The Nation Newspaper

Tag: technology

  • Technology, the Military  and Disasters

    The  typhoon that hit  the Philippines so  cruelly this week has shown in stark terms that  the war between man and nature is far from over. It  has also  shown that  even though  technology can identify disasters  like typhoons as well  as their deadly speed-  which was 310 km per hour in the Philipines typhoon – no technology can as yet predict the level and volume of human and physical disasters to follow. That  was what made the Philippino disaster so gruesome  and awesome to beholdand  its fury brought to a global audience suck in by the unique majesty and brilliance of information technology and  the unique  ubiquity  of the internet. Global  empathy was instant and profuse and whilst one wept at  the sight of nature  making nonsense of humanity with impunity,  right before our eyes,  the US military

    shown like a million stars  in the gallant way its cargo planes brought desperately needed relief materials and succor to  the far flung areas of the Phillippines devastated  by this highly destructive   typhoon.  From  the bottom of my heart I say ‘ God bless America’ for that and I  really mean that,  no matter what I may have written about the US  of recent especially with regard  to  its policy on Syria.

    Let  us  put  emotions  aside  now  and look  today at the good, the bad and the ugly side of the Phillipines disaster  and the reaction of its government , and  the international community. We shall also  appreciaite  the satellite TV stations whose reporters brought the carnage wrought by nature to us  all in our living rooms and places of work. The  role  of the military  in Egypt where the imprisoned former President Mohammed Morsi has issued a letter through his lawyer telling Egyptians that Egypt will never regain stability unless the  rule  of  the military that removed him from office is terminated by the Egyptian people. Which is like a call to arms. This call will be examined along side the news that  the Russians are talking with the Egyptian military on many issues including the sale of arms. Which  means that in diplomacy  as in life itself,  nature abhors a vacuum given the fact that the US recently stopped arms sale of F16  fighter jets to Egypt in protest  at the military coup  in Egypt. We  finally examine the implications for Nigeria of the US designationg Boko Haram and Ansaru  militant groups  as foreign terrorist  organisations and thereby blocking all US  financial transactions with them.

    Again,  I doff  my hat to the US  military’s  humanitarian intervention  in the Phillipines  to save lives, although  given the US  military’s pedigree in logistics and movement  of men and material, one should not be that surprised. I  once read  a case study from Havard University detailing how the US navy moved men and materiel  to Saudi  Arabia during the first Gulf War  involving coalition of 15  nations mustered for the war by  the UN  and  US President George  Bush Snr  and it was the greatest movement of personnel  and equipment in history at that time. This time speed and size were also in dire need and the US military responded in kind. A war  ship was moved towards  the Phillipines to enable navy helicopters deliver relief materials faster  and in greater quantities . The US  military has shown its human face in saving lives and human dignity  by  its reaction to the typhoon in the Phillipines and it is   a  face of mercy and kindness  which is scarcely associated with the same military  that the Pakistanis and Afgans will  forever associate with drone strikes and missile attacks. More importantly the US has shown the Philippino  people that it is a friend in need while  China which promised half a million dollars but increased that to $1.6m has shown  that the typhoon disaster  has not built  bridges over territorial disputes it has with  the Phillipines .And that  really shows the Chinese in poor light in terms of humanity and that is really a pity.

    In  addition some Philippines  news media have criticised their President  Aquino and government for not reacting fast enough and I think  that was unfair given the fury and speed of the Typhoon which was said  to be the fastest and largest on land unlike Katrina that landed on water. This  is  because there is no way any human capacity can spontaineously meet  such a massive challenge of nature and the Philippines leadership is no exception . In addition when CNN’s seasoned  reporter Amanpour was interviewing a  Phillipino Minister immediately the disaster struck she was asking questions about corruption in the Phillipines which I thought  was uncalled for at that stage and I am happy that  that  trend of coverage was abruptly ended  by the  well respected network  . It was replaced by the stories of professional CNN reporters  who betrayed no emotions as they narrated and showed  moving episodes  and faces of those grieving for their loved ones . I salute  the devotion to duty of these reporters but I do not think some bit of emotion to show at least that they are not drained of it or,  are, at least not enjoying the tragic  spectacle,  would have been out of place .

    In  Egypt however the face of the military  which has seized power and is preparing its Commander in Chief to contest in the next presidential elections is  anything but inviting or humanitarian given the challenge posed by Egypt’s deposed but democratically elected President  Mohammed  Morsi. There  was no natural disater in Egypt this week but the  politics, events  and  demonstrations  of the last few months have claimed almost as many lives as the typhoon in the Phillipines.  Now  the military  have  lifted  emergency rule but  the elected president is on trial and has called for a jihad  to remove the military  which deposed  him  from  power  and is trying him in court.

    The  problem in Egypt is a ding dong battle between democracy and the miltary and the miltary are winning . The Americans were  supposed to check mate them but they looked elsewhere  instead and even refused to recognise  a coup in plain sight. Instead they  scuttled  an arms deal involving high tech F 16  war  planes . But  the  Egyptian military dont need war planes to disperse demonstrators. They  need batons and tear gas,  tanks  and masks  and they have them in abundance in Cairo. In  addition I am sure  that the Russians  will provide  any way the equivalent of F16 jets to the Egyptian military. The deal  will surely be consummated before the US  comes back from the diversion created by China and Russia over Iran’s nuclear sanctions talks  and change of attitudeby its new leader at the last UN General Assembly. However  by the time the Iran sanctions talks collapse ,as it will soon do,  it  will be clear that the Americans have been sold another dummy  as in Syria . By that time however  the Russians would have put their  feet in the door  firmly  at least to sell high tech jets to the Egypptian  military  and dig in as they have done with Assad  in Syria.

    Lastly the  immediate effect  of the categorisation of Boko Haram and Ansaru  as foreign terror groups to the US  is  to freeze the accounts of these groups and those associated with them. It  also means that it is not only the Nigerian army that is fighting them. More importantly it may mean that the US  may send drones to Nigeria. That then takes the war on terrorism to a new dimension in Nigerian terms. Which  to me shows that the Boko  Haram threat  has been  handled with kid gloves by Nigeria  and the US has taken the fight out of our hands. What  then are we having the  big ,  well trained military at our disposal for ? Even though some time ago the Nigerian president asked the US  not to  do what it has just done, I  have no doubt in my mind that it pays some vested interests  in our security  apparatus to internationalise the Boko Haram menace and they have surely succeeded. How  the army or the military will react to this Americanisation of the Boko Haram threat will define the success or failure of the Nigerian state in the months to come.

  • ‘Technology’ll drive SMEs’growth’

    The Director, Southwest Zonal Office, National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), Mr Akindele Famurewa, has said the application of technology to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will grow them.

    He spoke on the opening of the third trade fair of the Premier Industrial Estate Cooperative Multi-Purpose Society Limited, Yaba, Lagos.

    Famurewa,who was represented by the Principal Scientific Officer and Research Coordinator of the centre, Mr Sunday Amiolemen, said the government’s role and policies were critical to encouraging greater innovation and optimal performance among SMEs.

    He said though various challenges affect SMEs, the key to enhance performance lies in the “government’s ability to formulate workable policies to drive the sub-sector and their capabilities to harness and take advantage of intervention schemes.

    He advocated regular interactions among the key actors of the national innovation system (NIS), noting that “this was critical for developing linkages and enhancing innovation capabilities of SMEs’’.

    On the fair, the President of the Trade Fair group of the estate, Alhaji Olayiwola Jaji, said it was a sign of good things because “previous fairs had opened the door for industrialists to get financial support’’.

    He urged the Federal Government to encourage banks to grant soft loan to industrialists through their cooperative societies.

    The Lagos State Commissioner of Commerce and Industry, Mrs Olusola Oworu,said tenants of the estate would have a cause to smile as the state government was ready to renovate the estate.

     

     

     

    The Commissioner ,who was represented by the Head of Industry, Mr Lekan Ogunbowale, said the progress experienced at the Isolo industrial estate will be replicated at the yaba industrial estate.

     

  • Restrictions on technology import ’ll hurt economy, say experts

    As United States and European Union ban solar power technology import from China, stakeholders said it would not be in the interest of the economy for the government to take protectionist measures that could harm the economy, the President, National Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), Chief Chukwu Nwachukwu has said.

    He said restricting the panel products would not only hurt the interests of the Chinese industry, it would wreck the healthy development of the local solar and clean energy sector.

    Nwachukwu said what the government ought to look at it is whether dumping is taking place and whether it is damaging the local industry.

    He said the government should allow entry of foreign players in the solar panel manufacturing market only if they set up local facilities in joint ventures with domestic manufacturers.

    Nwachukwu, however, warned the government not allow the market to be flooded with low quality finished solar panels.

    He said Nigeria should not become a dumping ground of solar panels, which are not durable due to their poor quality.

    To meet the energy requirements of the economy, the Director-General,KadunaBusiness School, Dr Dahiru Sani, said there was need to encourage developers of solar power plants.

    He suggested that the government look at tax incentives and subsidies that would encourage foreign players to build manufacturing facilities without banning their exports.

     

     

     

     

    Sani urged the government to look into the issue of product quality seriously and help protect local manufacturers and their products to strengthen capacity of the country to tackle power shortages by tapping the environment-friendly renewable energy source.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Technology shapes Kenyan elections

    The growing influence of the Internet and social media in Kenya has played a crucial role in this year’s elections, from allowing ordinary Kenyans to question candidates to spreading messages of peace to avert fresh bloodshed.

    After millions of Kenyans cast their ballots, a platform that had been designed to help them locate polling stations assumed a new function: Circulating messages against the violence that marred election results five years ago, almost splitting the nation along ethnic lines. “Thank you for keeping the peace,” the message read.

    “Last elections we saw a lot of problems come up, so now we are doing our part to keep the peace and share positive messages,” said 22-year-old developer David Lemayian, who built the website, called Got to Vote.

    Mr. Lemayian is at the forefront of an industry that is changing Kenya’s elections, as the tools of technology bring new scrutiny to the candidates and the votes that are cast for them.

    Since the 2007 election, millions of Kenyans haven’t just voted—they have interacted. That has meant using short mobile phone messages, social media and crowdsourced information to question presidential candidates. Some groups monitor the entire electoral process, from registration to voter education and polling.

    Behind this surging interest in the nation’s politics is the booming use of the Internet. According to Kenya’s Communication Commission, last year 14 million people regularly used the Internet—more than a third of the population. That segment had jumped from 10.5 million at the end of 2011. Before the last election, fewer than 3 million Kenyans used the Internet.

    As results started arriving on Monday, Kenyans used Twitter hashtags #kenyadecides and #postelectionpeace to urge against violence, no matter the result.

    With the electoral commission reporting about 42% of votes, Kenyan Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta is leading the presidential contest with 54% of the tally. Prime Minister Raila Odinga is second at 42%.

    The winner must gain more than 50% of the vote, or the commission will declare a runoff to take place 30 days after the final result is announced. Any legal petitions challenging Monday’s vote could delay the process.

    The one clear result so far is the proliferation of groups keeping tabs on Kenyan politicians and the election contests.

    The Code4Kenya team is building open technology platforms, such as Got to Vote, to enable citizens to get answers about elections, such as how to register to vote. The platform serves as an alternative to the government source, which requires viewers to wade through bulky documents.

    One of the pioneers of Kenyan open data projects is Ushahidi. Swahili for “Testimony,” Ushahidi was developed as an open-source platform to pinpoint trouble spots when rioting rocked the country in the aftermath of the 2007 elections. More than 1,000 people died and hundreds of thousands were displaced in the violence.

    “We believe as Kenyans it is our duty to support the system as best as we can, and make that system as strong as it can be, so that people can’t take the undemocratic way,” said Daudi Were, one of Ushahidi’s founders.

    Ushahidi’s platform has since gone global. It has been used in 159 countries and 30 languages, the company says.

    For Monday’s elections in Kenya, Ushahidi deployed a monitoring project called Uchaguzi, meaning “elections” in Swahili. A situation room was setup in the iHub, a Nairobi tech center, and volunteers collected reports on social media and SMS reports, mapped and verified them, and developed a report.

    After gathering countless tweets about long lines and technical difficulties at polling stations, the social media monitoring team stumbled on a more striking story: A woman had given birth in the line outside her polling station.

    Before long, another monitor started gathering tweets about women passing their babies down the line in order to jump the queue. Polling clerks started marking children with ink to keep track of where people stood in line.

    The emergence of Kenya’s Twitter generation comes as the government seeks to build Nairobi into an African technology hub. The Kenya ICT Board, a state corporation, has plans to a build a new tech city, Konza, the “Silicon Savannah” on Nairobi’s outskirts, with global tech giants such as Google Inc., GOOG +2.16%Nokia Corp. NOK1V.HE +2.79% and International Business Machines Corp. IBM +0.88% having been drawn to Kenya recently.

    For Mr. Lemayian, the tech craze isn’t a fleeting trend—it is a sign of a culture that will keep powerful politicians in check. “Electricity was a powerful tool that enabled the small guys to rise up,” he said. “We are using technology in the same way.”

    •Culled from Wall Street Journal

     

  • Verity Geosolutions boosts seismic imaging technology

    A  SERVICE company, Verity Geosolutions Limited, has enhanced the sub-surface technology with a key tool in hydrocarbon exploration.

    The company has completed the installation of 240 central processing units (CPUs) of power edge dual core servers, several high-end workstations, high capacity two phase uninterrupted power supply (UPS) and Cisco-based telecoms systems at its Lagos office.

    The Group Managing Director of the company, Yomi Adejonwo, said the hardware would enable the company to provide its seismic imaging, interpretation, reservoir modelling and characterisation, subsurface data management and geomatic services to its existing and prospects in Nigeria and the West Africa sub-region.

    He said: “With the installation of this equipment, we are moving closer to the realisation of our vision to be the leading provider of geophysical services in Nigeria and West Africa as well as meeting the increasing demand for our technologies.”

    The equipment he said would give adequate provision of timely high quality services in support of customers’ exploration and production activities. He added that it would, among other things, provide avenue for oil and gas reserves increase and reduction in the overall cost of exploration, development and production of oil fields as well as boost local development of advanced geophysical solutions to the oil and gas business in the country.

    Adejonwo said the company was established to provide leading-edge integrated geophysical services and to develop capacity in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. He also noted that the company offers 2D, 3D and 4D seismic acquisition support services as well as integrated geophysical processing and inversion services.

    He said the services provided by the company would allow hydrocarbon exploration and production companies create value and optimise cost by reducing exploration risks, improving oil well placements and improving understanding of producing reservoirs.

    He said the company is positioned to domesticate geophysical activities in the country through training and employment of Nigerians.

    “Having worked in the oil and gas industry for several years, we saw an area where attention had not been paid and where we had acquired skills as Nigerians having worked with the international oil companies.

    “Our emphasis is to move away from being just commercial agents to foreign companies to bringing in our skills and investing in these technologies in Nigeria. To further enhance technological advancement in oil industry, the company said it collaborating with the Department of Geosciences, and Faculty of Sciences of University of Lagos on research to better develop the technology needed for the oil and gas industry,” he said.

    The collaboration, he said, is to enhance the development of best practices, workflows and methods for geophysics in Nigeria. It is also geared towards the development and support for research objectives in Nigeria as well as developing potentials of staff and interns.

    Adejonwo said the collaboration would strengthen the use of research in developing geophysics for the oil and gas industry in the country.

  • Intel Empowers NYSC Corps Members With Technology & Entrepreneurship Training.

    Intel Empowers NYSC Corps Members With Technology & Entrepreneurship Training.

  • Fighting crime with technology

    Fighting crime with technology

    Fighting Crime with Technology

    Crime has become very sophisticated in Nigeria and fighting it with traditional means seemed not to be yielding desired results.  Hardly a day passes without a criminal activity being reported in our daily newspapers.  Either a friend, a family or even you may have had bad experiences at some point with these men of the underworld.  How long shall we continue to live in fear of our lives being cut short by these criminals?  Your guess is as good as mine.  No place is safe anymore in Nigeria; not even our own little prison yards with high fences surrounding our homes and offices.

    Fighting crime by merely just arresting anyone found at the crime scene is not enough, since in most cases, those who committed the crime may have left the scene long before the Police arrive – if they do at all.  This is not to say the police are not pulling their weights in some circumstances – considering their conditions of service and the poor equipment with which they work.  The celebrated case of Cynthia Osokogu reminds us of a breakthrough exhibited by the Nigeria Police Force.  We must say a big thank you for a job well done.  But there are scores of unsolved mysteries yet to be uncovered by the Police.

    Effective policing should be everyone’s responsibility – the communities, the public, schools, etc.  Today, technology has made it possible to fight crime with higher precision, greater results, more cost effective strategies and most importantly, in a timely manner.  Who would not be happy to hear that a car snatched in Lagos, and within ten minutes or less of being reported, every police in Lagos, Ogun and surrounding states get a message on their mobile phones informing them with details of the car, driver and other pertinent information which will result in that criminal being apprehended by the crime fighters? If you think this is just not possible, read on.

    No part of the world has been able to tackle crime without updated, accurate and timely data.

    With a population of over 150 million people, you cannot manage and control crime without a working national, criminal and biometric databases. The biometric must contain fingerprints and DNA databases.

    Deoxyribonucleic acid isolated from blood, hair, skin cells, or other genetic evidence left at the scene of crime has helped in apprehending criminals when matched with databases. The days are gone when individuals are identified by just names and photo ID without biometrics.

    One of the things we will remember about the Obasanjo administration is the introduction of the National Identification Project.  Although the implementation was flawed, at least the awareness was there.  The federal government talks about e-Government, e-Business and cash-less society without functional national, criminal and bio metric databases.  e-Government without such databases is simply not possible.  The National ID Card project should be re-visited by the Jonathan government. The advantages are numerous.

    Employers can do background check on prospective job seekers before they are hired.  Banks can open account for individuals without asking for guarantors since they can query the databases from their computers and get results in minutes.  In Canada, for example, you can open bank account in less than ten minutes without any guarantors.  Banks will be able to track debtors and approve loans easily in a country without credit bureau.  Stolen properties can be tracked easily once they are reported.  As soon as it is reported, databases are updated and messages sent out to the appropriate individuals for actions.  Missing persons can also be tracked.  Fugitives and criminals who need any of these services can easily be caught since the police can be contacted while they are opening a bank account or registering for phone services.  It will also help the prison and court systems to keep track of repeat offenders who once they are released will commit offence again.  We do not even keep track of sex offenders in our midst.  Such databases will be updated to reflect such offenders.  The databases can be linked to government terrorists watch list.  Our government will be able to have access to international agencies such as Interpol and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data in minutes.

    Individuals carrying firearms must register them with the Police which would be stored in the Firearm databases and criminalize illegal firearms not registered.  You can track a crime by the bullet and firearm used since there is record on the database.  Your car license number can say so much about you since it could be linked to the National and biometric databases.  Road safety corps can query their databases and get so much information at accident scene and can even access your medical history in case of emergencies and take appropriate actions to save lives.

    Immigration can now tie your passport number to your national ID Number and search relevant databases before a passport is issued.  Twenty years or so from now, no foreigner would be able to obtain our passports illegally. Right now anyone can claim to be born in Nigeria since we do not have records to verify such claims.  The databases will give us better insights to the overall population, demography and unemployment needed for national planning rather than just rely on forecasts.  It is no more fashionable to carry files from office to office rather you can now “carry files” electronically without leaving your desk.

    For all these to happen, we must incorporate Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in designing these computer systems to be able to “talk” with one another.  SOA enables business agility and decoupling of systems.  The implication is that the systems (applications, databases -National, Biometric – Fingerprints and DNA, Firearms) will be able to “talk”  with private companies (banks, telecommunications), government agencies (NYSC, WAEC, JAMB, INEC, Pension, Universities -private and public), Immigration, Customs, Population Bureau,  Statistics, Car Registration, Road Safety, Hospitals (private and government), States and local governments, Military, etc, and international agencies (FBI and Interpol).   The data-sharing agreement must be worked out among various organizations.

    The good news is SOA enables you to keep your existing technologies with little tweaking without breaking the banks.  Companies will continue to use their existing technologies while exposing some of their services to other companies as done in the advanced world.  Private agencies such as banks, telecommunications and governments in USA,UK and Canada share information via SOA.  That is why your bank account sees New York and Chicago stock exchanges.  That is why when you book your flight online, you can as well book hotel, rent a car and make payments online.  So many individual companies are involved in this single activity.  Even our telecommunication industry can benefit a lot since they do not need to build masts side by side.  This will reduce cost of doing business as well as drive down the cost of making calls by consumers.

    There have been cases in North America where criminals were caught based on DNA swab from discarded orange juice bottle dumped in the trash bin, shoes and car tyre marks found in crime scene.  In all cases, they were linked to a functional criminal database.  When you enter USA,UK or Canada, the immigration officer queries so many databases about your visa and who you say you are.  In coming years, your biometrics will be collected when you apply for visas and matched with another biometrics collected when you about to enter these countries.  USA has already implemented this.

    Two major concerns in adopting SOA are privacy issues and abuse of the system.  This is where all parties involved will have to work out what could be shared and what is private.  No system is completely foolproof.  The legal teams will also have to create a legal framework to ensure that those who abuse the systems are punished.  Data is money and anyone found using it inappropriately should   be punished.  Most systems today keep logs of person who accessed the information with necessary time stamps.  For the public to be able to report any criminal activities, 911 emergency number has to be put in place as it is done in all developed countries.  You may not appear in some of these databases except when arrested for any crime.  Data will be deleted maybe after five or ten years if you are not found guilty.

    The privatization going on in the power sector is a very good initiative in addressing the epileptic power supply needed to power these systems if well implemented.  Government must pass a law making it compulsory to register every birth with a view of issuing national ID number and recorded in the national database.  The forms should be made available at the local government offices and village heads.  Over time we will have a working national database while still perfecting those yet to be issued an ID number.  Deaths should also be registered and struck out of database over time.

    The Inspector General, M.D. Abubakar, is doing a wonderful job in cleaning up the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and restoring public confidence but a lot more still needs be done.   No doubt, NPF is poorly trained, poorly remunerated and ill-equipped.  Police work in North America is very a dignified profession.  Miscreants are not recruited into their Police force.  They are accorded more respect than the law makers because they can easily send you to jail for breaking the laws.    Our Police need to be trained more on how to scientifically handle crime scene using forensic science.  With automated systems, they can be notified of any criminal activities in areas of their jurisdiction by sending SMS messages to their phones within minutes any serious case is reported.  Police on patrol should be able to access their databases on mobile computers within few minutes and get more details about the individual being questioned.

     Using technology to fight crime will not be effective without looking at the remote causes of crime.  With high unemployment in the land, government needs to begin to think of paying unemployment benefits to those who lost their jobs and out of school and cannot find a job. Our political class needs to begin to think about the people she claims to represent if we all must sleep with our two eyes closed. The kidnapping menace is already out of control and there seems no solution in sight.

    We need total re-orientation of our value system. Very few now asks for the sources of sudden wealth these days.  All we hear is he or she has “made it” and most times without any justifiable means of livelihood.  We cannot continue as a nation to praise those who loot our economy and pretend it is their share of the so-called national cake.  In some countries such as China looting of public treasury attracts death penalty.  There was a time you could travel to any village in Nigeria and the villagers will welcome you.  Not anymore.  You are not safe in your village.  The cost of living is very high in Nigeria.  The government should introduce some cushioning measures to stimulate the economy. The government should encourage manufacturing to create jobs, not just services, give tax credit to foreign investors since our political system is maturing now and no foreign investor wants put his or her money in a country in turmoil.

    No doubt there is high cost of governance in Nigeria.  There are too many committees, and sometimes, their functions overlap.  Our law makers are richer than their counterparts in America,Canada or UK yet Nigeria’s annual budget is not up to that of the State of New York.  No one should be above the law.  The example of the former Governor of Delta State jailed in London, James Ibori, is an eye opener to Nigerians. There are still so many Iboris in government and they should be brought to justice.

     If the systems suggested in the write-up are properly built and implemented, technology will go a long way in dealing with cold murders and unresolved mysteries as well as drive down crime in our society.  Without timely and accurate data, fighting crime will remain a herculean task.

     

    Victor Odili-Idiagbor is a Middleware IT consultant based inOttawa, Canada, wrote in via victor_odili@yahoo.com

  • Omobola Johnson, Minister of Communication Technology

    Since the creation of the Omobola Johnson-led Ministry of Communication Technology in 2011, there has been some progress in bridging the digital divide between Nigeria and the rest of the world. Still there are complaints aplenty.

    The poor quality of telecom services has been a consistent pain for both the subscribers and regulators says Ogochukuwu Ifegbuna, a systems database analyst, who believes this could have been curtailed if the ministry had lived up to its responsibilities.

    “I do not see any improvement in the ICT sector because many of the issues we faced in 2011 are still here. For example, I still do not understand why the quality of network should be as low as it is. “

    “Nigeria currently has one of the largest bandwidths in the world due to the fibre-optic channels we have running here, and yet to access good 3D network is a problem. This is something the ministry should have addressed and they still have not. I am scoring them a ‘D’ just for leniency sake,” he stated.

    Taking a similar position, Adebayo Ogunseye, Chief Executive Officer of DodgeComm Ltd, an information technology service provider says: “The issues we have had to deal with last year are basically the same ones we have been battling with for about a decade.

    “Since the initial push in the early 2000s when the big telecom and IT giants rushed in to take advantage of the large market our population offers, we are yet to see any other major milestone. Instead, what we have are situations where foreign investors are frustrated out of the country due to the ridiculous amount of corruption shoved down their throat by government officials.”

    When asked to rate the ministry’s performance, he said, “If I am to assess them, I will give them an E.”

    Although there is some displeasure at the slow pace of achievement in the ICT sector, with the surge in the use of social media and technological gadgets, the sector took some major strides in 2012.

    Juliet Ibeh, a CISCO certified database analyst says liberalisation of the telecoms sector, as well as improvement in rural telephony, are commendable efforts backed by the ministry.

    “I am pretty sure almost all the villages and remote towns in the country have some access to GSM service. They might not be able to get full internet service but at least they can make phone-calls. That is something we could not do about 10 years ago.

    “Plus we should not forget the national registration exercise that they tried to do with the telecoms companies. If the ministry had not put its foot down and insisted that it should be done, many of them would have run away from it because of the additional cost.

    “And all the IT companies have had to sit up because it has become an open field where once you have the expertise, you have a fair chance to deliver on a job. So this makes competition stiff and ensures that customers get value for their money. This is why I am giving them a ‘C’ because I know they can do better,” she said.

    Highlighting some of the recurring challenges operators face, Ms. Funke Opeke, Chief Executive Officer of Main One Cable, Africa’s largest fibre-optic laying company, at a recent meeting fingered poor infrastructure as a leading cause.

    She said, “It is not that we do not have the capacity to generate enough but there are infrastructural challenges which need to be addressed for optimal usage of the already available resources.”

    In the ministry’s defence, Johnson says the sector is improving but still has a long way to go.

    “The software industry is fledgling and fragmented. There are a number of young people who have developed software for the local and international market but it is not well co-ordinated. So first of all we are trying to bring standards in terms of software development.”

    To flag this off, the minister at the start of 2012 announced the launch of IT incubation centres for small and medium scale entrepreneurs. The centres, she claimed, would begin to teach these entrepreneurs ways to commercialize their products by the end of the year 2012. A software training programme for five hundred youths was organised and not much else has been heard about that.

    RATING: C

     

  • NTA D-G urges youths to embrace technology

    NTA D-G urges youths to embrace technology

    The acting Director General of the Nigerian Television Authority, Alhaji Musa Mayaki has urged youths to take technology seriously, explaining that a nation without it is dead.

    The DG stated this at the Children’s Exhibition of Science and Technology (Expo 2012)  in Abuja.

    He said: “We want to bring technology to the forefront because Nigeria without technology is as if we are dead. There is nothing anybody can do over that; we are dead.

    ”So, we have to support these children who are coming up with these great ideas for the country.”

    This year’s exhibition was tagged ‘Power and Energy Generation for Sustainable Development of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises.’

    The DG who explained that the theme is worth exploring, as it begs for solution said, “our children are here drawn from all over the country to proffer what they know that could best lead us out of the doldrums of unsustainable power and energy generation not only in the sphere of small and medium scale enterprises but the Nigerian Economy as a whole.

    While commending the effort of the children, Alhaji Mayaki said: “They have made us proud with the exposition here and we must encourage them in the trajectory of educational development they have chosen.”

    He further said: “ It would have been much more pleasurable to me and our great nation if mentors could emerge within the polity to divest the pathway of their development effort and make it devoid of limitations that could make the Nigerian nation follow an untoward direction in degrading the incidence of unsustainable power and energy generation.

    “I have said it before that maybe we are going to invite the President himself and it will then be a national event because once the president comes once, we will have it globalised and nationalised.”

    The General Manager NTA-ETV, Lloyd Okoko decried the negative effect unsustainable power has had on sectors of the economy.

    He said: “There is need for the developing nations like ours to approximate the concept of appropriate technology, in the bid to degrade the unsustainable status of power and energy generation efforts which as corollary negatively affects sustainable development in all the discernable sectors of our economy”.

  • RMRDC calls for use of local technology

    Director-General, Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Prof. Peter Onwualu, has called for the use of local technology in the fabrication of machineries for processing raw materials.

    Onwualu made the call in Abuja at the Third National Competition on Design of Processing Equipment and Plant organised by the organisation.

    He said the absence of appropriate local technology and the challenges associated with imported machinery constituted great hindrance to raw materials processing.

    Onwualu said the country was endowed with abundant natural resources, which needed to be harnessed to transform its economy. According to him, most of the available processing equipment in the country is outdated.

    He pointed out that the locally fabricated ones are produced without specification. Such machineries, he noted, were often “not only partially functional but also noisy and ineffective.”

    This, he said, forces the management of most processing industries to import their machines, thus leading to capital flight, export of labour, and continuous over dependence on imported technology.

    He said the council had developed technologies for the processing of various raw materials to enable the country achieve value addition in processing its resources.
    On the competition, Onwualu said the winners of the first prize would receive a research grant to produce designs for use by industries.

    Minister of Science and Technology Prof Ita Ewa praised the RMRDC for the programme, which he said was  meant to enhance the capacity of design engineers. Ewa said the programme would assist the Ward Based Cluster Project launched recently by the ministry.
    He called on the private sector to key into the RMRDC’s programme to sustain the growth of the manufacturing sector.“It is my hope that this is the panacea for growing our economy toward the realisation of the objectives of Vision 20:2020 of the present administration,’’ Ewa added.

    The team of engineers from the Faculty of Engineering, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, emerged winners of the competition. The team, which designed a solar powered groundnut dryer with geothermal heath storage, received N2 million.

    Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi’s bin dryer and a solar dryer with dehumidifier won the first consolatory prize of N250, 000 and the third consolatory prize of another N250,000.

      The team from the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Uyo, won the second consolatory prize for designing one-ton-per-hour Rotary Dryer and also received N250,000.

    Speaking on behalf of the winners, Prof. Funsho Akeredolu of OAU, praised the RMRDC for encouraging Nigerian engineers, and said such support would lead Nigeria to the true path of transformation.