The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Data

  • Firm,school partner on data

    As part of continued efforts geared towards impacting the society through sustainable initiatives in the field of education, leading investment bank and asset management firm, FBN Capital Limited, initiated a partnership with the Lagos Business School with the inauguration of the LBS Bloomberg Room which houses Bloomberg terminals.

    The facility will help students in finance related disciplines gain exposure to the real-time market data tool.

    Speaking on the development, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of FBN Capital, Mr. Kayode Akinkugbe said: “The Bloomberg Terminal is one of the industry’s most widely used sources for real-time financial data and we believe that this resource will be very helpful to students in finance related courses by facilitating access to information. The donation of the Terminals is in keeping with our focus on facilitating sustainable initiatives that use education and technology as a catalyst for growth”.

    Mr. Akinkugbe explained that education is a core focus of FBN Capital’s CSR strategy and as such this initiative is in line with our sustainability goals.

    The donation of the Bloomberg Terminal has been a welcome development at the Lagos Business School.

    The Dean of Students, Dr. Enase Okonedo, made this known as she expressed her pleasure on the development.

    She stated: “Indeed, the Bloomberg terminals have been most helpful not just to students, but to faculty and research staff too. Getting up-to-date and reliable financial information for course assignments and research papers would have been more tedious without them. We are happy with the progress that the Bloomberg terminals have allowed us make, and are thankful to our sponsors, FBN Capital.”

     

     

  • Glo subscribers to enjoy free 800MB data

    Glo subscribers to enjoy free 800MB data

    Globacom has launched a new high-speed internet data promo that will instantly give double data bonus to subscribers on the network. Dubbed My Phone Double Promo, the offer will enable Glo subscribers on the My Phone Bolt plan to get more data volume to browse the Internet and download or upload data.

    According to Globacom’s Marketing Coordinator, Adeniyi Olukoya, with the promo, subscribers on the My Phone Bolt plan who would have received 800MB of data at the price of N2,000 will now get a double data volume of 1,600MB valid for 30 days at the same price of N2,000.

    “This is a great promo from Globacom designed to ensure that we deliver more value to our Glo Bolt subscribers in the New Year. With double data volumes to browse the web, they will be able to do more, thereby becoming unlimited as they work towards achieving their dreams and aspirations for the future,” he said.

     

  • How to use data for food security, by expert

    How to use data for food security, by expert

    Improving the quality, availability and relevance of data on food and agriculture is a priority as Nigeria strives to develop more effective policies to tackle its persistent food security problems,the Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ilorin, (UNILORIN), Prof Abiodun Adeloye has said.

    Speaking with The Nation, he said the government and the private sector need timely, accurate, and reliable statistics to give a better picture of how agriculture and food security are affected by, and how they impact, economic, environmental and social factors.

    He said reliable statistics are vital in tracking the nation’s food needs and achievements.

    Adeloye maintained that it is difficult to get statistics on short notice. While there may be data on the sector, the don said they were outdated since 2010.

    Adeloye said the agricultural sector requires statistics to determine productivity, competitiveness and ensuring farmers have greater access to markets.

    He acknowledged that there was a challenge to the nation unlocking its food production potential, stressing the importance of adequate information to enable the government to strengthen farmers to play a critical role in the transformational agenda.

    He said the sector faces a range of increasing resource constraints, adding that agricultural industries need data to justify investments. While the level of business investment is significant, data is required to defend expenditure directed to meeting business needs relating to increasing output.

    He said conductors of surveys are not able to capture the full potential of the data collection in productivity analysis, which can be relied upon.

    Adeloye said the industry needs timely and accurate data that caan be used by decision-makers to develop policies, programmes and investments that improve people’s lives.

    He called on the Nigeria Bureau for Statistics (NBS) to collaborate with the relevant agencies in the agricultural sector to provide data and information that can be used to gather food security statistics in areas such as agricultural investments, livestock, and land ownership.

    The don called on government agencies to build data collection infrastructure and to put a system in place to process and analyse such information.

  • ‘Why MainOne is building data centre’

    ‘Why MainOne is building data centre’

    Indigenous submarine cable company, MainOne, has said it is building a data centre in the country to promote business growth by reducing operating cost (Opex), adding that it will also promote connectivity which is key to the emergence of a digital economy.

    Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony of the project at Ogombo, Ajah, a Lagos suburb, Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Ms Funke Opeke, said the firm would leverage on the enormous bandwidth provided by the submarine cable of the company to deliver superior customer service to its customers when the project is ready for commissioning second quarter next year.

    The event was witnessed by dignitaries including representatives from the Lagos State government, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), captains of industry and other stakeholders in the IT industry in the country.

    Opeke said: “We are delighted with this project because of the immense benefits it will provide to our customers. Internet penetration has been a huge issue in Nigeria especially to the hinterlands. The new Data Centre will leverage on MainOne’s network which is peered with leading operators and internet exchanges worldwide to provide global reach to our customers across all locations.”

    According to her, on completion, the data centre will have redundancy such that there will be no single point of failure within the facility, adding that the facility will pave way for the establishment of additional Data Centers and Point of Presence (PoPs) across Nigeria and entire West African sub-region.

    Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, MainOne, Folu Aderibigbe said the project is further proof of MainOne’s commitment to enhance infrastructure within its primary markets.

    Aderibigbe said: “The MainOne Data Centre will help transform Africa into a digital economy. The project will also aid reduction of information technology costs and risks while enhancing business efficiency and profitability.”

    He pointed out that one of the unique features of the MainOne is its direct access to MainOne metro and international fibre optic cables and all the major interconnection with telecom networks in Nigeria and Ghana.

    MainOne had recently received a $100 million refinancing facility from Standard Chartered Bank and a consortium of other local banks to help fund its infrastructure expansion including fibre around the country, metro Lagos, and nationwide PoPs.

    Opeke said the data centre is a Tier III + Data centre said to be the largest in West Africa at 1,500 square meters with a 600 rack capacity.

  • Why data on number portability is delayed, by NCC

    Why data on number portability is delayed, by NCC

    The data collated so far on the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) scheme will not be released until the regulator is through with the nationwide registration of subscriber identification module (SIM) cards, The Nation has gathered.

    Barring any extension, the exercise was billed to end yesterday, after which the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) would disconnect unregistered SIMs on the network.

    NCC’s Director, Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo, said it had received data of the number of ported numbers on the network. He, however, said the Commission had not released the figure to the public because NCC was waiting for the registration to end.

    “MNP is working. We are delighted by the result we are getting. Subscribers have real freedom to choose which network to use without the hazzles of losing their old number. It has engendered competition in the industry,” he said.

    Chief Operating Officer, Interconnect Clearing House Nigeria Limited, Uche Onwudiwe, said the firm, which is the clearing house for the ported lines, releases data to the NCC.

    He said it has, nonetheless, forwarded data collated from the exercise to the NCC, which it reports to.

    Ojobo said the Commission had been receiving reports from the public through responses from the subscribers, expressing intention to port their lines. He said on completion of the validation, harmonisation and scrubbing of the records of registered SIM cards, operators would be authorised to disconnect unregistered SIM cards from the networks.

    This will be followed by the release of MNP report, he added.

    The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NCC, Dr  Ikemefuna Juwah, said the data collated from the operators would be sorted out.

    “SIM card registration will come to an end very soon. We are collating data from the operators (and the agents commissioned by the NCC),” the EVC said.

  • Fed Govt calls for accurate data for 2016 census

    Ahead of the 2016 census, the Federal Government yesterday assured Nigerians of its commitment to accurate population data and management for sustained economic planning and national development.

    The government also hoped that the expected reforms in the National Population Commission (NPC) would generate the needed results to midwife its Transformation Agenda.

    The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in charge of Special Duties, Dr. Jamila Shuara, announced the news in Abuja at this year’s retreat on population management organised by the NPC for its workers.

     

  • Data, top secret to oil operation, says expert

    The international oil companies (IOCs), independent operators and marginal fields’operators, all have data that are confidential to them when it comes to oil and gas operations. Nobody wants to give out information because of the need to optimise standards. Everybody wants to manage his data in his own way.”

    These were the words of the Manager, Geophysical Operations, Petrodata Management Services Limited, Abu Efosa.

    He said because oil and gas operation is highly technology-driven, any information is very important to the operators of the industry – both the majors and independents.

    “Any information given out by industry operators is as a result of the fact that they believe it would be useful to the public but any data that has to do with inner operations and processes of the oil company are left for the company. Accessing a company’s data is highly restricted and is dependent on the kind of information one is looking for. Data is very confidential when it comes to oil and gas operations,” he said.

    He said operators want their data to remain with them. Consequently, giving out data, he said must be as a result of a relationship and integrity with them over time, which has created the confidence that their data is safe and nobody can have intrusion into it. These he explained, are part of what they put in place to ensure that any data given out is kept top secret and nobody would have access to it.

    “All producing companies have where their hydrocarbon comes from and as such every international oil company that is into exploration has data relating to those processes, if such data is given out to a competitor or another operator, he might use it as an advantage to know the source of oil.

    “Technology has made so many things easy that each company has a particular place where it gets oil from and if another company gets access to the technology, it would be able to access your of oil, but this development does not pose much challenges as the geophysical operators basically manage data for the oil and gas companies. The geophysical companies, however, must have built integrity with the oil companies. The relationship is based on trust that the data given out to you must be kept confidential.”

    Efosa said: “Data is key, not only to oil and gas operations but also to the economy. From sector to sector data is very important, it is the backbone of any company and that is why they are treated with a lot of confidentiality.”

    Petrodata, he added, is an indigeneous company, which is primarily in the business of storing data and managing them, adding it has been into oil and gas but has now diversified into other sectors including banking, information technology as well class storage. This, he said, has to do with putting all data, document, seismic, information technology to have backups that can be accessed from any part of the country or world as long as internet services are made available.

    He said the class storage services is new in Nigeria but Petrodata management is doing everything possible to getting the public be aware of it, adding that people were yet to embrace it probably because of lack of information.