Tag: Digital

  • Probate registry goes digital

    The Lagos State Judiciary has created an e-probate platform for easier and faster processing of Letters of Administration/Grant of Probate.

    In a statement yesterday, the Chief Registrar, Mrs. Taiwo Olatokun, said the e-probate could be accessed at probate.lagosjudiciary.gov.ng

    She said suggestions and complaints about the e-probate should be forwarded to:feedback@probate.lagosjudiciary.gov.ng

     

  • Want solid soil? Go digital

    To tackle nutrient deficiency in soils, there is a campaign for a national information system accessible to farmers and policymakers. Morocco is offering to support Nigeria build such a system to help farmers tackle soil depletion through sustainable management of natural resources, writes DANIEL ESSIET.

    DESPITE decades of its involvement in agriculture, the government still finds it difficult to provide accurate soil data amd make them accessible to farmers and policymakers.

    The challenge lies in getting standard infrastructure to generate credible data. And when such data  is available, the government finds it difficult to present the information clearly to farmers and decision-makers.

    Worse still, farmers do not fertiliser properly.

    Stakeholders, however, believe that using the right quantity of various soils and fertiliser will help farmers increase productivity.

    To this end, there is increased calls for a national digital soil map to bridge the gap.

    One of those canvassing this position is the Cassava Adding Value to Africa (CAVA) Project Director, Prof Kola Adebayo. He said farmers needed a soil map to know how to improve their yields.

    Adebayo said the performance of agriculture was linked to multiple factors, which included land size and  quality, climate, production techniques adopted by farmers, technologies and policies.

    To him, soil properties have a significant influence on crop growth and the yield response to management input. He believes farmers’ access to soil information can boost their adoption of integrated soil fertility management.

    For him, there is no way the government can work for a safe and sustainable future without developing a robust and thriving farm sector sustained by regular soil mapping.

    Digital soil mapping gives farmers and natural resource managers easy access to specific information on soil properties and nutrients, so they can make efficient and localised management decisions.

    The maps include information on soil PH, organic matter, total nitrogen, clay content and boron content.  Stakeholders expect the government to use information on the map to help farmers and fertiliser firms.

    The Moroccan model of the soil fertility map is shared with several African countries, including Rwanda, Nigeria, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire and the Caribbean islands.

    It provides information for tackling soil depletion and improving crop production.The major support for the project comes from Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP Group), the Moroccan market leader in phosphates and its derivatives.

    Indeed, OCP Group is the world’s leading producer and exporter of phosphates and one of the largest producers of fertiliser.

    It has worked with communities across Morocco to create jobs and boost incomes.

    Its objectives are improving rural livelihoods, urban youth development, enterprise growth, and agriculture and natural resource management.

    OCP Group Vice President, Agricultural Development, Domestic Market, Fatiha Charradi, said the soil project was a deal between the Ministry of Agriculture and her organisation to develop a national soil fertility map.

    The map, she added, guides  farmers on better fertilisation in Morocco.

     

    Mobile soil testing caravans

     

    She said the caravan collects and analyses soil samples for producing the map. Besides, its personnel raise awareness among small farmers and teach them best practices.

    Mrs Charradi said the mobile soil testing caravan deployed its equipment to provide accurate data on the state of soil and the fertiliser needed for farming.

    She said the equipment was carrying out the soil analysis and fertility map of a pilot scheme of 50,000 hectares in Morrocco.

    For OCP, Mrs Charradi said, agricultural research is of importance, and that the firm takes innovation, research and development as factors for successful agriculture.

    Against this backdrop, OCP caravans have been deployed in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Nigeria and Togo, among others.

    Under the soil fertility programme, training on data, both in Morocco and in the countries, has been provided to African technicians.

    Read also: Digital platform tackles job creation

    She said OCP launched its Act4 Community project last July to enhance investment and social projects that would benefit the communities.

    The programme aims to initiate OCP’s partners to the sustainable development of Moroccan localities that foster employment and economic growth. The campaign included an agricultural repository, mobile laboratories for soil analysis and training.

    Since last September,  Mrs Charradi said OCP Group set up a multiservice proximity service called Al Moutmir to transform the  sector in Morocco and other countries.

    Focused on farmers as agents of change, she added that the initiative relied on scientific approach as a key driver of sustainable agriculture. Based on a partnership approach, she said the  initiative involved the sector’s stakeholders, such as the Ministry of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development, and Water and Forests, institutions, researchers, distributors, resellers, and farmers.

    Another official of the group, Mrs Jamila Adami, explained that the  initiative included an experimental programme that provides support for training and information on agricultural best practices.

    The programme, called Agri Platforms, Mrs Adami continued, involves the deployment of 1,000 demonstration platforms for the  campaign.

    Al Moutmir, she added, is supported by a team of agronomists, who promotes the use of adapted fertiliser as part of high-quality technical operations. The team is based in various Moroccan provinces and works with farmers, providing them training, demonstrations, monitoring, and support.

    They offer customised and tailor-made support to farmers in their regions, based on the product offering through OCP Group’s manufacturing and distribution partners.

    Mrs Adami said OCP also offers  a wide range of services and tools, integrating innovative production units (Smart Blenders), mobile applications, a call centre, sensors and connected objects to collect and analyse data.

    The scheme is digitalised to facilitate data sharing with farmers.

    She stressed that OCP has the primary objective of making agriculture more attractive to youths.

    OCP Africa has launched its School Lab project (Agribooster) in Bauchi State for 10,000 smallholder farmers in 70 communities.

    It operates in a caravan of trucks and provides mobile interactive training for rural farmers, using live demos and animated videos.

    Itt offers farmers on-site soil testing to determine the peculiar needs of the soil and fertiliser, advising them  on the right fertiliser to use and the best time for its application.

    The initiative is the first in Africa. The Country Manager, OCP Nigeria, Mr. Caleb Usoh, said: “OCP School Laboratory is one of the technological methods that the company has put in place to help small holder farmers to improve their productivity.

    “The caravan goes round to take soil samples in the locations where the farmers are based, analyse them, and then produce specific fertiliser for the crop type and soil type.

    “We seek to feed the soil in the right manner. The soil then feeds the crop. And finally, the crop feeds the people.”

    He explained that the project aims to transfer the use of input by farmers.

    OCP School Lab is a travelling school. Each training is adapted to the cultures in the regions. A mobile lab for soil analysis accompanies the schools.

  • Microsoft: digital shaping financial services industry

    Digital transformation is remaking the world while artificial intelligence (AI) is its frontrunner, U.S. technology giant, Microsoft has said. It said no industry will be left untouched by the digital journey, adding that one sector that is seeing the fastest and most fundamental effects is the financial services industry (FSI).

    Its Regional General Manager, North, West, East, Central Africa, Levant & Pakistan, Microsoft, Ibrahim Youssry,  in a statement in Lagos, said FSI players are geared to be dramatically disrupted by the power of AI – both internally (in the ways they operate) and externally (in terms of dealing with clients and customers).

    According to him, a 2018 report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) on The New Physics of Financial Services showed this phenomenon at length, but one high-level take-away is that the AI changes cannot be overstated. The long-term impacts of AI are radical and transformative, putting the FSI ecosystem into a period of re-organisation.

    He said FSI has traditionally been dominated by large and established corporations, often with extensive heritage and market dominance. Through this, many FSI companies have enjoyed relatively low competition for customers, and have been slow to innovate and change ‘with the times’. Enter the leveling power of the cloud, accessible analytics and machine learning, and see how a scrappy, determined fintech startup can disrupt a whole market or sector.

    Youssry said many of these startups offer alternatives for banking, payments, transfers, payroll, credit, and other financial services. These digital-first businesses are highly agile, and are creating a whole new customer base that was underserved by established FSI companies – putting the pressure on older firms.

    As a result, many FSIs have started embracing cloud technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve their own agility, their array of service offerings, and their customer experiences. Recent studies, he argued, suggest that approximately 40 per cent of African banking customers prefer to use digital channels for transactions over branch channels.

    Added competition is good for the entire industry, and customers will benefit from new and improved technologies that change the way the industry interacts with them and meets their expectations, he explained.

    He said: “But just what form do these advances take? AI lies at the heart of things like chatbots, advanced customer credit assessment, relationship management, security, anti-money laundering and fraud detection.

    “Chatbots draw from big data and machine learning to respond to customer queries and concerns. They can streamline customer support on routine services like banking transactions, and make product recommendations. This is customer-facing AI that helps FSI companies be ever-present for their clients, while reducing the resources required to do so.

    “For fraud detection, AI-powered technology enables computers to mimic, extend and amplify the thought process of a human analyst, at a pace and scale unmatched by humans. It can review trillions of transactions in every possible portfolio in the organisation. Because of this, banks, fintechs and payment facilitators are able to detect or be alerted to potential fraud – receiving fast, efficient and accurate alerts of the likelihood of an individual’s card or account being compromised, for example.”

    According to him, AI and analytics can draw inference from vast stores of data and spot trends that are often beyond the possible scope of human sight, driving insight to analysts, investors and the like. AI is also able to evaluate an organisation’s public remarks and documents, bundle that up with sentiment analysis, and cross-correlate this with historical data to predict the performance of upcoming stocks, in literal split seconds.

     

     

    These functions, he said, provide agility and resilience in an increasingly risky global market. In short, they inject a new level of intelligence into our organisations. “Pairing this with our unique human capabilities of relationship management and creativity, and we unlock huge potential for our FSI companies.

     

     

    “Through Microsoft’s security solutions (in which we have invested more than $1 billion year-on-year), we are working with FSI organisations to improve their security standards globally. Solutions such as the Customer Lockbox for Microsoft Azure, for example, assists customers with controlling and auditing support engineers’ access to compute workloads on Azure that may contain data while resolving the support issue.

    “These solutions have a proven success record, evidenced by our work with Interswitch, a payments and fintech innovator in Africa. Through partnering with large banks and corporates in Nigeria, Interswitch has been able to build a bank-guarantee service on Azure that extends the reach of banking systems to non-traditional players, corporate suppliers and borrowers – allowing them to manage their supply chain financing under objective terms and transparency.

    “Within the next decade, Africa’s objective is to ensure that the next 100 million Africans are financially included. AI has the potential to achieve this. As AI adoption increases, we’re constantly thinking about how we can help institutions make the transition to modern innovations, while still taking advantage of legacy investments,” Youssry said.

  • Huawei:Digital economy value to hit $23tr

    By 2025, the number of personal smart devices will reach 40 billion and the total number of connections around the world will reach 100 billion, creating a digital economy worth $23 trillion, technology giant, Huawei has said.

    According to its new report titled: Global Industry Vision (GIV) 2025, all things will be able to sense and all things will be connected, leading to a world where everything is intelligent.

    Essentially, GIV 2025 is anchored on three visions for the future. The first is all things sensing, more and better connections, bringing everything to the intelligent world.

    According to GIV 2025, the intelligent world would truly have arrived once all things can sense and all things are connected. By 2025, there will be 40 billion personal smart devices and 100 billion connections around the world. “The Industrial Internet will be the major source of these 100 billion connections. The massive amounts of data generated by the ability for all things to sense will be extensively integrated in all industries, forming new industries like the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) and Connected Vehicles.

    “With more and better connections, data traffic will grow exponentially, and most of it will be from video. The Cloud VR market will reach $292 billion by 2025,” GIV said.

    GIV 2025 described a future where the role of smart devices and smart robots will evolve from being just a tool to being an assistant. It said the penetration rate of smart assistants will be 90 per cent by 2025, with 12 per cent of homes having smart service robots, adding that with the assistance of guide robots, the world’s 39 million blind people and 246 million people with impaired vision will live normal lives.

    The second vision is +Intelligence which will foster new business species and drive leapfrog development for industries

    According to GIV 2025, with high-speed connections, IoT, and artificial intelligence (AI)-based cloud, +Intelligence platforms will help industries achieve leapfrog development through intelligent analysis, decision-making, and assistance.

    “By 2025, intelligent technology will be applied extensively in the transportation industry, with more than 60 million vehicles connected to 5G networks and 100 per cent of new vehicles connected to the Internet. When intelligence is incorporated into manufacturing, ICT will converge with operational technology (OT) at an accelerated pace. This will generate positive returns for innovation, the industry, the value chain, and the ecosystem as a whole. By adopting intelligence in cities, urban planners will be able to create new paths for sustainable development in security management, transportation planning, and other domains, enabling city residents to enjoy the safety, convenience, and high living standards made possible by a digital life,” the report added.

    The third vision of the report is mass innovation which would tap into the opportunities of a digital economy valued at $23 trillion.

    Huawei predicts that the digital economy will be worth $23 trillion, adding that the value of +Intelligence will be widely accessible to manufacturing, services, transportation, and many other industries.

    “The outcomes of innovation in the intelligent world will be apparent everywhere. The intelligent world will reshape industries and give birth to new intelligent industries. It will also enable industries to go beyond current growth trajectories and achieve leapfrog development while giving a massive boost to innovation,” the report said.

    Huwei Board Director and Chief Strategy Marketing Officer, William Xu said: “This is the first time that Huawei has released the GIV report. Based on data and predictions about the future, we aim to unfold the industry blueprint of an intelligent world driven by information and communications technology (ICT). It is our goal to build the foundations that will enable the diverse ICT industry ecosystem to truly transition into the intelligent world, and team with our global partners to build this fully connected, intelligent world.”

    Relying on Huawei’s own business strengths and insights into industry trends, GIV 2025 has its own unique research methodology-adopting a mix of data and trend analysis to elaborate on global information communication (ICT) trends and lay out the blueprint for the ICT industry. The data used in GIV 2025 spans more than 170 countries and regions. This report covers three dimensions (all things connected, all things sensing, and all things intelligent) and 37 metrics, including the amount of data generated, the percentage of enterprises that adopt AI, and the number of personal smart devices.

     

  • Firm to train teachers on digital tools

    No improve the interactive learning in schools using technology, Pengage Technologies Limited, an information and communications company, is set to empower teachers with digital skills.

    The e-learning programme known as e4engage will create an audio-visual experience for teachers in all subjects taught in secondary schools.

    Underscoring the importance of the training, Head, Business Operations at Pengage Technologies, Simeon Ogunnubi Nofa, said teachers were unable to teach optimally because  they lacked the required skills.

    “Digital Technology provides numerous tools that teachers can use in and out of classrooms to enhance student learning. The major challenge, however, is the lack of digital skills by the teachers and the inability to utilise the tools for maximum improvement on their jobs. This training will empower teachers in finding creative ways to integrate digital technology in their classes,” he said.

    Teachers will be taken through a digital course module that includes WordPress, Microsoft office 365, Articulate 360 (e-learning), Canva and the use of Adobe Illustrator. Participants will also have access to free wifi to use online tools, free software installation and digital manuals.

    The WordPress enables teachers to organise resources that students need in class, such as creating syllabus, assignments, online quizzes, grading tools and a means for discussion and document sharing.

    The e-learning platform will also help students learn at will to individualise their educational programme. While the use of interactive board will enable the students use high resolution photographs, diagrammes and videos to augment text and verbal lecture contents.

    Ogunnubi said registration was still on for the training.

  • Ecobank deepens digital payment

    Ecobank deepens digital payment

    Ecobank has partnered with Facebook and MasterCard to deliver seamless, digital payments to small businesses via the Facebook Messenger platform. With this development, micro-merchants will be able to receive instant payments using the QR technology.

    This Messenger experience will launch in Nigeria, where MasterCard will pilot a new Masterpass QR both to help business owners move beyond cash transactions to accepting QR payments.

    With Ecobank’s presence in 33 African countries, the pilot in Nigeria is the beginning of a larger plan to include more businesses in Africa into the digital economy. Access to digital payments will help businesses expand to new markets, and unlock financial services and products that empower them to grow.

    Group Executive, Consumer Banking, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), Patrick Akinwuntan, said this initiative is in line with the bank’s financial inclusion strategy to reach the underserved and unbanked in the society.  He noted that the partnership will further position Ecobank as a major enabler of digital payments across Africa and reinforce its goal to serve 100 million Africans by 2020.

    In his words: “In line with our goal to serve 100 million Africans by end of 2020, Ecobank is delighted to collaborate with Facebook and MasterCard to enable underserved and unbanked micro-merchants have the opportunity to open an Ecobank Xpress account within minutes and begin to receive instant payments using Ecobank Masterpass on the Facebook Messenger platform.”

  • Eight Nigerian start-ups, 12 others for World Bank’s digital programme

    Eight Nigerian start-ups are amongst 20 of the most promising African digital start-ups that will take part in the XL Africa residency, the flagship initiative of the business accelerator launched last April by the World Bank Group’s infoDev program. XL Africa is funded by the governments of Finland, Norway, and Sweden, and administered by the World Bank Group with implementation support from IMC Worldwide, VC4A, and Koltai & Co.

    The programme, which ends on November 17 in Cape Town, South Africa, will allow the entrepreneurs the opportunity to learn from their mentors and peers, increase their regional visibility, and get access to potential corporate partners and investors.

    The eight selected Nigerian start-ups that will participate in the event include Electronic Settlement Limited (FinTech, Nigeria), MAX (Transport, Nigeria), ogaVenue (Venue Platform, Nigeria), Prepclass (EdTech, Nigeria), Printivo (Printing, Nigeria), Rensource (Energy, Nigeria), TalentBase (HR, Nigeria), and Tizeti Network Ltd. (Connectivity, Nigeria).Other participating African digital start-ups include Aerobotics (Data, South Africa), Asoko Insight (Data, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, United Kingdom, and Nigeria), Coin Afrique (Marketplace, Senegal and Benin), Edgepoint Digital (Jamii), (FinTech – Insurance, Tanzania),and Lynk Jobs Ltd. (HR, Kenya).

    Others are Ongair (SME Services, Kenya), Pesabazaar.com (FinTech, Kenya), Rasello Company Ltd. (SME Services, Tanzania), Sendy Ltd. (Delivery, Kenya), Snapplify (Publishing, South Africa and Kenya), Sokowatch (Delivery, Kenya), and Timbuktu (Travel, South Africa).

    The 20 successful African start-ups were selected from a pool of over 900 applicants, specialising in digital solutions for the African market, including Financial Technology (Fin-Tech), transportation, health care, education, human resources, and Business to Business (B2B).

    All companies provide a digital product or service currently available in one or more African markets and show potential to scale across the region.

    The residency will conclude with the XL Africa Venture Showcase, a regional event organised in association with the African Angel Investor Summit, in which the entrepreneurs will present their business models to a select audience of corporations and investors.

    With support from African investment groups, XL Africa will help the start-ups attract early stage capital between $250, 000- $1.5 million.”We are pleased by the interest infoDev and XL Africa generated across the continent in just a few months,” Director of the Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice at the World Bank Group, Klaus Tilmes, said.According to him, XL Africa attracted firms with high-growth potential, with many having female co-founders, and have already raised early stage investment while also demonstrating significant market traction.

    Besides, the number and quality of applications received, he said, were clear testament to the competitiveness of African start-ups and the key role they play in Africa’s growing digital economy.The selection for XL Africa was conducted by a panel of industry experts from the International Finance Corporation (IFC); implementing partners IMC Worldwide, Koltai & Co, and Venture Capital for Africa (VC4A).

  • Eight Nigerian start-ups, 12 others for World Bank’s digital programme

    Eight Nigerian start-ups are amongst 20 of the most promising African digital start-ups that will take part in the XL Africa residency, the flagship initiative of the business accelerator launched last April by the World Bank Group’s infoDev program. XL Africa is funded by the governments of Finland, Norway, and Sweden, and administered by the World Bank Group with implementation support from IMC Worldwide, VC4A, and Koltai & Co.

    The program, which ends on November 17 in Cape Town, South Africa, will allow the entrepreneurs the opportunity to learn from their mentors and peers, increase their regional visibility, and get access to potential corporate partners and investors.

    The eight selected Nigerian start-ups that will participate in the event include Electronic Settlement Limited (FinTech, Nigeria), MAX (Transport, Nigeria), ogaVenue (Venue Platform, Nigeria), Prepclass (EdTech, Nigeria), Printivo (Printing, Nigeria), Rensource (Energy, Nigeria), TalentBase (HR, Nigeria), and Tizeti Network Ltd. (Connectivity, Nigeria).Other participating African digital start-ups include Aerobotics (Data, South Africa), Asoko Insight (Data, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, United Kingdom, and Nigeria), Coin Afrique (Marketplace, Senegal and Benin), Edgepoint Digital (Jamii), (FinTech – Insurance, Tanzania),and Lynk Jobs Ltd. (HR, Kenya).

    Others are Ongair (SME Services, Kenya), Pesabazaar.com (FinTech, Kenya), Rasello Company Ltd. (SME Services, Tanzania), Sendy Ltd. (Delivery, Kenya), Snapplify (Publishing, South Africa and Kenya), Sokowatch (Delivery, Kenya), and Timbuktu (Travel, South Africa).

    The 20 successful African start-ups were selected from a pool of over 900 applicants, specializing in digital solutions for the African market, including Financial Technology (Fin-Tech), transportation, health care, education, human resources, and Business to Business (B2B).

    All companies provide a digital product or service currently available in one or more African markets and show potential to scale across the region.

    The residency will conclude with the XL Africa Venture Showcase, a regional event organised in association with the African Angel Investor Summit, in which the entrepreneurs will present their business models to a select audience of corporations and investors.

    With support from African investment groups, XL Africa will help the start-ups attract early stage capital between $250, 000- $1.5 million.”We are pleased by the interest infoDev and XL Africa generated across the continent in just a few months,” Director of the Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice at the World Bank Group, Klaus Tilmes, said.According to him, XL Africa attracted firms with high-growth potential, with many having female co-founders, and have already raised early stage investment while also demonstrating significant market traction.

  • Cisco Systems mulls digital transformation of real estate

    The need for greater security in buildings and properties is now a major source of concern to stakeholders in the real estate sector. This is why property owners are looking towards technology convergence to deliver enhanced occupant experiences and improve efficiencies in their buildings.

    Experts in the technology sector, however, argued that as the number of networks and connections within buildings grows, they become increasingly complex. They are convinced that today’s building systems and equipment need to work together smoothly and efficiently to meet owners’ and occupants’ needs, hence, an holistic approach of integrating new technologies is  needed.

    It was, therefore, instructive when a global leader in networking and IT solutions, Cisco Systems, held a real estate roundtable at its Lagos office to introduce Cisco’s Smart and Connected Building solution to operators.

    They include operations and property managers; developers; chief operating officers and chief information officers of organisations.

    Cisco General Manager Olakunle Oloruntimehin expressed his firm’s commitment to providing innovation to customers. He revealed that at the heart of the Cisco approach is a service-oriented building architecture designed to reduce cost and complexity by replacing discrete and disparate in-building system networks with one simplified, flexible, and scalable IP network. He said this converged network creates the secure and reliable platform for systems integration by enabling information from various systems to be shared.

    According to Oloruntimehin, not only has this made it possible to automate processes, such as heating in anticipation of changes in the weather, it has also enabled the creation of new, IP-based information and communications services.

  • Buratai decries proliferation of unregistered SIM cards

    Buratai decries proliferation of unregistered SIM cards

    The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, on Monday in Abuja frowned at the use of unregistered SIM cards in the country in spite of subsisting government ban.

    Burutai said the development was a major setback in the use of digital and mobile forensics by the Nigeria military in the fight against terrorism, kidnapping and other national threats.

    The army chief spoke at the opening of the 6th International Digital, Mobile and Computer Forensics Conference and Training Expo organised by the Computer Forensics Institute of Nigeria (CFIN).

    In a paper entitled, “Digital, Mobile and Computer Forensics as a Tool in Fighting Terrorism and Internal Threats’’, he said military investigators were able to get unregistered SIM cards from vendors last week without difficulty.

    Burutai, who was represented by Brig.-Gen. Samuel Adebayo, also identified improperly registered SIM cards in use in the country as a challenge.

    These, he noted, were making identity tracking, especially in the case of kidnappings, terrorism and other forms of criminal acts in the country almost an impossible task.

    “In some instances, these SIM cards are registered with phony names, untraceable addresses or even unrecognisable photographs.

    “For those who are involved in investigation of those kinds of things, when you go to the service provider, you will discover that the data on some people is blank; there is no face attached to it.

    “In some cases, the users live in the bush or hills, but registered the SIM cards with addresses that don’t exist because the man who registered them allowed such a thing without any method of confirmation.

    “So, when it comes to the analysis, you discover that you are hitting a brick wall because to do a link analysis becomes very difficult or unfortunately impossible.

    “I believe there is the need to raise this issue because as at a week ago, we were still able to get some SIM cards that are unregistered from vendors without any problem, and they are still working till now’’.

    Burutai identified other challenges of Digital, Mobile and Computer Forensics

    to include inadequate personnel to handle cases, and rapid advancement in evolution of mobile phones and devices with huge cost implications for the military.

    He urged participants at the conference to critically examine the issues and come up with lasting solutions to the problems.

    The President of CFIN, Dr Peter Olayiwola, said the three-day conference would provide practical solutions to the issues raised by the Chief of Army Staff.

    “The relevance of this conference to Nigeria is expressed in its theme, which is `Digital, Mobile and Computer Forensics: Tools for Intelligence, Investigation and National Security’. The three-day conference promises to deliver just that.

    “It should be borne in mind that as a result of the tremendous increase in digital devices today, most of the evidence needed to convict the criminal is resident in these devices.

    “Mobile and computer forensics provide the best form of evidence today, whether intelligence gathering, investigation and for national security. So, be prepared to learn,’’ Olayiwola said. (NAN)