opened.

    With the app, messages could also be passed across to elderly persons who as a result of old age have become partially visually impaired.

    “I was exposed to computer at very early age. I have seen some poor blind children that could not go to school because their parents could not afford the cost of paying their fees at special schools. So I told myself that I will dedicate my time to be part of solution to their problem. That was how the idea came and I started work on it.

    “My counselor in school provided the mentorship and after a few trials, I came up with the app,” she said, adding that the app will help this category of people to be well informed about happenings around them.

    Peace said the federal, state and local government areas should take special interest in helping young students such as her who have demonstrated desire to do something unique, riding on information communication technology (ICT). “Since ICT is the way to go, the government should assist students to pursue their ambition. Students who show special interest in doing something should be encouraged to grow,” she said.

    On her ambition, she said she intends to read pharmacy. “I want to become a pharmacist so I can be able to help poor people. There are so many poor people who cannot afford to pick their medical bills. I want to see how I can be of help too them,” she said.

     

  • ATCON: telecoms is on Exclusive Legislative List

    ATCON: telecoms is on Exclusive Legislative List

    • States, local govts urged to respect constitution

    Telecoms operators have reminded the 36 states and 774 local government councils in the country that telecoms still remained on the Exclusive Legislative List, urging them to respect the constitution of the country and stop charging spurious taxes, levies and harassing telcos.

    The operators, acting under the aegis of the Association of Telecoms Company of Nigeria (ATCON), lamented that disregard for the provisions of the constitution has stunted the growth of the industry as it has been difficult to expand capacity.

    Its new President, Olusola Teniola, who spoke in Lagos after being elected, said the group will move away from being reactionary to being more proactive, pragmatic and engaging.

    He said to achieve this, there is need to develop strategic and purposeful engagements with all tiers of government.

    “The telecoms business is on the exclusive list of the Federal Government, but what is playing out or obtainable in our country right now is that all tiers of government levy taxes on all our member-companies and it is affecting the growth of the telecoms sector. The conceptualisation of ATCON was to support and give direction to telecoms industry policy formulation and implementation in Nigeria. We shall concern ourselves with the federal, state and local government in respect of developing the telecoms sector in a manner that everyone wins,” he said, adding that ATCON as an institution would work closely with all agencies set up by various tiers of government to develop a model that would be mutually beneficial to everyone in the value chain.

    He said collaboration was important to move the industry forward, adding that collaboration with agencies such as the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and other related ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) would be stepped up.

    “ATCON would collaborate with the Federal Government to protect existing investments in the telecoms sector through advocacy. We would also as a matter of part of its objective to encourage further investment in the sector, encourage embarking on trade missions to other countries of the world to woo investors,” Teniola said.

    Speaking on what he intends doing for the association; he said ATCON under his leadership would reactivate its popular conference and exhibition which is known as Communication Business Information Technology Exhibition and Conference (ComBIT Expo).

    As a matter of fact, the date for the 2016 edition of ComBIT Expo and Conference shall be announced in the month of June this year to underscore the seriousness of the new exco, he said.

     

     

    “The impact of ATCON News in the Nigerian telecoms industry has been impressive in terms of timely information dissemination to all stakeholders in the sector. This NEC (National Executive Council) shall also produce the hard copy of ATCONNews on quarterly basis. ATCON would be open for strategic partnership from members and international communities,” he said.

    Other members of the NEC are Tony Nwosu—first vice president; David Roberts—second vice president; Myke Ofili – national secretary; Adeyegbe Aderonke—treasurer; Ikechukwu Nnamani  —coordinator, Telephone Operators; Jude Egokwu—oordinator, Infrastructure Providers; Gbeyega Ojuri—coordinator, Internet Services Providers (ISPs); Adebusuyi Adetunji—coordinator, Manufacturer’s Representative; and Hyacinth Anucha—coordinator, Value Added Services (VAS).

     

  • Bridging ICT skills gap through youth development

    Bridging ICT skills gap through youth development

    With limitless opportunities and positive impact that Information Communication Technology (ICT) offers, it is imperative that conscious and deliberate efforts are made by policy makers and institutions to build human capacity and promote technological advancement, writes LUCAS AJANAKU.

    It is doubtful if sectors of the economy such as agriculture, commerce, healthcare, banking, education, governance, entertainment, hospitality and others can flourish without the tools of information communication technology (ICT).

    With ICT, e-commerce, e-governance, e-agriculture, telemedicine and others have done well. Welcome to the new global order called digital economy.

    Research Manager, Enterprise Infrastructure, IDC, Middle East and Africa, Swapna Subramani said in a digital economy, organisations adapt to changes in their ecosystem by leveraging digital technologies to create digitally enhanced, customer-centric business models. This allows for new customer experiences, improved operational efficiencies, generate new revenue streams and rapidly respond to changing conditions.

    Giving IT investment mapping in Nigeria, she said datacentre hardware accounted for 50 per cent of hardware spending; software infrasructure-41 per cent; while in services, 72 per cent accounted for implementation and support services.

    As Nigeria moves to join the digital economy, Communications Technology Minister, Adebayo Shittu said human capital development remains one of the challenges facing the sector.

    He said: “The country does not have a dedicated institution for ICT awarding degrees. It is the policy of this government to convert the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) in Lagos and other cities into a multi-campus ICT University, perhaps the first of its kind in Africa.”

    Sector analysts have also stressed the need to invest in the training of the requisite manpower that will drive the digital age. They lament that existing skill sets are not speaking to the job market. Though some original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), technology firms and other oragnisations are making moves to address this issue, more still needs to be done.

    Accenture, a leading global professional services company, which provides a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital technology and operations, has made moves at inspiring creativity and encouraging youths towards ICT innovation and advancement.

    The firm believes that the myriad of socio-economic and political challenges facing the nation can be addressed using ICT.

    In 2008, the firm’s team forged an alliance with the Nigerian Computer Science Society (NCS) Ogun State Chapter to provide mentoring and knowledge exchange.  This led to the partnership with the National Conference of  Computer Science Students (NACOSS).

    Speaking during NACOSS 17th conference at the Federal University of Technology (FUTO), Owerri, Country Manager, Accenture Nigeria, Mr. Niyi Yusuf, reiterated the need for the government to give priority to  the development of the  ICT sector.

    Speaking on: The Role of Youths in Sustainable Growth of the National Development through Information Technology,  he sought synergy between public and private sectors to build capacity and provide opportunity for youth in the ICT. He said the sector has the potential to create wealth and jobs and tackle insecurity. With the rise of the terrorist group, Boko Haram, homeland security has become a nightmare in the country.

    “A lot of challenges being faced in Nigeria today have been experienced by most advanced countries; these problems were addressed, using the ICT,” he said.

    According to him, problems such as weak economy, inequality, poverty, rapid urban expansion, insecurity, corruption and others are issues that simple ICT tools such as software can address if the necessary encouragment is given to the youth.

    Yusuf said Nigerians have the capacity to solve its problems using the ICT. He argued that what is required is proper synergy between the private and public sectors.

    He said: “Government should move beyond the design of dormant governments’ web sites and go into digital e-governance through partnership, research with the right bodies. Through e-governance, government can interface with the public and provide services that hitherto, looked very difficult.’’

    He noted that e-governance drives accountability, transparency, equitabilityand responsiveness in government. He added that consensus, rule of law and participatory/inclusive democracy, which are major characteristics of good governance, are also enhanced.

    Former President, Nigeria Internet Group, Bayo Banjo, said most of today’s greatest innovations have humble beginings. He cited Facebook and Google as some firms that started from the garrages. He urged government to invest in encouraging youths to take ICT seriously.

    Yusuf agreed with him. He said most of the defining innovations in the world were acheived through youths. “A lot of these inventions were made by young people, using technology. We are convinced that if young people outside Nigeria could create jobs and wealth, using the ICT, Nigerian youths, if supported, could equally make positive marks,” he said.

    Based on this belief, he said Accenture Nigeria supported the Tony Elumelu Foundation and other groups in building the capacity of youths in ICT.

    Through its partnerships with NACOSS and the NCS, Accenture said it has promoted ICT education with its sponsorship of the annual conference of the association. This  has translated into a significant improvement in the quality of attendance and an impressive increase in students’ participation.

    About 2,700 students have participated in series of NACOSS activities in various institutions across the country.  Institutions such as Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Federal University of Technology, (FUT) Minna, Covenant University and Bells University, Federal College of Education Osiele, Ogun State, Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Ogun State, among others, have played host to these activities.

    The firm stressed the need for needs-based approach to its support by rewarding the conscientiousness of the most outstanding students in each ICT unit of the institutions with laptops, tablets and other IT gadgets/devices to make them work more efficiently.

    Some of the inventions created by the students are: My Supervisor & I- a project management system that allows student and supervisor relationship. It allows proper documentation of their final year projects. Through it, the project coordinator assigns registered students to supervisors. It creates a platform for supervisors to relate with students, upload their projects and make corrections.  It also has a chat platform that allows the supervisor to chat with the student.

    It was made from HTML file, CSS3 for client site and server side PHP and Ajax.

    Another one is the BizExpert-an  all-in-one business manager for local business organisation. It aims to make business environment paperless and enhance workforce productivity. It helps to keep record of daily transactions, stock level, debts, and credit. It helps with profit and loss analysis, product analysis, salesperson log, sending of balance sheet through email, restock text message alert. It is indigenous, easy to set up and use  compared to internationally developed business tools.

    Another invention is Near Me, a mobile application that makes life easier and more comfortable by giving an edge in finding the closest and necessary places around with detailed information for the user. It acts as a great navigation tool with which one can find one’s way in a city or location. Its interface has attractive icons with speed-dial locations such as automated teller machines (ATMs), banks, hospitals, hotels, universities, police, gas stations, airport, zoo, cinema, bar, shopping mall and others with a search bar where users can search any location. Each location is attached with full details including address, images, ratings, phone number, map direction, user review and distance, estimated time. The user can add any location to his favorite list. Google voice is available to support the application as well.

    The Slangz is another product from the students. It aims to promote the use of pidgin English (Wazobia) a common informal way of communicating among Nigerians. This software is a mobile app; it is a dictionary for words in the Wazobia language and for referencing purposes.  The user can add a new word or slang as it is commonly called and also improve on the meaning of existing words.

    Traffic Offence is a web and mobile database programme that makes it possible for traffic officers to record traffic offences committed by road users. It also helps road users to register their vehicles and drivers’ licenses online.

    Traffic Offence also gives them  information of amount payable for every traffic offence and access to the offence sheet of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC). The software also has an Android app that will only be used by the traffic officers to check vehicles and drivers’ information from any part of the country and also record offence, clear offences after payment have been made by the offender.

    Security Surveillance Software is a camera which detects sound and movement anywhere placed. If movement or sound occurs, it raises an alarm.

    This solution can be used in the bank vaults, premises or places with restricted movement.

    In the field of agriculture, Agrosol, is also a platform that could be put to use. It is designed to bring  farmers together and provide them  tips on how to manage their farms, lessons on seasons of planting and how, latest news, machinery training with video simulation. It also manages database for farmers as long as they register.  www.onecrier.com is an information portal, which registers online and chooses user’s area of interest. It automatically sends messages when there is any new information about user’s area of interest.

    As its further contribution to the development of ICT, Accenture said it is ready to explore the possibilities for mass deployment of these creations. To acheive this,  the firm said it would be partnering a third party to help in mentoring the students on how they can improve on the software and make them marketable through putting them in a technology hub programme.

    One of the ways to grow this initiative is by partnering NACOSS to host its Annual Software Competition in order to promote this initiative by taking over its sponsorship. It said it would help reshape the competition and ensure that there is continuation in the process of developing the best software. Apart from rewarding the best students with prizes, Accenture intends to help them with further development of their initiatives.

    This partnership between Accenture and NACOSS has, no doubt, motivated Nigerian students.

    The out-going president of NACOSS, Onwugbolu Tochukwu, said students have been more motivated and willing to put in more effort to develop software and participate in the programme.

    The long term vision for Accenture’s is to grow the skills acquisition and knowledge base of the participating students and use them as  end to end pipeline of breakthrough ideas that will be taken to the world market not just local; putting Nigeria on the global map of ICT development.

    This journey is intended to shape meaningful ideas that will lead to Nigeria’s recognition as a valuable technology hub with incubation programmes that nurture a wide spectrum of applications created by the students – a first step towards a digital future.