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  • LASPOTECH, firm to build phone assembly lab

    LASPOTECH, firm to build phone assembly lab

    The Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH), Ikorodu has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Afrifone, a phone-producing firm, to establish a mobile phone repair and assembly laboratory in the institution.

    The proposed lab is to teach and empower students and staff.

    At the signing of the MoU in the school’s board room, the Rector, Mr Samuel Sogunro, noted that the deal was in tandem with the efforts of the Lagos State government to instil entrepreneurship in youths.

    He said the lab would be hosted in the Faculty of Engineering.

    Said Sogunro: “This (laboratory) will promote the image of the institution and add value to the students. There are a lot of graduates out there without jobs. That is why our focus is for the students to use their hands to do things that will profit them not to look for white collar jobs. This will be useful to our students, staff and even artisans outside campus.”

    He said Afrifone promised to provide equipment needed in the laboratory, furnish it appropriately in addition to facilitating well-structured curriculum with human capacity development for staff who will man the laboratory.

    The company will also absorb LASPOTECH students for their one- year Industrial Training, Sogunro added.

    The Divisional Head, Afrifone, Mr Sadiq Natu, said his firm’s gesture formed part of the drive towards youth empowerment.

    “We are establishing a mobile device factory in Lagos and to that extent, we want to partner LASPOTECH so that the students here, especially in the electronics and telecommunications field, will learn skills that will make them ready for the electronics industry, in terms of repair, maintenance and assembling. The skills they would gain here can be used anywhere; so the skills are not restricted to our own facility.

    “We want to partner the Lagos State government in its youth empowerment programme. We want to be part of the development of the state. Being the first phone assembling company in Nigeria, we are not here just to do business and go. We want to be part of the culture and the people and grow with the nation,” he said.

  • Firm plans London property roadshow

    To showcase the potential in  real estate business in Lagos State, VFN Projects plans to stage a property roadshow, London4Lagos 2017,     in London, United Kingdom (UK) between April 27 and 29.

    The event tagged: “The property road show for Nigerians in Diasporas” will bring proven Lagos-based developers in contact with over 3,000+ real estate investors in the United Kingdom. There is a publicity in the UK being targeted at able Nigerians.

    According to a statement by the director, VFN Projects, Mr Abayomi Oni-Williams, in 2015, Nigerians in diaspora remitted the sum of $21 billion back home. Therefore, he said, Lagos, as the biggest commercial hub in the country, must be put in a vantage position to receive a higher percentage of these remittances.

    This, he said, can be accomplished through the real estate sector which at this point is slowing down drastically due to current macro-economic environment caused gendered by the economic recession.

    “It is also our belief that there is the need to further open up and bring closer the Lagos real estate sector to Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) for active participation. Interested property developers will be brought closer to potential buyers and vice versa, with the state government at the centre to give confidence to investors,” he said.

    Williams said the value of naira has plummeted in the past one year such that the purchasing powers of the Diasporas have risen astronomically. This means that Nigerians living in the UK, US, Canada, Europe and other places, can now buy properties in Nigeria with about one-third of what they needed only a few years ago.

    He added that Nigerians in the Diasporas have suddenly become the target because of the value of their adopted home currency, which has gained more value when compared to the naira because of its devaluation. For instance, with about £16,000, a Nigerian living in UK can conveniently buy up a N10 million flat in Lagos, which would not buy him a flat in the European country.

    “The London4Lagos 2017 property roadshow is conceived to leverage on this opportunity in a formal and a structured way and with emphasis on Lagos State as the best destination for real estate investment in the country,” he said.

  • Firm builds education software to replace imports

    In all-inclusive school management software designed by an indigenous IT firm, ATB Techsoft Solutions, promises to save Nigeria billions that it would have cost to import such application from abroad.

    The school management platform, called Eduware, takes care of a wide-range of administrative and academic tasks that schools carries out on daily basis.

    The software has solutions to manage admissions, student records, online course registration, course time table, online tests and examinations, automated result processing and display, e-learning, finance, student affairs, human resources, and online library for schools at various levels – primary, secondary and tertiary.

    Unveiling Eduware along with three other products (FINULTIMATE, ULTISURE and ULTIFLUX) at a press conference last Thursday, CEO of ATB Techsoft Solutions, Mr Abiodun Atobatele, said by developing the software applications, the firm has helped to find local solution to the high cost of purchasing them abroad, thereby boosting the country’s drive for local content.

    “What we have done is to offer software solutions of higher standard and functionality to the market as against what most organisations are purchasing offshore and at a much lower cost. This means Nigerian organisations do not have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to procure Software abroad.

    “According to the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion’s (NOTAP) official estimate, organizations in Nigeria spend over $1billion annually to procure software. Our unique solutions are coming at a time to ease Nigerians’ business demand for forex. The only way we can create thousands of technology jobs in Nigeria is when the government, through enforcement of existing laws and regulations on local content, makes it compulsory for companies to buy Software developed in Nigeria by Nigerians,” he said.

    Atobatele said it took seven years of painstaking work to develop Eduware (and others).  He also assured schools of the software’s ability to accommodate/harmonise data from various sources, as well as store, and secure them – thanks to its partnership with Microsoft, which provides its access to the Microsoft Azure Cloud services.

    ATB’s Chief Software Architect, Patrick Anaih, said Eduware could function for one and even a group of schools.

    “Eduware connects each department to the school and the school to the students and parents, where necessary, to provide them with information sharing, easy retrieval of information for prompt decision-taking and it is user-friendly. You can have a single deployment of Eduware institutions with a chain of schools from primary school to university level. However, the application is enterprise-based and it does not only work with academic processes but also with administrative operations which include finance and online library,” he said.

    Microsoft Director of Small, Mid-market Solutions and Partners Group, Oluwawemimo Adeniyi, who was at the launch, said its partnership with ATB allows the firm to use its cloud services to meet the unique needs of its differentiated products.

    “Our unique approach to the cloud spans three areas that, when combined, give customers choice and flexibility with the cloud: enterprise capabilities, hyper-scale cloud infrastructure, and comprehensive hybrid solutions. Across these three areas, we bring the benefits of cloud speed, scale and economics,” she said.

  • Firm unveils software

    An Information Technology and Software development company, ATB Techsoft Solutions Limited, has unveiled a unique software solution, Ultisure, to help bridge the gaps in insurance operations.
    Chief Executive Officer, Abiodun Atobatele, made this known at the unveiling of the software in Lagos.
    Speaking about the software, he said Ultisure will revolutionise insurance operations in Nigeria, and place the industry at the same level with her counterparts in other climes.
    According to him, Ultisure is suite of software solutions for insurance policy administration.
    He said: “With the flexibility and robustness that software ships with, operators are at liberty to create any insurance product irrespective of the complexity level and commence underwriting operations as quickly as possible.
    “The software handles core insurance processes and has additional features that complement these processes and could be decoupled as independent systems. We are very proud of what we have achieved with this solution we are releasing to the market, which stands its own amongst any currently in the market. This solution is a result of seven years of dedication, hard work, research and investment which could not have been achieved without our software architects, whom can be ranked amongst the smartest people in the world.
    “What we have done is to offer software solutions of higher standard and functionality to the market as against what most organisations are purchasing offshore and at a much lower cost. This means Nigerian organisations do not have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to procure Software abroad,” he said.
    “Available data from the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), showed that organisations in Nigeria spend over $1billion annual to procure Software. Our unique solutions are coming at a time to ease Nigerians business the demand for forex. The only way we can create thousands of technology jobs in Nigeria is when the government through enforcement of existing laws and regulations on Local Content that makes it compulsory for companies to buy Software developed in Nigeria by Nigerian.
    He further said the software guarantees data security and integrity for customers, adding that it is SSL/HTTPS compliant and is 2 – factor authentication compliant and ready to plug into any required security technology by the client.
    He also said the software is high availability and disaster recovery ready, adding that it also provides support for generating quotes and proposals and coverts proposals to policies.
    ATB Chief Software Architect, Patrick Anaih while giving insights on the benefits and value proposition of the software said aside from Ultisure, the company also released three other market enterprise software that cater for various sectors of the economy namely Finultimate, Eduware And Ultiflux.

  • Court awards N9m damages against EFCC, firm over lawyer’s detention

    Court awards N9m damages against EFCC, firm over lawyer’s detention

    A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court has declared unlawful the detention of a lawyer, Sylvanus Okpetu, for seven days by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) without a court order.

    Justice A.S. Adepoju, in a judgment on a fundamental rights enforcement suit by Okpetu, faulted the seizure of the applicant’s belongings; awarded N6 million damages against EFCC and N3 million against Julius Berger Services Nigeria Limited and ordered them to offer a public apology to Okpetu.

    The applicant had, through his lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), sued EFCC and Julius Berger, alleging violation of his fundamental rights by the respondents, following his detention between June 11 and 17, 2015 by EFCC upon a petition purportedly written by Julius Berger.

    The petition alleged fraud against Okpetu.

    Okpetu, in a supporting affidavit, stated that he had rendered some professional services to Julius Berger through his company – Sylvarewa Global Resources Limited – following which there was a disagreement on payment.

    He added: “On the 11th day of June 2015, I was at a hotel in Warri, Delta State, with one Barrister Tony, when an operative of the 1st respondent (EFCC), who introduced himself as Mr. Dein Whyte, in company of some fully armed operatives, emerged from nowhere and informed me that I was under arrest.

    “The operatives proceeded to conduct a search on both my office and house without any search warrant to that effect shown to me, and carted away the originals of all my credentials, my company certificate of accreditation, among other certificates and items.

    “I was forcibly dragged like a common criminal, more in the form of kidnap, and driven to the Nigeria Police Station, ‘A’ Division, Warri by the same fully armed operatives of the 1st respondent. I was detained there without any record taken of my arrest.

    “The following day, June 12, 2015, I was taken to EFCC office, Abuja, where I was further detained till late evening of June 17, 2015 before I was eventually released on administrative bail, after a period of seven days,” Okpetu said.

    In the judgment delivered last Friday, Justice Adepoju upheld the case of the applicant as argued by Ozekhome and faulted the conduct of the EFCC, including its detention of Okpetu without a valid court order.

    The judge told the EFCC that its power to investigate persons, against whom allegations of crime were made, could not amount to a licence to act unconstitutionally by breaching citizens’ rights.

    For the unlawful arrest and detention of the applicant, Justice Adepoju awarded N6 million damages against EFCC with a 10 per-cent interest rate until the entire sum is paid. The judge also awarded N3 million damages against Julius Berger that instigated Okpetu’s arrest and detention.

    Justice Adepoju ordered EFCC to release Okpetu’s seized property and to stop harassing and inviting him to its offices on account of the petition by Julius Berger.

    The court ordered the commission to publish a public apology to Okpetu.

  • Firm opens shrimp farm

    Atlantic Shrimpers Limited (ASL) has opened its state-of-the-art shrimp farm in Iworo-Ajido, a rural community in Badagry, Lagos.
    Lagos State Governor Akinwumi Ambode, who was represented by Commissioner for Agriculture Mr. Oluwatoyin Suarau noted that the call for investments in the agriculture sector had been answered by ASL.
    “The Nigerian government is keen on supporting local investments in agriculture. We must start looking inwards and encourage development in areas where Nigeria has a competitive advantage. ASL has led the way by building this impressive facility. This farm will employ many Nigerians, help the economy generate foreign exchange and address food security.
    “ASL has addressed several needs in Nigeria through this state-of-the-art facility and Lagos is proud to play host to it,” Suarau said.
    Executive Director of Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) Mr. Olusegun Awolowo, who said ASL was one of the country’s top 20 export companies, noted that the investment will create jobs and grow the economy.
    “We have to replicate projects, such as this, with the private sector. This is what we need, transformational projects that can drive Nigeria out of recession. We are, therefore, proud to be associated with Atlantic Shrimpers Limited in view of its commitment to non-oil export,” Awolowo said.
    ASL Chairman Mr. Stewart Harper recalled that the project was in the offing for 10 years, but actual production began in November, 2014.
    According to him, the farm will provide healthy food for Nigerians and contribute to the country’s export earnings, besides providing jobs for people and the host community.
    The first phase will employ 500 but future projections are that it will employ about 1,000, after expansion in about three years, Harper added.
    According to the Managing Director, Kamlesh Kabra, the latest technological procedures and modern equipment will ensure that top quality shrimps are available locally.
    This, he said, would contribute to Nigeria’s food security, improve its trade balance in international markets and create employment for thousands.
    “This new shrimp farm is proof of ASL’s continued dedication to investing in Nigeria. We are proud of developing a product, which has competitive advantage, all of which are locally-sourced and where Nigerians do the value addition in Nigeria,” he said.

  • Firm donates N5m to orphanages

    Firm donates N5m to orphanages

    The Lagos Channel Management (LCM), a dredging firm in Apapa, has donated N5 million to some orphanages in the state as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

    Its Managing Director, Mr Danny Fuchs, said the money was given to five different ‘homes’ in the spirit of the season.

    The beneficaries are the Lagos State Government Children Centre, the Lagos State Special Correctional Centre for Girls, Bola Mofo Zion Shelter, Tunji Adebayo Motherless Babies Home and Bab-es-Salam Home.

    Each of the homes got a million naira cheque each.

    The Managing Director urged well placed citizens, corporate and individuals to the needies.

    He urged the management of each home to take proper care of the people in their homes.

    Fuchs said the government alone could not shoulder the entire responsibility of the society, urging well meaning Nigerians to join hand in bringing happiness to homes of the vulnerable children.

    He said: “It is not the very amount we spend on this project that matters; it is the attitude that matters; and the possible encouragement that we might engender, towards encouraging others to also pay worthy attention to the most vulnerable class.

    “I understand all their challenges. It is the same all over the world. The children have no unions to fight their cause and that is why we must come together to always reach out to them.

    “It is possible that our effort may not be enough. But it is in good direction.”

    A social welfare officer at Lagos State Ministry of Social Development and head of the Lagos State Children Centre, Silifat Giwa thanked the management of LCM on behalf of the state government for their good gesture.

    She said: “We are catering for the under privilege children rescued from the street, as well as children who were emotionally or sexually abused.

    “Our job is to restore the each child to what he should be. As of today, we have 52 children.”

    Sadiat Sabiu of the Special Correctional Centre for Girls, Idi-Araba, said the Correctional home with 71 girls, caters for children from age 10-17years.

    “We try to re-unite children with their parents where they can be found. And where they cannot be found, we manage them.

    “Almost all our children go to school, but some of them can’t speak English language. Those who passed through our schools will go to government schools. But those who come in form JSS 2, would normally go to private schools. Some of the children with us are form Togo and Benin Republic.

    “There is strict supervision. We have our buses which take these children to school and bring them back,” Sabiu said.

  • Firm to fund 1m farmers by 2025

    Babban Gona, a social enterprise that  supports thousands of mini farmer cooperatives across Northern Nigeria to produce maize, rice and soybeans, is providing  loans to increase their production.

    Babban Gona Business Associate, Ladipo Akoni,  said: “To date we have provided 16,000 loans to smallholder farmers to sustainably cultivate 12,000  hectares of arable land. These low-cost loans, and our quality inputs and services have empowered our smallholder farmers to achieve yields 2.3 times the national average and increase their net incomes to 3.5 times the national average, thereby transitioning our farmers from lower-income earners to lower- middle income earners.

    “Beyond this, 90 per cent of our members surveyed have used their increased profits to send their children to school or send their children to a better school. Furthermore, over 40 per cent of Babban Gona members are below 35 years.”

    The enterprise is targeting 1,000,000 smallholder farmers by 2025. The organisation has encouraged farmers to form cooperatives for agricultural production.

    Akoni believed thousands of farming households have escaped poverty because of support to farmers. The Babban Gona model, according to him, was designed to address the root cause of insecurity and poverty through de-risking smallholder farmers and unlocking cost effect capital to them.

    He said Babban Gona, also a franchise model, provides small holder farmers access to required investment capital, in addition to providing a comprehensive suite of agricultural and marketing services along the entire agricultural value chain. “This subsequently results in a dramatic increase in profitability, incomes and eventually living standards,” he said.

    According to him, there is potential in farming.  “We can do better by giving farmers small loans so that they can be producing on larger scale and flood the country with food,” he said.

    The project works with farmers in the North to improve rural livelihoods. It provides agricultural services such as promoting new farming technologies to increase crop production.

  • NCDMB, firm partner on job creation

    The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote, has pledged to create jobs and upscale the capacity of Nigerians in the nation’s oil and gas industry.

    Speaking during a courtesy visit to Dorman Long Engineering, at the weekend, Wabote said it would be achieved through partnership with the company.

    He added that NCDMB would use the implementation of Nigerian content to support President Muhammed Buhari’s administration to create jobs and upscale the capacity and skills of Nigerians in the oil and gas Industry.

    He lauded Dorman Long Engineering’s commitment towards building and sustaining the growth of Nigerian content, especially ongoing work on the Egina project.

    He, however, noted that the urgent task before the board would be to review its activities and implementation process and evolve new strategies.

    Chairman of Dorman Long Engineering, Dr Timi Austen-Peters, thanked the Chairman for his words of encouragement and assured the team of Dorman Long’s commitment to Nigeria.

    He added that the company was ready to key into the Federal Government’s job creation plan through the development of local content.

    “There’s no doubt that we are partners in progress and we would like to reassure you that we have extensive plans that would be strongly beneficial to Nigeria’s socio-economic climate.

    “Our expansion plan will see significant job creation, skills and technology transfer, as well as capacity building,” he said

  • Firm woos students with digital learning resources

    A Nigerian firm, Vericore Technologies Ltd, has come up with digital solutions aimed at helping young ones learn irrespective of their learning styles.

    Mr Felix Imafidon, Chief Operations Officer of the technology firm, said the WizitUp™ educational solution, which features a tablet, called Wizpad, was a product of research into teaching and learning styles of teachers and pupils.

    The product was presented to the public for the first time at the Lagos International Trade Fair Business-to-Business Exhibition which took place at Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island last month.

    Imafidon said WizitUp™ was the result of a two-year research into how to attract all kinds of learners.

    He said the product exploits children’s attraction to technology to develop content that would help students learn on their own as well as in the classroom.

    He said: “WizitUp is an innovative approach that blends learning and fun for today’s students, and uses different methodologies to meet the needs of all students, irrespective of their learning styles.

    “Wizitup™ transforms education with the use of digital tools, for self learning, teaching in the classroom, and enabling smart schools.

    “Students nowadays are better clued about technology than their parents and teachers, and use it on a regular basis.  A large part of young people’s lifestyle is engrossed in technology and so it is only smart to use the reality of these students as part of their teaching and learning, else learning will remain difficult.”

    “The WizitUp™ Learn-on-the-go tablets, referred to as ‘WizPad’ allows students to learn at their own pace using ready-made contents in the form of cartoons, games, illustrated textbooks, and practice tests.”

    Imafidon said the content of the Wizpad was developed in line with the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) curriculum and it is currently available for students in primary schools.

    In the classroom Imafidon said WizitUP provides teachers with resources and teaching aids such as songs/rhymes, animations, simulations, illustrations, e-books and lesson plans, which can help engage pupils’ attention, making classes more fun.