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Jonah Iboma The Federal Government has been asked to withdraw and reassign idle commercially viable frequencies currently held by some organisations. The Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, said in an interview with our correspondent that the move had become necessary given the high incidence of firms holding such frequencies and doing nothing with them. Adebayo, who spoke in Lagos on Friday, noted that besides dormant private firms, government needed to review the unused frequencies allocated to some of its establishments. The call was informed by the fact that many fixed wireless firms licensed since 2003, have not utilised the resources allocated to them. In 2005, the then Minister of Communications, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, had threatened to push for the withdrawal of licences. Gbenga Adebayo, who is the General Manager of VGC Communications Limited, said it was not in the interest of the industry for the government to cont...

Jonah Iboma Experts have predicted a bright year for Nigeria in the information technology sector in 2007, based on gains made in 2006. A cross section of stakeholders who spoke with our correspondent, said that accessibility to information technology tools would increase while mergers and acquisitions would thrive. According to the Principal Consultant of TC-QA Associates, Mr. Akinwale Akingbade, Nigeria could witness an “IT revolution” this year, if the gains made in the sector were sustained. Akingbade, who is an expert in software testing, noted that with greater understanding of IT, many firms and individuals would realise its importance and would increasingly adopt this in their businesses. He predicted the growth of the outsourcing services, saying that the dearth of expertise in certain aspects of the sector would make people to seek ways out of their problems. Also, speaking on the issue, the Managing Director of Kemson Concepts, Mr. Ben Aduli, predicted the growth of...

Jonah Iboma National fixed wireless Operator, MTSFirst, has moved its network operations to a 3G Soft Switch platform, the first firm to do so in Nigeria The firm explained at a media briefing in Lagos on Friday that the migration to the new platform built by Huawei Technologies is to help improve its ability to deliver service to its customers and help in its overall expansion plans. According to MTS Chief Technology Officer, Mr. Abiodun Adeoye, the soft switch technology as an evolutionary transformation, has put MTS far ahead of competitors in the Private Telecommunications space. Adeoye said based on the new platform, MTS could now boast of having the needed flexibility to deliver more applications such as fax, broadband data, VoIP, Video streaming and many many more. ‘What we have brought on the MTS network is a cutting-edge technology which is set to revolutionize existing traditional technology in the country giving it greater capacity for more voice and data’, he said. He sai...

Jonah Iboma Nigeria and Ghana are set to begin a pact in information technology following a visit by the country’s Deputy Minister of Communications, Honourable Benjamin Aggrey Ntim, to the Lagos factory of Omatek Computers. It was revealed at the visit that one of the areas of cooperation being explored by both countries is an exchange scheme that would see the training of higher institutions students from Ghana at Omatek factory in Nigeria. Already, Omatek computers had signed agreement with a number of Ghanaian Universities on the training scheme. Ntim, who was accompanied by several IT journalists from Ghana, noted that given the level of manufacturing activities going on in Nigeria in the hardware sector, as exemplified by the Omatek Computer factory, the long-desired use of local raw materials in IT products used in Africa had begun. During the visit, on Friday, Chairman of Omatek Computers, Mr. Fola Adeola, conducted Ntim round the factory, showing him the lines where speakers, ...

Leif Edwall is the Managing Director of LM Ericsson Nigeria Limited and Country Manager of Ericsson West Africa. In this interview with our Correspondents Jonah Iboma and Atser Godwin, he speaks about leading the biggest telecoms equipmwent manufacturer in West Africa What is your assessment of Nigeria’s telecom market? Telecom market in Nigeria is very hot. There has been tremendous growth since 2001. Prior to 2001, there were very few installed fixed lines, which gave GSM operators impetus to roll out aggressively. From about 400 000 total lines then, Nigeria is now well over 25 million. The expansion of the networks has been quite impressive. I foresee that there will be about 50 million telephone subscribers in Nigeria in the next two to three years. A lot of people have mobile phones in the urban areas. How do you think this service can be fast deployed to the rural areas? The technology is there for telecom to be deployed in the rural areas. But there must be a lot of good supp...

Leif Edwall is the Managing Director of LM Ericsson Nigeria Limited and Country Manager of Ericsson West Africa. In this interview with our Correspondents Jonah Iboma and Atser Godwin, he speaks about leading the biggest telecoms equipmwent manufacturer in West Africa What is your assessment of Nigeria’s telecom market? Telecom market in Nigeria is very hot. There has been tremendous growth since 2001. Prior to 2001, there were very few installed fixed lines, which gave GSM operators impetus to roll out aggressively. From about 400 000 total lines then, Nigeria is now well over 25 million. The expansion of the networks has been quite impressive. I foresee that there will be about 50 million telephone subscribers in Nigeria in the next two to three years. A lot of people have mobile phones in the urban areas. How do you think this service can be fast deployed to the rural areas? The technology is there for telecom to be deployed in the rural areas. But there must be a lot of good supp...

Jonah Iboma The Board of the Nigerian Communications Commission has announced plans to auction radio spectrum in the 1800 MHz, 3G and 450 MHz bands, in a move it says would precede its plans to award of new licences. The new licences will attract more investment into the communications market and encourage the deployment of advanced technology to continue the development of telecommunications in Nigeria. The commission in a statement signed by Head, Public Affairs, Mr. Dave Imoko, said the allocation of more spectrum will provide an opportunity to attract new operators intending to invest and launch telecommunications services in Nigeria. The telecom sector had for some time now awaited a release of information by the commission on how it intends to allocate frequencies for some services such as 3G and high-speed Broadband services that have been demanded “Importantly, the release of more spectrum supports the Government’s policy of improving access to communication services and extend...

Jonah Iboma Mutichannel payment solutions provider, eTranzact, has linked Covenant University to the global financial system by installing all the payment options available on its platform at the University. This platform enables eTranzact cardholders to cash money at the newly installed Automated Teller Machine, even if they were from other countries and their account denominated in currencies other than the Naira. The ATM is powered by eTranzact Global payment platform, enabling cardholders to access the ATM and other services available at the University. The firm informed our correspondent that a formal ceremony had already been held to declare the ATM open last week. CEO of eTranzact, Mr. Valentine Obi, said the use of cards for payment for goods and services reduces the need for holding cash, enabling parents and other cardholders to keep track of their expenses, and reduce incidences of theft. “What we are witnessing here is the inauguration of a device that will enable cardholde...

Jonah Iboma A new staff identity card, which would serve as a means of access control, a cash and ATM card among others functionalities, is to be issued to workers in the Federal Capital Territory soon. At a demonstration of the product in Abuja on Friday, Minister for the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, said the card christened General Multi-Purpose card is a pilot to the eventual introduction of a new national ID, which would have an extension of its features. El-Rufai said government moved for the new card due to the need to have a reliable way of identifying citizens uniquely adding that besides access control, the new card would also contain employment records of the carrier which would be used for payroll and other purposes.. He said, when eventually delivered, the new national ID card would serve as a driver’s license, and contain biometrics characteristic of the carrier which would be useful in the time of emergency as well as act as a debit card that can be us...

Jonah Iboma The Chief Executive Officer of Celtel Nigeria Limited, Mr. Adebayo Ligali, has explained that the essence of the ongoing consumer promo, Win Your Dream, is to change the lives of its loyal subscribers by helping them realize the dream of a future designed by their desires. pan African mobile operator, Ligali who said this at the prize presentation ceremony for the first set of winners in the consumer promotion in Lagos on Tuesday, said two winners of N15 million each had emerged in the exercise He said, “today the lives of some of our customers here have already changed for the better forever and as they say, they have moved to another level with their winnings. Already, we have two Big Dream (N15million) winners-one from Kaduna and another from Lagos. Today is yet another day of promises fulfilled, of aiming high and of dreaming of a better life when you are connected to the network that not only cares about you but is with you for life”. The CEO announced that altogether;...

Jonah Iboma American Information technology Firm, Sun Microsystems has intensified its move towards increasing acceptamce of its products in Nigeria and the entire West afriocan region with the announcemnet of plans to bring its The Sun Technology Update According to Group Marketing Manager of Channel IT, Mrs. Ladi Ekundayo, whose firm is Sun’s representative in Nigeria leading IT professionals across all sectors of the Nigerian economy will converge in Lagos, Nigeria for The Sun Technology Update on Tuesday, November 21st 2006. Nigeria’s equivalent of the internationally acclaimed Sun Tech Days, The Sun Technology update Event has the objective of expanding technical vision and working with IT in business organizations to convert innovation into real, sustainable customer value. This quarter’s session will address key aspects of IT infrastructure management and effective IT strategies to increase efficiency, availability and returns on business IT investments. Top Speakers from Sun Mi...

Jonah Iboma BRIAN Integrated Systems Limited, one of Nigeria's certified indigenous system builders has unveiled a new laptop called "Brian Platinum" in what it said is part of steps towards the provision of products under the Computer For All Nigerians Initiative. The new introduction, according to the firm, runs on the latest Intel Pentium D Dual Core processor technology and contains an inbuilt 1.3 pixel Camera, Bluetooth and Infra Red functions Speaking during at the unveiling of the product on Saturday in Lagos, Managing Director of the firm, Mr. Tunji Balogun said the Brian Platinum laptop, apart from running on the Dual Core processor, has a minimum 60 gigabyte Hard Disk space, minimum of 512 RAM, Integrated 1, DVD I CD WR among other feature. Balogun said, "Today marks a significant milestone in the history of both our company and the computer industry in Nigeria. We are pleased to present our new Brian Platinum laptop (with integrated camera) and Brian Onyx...

Jonah Iboma Celtel Nigeria Limited has introduced N50 recharge card option to the Nigerian market, the lowest recharge option today. The Marketing Director, Celtel, Mr. Norman Moyo, said the firm was also additionally introducing a N100 recharge denomination into the market. In a press conference in Lagos on Wednesday, Moyo said the new N100 recharge denomination would be available in both physical and electronic forms (as recharge cards and e-vouchers) while the N50 denomination would be available in electronic form only for now. Celtel also has lowered the entry level of GSM services by reducing the price of its SIM card from N300 to N200. The new price further lowers the threshold for the acquisition of mobile lines by intending GSM subscribers. In addition to this, all new activations still receive the bonus airtime of N100 on first recharge. Moyo said the move is aimed at giving more Nigerians the opportunity to get on the network and enjoy Celtel unique service offering includ...

Jonah Iboma Nigeria may soon see the establishment of computers assembly firms by leading international IT brands in the country if plans by the Federal Government are anything to go by. Director General of the Agency, Prof. Cleopas Angaye, said that government was considering asking HP and IBM, to set up local assembly plants as pre-condition for them to get orders under the its Computer for All Nigerians Initiative. CANI is a government-sponsored scheme to promote computer penetration by a special arrangement that would allow people to own computers and pay over a period between three and 24 months. Speaking on Saturday in Lagos during the inspection of local assembly plants involved in the scheme namely, Brian Integrated systems Limited, Omatek Computer, Speedstar Computers and Zinox Technologies, Angaye said government was interested in taking the step in order to promote the growth of the local technology industry. Citing similar examples in India and China, the DG noted that thes...

Jonah Iboma Electronic banking is set to continue its upward swing in Nigeria, as ATM Africa, the continent’s leading supplier of automatic teller machines, is to drive its West Africa business from Nigeria. The firm has therefore set up a regional office in Nigeria and also appointed two Nigerian firms: Channel IT and CFAO Technologies its distribution and technical partners respectively for the whole of the West African. Chief Executive Officer of ATM Africa, Mr. Douglas Gillan, said in an interview with our correspondent on Monday that his firm, the sole distributor of GRG banking products (ATMs) in Africa chose Nigeria due to the steady growth of card payment systems in the recent time and the potential available locally. According to him, the future of e-banking in Nigeria is very bright and such requires good focus. “I think that the Nigerian market presents a wonderful opportunity for the growth of ATMs. In my opinion, Nigeria will take the lion’s share in the number of ATMs to...

Jonah Iboma Following the moves by authorities of the Federal Capital Territory to pull down the base Transceiver stations of mobile phone operators in the city over alleged non-compliance with its tax regulations, telecommunications operators have appealed to the Federal government to halt the move. Reacting to the destruction of fences and walls of cell sites otherwise called base stations in three locations in the city on Friday, the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria, said the move by the FCT administration was at variance with an earlier directive of the Federal Government which they claimed put matters concerning telecommunications in the “exclusive preserve of the Ministry of Communications and the Nigerian Communications Commission.” Chairman of the body Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, informed our correspondent the move by the FCT was to designed to make operators pay heavy taxes it unilaterally imposed on them and also to make them collocate against their will and with...

Jonah Iboma The inclusion of an efficient systems audit function has been described as an essential ingredient for a successful implementation of the nation’s electronic government (e-government) project. Chris Ekeigwe, managing consultant at EDP Audit and Security Associates, who revealed this in Lagos recently said that the while e-government is a good way to improving services delivery to the citizens, without proper audit control there would not be stability in the system. According to him, audit control is a very key pillar of governance. There is no governance in the history of humanity that has actually stayed without a framework of accountability and audit is an important element in the enforcement of accountability whether you are doing manual accounting, manual information or computer information system. He added that audit is a very important leg, if you take out that leg, the table will not have balance. Ekeigwe lamented that all the talks going on about the e-government in...

Jonah Iboma EDP Tecknowledge Education Center, the nation’s premier systems audit training center, has concluded plans to host the first national seminar and conference on electronic government (e-government) audit. The seminar scheduled for the first quarter of 2007, at the EDP Tecknowledge Education Center in Ojodu Berger in Lagos has the theme “Building information technology (IT) audit competence for government auditors”. Chris Ekeigwe, managing consultant at the center said that as governments adopt, deploy and exploit information and communications technologies (ICTs) to execute their programs, auditors would see changes and challenges in their work environment, top of which would be bridging the competence gap. He said8 building new capabilities for the audit challenge of e-government is a shared responsibility of the government (employer) and the individual audit professionals. The e-government seminar is an opportunity for audit officers and decision makers in government to sh...

Jonah Iboma A national Internet Exchange Point that will facilitate the keeping of local internet traffic within the country’s telecom network is set to become operational following the completion of work on the facility to provide the service. Our correspondent gathered at the 5th International Nigeria Telecommunications Forum in Abuja Wednesday that about N30m had been spent on the project and a formal commissioning by the President Olusegun Obasanjo is being planned for early October. President of the Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Samuel Adeleke, who revealed this in an interview with our correspondent, said that the project by keeping local internet within the shores of the country, would lead to a reduction of investment operators commit to international bandwidth, especially Internet service providers and telecommunications operators. An exchnage otherwise called as IXP, is a physical infrastructure that allows different ISPs to exchange Internet traffic...

Jonah Iboma Systemspecs Limited, one of Nigeria’s leading software firms says it has entered into partnership with TheSOFTtribe, a software firm in Ghana in a move it described as intended to promote Systemspecs HumanManager application in the Ghanaian firm. “TheSOFTtribe of Ghana and SystemSpecs of Nigeria, consummated an agreement to consolidate efforts and strategic focus in the provision of HumanManager (Payroll & HRM software solution) to the Ghanaian market,” said Systemspecs Spokesman, Moses Braimah. According to Braimah, with this agreement, TheSOFTtribe, popularly known as SOFT in Ghana, becomes an authorized Ghanaian partner of SystemSpecs for marketing, deployment and professional support of HumanManager. HumanManager is generally considered as Africa’s leading Payroll and Human Resource Management software solution. It currently enjoys wide market acceptability with about 200 organizations across Africa using it. On its part, SOFT has had more than a decade of experienc...

Jonah Iboma Intelsat has signed a long-term, multimillion-dollar contract with Intelsat to expand its use of satellite capacity in support of its existing civil aviation network in Africa with the Agency for the Safety of Aerial Navigation in Africa and Madagascar. ASECNA, the regional public establishment responsible for providing air navigation services in 17 African countries, would use additional capacity on Intelsat’s powerful 10-02 satellite to support communication systems. These enable airline navigation control, provide technical and traffic information, weather forecasting and guidance to airlines and airplanes in its member countries. The additional capacity will be used for voice and data traffic and provides full coverage of the African continent and Europe, making it easier for ASECNA to expand its network within the Africa Indian Ocean Satellite Network and interconnect with other regional air safety navigation organisations. “ASECNA’s communications network is responsi...

Jonah Iboma Local manufacturers have complained over the implementation of government’s policy to equip Nigerian schools with information technology tools. To this end, local manufacturers are about to tackle the Ministry of Science and Technology over a recent pact signed with Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft under the New Partnership to Africa’s Development, for equip secondary and primary schools in Africa with computers. The local manufacturers are particularly angry that the NEPAD agreement seemed to be defeating that purpose of greater IT penetration “We are going to take up the matter with National Information Technology Development Agency,” quipped a Chief Executive of one of the local PC firms. NITDA, is the unit of the ministry tasked with developing the local IT industry. The Federal Government had on Thursday, March 30, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NEPAD’s e-Africa Commission and private sector players led by Hewlett Packard. The NEPAD e-Schools Initiative is an...

Jonah Iboma Nomination period has opened to fill seats 3 and 4 in the board of the African Network Information Centre, the African body in charge of Internet domain names assignment in the continent. According to a board member for the Western Africa zone, Mr. Sunday Afolayan, the need to begin the search for the nominees had become necessary as the tenure of the two members representing the regions is running to an end. The seats are currently occupied by Charles Musisi (Eastern Africa) and Alan Levin (Southern Africa). Both began their memberships since May 2004 and are expected to vacate their seats by April 2006 Afolayan, in an email message made available to our correspondent on Saturday, said, “This year, two seats will be vacant on the AfriNIC board. They are: a) Seat 3: for the Southern African sub-region (Primary and alternate) Mandate: 2006 to 2009 b) Seat 4: The Eastern Africa sub-region (Primary and Alternate) Mandate: 2006 to 2009 In April 2005, ICANN, the global body i...

Jonah Iboma Neptune Software PLC is to open a new offshore development centre in Lagos, Nigeria in what it said is a “reconfirming its commitment to the African Market.” The company said offshore development centre would be first of its kind in Nigeria complying with an ISO 9001-2000 quality standard for software development. A document on the plan obtained by our correspondent on Saturday, stated that the offshore development centre in Lagos will be opened by the end of March 2006 and will house 100 software engineers. The firm said Nigeria became a logical choice for several reasons: first, Neptune has a strong presence in Nigeria through its Platinum partner, CSA. Second, software developers in Nigeria are highly skilled and qualified as has been experienced during the evolution of Equinox to suit African requirements. Neptune Software PLC is an enterprise solutions provider offering two product suites: Equinox – suit of products for banking and financial industry and Nexus ERP sol...

by Jonah Iboma Nigeria’s quest towards cashless society has received a boost by the inauguration in Lagos, last week, of branded Automated Teller Machines by Zenith Bank Plc. The 30 branded machines have helped swelled the number of ATMS in the country beyond the 700 that are existence in the country. But the deployment itself was a further testimony to the increasing use of Information and Communications Technologies by Nigerian Banks and other players in the financial services industry to deploy service to customers. Many banks today operate ATM machines, while debit and credits cards in use have grown in recent times, with banks now dispensing billions of naira without customers having to come to their premises for regular banking activities. At the event, held at the Zenith Heights, the bank’s corporate head office, Managing Director and Chief Executive, Zenith Bank, Mr. Jim Ovia, said the decision to vigorously pursue ATM deployment, is to remain in the vanguard of using ATMs to ...

by Jonah Iboma States and local governments in Nigeria would soon have access to tools that would substantially lead to at least a 300 per cent increase in Internal Revenue Generation. Managing Director of National e-Government strategies Limited, Dr. Felix Obada, in an interview with our correspondent on Saturday, said this follows a partnership signed between his organisation and an Australia-based electronic-payment service provider, O&G Electronic Fund Transfer at Point of Sale Pty. He said the alliance entered into on Monday would allow for the provision of eRevenue solution to the state and local governments in the country. eRevenue, one of the projects of the eGovernment initiative, provides governments at all level with a single payment reporting source of all internationally generated revenue collection via various channels whilst at the same time ensuring that all fund are collected, cleared and remitted to the operating account of the government at their lead banks ins...

By Jonah Iboma The success of the unified licence regulatory regime recently introduced into the telecommunications sector could depend largely on how effectively its rules are enforced, Managing Director of national fixed wireless operator, IpNX Nigeria Limited, Mr. Ejovi Aror, has stated.According to him, since the new regime effectively gives room for both large operators and smaller ones to play in the same field, some operators may take advantage of the opportunity and introduce anti-competitive practices. Ejovi, in an interview with our correspondent on Thursday, noted that while the new policy regime had the potential to lead to the provision of better service to consumers, it could also bring about the demise of smaller players.According to him, this can happen if big players enter the same field where some smaller players now operate and decide to drop prices as a competitive tool. On the calls for mergers by smaller operators as a way of becoming bigger players in the secto...

If the telecommunications industry is to maintain its current growth level and realise it potentials in Africa, some policy trends that are inimical to its success must be reviewed, Vice Chairman of the GSM Association, Africa, Mr. Chioke Ogugua, has noted. According to him, some policies being adopted by countries in the African continent, especially with respect to taxation of mobile phone operators, portend grave danger to the ability of operators to rollout service to meet demands. Speaking at a media briefing in Lagos on Friday, Ogugua stated that a situation whereby the recent growth of the mobile phone industry in the continent had made some governments to regard the sector as a means of income and as such subject operators to every conceivable form of taxations and levies was inimical to the growth of the sector. Ogugua, who is also the Chairman of the GSM Consultative Forum, an umbrella body of the GSM operators in Nigeria, said except the trend was reversed, some places might...

Soon Nigerian banks would be able to get early signals about possible money laundering and other financial crimes by their customers to enable such crimes to be nipped in the bud. This follows the impending introduction of software application to check the practice in the Nigerian financial industry by Computer Warehouse Group. The firm would bringing in the product called erase through her software subsidiary, Expertedge Software and Systems, which on Thursday announced partnership with NetEconomy, a UK based IT firm eputed as the world’s leading provider of real time enterprise risk monitoring solutions for the financial industry. Executive Director of Expertedge, Mr. James Agada said the introduction of such a product was inevitable in view of the changes that the country’s banking sector had gone trough and would still be subjected to. He said: “It is clear to us that the net frontier to be conquered is the reduction of fraud in the banking industry. Providers of such solutions are...

It may take a presidential decision for a final resolution of the status of the government institution that would oversee information technology industry in Nigeria. This follows the inability of stakeholders to agree on a common status for the body. Investigations by our correspondent showed that while a section is canvassing for an agency others are of the view that a commission should take charge of the sector. Presently, the Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency set up by the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2001 to implement the National IT Policy oversees the industry. But because it lacks required legal backing as it was not set up by any legislation, efforts have been on in some quarters to change its status when the legal backing eventually comes. Those who support the elevation of the body to a commission include the President of the Nigerian IT Professionals in the Americas, Professor Many Aniebonam, Former Chairman of the Senate Committee of Science and T...