The Nation Newspaper

Tag: launches

  • Rotary launches N20m project

    Rotary launches N20m project

    The Rotary Club of Ogudu GRA has earmarked N20 million for its community projects in the 2015/2016 Rotary year.

    Speaking at a fund raiser and installation as the 9th President, Mrs Fidel Ogwuazor said the amount was meant to make more significant impacts in the community.

    She said the club has identified reduction of maternal mortality, literacy and education, peace and conflict resolution, economic empowerment, water and sanitation as core projects for the year.

    Rotary chief Michael Olawale-Cole said Rotarians are not necessarily the richest people in the society but are only known for great sacrifices towards making the world a better place through the contribution of their resources.

    Olawale-Cole urged Nigerians to support Rotary humanitarian projects.

  • Firm launches N20bn agric project in Nigeria

    Firm launches N20bn agric project in Nigeria

    The nation’s agriculture sub-sector is set to receive a major boost with the ambitious N20 billion project launched by CONTEC Global Agro Limited.

    Chairman/President, CONTEC Global, the parent body of CONTEC Global Agro Limited, Dr. Benoy Berry, who disclosed this in an interview in Lagos, said the project has reached advanced stage with remarkable results from farms in Lagos, Kaduna, Niger, Benue and the FCT, Abuja.

    Berry said: “We are commencing a comprehensive agricultural programme for Africa that would be executed through series of innovative strategies. Of course, Nigeria is priority. So we are starting here (Nigeria).

    “One of such is the bio-fertiliser project, which basically aims to increase the fertility of the soils, shorten crop production timeline and improve on quality of harvests and produce.”

    Speaking further, he said the bio-fertiliser project provides Nigeria an opportunity to leap-frog its food security status, filling up the gap caused by poor input and soil quality, which have been identified as some of the critical challenges facing the Nigerian farmer, as well as create employment.

    “We have trial farms in Niger State, Zaria, Makurdi, Sagamu, Lagos and a few other locations where the prowess of the fertiliser and other inputs have been proven beyond doubt, with the first set of harvests of crops grown using some of the inputs from farms in Niger State occurring on Saturday, December 5, 2015.”

    Expatiating, Berry said: “We have the Siri GA, a biological granular formulation (bio-fertiliser) that is developed to enhance root growth in density and spread, enhance nutrient and water uptake, build resistance against insects, pests and diseases, helps the crop withstand stress from temperature and physiological changes. The ultimate being improved quality and yield volume.”

    Pressed further, he said Growmore is a biological water soluble formulation that helps the plant to stimulate enzymes, resists pests and diseases by inducing systemic resistance, maintain high level of chlorophyll for better growth and increases the uptake of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Zinc, Iron and Magnesium.

    “All these are designed to adapt to be crop-specific in their actions,” he said.

    Upbeat, the CONTEC boss said his company has already received numerous request from big farms like Chi Farms, Dangote and others, all seeking one form of partnership or the other.

    Experts from the United Kingdom are already in the country to map out and commence this leg of investment.

    He also disclosed that the large farm campuses are going to serve as research bases that would offer experts assistance to Nigerians and others on plant and animal sciences. This, he said, would help to make Nigeria an agricultural research hub for Africa.

    The CONTEC top brass also noted that government cooperation is key to the success of the programme, which he said has already caught the attention of partners and the governments in Burundi, Zimbabwe,Togo, Mali, among others in Africa.

  • Firm launches consumer loyalty reward portal

    Firm launches consumer loyalty reward portal

    In its quest to transform customer reward system in the country, a firm, PromoXchange has launched a portal where customers of different brands can be rewarded for their loyalty to the brands through a meter system.

    The mechanism involves using state of the art technology solution that effectively turns a mobile phone into an account that earns and accumulates points on transaction of goods and services thereby rewarding all customers unlike raffle draws that rewards only selected few.

    Justifying the need for the innovative product, the co-founder and managing director of the company, Philip Oke said: “PromoXchange solution is as easy as sending SMS. There are no entry barriers and it’s available on all GSM networks and also as mobile apps for smart devices. Considering that the mobile phone penetration in the Nigerian market now stands at about 80 per cent and growing.”

    Expatiating, he said: “In simple terms, it means that no matter where a product is sold, you would find a brand customer or a potential customer owning a mobile phone. Consequently, we see an opportunity to influence transaction and consumption behaviour through an innovative solution that connects mobile phone users who are also sales merchant, brand customers to their favourite products or brands at anytime and anywhere.”

    “PromoXchange provides several compelling tactics that ensures that channel partners, brand customers, including consumer behaviour are influenced which ultimately results in increased transaction and consumption of products, goods and services. In the long run, together as partners, PromoXchange work with brands towards stimulating product usage that drives your brand success in the market place,” he added.

    Echoing similar sentiments, Adeoye Abodunrin, the chief operating officer, Cubed Integrated Marketing Consulting, said the platform is a landmark.

    “There are many places where the customer is not known. How amount of attention companies pay to their customer is meager and the companies have no choice than to pay adequate attention to their customers,” adding that organisations should begin to think differently about their customers and PromoXchange helps to achieve that.

  • Jobest Records launches, drops new single

    Jobest Records launches, drops new single

    JOLLY Erimwingbovo of Jobest entertainment has floated Jobest Records, a recording arm of the entertainment outfit. This, he says, is in line with the belief that everybody is a potential artiste and deserves to be treated as one to bring out the best of their creative ability.

    The Brazil-based entertainment aficionado has been a player in the entertainment industry for more than a decade.

    He speaks about his foray into the industry. “Having been around for so long, I believe our creative artistes needed to be treated well. Thus, Jobest is out to change the face of artistes’ welfare in the Nigerian music industry,” Jolly said, even as he explained further that management of artistes should be handled by professionals.

    According to Jolly, who incidentally is a cousin to award winning reggae artiste, Righteousman, “it is not advisable to take on recording and management together. Some labels have tried it but it backfires as their artistes’ career will suffer for it. So it is better to handle what you can.”

    Although the label came on board early this year, it already has four artistes signed on, Jolly revealed. Those presently signed under the label are Stephens, Kelvin J, Sammy Rhino and Barber.

    Stephens has recently dropped his single, Sexy Lady, featuring Kelvin J. The audio and video is already receiving massive airplay.

    The Afro hip hop single was produced by Mickey 4 and directed by Arayuwa. The video was shot in Lagos.

    Jolly revealed that the other artistes will also drop their works by the end of the year even as Jobest hopes to sign on more artistes.

  • Verve launches revolutionary mobile app

    Verve launches revolutionary mobile app

    Verve International, the leading African payment card brand, has launched a revolutionary mobile app, ‘Verve World’, which enables cardholders to store all their payment options and to carry out everyday transactions without physically using their cards.

    This innovation was unveiled to stakeholders at an event on Wednesday, last week at the Four Points by Sheraton, Victoria Island, Lagos.

    Users are able to store payment instruments from all major card brands in Nigeria.  In addition to debit, credit and prepaid cards, and Verve eCash, bank accounts can also be added to the app.

    The app features ‘Paycode’, Verve’s latest innovation.  Users of the Verve World app can generate a ‘Verve Paycode’, a unique one-time code valid for 24 hours, which can be used to withdraw cash from an ATM machine without a card.  The Verve Paycode can be sent to a loved one or friend to withdraw a pre-set amount of money from most ATMs in the country.

    Verve Paycode is the latest in a string of initiatives and partnerships as Verve International continues to innovate and consolidate its leading position in payment transactions and services across Africa.  The service opens a new range of possibilities for users and also offers a new level of security as cardholders can still carry out regular transactions as usual without the need to move around with a physical wallet.

    Other services available on the Verve World app include: Verve eCash funding; quick recharge transactions; Verve Rewards balance check; and enabling or disabling cards from performing international transactions.

    Speaking at a stakeholder engagement event held in Victoria Island, Lagos, Chief Executive Officer of Verve International, Charles Ifedi, commented:

    “The Verve World app has been tailored specifically for the African market and is an example of how, here at Verve International, we continue to push the boundaries of technological innovation to address local payment challenges. We continue to see growing demand from our cardholders for easy, secure and convenient payment methods irrespective of the payment instrument being used. Therefore we designed the app to address the need for urgent access to cash without a card, through Verve Paycode, (a key feature in the APP) which can also be generated and sent to friends and family for cardlesswithdrawal at ATMs.”

    Cardless transactions can be initiated at an ATM without inserting a card.  This is done by pressing any button on ATMs enabled with ‘QuicktellerCardless’.  Fidelity Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Heritage Bank, Zenith bank, FCMB and GTBank have all upgraded their ATMs with this functionality.

    ATMs belonging to UBA, Sterling Bank, Access Bank, Skye Bank, Unity Bank, Ecobank and WEMA Bank are being upgraded and would have the service available in a few weeks.  As such, there are currently over 5,000 ATMs across Nigeria where Verve Paycode can be used, and this would rise to over 11,000 ATMs by the end of 2015, when the upgrades for the above listed banks would have been completed.

     

     

  • Japan agency launches 25-year power plan

    Japan agency launches 25-year power plan

    …Stakeholders’ inputs will make it workable – Igal

    The Japanese International Co-operation Agency (JICA) has has unveiled a master plan study on National Power Development for its intervention activities in Nigeria.

    The scope of the proposed study report will include all its collaborative activities in the power sector, to cover the entire country with a target year between 2015 and 2040 (25 years).

    The study is to include power development planning, power demand forecast generation planning (Thermal, Hydro), primary energy analysis, Transmission Sub-station, Environmental and Social consideration, to mention but a few.

    Speaking at the event in Abuja, the Permanent Secretary, Power, Amb. (Dr.) Godknows Igali, commended JICA for this initiative, stressing that this will assist in the nation’s quest on how energy resources can be leveraged upon and deployed to end users optimally.

    He said that with the long term projection of the proposed master plan study, he foresees that in the future, JICA’s report will assist Nigeria to harmonise all energy-related studies that are scattered here and there, with a view to bringing them together.

    He promised that Nigeria will not disappoint the Japanese, as the people must have sacrificed a lot from their tax payers’ money, as huge sum would be deployed for the benefit of Nigerians. He called on other stakeholders to make valuable inputs to fill the seeming gaps that may exist in the proposed document.

    On his own part, he observed that there are gaps in area of identification of new hydro sites along Rivers, Benue and Niger, and there are no mention of solar development, gas, hydro and wind.

    He noted that more attention is accorded transmission value chain without concomitant attention to the two others – distribution and generation.

    He said the document will be more useful if JICA collaborates with other donor agencies like World Bank, UNIDO, USAID, GIZ and indeed relevant government agencies.

    On human resources component of the initiative, the Permanent Secretary told the Japanese to do more than the proposed seminar in which some Nigerians will be sponsored to Japan, to include sustainable training modules that would empower Nigerians in what JICA is doing.

    Chief Representative of JICA, Nigeria office, Nakamura Hirotaka, identified the primary problem that informed the study. He said epileptic power supply is a major impediment to socio-economic growth of the country and has formed the impetus for the assignment.

    JICA, he said, will work assiduously with relevant government agencies and development partners to come up with a workable document that will remove bottle-neck in the nation’s quest for availability of power to Nigerians.

  • Mbong Amata’s new act launches singing competition

    Mbong Amata’s new act launches singing competition

    Recently, Nigerian actress, Mbong Amata announced the launch of her record label, Bong House, and it appears that she has hit the ground running. Her new sign-on, who simply goes by the name Splash, has not only released a new single, but has followed it up with a singing competition.

    Splash, a female rapper, who sings majorly in Igbo language, recently released a new single titled Na God, featuring new entrant, Byno.

    Announcing Splash’s competition on her Instagram page, Amata said that it is to enable the budding artiste give back to her fans.

    “So guys! It’s official!! My first signed super talented rap artist @splashmusik just dropped her first Single Na God ft @iambyno. She’s put out a competition that will enable her give back to her fans. The winner gets a cash prize of $1000 and a lunch date,” Amata posted.

    She further explained that all that fans need to do to qualify for the competition is to follow Splash and herself on Instagram, sing their own version of Na God and post it on the platform. After three weeks, she said, the contestant with the highest number of likes gets $1000 and gets to hang out with Splash.

  • Firm launches child-friendly software

    Firm launches child-friendly software

    As part of activities to celebrate the Africa Code Week (ACW) coming up in October, SAP Africa has launched a child-friendly software coding project at the Ojodu Grammar School, Lagos.

    100 children between eight and 11 years will be taught software coding skills in a fun-filled, hands-on workshop facilitated by SAP.

    Speaking during the launch, SAP president, Mr Franck Cohen, said the project is tailored to youth skills development in eleven African countries.

    “The ACW programme will target an estimated 20, 000 children participating in software coding workshops in South Africa, Angola, Cameroon, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia. The age range for African countries is eight to 24 years,”he said.

    Adding that Africa Code Week is being driven by SAP along with partners,Simplon from France, the Galway Education Centre from Ireland and the Cape Town Science Centre, he said its purpose is to empower youths, teachers and parents with the language of software programming using a freely available scratch system.

    “SAP is committed to helping Africa’s youths become fluent in software coding, the language of the digital age. With the Africa Code Week initiative, we hope to enable Africa’s youths to further contribute to the continent’s success in this digital age,” he said.

    He explained further that a new Harbor Research study has found that while 65% of today’s technology applications generate revenue, the number will rise to 80% by 2018.

  • Firm launches online platform for election monitoring

    Firm launches online platform for election monitoring

    A Lagos-based company, Vision Web Technologies, has unfolded an online platform where Nigerians across the country can monitor and report proceedings during the forthcoming general elections.

    Unfolding the platform to newsmen in Lagos over the weekend, the Managing Director of the firm, Marvin Ikenwude, said the move was a proactive measure to enlist mass participation of Nigerians in the electioneering process.

    He said the platform will assist in putting into proper perspective, proceedings across all the polling units across the country and that it was its own way of ensuring credibility of the forthcoming poll.

    According to him, the move is aimed at complementing the efforts of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) whom he praised has put in place all the needed safeguards that will guarantee credible polls.

    Ikenwude said the essence of the application when downloaded is to ensure that all the polling units across the country are effectively monitored by voting population across the country whom he said would be made to supply real-time information to the web application.

    “The aim (as will be demonstrated to you) is to ensure that the country is covered information-wise during the poll. What we hope to do is to bring into place Nigerians across the country that would play the role citizen reporters before/during and after the polls,” he said.

    He stated that the platform is compatible with all mobile devices such as android, windows and blackberry handheld phones and gadgets.

  • Firm launches new website for affordable goods

    Firm launches new website for affordable goods

    AN international procure-ment and logistics company, Mannastores, has launched a new website www.mannastores.ng to sell original and quality goods at affordable prices for wholesale and retail traders across Nigeria.

    The Chief Executive Officer, MannaStores, Ayo Benson, made this known in a release made available to The Nation.

    According to him, Nigeria has never had it so good in terms of competitiveness of the market, especially in the retails arena which explains the company’s determination to give Nigerians world class products at affordable prices.

    He said the firm has been helping Nigerian businesses and individuals purchase original goods from the United Kingdom and United States for the past four years. “We are launching the new website to scale up our activities in the sale of original and quality goods at affordable prices- ladies bags, perfumes, shoes household items, and accessories.”

    He noted that his partnership with international reputable companies gives his company an edge, in terms of sourcing quality products at much reduced cost. He opined that the key factors for their low prices are their expertise in logistics, partnership with international companies and economy of scale.

    Benson advises that companies should put service before profit as this is the philosophy that has worked very well for his company. “We have a company policy of free delivery within Lagos as well as payment on delivery for customers’ peace of mind,” he said.