The Nation Newspaper

Tag: technology

  • Fed Govt raises panel on Information Technology Park

    The Federal Government has inaugurated a seven-man  committee for the establishment of the National Information Technology Park/Exhibition Centre as part of efforts to boost economic diversification and self-reliance.

    Minister of Communications Adebayo Shittu, who inaugurated the committee in Abuja, said the proposed park would “create a veritable and internationally standardised ICT Platform upon which the youths, ICT innovators and investors can leverage to turn Nigeria into a renowned ICT hub and market”.

    He said the seven-member inter-multi-stakeholders Project Planning Committee of National Information Technology Park/Exhibition Centre would work round the clock within the limited time available to produce a blueprint upon which the government would anchor its programmes in making Nigeria ICT hub and market.

    He added that the centre would create opportunities to boost technology tourism, generate revenue for government, create employment for the teaming youths and bring about industrial growth and internationalsation of ICT in Nigeria.

    A statement signed by Austin Asoluka, Assistant Director of Press in the minister’s office quoted the minister as saying that the ICT Parks are the most tested and trusted institutional mechanism to address the need of technology-intensive and knowledge-based economies globally.

    The minister urged members of the panel to “selflessly contribute their rich experiences to the project.

    Shittu also said government is poised to support the establishment of six regional hubs and expansion of the technology ecosystem in Abuja and Lagos into super-hubs.

    Responding on behalf of the Committee members, Dr. Chris Nwannenna, representing National Computer Society, hailed the minister for his vision, which, according to him, was long overdue.

    He assured the minister that members would take the responsibility as a national assignment.

  • ‘Requisite technology, competitive skills ’ll drive manufacturing’

    ‘Requisite technology, competitive skills ’ll drive manufacturing’

    Nigeria can only come out of recession if the manufacturing sector is equipped with requisite technology and competitive skills to drive the economy, the General Manager, BEAMCO  Nig. Limited, Mr. Emile Bado, has said.

    He said there was the need to support the productive sector with the necessary machinery and raw materials, arguing that a country that cannot produce and export to earn foreign exchange cannot thrive.

    Speaking with The Nation in Lagos, Bado said, for instance, that the manufacturing sector has been held down by poor electricity supply, which adversely affects its competiveness.

    He regretted that over 30 per cent of manufacturers’ working capital is spent on generating electricity aside other capital projects that should have been otherwise provided by the government.

    The industrialist said although, his company wanted to help the industrial sector to run more efficiently through the supply of compressors, machinery as well as engage in repairs and serviAces, the nation’s poor infrastructure particularly power remained stumbling block.

    “My expectation is to help manufacturers work more efficiently. My company also wants to help indigenous manufacturers in particular areas where we have competencies and also build skills and encourage training for fresh graduates,” he said.

    Bado urged the government to expedite action on the provision of regular power supply, noting that this will drive the manufacturing sector and the economy as a whole.

    He also said that manufacturers, on their part, should always select the right partners that will not only give them good services, but also enable them cut cost in the production process.

    The industrialist recalled that one of the greatest shocks he received when he came to Nigeria was that most people knew next to nothing about emissions and recycling.

    While noting that almost everything can be recycled, from plastics, nylons, bottles etc, he called for greater attention to such areas to rid the streets of refuse and also create wealth.

  • Saipem’s confined space welding technology excites NCDMB

    The Executive Secretary of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote, has expressed his surprise at the size of Saipem’s facility and the amount of work being done by Nigerians at Saipem Fabrication Yard in Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt.

    Addressing workers of the company when he led members of the NCDMB and other stakeholders on a tour of the Saipem fabrication yard, which also coincided with the unveiling in Port Harcourt of a logo to commemorate Saipem’s50 years of operations in Nigeria,  Wabote described the facility as a world-class fabrication yard which has given Nigerians an opportunity to show that there is nothing they could not do.

    His words: “When I went through this site with my colleagues, what was on my mind was that there is nothing Nigerians cannot do. I have been in the oil and gas industry for 25 years and I know when we started how everything that was utilized in the oil and gas industry was imported. Fabrication of things as easy as even spools were all imported. What they told us then was that Nigerians did not have the capacity to fabricate those items, hence they were imported.

    “But going through this yard today, I am encouraged more than anything else to reaffirm my belief in this country to do greater things. Today, this yard has direct employment of 3,500 people. Indirectly, that creates about 20,000 jobs within the immediate community and within the Niger Delta itself. We are not talking about the induced employment this will create within the immediate vicinity of Rumuolumeni community.

    “Our hope is that we will continue to keep this yard busy. Our desire is that we will increase the number of employment opportunities that this yard will create. I am sure you should be very proud of what you have done in building these magnificent structures I am seeing here and I know future generations will be proud of you.”

    He stated that it is the desire of the present administration to “internalize most of the things we are supposed to do in this country to ensure that we continue to create meaningful jobs for the teeming Nigerian youths, and this is a great example that we are achieving that in the oil and gas industry. As you can see, 95 per cent of what we need in the oil and gas industry is fabrication; all you see in the oil and gas industry is iron and steel and you people have demonstrated that if there is an opportunity you can overcome.”

    He added: “We hope and pray that other projects that are in the funnel currently will immediately come on the back of EGINA. Today, Saipem fabrication on EGINA project is about 40,000 tonnes. That is huge amount of steel. One day I believe we will perhaps do 100 per cent of the tonnage that is required in an FPSO construction. The onus is on us to encourage this facility to grow.”

    Wabote  hailed the confined space welding technology developed by Saipem Contracting Nigeria Limited in the EGINA project and described the technology as a great innovation that should be shared in the oil and gas industry.

    He disclosed that the Board would hold a knowledge-sharing session with international oil companies (IOCs) to enable the companies “share experiences on their challenges, costs and local content” so that they could learn from each other.

    Wabote said: “This visit has made us realise the need to categorise fabrication yards in Nigeria so that potential investors will know the capacity of each of the yards.This is a world-class fabrication yard. We were in South Korea two weeks ago and what we saw there in terms of fabrication is not different from what we are seeing here.”

    The Managing Director of Saipem Contracting Nigeria Limited, Mr. Guido D’Aloisio, said the company owed its success in the country to the loyalty and hard work of its staff.

  • How technology can propel Africa’s growth, by experts

    For African countries to move from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based and innovation-driven one, there is the need to efficiently harness the power of technology, experts have said.

    At the sixth edition of the Lecture Series and 10th Anniversary of the Verdant Zeal Group, held in Lagos, recently, experts noted that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) needed to embrace the power of technology to help Africa develop exponentially.

    Verdant Zeal Group Executive Vice Chairman Mr. Tunji Olugbodi cautioned that oil, which Nigeria’s economic mainstay, would dry up in the next 50 years. He, therefore, advised policy makers and governments to do the right thing by embracing technology and innovation.

    “The way to go is for Africa to gradually move from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based and innovation-driven economy,” Olugbodi said, noting that some African countries have embraced technology to drive economic development and growth.

    According to him, this has helped to impact youths, as many of them have embraced the Internet, using it to share ideas, content and commercial opportunities seamlessly across the globe.

    “These giant strides have happened regardless of red tape bureaucracy that typifies governance across the continent,” he added.

    He said Internet penetration woud continue to grow, as Africa seeks to close the gap in Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Noting that Nigeria leads the continent, he projected that the country would be among the top 10 Internet users in the world by 2018.

    Olugbodi, however, said: “Amid these giant strides in technology, there still remains a large demography of young people, mostly women, who remain in rural and semi-urban areas, below the poverty line and seem unable to tap into this new economy.”

    Also, the guest lecturer and Founder, JC Capital (PTY), South Africa, Joel Chimhanda, said Africans should think as Africans and be aware that it can’t compete globally without industrialisation. He regretted that over 90 per cent of Africans are not banked, even with the $25 billion that flow into Nigeria yearly as Diaspora fund.

    He frowned on African governments for not encouraging ICT development on the continent, adding that Africa needs its own Silicon Valley.

    According to Chimhanda, Nigeria can help change the African narrative for the better. He said with a population of about 200 million, Nigeria can lead the pack if she so wishes.

    “We have to come up with regulations that will spur innovation not just in Nigeria, but across the continent. Chimhanda admonished, pointing out that “the continent is not growing from the manpower perspective because we do not have a well structured education system.”

    He called for all hands to be on deck to move the continent forward in terms of technological advancement rather than wait for the West to help determine the continent’s  narrative or depend on aids.

    The JC Capital founder regretted the colonial mentality in Africa that makes Africans believe that their problems can only be solved by a ‘White man’. “In South Africa, about 20 Afrikaans control the economy; globally, only about eight countries control the world Gross Domestic Product (GDP), he said.

    Chimhanda said sadly, in Africa, rather than creating African products that will solve Africa’s problems, her political leaders go cup-in-hand for aids, and in some instances, sell off the continent’s common patrimony for a few dollars.

    According to him, African nations, spear-headed by Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya should tap into the opportunity provided by technology through some of the telecoms companies and the rich Africans who are trail blazers in different fields of the economy.

    He also canvassed the need for a different education system in the country that will aggregate the interest of over 200 million people. He insisted that the educational system cannot bring the nation out of the woods, as 60 per cent of what is thought in the university is different from what the competitive work place is looking for.

    To underscore the need for African economies to embrace technology, the Founder, Lifebank, Mrs. Temie Giwa-Tubosun, said her firm has deployed technology to assist help givers offer speedy and quality healthcare to the public.

    Lifebank is a company that uses technology, big data and smart logistics to solve the problem of blood shortage in Nigeria. Giwa-Tubosun, who expressed regrets that Nigerians spend over a billion dollar yearly on health tourism in India, asked government to make the sector robust enough to drive quality health care through technology.

    Co-Founder, Leads Africa, a digital media company which focuses on young professional African women, Ms Afua Osei, canvassed the need for women entrepreneurs to access finance, skills and technology.

    Osei, who also worked with the former US First Lady, Mrs. Michelle Obama, said her organisation has enabled women to use social media to acquire skills and communicate across borders.

    She called for the reduction of data prices, stressing that it is the only way this class of people can take advantage of payment platforms that will drive their businesses.

  • ‘Govt needs technology to promote peace in Niger Delta’

    Discussants at a panel on promoting peace in Niger Delta have stressed the need for improved communication between the government and resident of the oil-producing region to drive development in the axis.

    The session was held at the weekend during the Social Media Week held in Lagos. The panelists were unanimous in their call on the need for the government to adopt technology as a means of enhancing communication with the Niger Delta people.

    The session with the theme: Government and the Citizens, Communicating the 21st Century Way in the Niger Delta, was organised by the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND).

    Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Corporation (NDDC), Mr Nsima Ekere, represented by the commission’s Technical Adviser on Partnerships and Development, Mr John Akpan, participated in the discussion.

    Other panelists included Special Adviser on Communications to Abia State Governor, Sam Hart, Program Director of the Stakeholders Democracy Network (SDN), Florence Kayemba, Chief Executive Officer of NETOPPS, Fibiresima Bereni, and Chime Asonye, Special Assistant on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to of Abia State governor.

    On the role of government in communicating feedback to the Niger Delta resident, Akpan said platforms offered by social media played key role in opening up discussion between the government and the people in the region.

    Akpan said: “The newly-inaugurated governing board of the NDDC is determined to improve openness and transparency in its dealing and engaging the people in the Niger Delta.”

    He reaffirmed the commission’s dedication to 4Rs method it adopted to restructure its balance sheet, adding that the commission had embarked on reform to improve its governance systems to ensure compliance to extant rules and regulations.

    Kayembasaid said the Niger Delta’s heterogeneous nature made its needs peculiar. She advised the government should create a system where residents would provide feedback on the development programmes being currently carried out in the region.

    Hart noted Governor Okezie Ikpeazu had introduced programmes to drive citizens’ engagement in his administration, giving example of an e-library recently commissioned by the Abia government to create platform for feedback from the citizens.

    According to him, the Abia government would host events to select outstanding technology startups in the state.

    While speaking on the need to maintain open budgeting by state in the Niger Delta, Hart said: “I support open budgeting by state in the Niger Delta. It is not required by law to do that, but it has to be done to promote transparency and accountability.”

    He also reiterated the need for governors in the Niger Delta region to engage the social media in communicating with citizens. “Any government not on social media is doing itself a disservice,” he said.

    Speaking on poverty and lack of access to basic amenities, Asonye noted that implementation of the SDGs in the Niger Delta states was poor, adding that there was a need to focus attention on the challenges hindering development in the region.

    The SDGs, he said, will provide a proper channel for irreversible development in the Niger Delta.  Chime called for openness in implementation of government’s programme to tackle poverty. He said there should be a platform where citizens can give feedback and receive responses from the government, citing an example of Abia State which has an active social media presence that serves as a feedback mechanism between the government and the citizens. He stressed the need for evidence-based budgeting process that would afford citizens’ participation in governance process.

    In his discussion on private sector and technology, Bereni said there is a need to improve technology adoption in the region. “The Niger Delta is still struggling with low internet penetration, which is affecting the emergence of startups. Government needs to address the developmental gaps in the region by creating a holistic innovation strategy to support the young people who are marginalised,” he said.

    In response to the panelists’ submission, members of the audience drawn from the Niger Delta region expressed optimism that the discussion could bring about new thinking in the region to drive development.

    One of them, Obat Akpeji, said: “We should hope some of the solutions offered here would be considered by the governors in the region.”

    Another participant from Edo State, Ezekiel Efeobhokan, said: “I hope to see Niger Delta governors spearhead programmes that would impact on innovations of the youth. We want the youth to stop engaging crimes that tarnish the image of people from this region. Niger Delta youths are known as angry people, but we want the narrative to change.”

  • IGP seeks focus on science, technology

    Nigeria’s education system needs to focus on Science and Technology to move with the world’s digital innovations, Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Ibrahim Idris has said.

    “Nigeria cannot, but vigorously pursue an educational system that places emphasis on Science and Technology,” he said.

    Idris, who made the remark at a reception organised in his honour by the Government Secondary School, Farfaru-Sokoto, Old Boys Association, noted that the world is fast changing scientifically and advancing in technology with digital innovations.

    “The world is changing, evolving into a world of Science and Technology,” said Idris, who was honoured alongside five other alumni.

    ” We cannot be an exception in driving towards global attainment in science and technology and therefore, the nation’s policy makers, especially those responsible for fashioning the educational system, should begin to pay attention to a school system that places premium on academics, as much as it does on the moral and ethical development of our youths.”

    Idris called for concerted efforts towards educating children to become disciplined and productive in their adulthood.

    “The educational system can be made a launching pad for breeding good, disciplined, God-fearing and productive citizens.

    ”They will be citizens who are averse to the life of drug abuse and addiction, with its attendant crime and criminality in the society,” Idris added.

    He also urged old students to contribute to uplift their former schools.

  • MAPOLY to become varsity of technology

    Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun has said the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY) in Abeokuta would soon become a degree-awarding institution. The governor made the announcement at the 14th Convocation of the institution last week.

    According to the Amosun, the government has started discussions with the National Universities Commission (NUC) to actualise the dream.

    He said: “Ogun State has the highest number of higher institutions in the country. This administration believes in creating the enabling environment for them to thrive. We are already looking into the possibility of making MAPOLY a degree-awarding institution. We have already written to the NUC and we believe we will receive their response very soon.”

    Praising the leadership of the polytechnic, Amosun pledged he would use his personal resources to construct two hostels on the campus in memory of his late parents. The governor noted that education is a tool for achieving socio-economic development.

    Chairman of Governing Council, Chief Alaba Lawson, said the council had entered into a Build-Operate and Transfer (BoT) deal with private developers to construct three clusters of 2,500 bed spaces each for students’ accommodation.

    She said: “This is to alleviate the pains and sufferings of the students who have to travel long distances between their off-campus apartments in town and the campus. These hostels are equally envisaged to enhance the status of the institution and make it viable for elevation into a degree-awarding University of Technology.”

     

  • Teaching in age of communication technology

    Without a doubt, teachers are pretty important to the society. Teachers hold the key to the future since they help to mould future leaders. They don’t just teach, they are critical personalities who nurture the young folks to mature, to understand the world and to understand themselves. Evidence shows that teachers, their professional knowledge and skills are the most important factor for quality education in any society.

    Today, teaching has become easier and yet, more difficult because of the ubiquitous availability of communications technology. Whether it is social, business or instructional, technology now makes it easier, faster, more affordable and more intuitive to communicate. Teaching is essentially about communication and the attractiveness of communications technology in an educational setting is difficult to resist.

    While some forms of these technologies may constitute distractions, there is broad consensus that, if properly harnessed, the adoption of communications technology in an educational is advantageous in a number of ways. Thus, the question that confronts the 21st century policy makers is the extent to which existing and rapidly evolving technologies should be adopted and utilized to facilitate the communication between a teacher and his/her students.

    In considering this question, Rick Delgado, a leading thinker on educational innovations, identified a number of reasons why policy makers and schools will do well to ensure that teachers are capable of utilizing available communications technology to impart knowledge on students. First, the use of technology ‘levels the field’ between the so-called ‘high end’ schools and the so-called ‘low-end’ schools. This then brings about equality in the treatment of students in our societies as technology ensures access to significant skills and relevant information by all students and virtually all schools.

    Second, technology prepares students for the future. The world is moving towards technology at a breakneck pace and educators have a responsibility to introduce, encourage, and help students master technology as it applies to school and the future. Technology will be used in every aspect of the future professional lives of current students.

    Third, technology ensures that the classroom can be taken anywhere. This, indeed, is the age of the mobile life. Adopting the use of technology means that the classroom can be taken anywhere. With all the knowledge and resources contained and deliverable on demand in mobile devices, students can learn at home or in the “field”. Mobile technology also allows for greater collaboration between students thus promoting strong foundations in group work.

    The social component of existing communications’ technologies also serves to motivate students and ensure healthy competition among students. Indeed, creating a social element to educational technology can allow for healthy competition amongst peers either in the same classroom or across the country. Performing well and earning badges to gain virtual social status is at the heart of many social applications today and using technology to make education have social elements can make learning very addictive.

    While our society may not be there yet, it is now a known fact that technology can replace infrastructure and thus result in huge savings for the government and for parents. Desks, books, laboratory equipment and other items are a heavy cost burden on schools everywhere. Technology and devices can help save on these costs. In addition, geographically isolated or economically disadvantaged children can benefit from access to online software or resources which would otherwise be cost prohibitive.

    Technology can also help in addressing one of the most urgent problems in our schools today. That is, the problem of reliance on obsolete textbooks that are not regularly updated. Some reports say that students sometimes continue to use textbooks that are up to 10 years old. This is not acceptable and technology can help in ensuring the timely updating of academic information because updating software and educational content is not as expensive or cumbersome as updating textbooks. With the help of technology, course curriculum can reflect real world data and in some applications, students can be exposed to real-time information.

    Technology ensures that students, classrooms, schools and teachers can be connected to anyone in the world instantly. Devices coupled with the Internet can allow for a free way to communicate globally. The opportunity to understand international or different cultural perspectives on the same topic is invaluable and incredible.

    This requires stronger training upfront and continual professional development and support, to enhance performance and learning outcomes. It is for the reasons above, amongst others that the Lagos State government under the leadership of His Excellency, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, has resolved to prepare and equip teachers for the challenges and excitement of adopting modern communications’ tools and methods of delivering instructions in the classroom. As the ones entrusted with our children’s future, this government places huge premium on the training of teachers. Our teachers must be properly trained and subjected to continuous training such that our schools and the products of our educational system will rank amongst the best in the world.

    In this technology-driven world, teachers are pacesetters, role models, disciplinarians, restorers of values and above all as agents of change equipped with communications’ tools and instructional aids for efficient and effective service delivery. It is in view of this that the Lagos State government has continued to invest in the training and retraining of teachers in its public schools to ensure that they are properly equipped to deliver premium, relevant and globally-competitive instructions.

    The overall intent is to raise excellent faculties for various courses taught in our high schools, colleges and learning institutions in Lagos State. These faculties will be defined as: teachers of exceptional ability; teachers capable of adapting the basic tools of effective communications at imparting knowledge; teachers who will be dexterous at optimizing Microsoft PowerPoint as a tool of instructional delivery; teachers of great learning capabilities with enhanced competencies in instructional deliveries and teachers who will make learning fun for adopting “hands-on” methodology in imparting knowledge.

    It is expected that public schools teachers in the state will in return reciprocate this kind gesture by rededicating themselves to the core values of the noble profession, eschew indiscipline, disloyalty and nonchalant attitude, utilize what they have learnt in at various trainings to enable them be at par with their colleagues all around the world.

    It is only when teachers are effectively positioned to produce students that are capable of launching the state and, indeed, the country into league of industrial and technologically powered societies that ‘Itesiwaju Ipinle Ekol’o je wal’ogun’, (the progress of Lagos State is paramount to us) which is the mantra of the Akinwunmi Ambode administration can amply become a breath taking reality.

     

    • Dr. Benson Oke, FCArb, is Honourable Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Lagos State.
  • Challenges of deploying technology

    Challenges of deploying technology

    Electronic or e-businesses have blossomed – no thanks to the rapid explosion in the number of internet users in the country. This development was also spurred by increasing affordability of smartphones and data bundles. In other climes, drones are becoming tools for delivering orders, monitoring facilities, and fighting criminals. LUCAS AJANAKU writes about the limitations of this option in the country.

    W henPresident Muhammadu Buhari assumed duties as the Commander-in-Chief about two years ago, one of the greatest challenges he inherited was crude oil theft.

    It was estimated that the country lost N12.566 billion in one month  to oil theft and vandalism of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC’s) pipelines.

    Giving a breakdown of the losses, the NNPC, in its Monthly Financial and Operations Report for March last year, said crude oil loss amounted to N5.94 billion; petroleum products losses stood at N1.757 billion, while N4.87 billion was spent on pipeline repairs and management cost.

    According to the report, the losses negatively affected NNPC’s transfer to the Federation Account from the domestic sale of crude oil and gas. Specifically, the report noted that transfers to the Federation Account by the NNPC dipped by N9.23 billion to N69.544 billion in March, compared with N76.614 billion recorded in the preceding month.

    Worried by this development, the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, hinted that the state-run oil firm would deploy drones to end crude theft in the country.

    He said the drones will monitor the movement of ships.

    The action of the government may not be misplaced after all. Oil generates around 70 per cent  of government revenues.

    A 2013 report by think-tank Chatham House said that 100,000 barrels per day were being stolen.

    That was equivalent to five per cent of Nigeria’s daily production.

    It said the theft was occurring on an “industrial scale”, with small barges transferring stolen oil to tankers waiting offshore to take it to international markets. Senior politicians and military officers are said to be involved in the illegal trade.

    Last year however, Nigeria’s first true composite online and offline retail chain, Yudala, achieved another first with the drone delivery of the first order placed for its Black Friday sales.

    The order for the item, a Nokia Lumia smart phone was placed by Yetunde Lawal, a worker of Access Bank Plc. who was shopped on the Yudala website for the first time.

    According to the firm, the drone took off from the headquarters of Yudala at Redemption Crescent, Gbagada loaded with the product to the amazement and delight of onlookers who gathered to monitor the progress of the drone all the way to the Access Bank branch along the Gbagada-Oshodi Expressway where it was alighted in front of the bank.

    A worker of Yudala was on hand to process the invoice for the order and hand over the phone to an obviously elated Yetunde who chose the payment on delivery option.

    “I am extremely delighted and indeed short of words to explain how I feel to be the first person to receive an item via drone delivery in Nigeria, all thanks to Yudala. This is an innovative concept in the evolution of e-commerce in the country which I am sure other competitors will want to copy.

    “Yudala has met and exceeded my expectations and I can only encourage all my colleagues, friends and family to shop and shop on Yudala,” she said.

    Onlookers may have gasped with disbelief the first time the drone delivered the order.

    Yes, until recently, this was the stuff of science fiction with initial reaction probably being- “Amazing … but will it ever take off?”

    Drones – or unmanned aerial vehicles, as we once called them – have now become capable of lifting and delivering on the back of continued research and technological ingenuity.

    Amazon has recently been trialling drones in Australia and the United Kingdom (UK), but don’t get too excited: this is likely to be an exception rather than a norm. The practical reality of using drones in cities remains far away and is getting ever more distant.

    According to Mybroadband, an online technology platform, there are already too many potential problems to let drones fly with sufficiently loose restrictions in cities to make a delivery business viable.

    One major issue is drones interfering with aircraft, thanks to surging numbers of near-misses. Drones are also increasingly being used to fly drugs and other contraband into prisons.

    In the United States (U.S.), there have been fears about camera-equipped drones stalking celebrities for paparazzi. There have also been stories about invasive drone surveillance, both on behalf of the state and private individuals.

     

    Drone law

     

    In Nigeria, there is no law to regulate drone use. The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCCA), National Airspace Management Authority (NAMA) and may be the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) may have to come in to draft a regulation to monitor drone use in the country.

    The biggest backlog of legal cases in the U.S. is reportedly drone claims over issues including safety, noise, damage, personal intrusion and privacy.

    The whole area is a growing business for lawyers, with drone law journals springing up and fierce debates over whether, for example, drones fall within the definition of aircraft for legal purposes.

    New U.S., according Principal and Vice Chancellor, Heriot-Watt University, Richard Andrew Williams, in Mybroadband, flight rules introduced last August did lead some optimists to predict a new business opportunity that could create 100,000 new jobs, but the reality is that the whole sector is in a mess.

    The U.S. Federal Aviation Authority has explicitly said drone deliveries are off limits, at least pending further research into their consequences.

    At the same time, technologies are emerging that are designed to down drones. Your initial reaction might be that these will never work either, but I’m not so sure.

    A great recent British engineering invention is the SkyWall100. It looks like a bazooka gun and uses laser-guided targeting to fire a ball.

    This opens into a net that engulfs the drone and brings it to earth under a parachute.

    It went on sale late last year and is retailing at between £50,000 and £65,000 depending on the size of the order. So far, it has attracted a promising level of interest.

    The SkyWall100 is safer and less messy than shooting down drones with bullets, yet it opens up a cavern of legal ambiguities.

    In the UK, for example, it’s classed as a firearm so can only be owned by someone with the appropriate licence – restricting them mainly to the police or military.

    The U.S. has looser firearm restrictions, of course, but firearms still generally can’t be discharged within city limits. However, the SkyWall100 is not classified as a firearm in the US, so it can be discharged anywhere.

    Among other techniques for taking out drones, one is the Battelle DroneDefender, which is a large gun that fires a “cone of energy” at a device that disrupts GPS systems.

    So far, these are only in use by the military and not permitted for public sale.

     

    Going down

     

    If the likes of the SkyWall100 are going to let people prevent drones from moving over their private property to avoid their nuisance, noise and frankly hazard of failure, a new sport of “drone downing” could easily become extremely popular in the coming years – at least in America.

    Drone-downing raises the alluring prospect of capturing free booty if it strays illegally into your property. So what constitutes illegal?

    While I stress I am no lawyer, the U.S. rules for protecting your drone from such potshots would appear to be as follows. It must weigh less than 25kg and can’t be out of your line of sight or higher than 400ft in the air. It can only be flown in daylight, and at dawn and dusk it needs special lights to make it visible.

    It also can’t be flown over groups of people or near stadiums or airports.

    In the UK, the rules are similar, but with slightly tougher weight restrictions and additional requirements – it must be at least 150 metres from a building and 50 metres from a person or vehicle.

    Williams said: “If I was planning to build a shopping or pizza delivery business based on using drones that delivered to homes in cities, restrictions like these would make me more than a little jittery.

    “Put all this together and it’s virtually impossible to see drone deliveries becoming viable in cities.

    “It might be a different story in remote locations where special deliveries may be deemed acceptable and welcomed, but otherwise I’m afraid this is one vision of the future that has no chance of coming to pass. It is an example of a clearly brilliant concept that is colliding badly with human nature and reality.”

  • Transforming agric via local technology

    Transforming agric via local technology

    For many farmers, affordable machines is a major problem. At the moment, some Nigerians are producing these machines in large scale to help small and large scale farmers meet the challenge of food production. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    One of the Muhammadu Buhari administration’s policies is to  boost agricultural productivity. While production rose  sharply in recent months, coverage in terms of acreage and speed of processing, is still significantly lower than global standards.

    Population growth, rising incomes, and dietary changes are exerting an immense demand pressure on agriculture.Though blessed with large arable land and incredible biodiversity, Nigeria’s agriculture is facing challenges in the resources it requires to deliver interms of growth in supply.

    Experts believe farming can made more profitable, if agricultural technology is increased.

    One of them is the Group Managing Director,  Niji Group, Kolawole  Adeniji. The dream of stakeholders, such as Adeniyi, is an agriculture ecosystem, encompassing, agri-chemicals,agri-technology, agricultural equipment, biotechnology and organic foods.

    He  emphasised the need for farmers to move towards mechanisation, adding that future adoption of agricultural technology and innovations is capable of revolutionising the sector.

    However, a series of agricultural innovations, including use of advanced machinery, chemical fertilisers and hybrid seeds is helping to increase Nigeria’s agricultural productivity.

    Adeniji is a farm mechanisation and automation entrepreneur  trying to fundamentally improve agriculture. He is a trained mechanical engineering technologist with over 27 years’experience working on diverse agro-allied projects across Nigeria and Africa. He designs and manufactures innovative agricultural machines for farmers. Within the industry, he is regarded as a maverick who likes to try everything that challenges his skills and wits.

    He is determined to not only mechanise agriculture, but also take his skills and know-how to the global arena. The Niji Group he  founded in 1991 has  grown into a successful and award-winning supplier of metal fabricating machines and services.

    These include packaging machine, hydraulic-presser, hammer mill, grater,automatic gari fryer, hydro-cyclone, automated-seive, bone crusher, cooling-bowl,cooling tablefor plantain,flash dryer,filter-press,fish-smoker,horizontal peeler centrifuge, shellers, water pumps, welding machines, ox-carts, produce driers, grain cleaners, cassava chipping machines and any other post-harvest handling equipment.

    His list of food and agro processing plants that he can fabricate for  food entrepreneurs include cassava starch, gari processing,plantain chips,yam flour and fufu processing.

    Kolawole attributes his success to the delligence and commitment of his staff, adding that they have helped to maximise fabricating technology to meet customers’ demands.

    He ploughed back his initial profit from the business into acquiring  key equipment to support production of newer and more complex fabrications.

    Having made a mark in machine fabrication, Kolawole established Niji Farms and Allied Services Limited,  which is spearheading green revolution with large farm land located at Ilero in Kajola Local Government of Oyo State.

    IITA and the Niji Lukas Group (Nigeria) have been collaborating on cassava processing machine design, fabrication testing and commercialisation. Niji Lukas serves as a planting material grower and supplier to HarvestPlus, a part of the CGIAR Research Programme on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) aimed at developing and promoting biofortified food crops.

    The farm has planted 225 acres of Vitamin A cassava including foundation seeds. Varieties include the TME Series 419, 581 and 30572. Other crops planted are 30,000 stands of yam and 3000 suckers of plantain.

    Emmanuel  Ntiti, based in Calabar, the Cross River State capital,  has been involved in a range of interventions— efficient farm and water management, to address the problem of farm productivity, farm machinery workshop. He is a prominent stakeholder in the agro-allied machinery and equipment fabrication in state. His concern is that lack of technology-based intervention in food and agribusiness has lead to low productivity and severe post-harvest losses.

    As Head of Department, Government Technical School, Calabar, Ntiti  has  fabricated a machine for extraction of kernel oil,  small-scale palm oil mill,processing of  cassava and garri and recovery of oil s from oilseeds  and machinery for bulk production of food items.

    He has developed a lot of equipment and machinery leading to productivity enhancement in the agricultural and the post-harvest processing sectors. He runs a small scale workshop and has developed some user-friendly farm operation tools. His machines can be operated with diesel and petrol. They are designed for simple, quick and safe installation, ensuring great value and quick turnaround.

    For now, the food processing sector, is  a high priority area for him, as  the sector is also gaining importance. Since the market of food processing industries comprises small and marginal players, Ntiti  is working on machines for cassava and grain processors.

    He gets his jobs through recommendations of users. He aims to improve mechanisation at farms with the use of high quality farm equipment.

    For outstanding work, Ntiti has been recognised by  the Cross River State Government.

    While efforts, such as introduction of high-yielding varieties and expansion of irrigated area have played a crucial role in achieving the goal of food self-sufficiency in the past, Ntiti believes demand for food, requires building efficiencies in agriculture through efficient mechanised cultivation to facilitate timely, precise and scientific farm operations, increasing farm input and labour use efficiency.

    A lot of local fabricators  are working  on food processing machinery comes to meet the demands of companies that produce beverages, bakery items, frozen food, fruit, meat, poultry, snack food, vegetables and other edibles across the country.

    Such machines include dryers, feeders, fryers, grinders, mixers, roasters, separators, slicers and ovens.

    Local institutions have recorded technological advancements in cutting, slicing and grinding.

    They are creating  standard design products that meet customers’  needs.

    The Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO) has been key to a robust transformation in the food system, expanded local agro-industry and value addition as well as improved management of resources for sustainable agricultural production.