The Future Project, in partnership with Microsoft Nigeria, has officially announced the launch of Accelerate LABS, an initiative to bolster the country’s economic development through enterprise development and technology incubation. Themed ‘Activating Small and Medium Scale Enterprises’, the goal of the project is to equip 2,500 youths across the six geo-political zones in Nigeria through trainings and funds to build socially inclined, high profit, and highly competitive enterprise capable of impacting the economy.
Speaking during the launch, the Hakeem Adeniji-Adele, representing the Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft Nigeria, Ifeanyi Amah, stated Microsoft’s intention to further focus on supporting viable and scalable businesses that would spur economic growth in Nigeria.
“Microsoft recognises the creativity and intelligence of young Nigerian minds, which fully informs our support of this initiative to empower startups in realising their full potential, while also boosting the local economy through education, employment and entrepreneurship,” said Adeniji-Adele. “With this project, we are leveraging on the demand for better and effective technology to teach young Nigerians how to better themselves, their families and their communities.”
Each geo political zone would be represented by a host state that will serve as a hub to incubate these businesses. Accelerate LABS will be in three streams, with the training of the first stream starting this September, and covering a period of three months. Each stream will include three weeks training session, four weeks mentoring session, three weeks research and practice and a demo day for pitching of business ideas to prospective investors.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and Microsoft in partnership with the Zariah Foundation have been training pupils in software development in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The training, under the UNESCO Youth Mobile summer camp project involved representatives from 10 schools in the territory.
A UNESCO official, Mr. Anthony Oguniyi said the initiative was designed to teach young girls and boys to create mobile applications for sustainable development.
According to him, the Youth Mobile Initiative builds on the experience of many worldwide initiatives that introduce young people to computer science programming and problem solving.
“It also seeks to build on experiences targeting young women who are vastly underrepresented in this field and it builds on the consideration that for millions of young people, the smartphone in their pocket is a very powerful computer, it will be their only computer, and they could use it for nearly every aspect of their lives: communicating, learning, taking pictures, and playing games.”
The Executive Director, TZE Foundation, Dayo Akindolani, said the objective was to raise the next generation of software developers in the country.
Akindolani, who emphasised the role of young boys and girls in helping to realise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), said it became imperative to develop their capacity in order to create reliable solutions.
Describing the free initiative as relevant considering the Federal Governments drive to developing the education and Information Communication and Technology (ICT) sectors, he said about 50 students from 10 schools would benefit from the summer camp for 10 days with consistent training.
“We selected schools that have interest in ICT and are promoting ICT. We don’t just want to train the students and the training will not be sustained. So we are training their teachers as well so that beyond this summer camp, the teachers can continue with the training while we also help with mentoring.
“The teachers can as well transfer the knowledge to other students. Of course they will be trained on HTML, Java Scripts for web language and other programming for mobile applications. Beyond that, we have a sustainability plan to place them on a portal called the developers’ haven, where every student can belong to a community and they can learn further by sharing their experiences and solutions,” Akindolani said.
The Proprietress, Tophill School, Mrs. Kate Nomhwange described ICT as language of the 21st century especially in the area of education.
She said ICT makes learning easier and more interactive, thus need for the partnership with UNESCO and TZE foundation in order to develop the nation’s education sector.
…Partners CSEAN on awareness creation, cyber defence
The Federal Government has said the country loses over N127 billion annually to cyber-crimes across the country.
Minister of Communications, Bar. Adebayo Shittu, disclosed this yesterday during Cyber Secure Conference organised by the Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN) in Abuja.
The Minister acknowledged increasing threats in the nation’s cyberspace stressing that the trend was becoming more sophisticated and frequent.
He said it was thus important to intensify efforts to secure the country’s cyber space against imminent threats, as the federal government already inaugurated an advisory council on cyber security.
His words: “Indeed, Nigeria loses over N127 billion annually, which translates to about 0.08 of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The financial implication could be much more, but a larger number of incidents remain undetected or unreported. These grim figures go on to emphasise the fact that cyber criminals never sleep.
Building a resilient cyber defence is a priority as available statistics puts the cost of cyber-crime globally at $700 billion per year, and it is projected to rise to about $2 trillion by 2019, due to the rapid digitisation of consumer lives and company records. Breaches like these have steadily been on the rise as according to reports, the number of incidents in 2016 grew by 38 per cent as against the number reported in 2015.
According to him, the country is in dire need of cyber experts that could help secure the cyberspace.
Earlier, CSEAN President, Remi Afon identified the need for the country to implement the National Cyber Security Strategy and Policy designed by the federal government to secure the country.
He cited the recent global cyber-attack named as ‘wannacry ransomware’ which had wreaked havoc in 104 countries and shut down over 200, 000 computers.
However, he said the government should make it a mandate in partnership with other stakeholders in the sector to create cybersecurity awareness across the country.
Aside, Afon urged the federal government to allocate budget to build cyber defence system and increase capacities among private and public establishments in order to jointly build a resilient cyber security ecosystem.
“We don’t need to be reminded of the growing sophistication and pervasiveness of cyber-attacks, whether it was a billion compromised Yahoo accounts or state-sponsored hackers muscling on national elections.
“Just last week, the world was hit with ‘WannaCry ransomware’ attack one of the largest ever cyber-attacks in recent years… This attack reinforces how dependent we have become on our data-driven networks and serves as a wake-up call for government, businesses and organisations to make cyber security top priority,” he added.
Presents at the conference were representative of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), KPMG Nigeria, Microsoft, Panda among others.
From inventing windshield wipers to coming up with solutions to improve the lives of millions of people around the world, women have been harnessing the power of technology to do great things for their communities, families and themselves since as early as the 18th century.
In Africa, women have also made their mark on the world. Take Kenyan-born Juliana Rotich for example. Rotich is the co-founder and executive director of Ushahidi – a web-based reporting system that uses crowdsourced data, mobile phones and web reporting to formulate real-time visual maps during crises. Or, Mariéme Jamme from Senegal, who is the CEO of the London-based SpotOne Global Solutions, as well as the co-founder of African Gathering, a global platform that brings together entrepreneurs and experts to exchange ideas about Africa’s development.
To mark International Women’s Day this year, we are celebrating the dynamic doers, the trail-blazing trendsetters and the unsung heroes from four countries across Africa who are using technology to #MakeWhatsNext:
Sayu Abend – Nigeria “Women need to be bold, strong and driven to pursue their dreams. Create your own future and not one society has mapped out for you.”
Sayu Abend is the CEO and founder of a company called Spacepointe, which is a retail technology company that aims to bridge the gap between SMEs and their target market through technology-based business management.
But before being a CEO, Sayu is a mother and a wife first.
Finding the balance between running a highly successful company and spending quality time with her family is one of her biggest challenges.
However, with the help of technology, Sayu is able to maintain a healthy balance between her family and remaining productive in her business. In addition to using Microsoft’s suite of productivity tools both in her personal and professional life, she also hosts Spacepointe’s entire platform on the Azure Cloud.
Sayu’s message for young women wanting to pursue a career in technology:
“Do not pursue a career in STEM just for the sake of it. Technology is a means to an end. Find a problem in an area you are interested in and solve it. Don’t only solve it because it affects you personally, but solve it because it makes the world you live in a better place.”
Sayu Abend – Nigeria
Dr Wuleta Lemma – Ethiopia “I’m showing young women it CAN be done”
Originally from Ethiopia, Dr Wuleta comes from a long line of tough women who believed that women should be given an equal opportunity to succeed in life. And succeed is exactly what Dr Wuleta did. Growing up in one of the most turbulent periods in Ethiopia’s history, Dr Wuleta was able to overcome extreme adversity to study degrees in medicine, epidemiology and international health abroad.
With a deep love for Africa and a strong desire to develop home-born solutions for the African continent, she returned to her motherland. Dr Wuleta decided to marry her love for IT with the knowledge she had gained in medicine, by developing an e-health system to improve healthcare operations in Ethiopia. The system, called the TenaCare, is currently being used in over 3000 facilities. She has also developed ICT-enabled training centres and programmes in conjunction with local universities and colleges.
In addition to using Microsoft technologies like Visual Studio, SQL Server, Windows, Azure and Power BI to power this revolutionary eHealth system, Dr Wuleta is also a self-confessed gadget geek and loves to use technology in her day-to-day routine. This helps her stay productive and balance her busy life.
Dr Wuleta’s message for young women wanting to pursue a career in technology:
“Africa is coming, Africa has a place and young African women are key to making this a reality. They have so much talent, and through my work I want to show young women it can be done.”
Dr Wuleta Lemma – Ethiopia
Caroline Nafula – Kenya “Never apologise for having drive and passion”
At only 21 years old, Caroline Nafula, is well on her way to becoming a woman to which all young girls can aspire.
The middle child in a family of girls who are all pursuing degrees in STEM subjects, it’s no surprise that Caroline’s love for science and technology has led her to pursue a degree in IT and business information technology at Strathmore University in Kenya.
After enrolling with the Microsoft MySkills4Afrika programme, Caroline developed the skills needed to create two successful applications. One is called Food Junky, which is an online directory for street vendors. The other is an e-cards website called thoughtfulwishes.co.ke, which redefines the way people view, use and send e-cards.
Caroline owes much of her early success to her MySkills4Afrika mentors,Nate Koweda and Patrick Ngatchou, who are both based in America. Despite the distance, Caroline’s mentors have contributed greatly to her growth as a developer. “We use Skype and Outlook to keep in touch. My mentors have been able to teach me new tricks and hacks that have enhanced my coding skills. This wouldn’t have been possible without technology to connect us.”
Caroline’s message for young women wanting to pursue a career in technology: “You should never apologise for having drive and passion. Life is too short to second guess yourself and not pursue what you really want. Block out the noise, block out the doubts and discouraging remarks. Tell yourself you can do it. If you are a young woman contemplating a career in STEM, go for it! This in the one field that makes you best placed to change the lives of millions of people all over the world.”
Caroline Nafula – Kenya
Lebogang Madise – South Africa “To all the young women out there – you are science, you are engineering and you can shape the future through technology and mathematics.”
Lebogang Madise developed a love affair with her computer when she was in primary school, but she never in her wildest dreams believed she would pursue a career in technology. However, her future had other plans in store for her. Lebogang’s love for computers and technology was so strong that it inspired in her the desire to learn how to code and develop solutions that could change the world.
She is now a facilitator for mobile-tech startups at mLab. She also works as a committee member for IEEE SIGHT (Special Interest Group in Humanitarian Technology). IEEE is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation for the benefit of humanity.
Lebogang’s message for young women wanting to pursue a career in technology: “You can be anything you want to be, irrespective of your background. You don’t need permission to dream big. Take that first step, don’t be afraid to fail, you have it in you to invent the next big thing. You are science, you are engineering and you can shape the future through technology and mathematics. Don’t expect it to be easy though. It will be challenging, not because you are a woman, but because STEM careers are generally more mentally stimulating careers.”
Lebogang Madise – South Africa
Microsoft remains committed to closing the gender gap and creating even more opportunities for women to innovate, create and unlock the best opportunities for their future. Last year, Microsoft launched a new movement calling on young women and girls to #MakeWhatsNext. The campaign raises awareness of the issues that cause girls to drop out of or lose interest in studying science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM), and aims to pique their excitement and educate them in how they can change the world — if they stay engaged.
The response to #MakeWhatsNext makes it clear that girls’ passion is strengthened when they see female role models who have created innovations that are used in our everyday lives. As the motto goes, “If you see it, you can be it.”
For more inspirational stories of women in technology, watch this video.
Microsoft and Ecobank Transna-tional Incorporated, yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to complement African government’s efforts to modernise and raise the standards of the continent’s major cities through state of the art digital solutions.
The MoU will see the modernisation of sectors that will have the most immediate and significant impact for African countries.
These sectors will include bursary, disbursements, and school fees collections in he education sector, market shop and small vendor municipality collections, vehicles and driving licensing as well as Vis and passport fee collections.
The agreement also supports the implementation of a comprehensive sills and a digital literacy programme.
Other key areas such as land registration and fee collection in the municipal and hospital services are all expected to see some tremendous modernisation.
“At Microsoft, our aim is to help societies digitally transform from the single consumer to entire government departments,” General Manager Microsoft, Amr Kame, said.
Ecobank Group CEO Ade Ayeyemi said: “Microsoft is a globally recognised brand. We are delighted to partner with Microsoft to move faster on our digital transformation strategy” the main focus of which is to increase financial inclusion in Africa.”
Microsoft yesterday encouraged business users to make the switch to a newer version of the operating system, claiming Windows 7 is no longer “fit” to be used in businesses.
Th firm said Windows 7 “does not meet the requirements of modern technology, nor the high security requirements of IT departments”.
Microsoft has warned that the Windows 7 operating system is outdated and more susceptible to malware attacks that wouldn’t affect Windows 10.
Head of Windows at Microsoft Germany, Markus Nitschke, said: “It provides for higher operating costs – for example, maintenance, lost working time due to increased malware attacks, or increased support requests.
“At the same time, many hardware manufacturers no longer provide drivers for Windows 7, which means that modern peripherals such as printers are no longer recognised.
“So Windows 10 is the only version of Windows provides the appropriate support for the latest chips from Intel, AMD and Qualcomm.
“In addition, many programs are already written or developed for the newer versions of Windows.”
Windows 7’s extended support ends on January 14, 2020. The operating system left mainstream support in 2014, meaning that for the last two years—and next three—it only receives security fixes.
Katherine Eta of The Childville School, Ogudu, Lagos, was the 10th best student in the world in the use of Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 version during the 2016 Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) World Championship held recently in Orlando, Florida, United States of America.
The competition challenges students aged 13-22 to demonstrate their proficiency in the use of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel -Versions 2010 and 2013.
Katherine qualified to represent Nigeria in the competition when she recorded a perfect 1000/1000 score in the Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 category of the national MOS championship organised by ReadManna Ventures Ltd, an ICT educational services firm, in July. Atafo Abure of Childville School, Ogudu, and Abdullah Usman of Aduvie International School, Abuja, also represented Nigeria in Excel 2013 and Word 2013 categories.
Readmanna Ventures Chief Executive Officer, Mrs Edna Agusto, praised the 15-year-old SS2 pupil for getting that far in a competition involving students from 50 countries.
“We congratulate Katherine Eta who came 10th in Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 category at the 2016 Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship for Students held in Orlando, Florida, United States of America in August 2016.
“The top three scorers in the 2016 National MOS competition – Katherine Eta, Atafo Abure and Abdullah Usman and two ICT teachers, Mrs Rukayat Adebayo and Mr Timothy Osaigbovo, formed the National Team,” she said.
Nigeria, represented by Olubunmi Agusto, won second prize in the Microsoft Word category of the international competition in 2014.
Katherine, Atafo and Abdullah would be honoured along others at a national awards programme holding October 5 at the City Hall, Victoria Island, Lagos, by sponsors of the competition -UBA Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and Agusto Consulting Ltd.
Others are: Ochanya Elizabeth Idoko of Aduvie International School (Excel 2010); Nkpolara Munachi, Louisville Girls High School, Ijebu-Itele, Ogun State (PowerPoint 2010); and David Adeyinka of Faith Academy, Ota, Ogun State (Word 2010).
Over 300 pupils across 22 secondary schools in Lagos, Ogun, Edo, Rivers, Osun, Niger States and the FCT entered for thecompetition from which 70 of the 97 students shortlisted from the first stage passed the final examination.
Also to be rewarded at the event are: Jacinta Oguejifor, Holy Child College, SW Ikoyi, and Oluwakoyinsola Abel Emordi, The Childville School, Ogudu, for winning the 2nd Readmanna Under 13 National Computing Fundamentals Competition.
Jacinta won the Computing Fundamentals category with a score of 978/1000 in a time of 10 minutes 48 seconds; while Oluwakoyinsola won the Key Applications category with 956 in 29 minutes 31seconds.
Mrs Agusto said the prizegiving ceremony would also feature an ICT exhibition where firms would display ICT solutions for interested schools and parents.
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has invited the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the National Democratic Institute of America and Microsoft to monitor its election and verify the process.
Its president, Augustine Alegeh (SAN), said the body introduced electronic voting and universal suffrage to end rigging and inducement of voters.
He said e-voting, to be used in NBA’s election on July 30 and 31, would check the practice of branch chairmen selecting lawyers and inducing them to vote for a particular candidate.
With the new system, Alegeh said, all lawyers could vote over the internet from anywhere in the world rather than gathering at a single location.
Alegeh denied that he was working to impose a candidate as NBA president.
Although he was entitled to vote, he said he did not anoint one nor can he compel all lawyers to vote for a particular candidate.
Vowing to ensure a credible election, he said his role was only to set up an electoral committee and provide it with support services.
“Our hope is that when we finish this election, Nigeria will use this method for the next general elections. I have a pact with the association to deliver a good election.
“No threats will make us do what is wrong. The only time I am worried is when I am wrong, so I won’t be intimidated by threats that NBA will disintegrate,” he said.
The NBA president urged lawyers to update their records on the website to be able to vote, adding that close to 15,000 people had updated their records while close to 40,000 lawyers had paid their fees.
On lawsuits against NBA, Alegeh said dissatisfied candidates ought to appeal to the NBA Dispute Resolution Committee first, in line with Section 16 of the NBA Constitution before going to court.
Technology company, Microsoft Nigeria on Wednesday educated non-profit organizations on the use of tools to enhance productivity.
As part of its commitment to empower every individual and organization on the planet to achieve more, Microsoft conducted a Customer Immersion Experience (CIE) for four non-profit organizations on the use of the Microsoft productivity tools.
The technology giant has before now empowered non-profits with Microsoft productivity tools with an intention to equip them with the necessary tools that will aid their productivity, but the introduction of the CIE was to aid the utilization of these tools.
Speaking on the CIE program, Citizenship Manager, Microsoft Nigeria, Olusola Amusan identified that Microsoft is innovating in so many ways to solve the basic challenges that mankind faces with the use of technology.
“The Microsoft Customer Immersion Experience (CIE) is a hands-on introduction to Microsoft’s suite of productivity tools. A true-to-life user experience; CIE takes you through everyday organization situations, such as working remotely, analyzing data and collaborating with co-workers; and lets you see how Microsoft products make it all easy, convenient yet secure.”
Participants at the event – Junior Chamber International (JCI) Nigeria, Paradigm initiative Nigeria, The Future Project and Nigeria Leadership Initiative, left equipped with the Windows 10 and various apps on Office 365 i.e. Skype for Business, Yammer, One Note, Delve, Sway amongst others.
Commenting on the programme, Digital Media Manager, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria; Olamide Egbayelo applauded Microsoft on the Customer Immersion Experience (CIE) initiative.
“It’s been a productive meeting and I am glad I came, I have learnt some products that I never knew existed like the Delve and Sway. I really look forward to utilizing this software in enhancing productivity in my workplace, and also to reach out and teach others NGOs. This way, the tech for good initiatives can be embraced.”
Microsoft also unveiled plans which revealed that later in the year, over a hundred Non-profits will be invited to register for the Tech4Good day where even more tools offered by the technology giant will be showcased.
Microsoft is encouraging those in the field of IT to gain skills in cloud and data architecture, as the Middle East and Africa moves into the mobile-first, cloud-first world at an increasingly fast pace.
“As more enterprises, consumers and cities embrace the cloud and it becomes part of everyday life, the demand for cloud architects is obviously growing. It’s an exciting industry to be in, with lots of areas of specialisation, and more jobs being created each year,” says Oluyomi Alarape, Director, Cloud & Enterprise, Microsoft Nigeria.
Microsoft Azure, the company’s growing collection of integrated cloud services, is welcoming more than 93, 000 new subscriptions a month. At the recent global AzureCon and Strata summits, Microsoft unveiled a series of new offerings across cloud, big data and the Internet of Things. One of the new products will unleash big data productivity with Azure Data Lake.
This will make big data processing and analytics simpler and more accessible for developers, data scientists and analysts to store data of any size, shape and speed, across platforms and languages.
Michael Ayeni, a cloud solution architect in Nigeria says, “Microsoft has backed up its commitment to improving customer success by hiring 560 new Cloud Solution Architects worldwide. Being an indigenous Cloud Solution Architect means I am able to develop and implement architectural designs that are cognizant of the local landscape, which in turn drives IT value realisation.”
Eric Ballnath, who joined Microsoft as a cloud solutions architect from Amazon in April 2015 and is based in the UAE, agrees. He foresees a future where each person on the planet will have a representation of themselves as a virtual identity stored in the cloud, together with their private and business data. “Strong cryptography will ensure our data can only be accessed with our knowledge and consent. We will interact with technology seamlessly across a multitude of different devices.”
Cloud architects like Michael and Eric are key to helping Microsoft achieve its vision, according to Oluyomi Alarape “They are the ones who are building secure and robust cloud-powered experiences for our customers and setting us apart from our competitors.”
Microsoft’s unique approach to the cloud spans three areas. Hyper-scale infrastructure to assist organisations to reach their customers; hybrid differentiation, which allows organisations to combine cloud and on-premise servers; and enterprise grade to ensure security and compliance, as well as flexibility and choice.
Microsoft’s Azure Trust Centre also gives customers peace of mind that they are protected by the world’s leading security measures and certificates. These measures mean more people across the Middle East and Africa are moving to the cloud to enjoy features that enhance productivity and security.
Cloud security specialists are also in demand. Often a deterrent for new customers of the cloud is data security and lack of education around data protection and privacy laws. Microsoft’s hybrid approach helps those who are hesitant, to be guided into the cloud, not pushed. The company’s international experience and expertise means the latest security measures are automatically updated. With its partner network across the region, there will always be back-up support and education for customers within their local legislative context.
“Cloud computing will see immense growth when countries across the Middle East and Africa have strong legislation in place to ensure data protection. Governments can gain by prioritising this because cloud provides the most affordable and scalable way for businesses to be competitive, and this is what’s most exciting. Cloud drives innovation,” says Oluyomi Alarape
