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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...