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The former Vice- President, Nigerian Society of Engineers, and a consultant to the Nigerian Communications Commission, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu, highlights the motives behind the establishment of a free e-magazine, in this interview with Jonah Iboma Cyberschuul news has become an industry reference as an electronic news bulletin for the Nigerian telecoms and IT industry. How did it begin? The conception of CyberschuulNews dates back to the deregulation of the telecoms industry in Nigeria. It was an activist's response to support and promote deregulation and to assist investors from the perspective of private sector initiative and innovation outside the domain of government. You will agree with me that one of the key objectives of telecoms deregulation is to attract investments to the sector. The critical need of every investor is information. CyberschuulNews was conceived to publish industry information in a manner that would service investors. Useful information is indispensable...

Jonah Iboma Subscribers have applauded the Blackberry services being offered by Globacom.According to a statement released by the firm on Thursday, users who spoke on the impact the product on their personal and business activities, noted that the device had become a very important part of their lives. The Head of Legal, BGL Limited, Mr. Billy Odum, said the Blackberry from Glo had helped to transform him. He disclosed that he once ran into the Pulitzer Prize winner, the Nigerian-born Dele Olojede at the airport and that even though the name rang a bell, he did not have details about the personality he was meeting. His Blackberry from Glo became a handy tool to search for details about the journalist. That, he said, helped him to maintain a robust conversation with Olojede. Odum confessed that unlike other executives who carried several phones around, he depends only on his Blackberry for his voice and data communication and had found it very reliable. He said he had been spreading th...

Jonah Iboma Samsung has overtaken Motorola for the first time to become the world’s second largest handset vendor, according to a research from Strategy Analytics.The technology research firm said global mobile phone shipments grew by 11 percent year-over-year, to reach 258 million units in the second quarter of 2007. The report noted that in the period under review, Samsung shipped 37.4 m mobile phones while Motorola shipped 35.5, a decrease of about 10m phones when compared with shipments done in first quarter of the year.Nokia, however continues to maintain a leadership in the market with shipment of over 100million mobile phones in the second quarter. This helped the firm increase its market share from 36.9 to 39.1per cent.With the 35million phones shipped in the second quarter, Samsung now has a 14.5 per cent market as against 14.1 per cent. Motorola, which had a 184 per cent share in the first quarter dropped about five points to end the period with a 13.8 per cent share of the g...

Jonah Iboma Chris Ekeigwe,Managing consultant, EDP Audit and Security Associates, has revealed that computer errors can cost banks billions of naira annually principally because they are largely undetected. Speaking to newsmen on the scheduled training on Bank Revenue Assurance with Digital Data Analytics for August 24-27. 2007, at EDP Tecknowledge Education Center, in Lagos, he stated that, “no amount of testing will guarantee that computer programs will work perfectly as specified. There is always some residual risk. The solution lies in continuous post implementation testing and assurance”. Stop-go control measures are not suitable for Nigeria’s high technology banking environment;, he added. He lamented that most top managers, unfortunately simply think that once the user acceptance testing (UAT) is done and signed-off the computer will work as proven, as desired. Ekeigwe revealed that the Nigerian banking industry loses billions of naira every year due to unaccountable comput...

After years of delay, the Federal Government last month assented to a bill giving legal backing to the National Information Technology Development Agency. JONAH IBOMA examines the implication of this in Nigeria’s quest for IT development . Information Technology is recognised globally as a means of ensuring quick development in the developing world. This is exemplified by the achievements of India, China where expertise in software and hardware aspects of IT brought about economic boom. In recognition of this, Nigeria established a unit in the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology to oversee the process of implementation of a blueprint on IT growth in Nigeria. The unit was founded in April 2001 and named the National Information Technology Development Agency with the late Prof. Gabriel Ajayi, as pioneer director general. Government had earlier gathered some IT experts who developed an IT Policy for the country. Part of the objectives of NITDA were to ensure the implementation of t...

Jonah Iboma Information Technology solutions firm, Cisco and Redington said they have entered an alliance tom open up the Nigerian resellers’ market estimated to be worth over N100billion. The firms said on Tuesday that the nveiling of the alliance recently in Lagos signals the beginning of a new journey for resellers in Nigeria. Cisco, world leaders in networking for the internet, and Redington, the leading distributor in the Middle East and Africa Regions, signed the agreement in Lagos. With this, Redington will be availing the IT sector its immense skill, experience and market support programmes to radically transform the way solutions are delivered to the customer, increasing the value add to products and services. These market support programmes are essential in a rapidly growing market, where skills and other incentives are not widely spread, says Maduka Emelife, Managing Director of Cisco Nigeria. “Cisco has gone from an IT to a human company. This change opens up a lot of oppor...

Jonah Iboma BRIAN Integrated Systems Limited, promoted by Balog Technologies Limited has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Osun state government to supply all the computer requirement of the state’s civil servants under the Federal Governments Computer Public-Private initiative, Computer for All Nigerians Initiative. The event, which held at the Bola Ige Governor Office complex in Osogbo, was chaired by state’s Head of Service, Elder Segun Akinwusi representing the state governor, and was well attended by all Permanent Secretaries of various ministries. Speaking after the ceremony, Managing Director of BRIAN, Mr. Tunji Balogun, said, “Today’s MOU signing with Osun state government is a testimonial of value we place on quality computer assembly. This is particularly so with the IT consciousness and appreciation of this state that has taken the lead in investing heavily in the best Information Technology Highway in the country. We are therefore very proud on this partnership wit...

A bill establishing the Nigerian National Information Technology Development Agency has been signed into law by the President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo. Called the National Information and Technology Development Act 2007, the law empowers the agency to oversee the development of IT in Nigeria. The Director General of NITDA, Prof. Cleopas Angaye, who confirmed this development in a conversation with our correspondent on Monday said the development represented a major milestone in the country’s quest towards developing IT in the country. According to him, the bill gives legal recognition to NITDA, which was created as unit of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology since 2001, but had been operating without an enabling law, thereby limiting its effectiveness. The lack of legal backing for NITDA has been identified as the one of the major reasons for the inadequate funding of the agency and the subsequent limited effectiveness it had showed in the IT industry in Nigeria. Beside...

Jonah Iboma ETranzact, Nigeria’s multichannel payment solutions provider, has extended its services to other African countries. This follows its signing of agreements with utility services providers and other organisations in Ghana and Zimbabwe. Some of the partners to the agreement, the firm said, include Ghana Telecom and Mutual Fund Administrators in Ghana. In Zimbabwe, the partners are Zimbabwe Electronic Supply Authority, TelOne, Telecel Zimbabwe, City of Harare, City of Bulawayo and City of Mutare. The services that are being facilitated by eTranzact cuts across finance, education, telecom, water and electricity bill payments. eTranzact, according to details made available to our correspondent on Friday, said it had installed online fee payments system at both Zenith University College and Telecom University College, in addition to micro-finance payments for the Databank’s ePack and mFund, all in Ghana. Another service being facilitated by eTranzact is Ghana Telecom’s onetouch se...

Jonah Iboma ipNX Nigeria Limited is to invest about $100m (about N12.8bn) to implement a broadband network over the next two years. The company would also invest in recruitment and training of of technical personnel as well as setting up of a customer contact centres to aid its service delivery. According to the Group Managing Director of ipNX, Mr. Ejovi Aror, after three years of research and development, the firm introduced a wireless broadband solution designed to offer residential and small office subscribers access to the Internet. Called iWireless, the new broadband solution would be made commercially available from the first week of April this year. Aror said that ipNX developed the solution in partnership with SOMA Networks, a member of the WiMAX Forum, a body that promotes the use of Wimax for telecoms services. He added that the solution marks the entry of ipNX into the mass data market having spent years servicing multinationals firms mainly. He explained that a lot of resea...

Jonah Iboma An independent firm might oversee the anti-theft scheme soon to be introduced by the Federal Government to check the high incidence of theft of mobile phones in the country. Sources close to the Nigerian Communications Commission said that several firms had submitted bids for the project and that the commission was considering which of them would handle the project. Sources, however, confirmed that the telecommunications regulatory body might settle for an independent firm that would, among other things, keep a database of stolen phones and make them available to operators so that the phones could be demobilised on their networks.One of the bidders is the IDSV International, a firm headed by a United States-based Nigerian telecoms expert, Mr. Prince UchenduOne of the reasons why the regulatory body might consider an independent firm was the need to avoid duplication of efforts by the operators.The Executive Chairman of NCC, Mr. Ernest Ndukwe, had on Thursday given an in...

Four new subscribers have emerged winners of new Honda Accord I-vtec cars in the South South zone in the Globacom N750 seasons recharge promotion. Globacom said the winners were determined in an electronic draw held for its subscribers in the Port Harcourt region, comprising Rivers, Bayelsa and Imo states, who recharged their phones with the special N750 recharge card denomination within the commencement of the promotion on December 1 last year and the draw date. At the end of the draws held at the Bouganvillea Hotel in Port Harcourt, the four became winners of Honda Accord cars. The four cars were part of the 40 which Globacom is offering to prepaid subscribers in the promotion. The Port Harcourt Regional Manager, Globacom, Sam Edoho, said the promotion underscored Globacom’s commitment to continue to improve the quality of lives of its subscribers. "The N750 Recharge promo is meant to thank our subscribers for their patronage. We acknowledge the goodwill and tremendous support w...

The Chairman of Celtel International, Dr. Mo Ibrahim, has been honoured in Barcelona, Spain , by the GSM Association with the its highest award, the GSMA Chairman’s Award 2007. The founder of Celtel International, a pan-African mobile operator, was presented with the award in recognition of his outstanding achievement in supporting the growth and vitality of the global mobile telephony community. The award, which is sponsored by Fortune magazine, was the highlight of the Global Mobile Awards. The group eulogized Ibrahim for giving Africans a voice describing him as a visionary and the founding father of the African mobile industry. In the words of GSMA Chairman, Craig Ehrlich, who presented the award. "This is a man, who is in many ways, the founding father of African mobile communications, a visionary wireless technician and mobile businessman, whose commitment to both the industry and the continent has helped the world to hear Africa’s voice."

Progenics Corp Limited, a Nigerian software and systems integrator in the financial services sector, has witnessed an increase in the number of firms signed up to its capital market application solution, Symbols. Symbols, a comprehensive and integrated investment management and stock broking application solution, was designed using advanced computer aided software-engineering techniques which has helped address the need of many local stockbrokery firms. In details made available to our correspondent on Friday, the Head of Business Development, Progenics, Mr. Tunde Yemi-Daniel, said that the companies that had signed up for Symbols included UBA Asset Management Limited, Cross World securities, Diamond Bank Securities limited and Express Discount Portfolio Management limited among others. According to him, Progenics had recently enhanced its features by adding another module, the Asset Management. The module, he said, would take care of fund management, mutual fund/unit trust requirement...

Jonah Iboma Increased access and usage of mobile communications provide a powerful economic growth engine, which governments can fuel by lowering taxes on mobile services and handsets, according to a new study undertaken by Deloitte for the GSM Association. The GSMA is the global trade association representing 700 GSM mobile phone operators in 217 countries of the world. In addition, more than 180 manufacturers and suppliers support the association’s initiatives as key partners. The report issued by the association last week, found that in a developing country, an increase of 10 percentage points in mobile penetration would lift that country’s annual economic growth rate by 1.2 per centage points. GSMA stated that this situation represented a major uplift - if the proportion of people with a mobile phone in an economy, growing at four per cent a year, rose from 10 per cent to 20 per cent, that would boost the economic growth rate to 5.2 per cent a year. According to the study, despite ...

Jonah Iboma Quickplus Commu-nications Limited, an indigenous software company, and Busy Infotech Limited, developer of Busy brand of software solutions, plan to build a software academy where Nigerian information technology professionals will be certified. The academy, according to both firms, will represent an expansion of the current partnership between them. When established, the academy will train software professionals in the area of accounting, taxation and auditing using the latest trends in information technology. The graduates of the academy will be given international certification in Busy software solutions. Busy is one of the fastest growing accounting packages in the world. The product, which entered the Nigerian market last year, is already being used by over 30 companies, including accounting firms and Capital Airlines. It has over 100 clients in India and is widely used in Pakistan. The Managing Director, Quickplus Communications Company Limited, Mr. David Ayomidotun, r...

Jonah Iboma Ghana’s Minister of Presidential Affairs, Mr Kwawo Mpiani, has proclaimed Globacom Limited, as a credible and good corporate citizen that should be invited to invest in Ghana. He also commended the company for donating one billion cedis to Ghana’s 50th Independence Anniversary. At a presentation ceremony held at the Presidential Castle, Accra on Thursday, Mr Mpiani who doubles as the Chief of Staff at the Presidency, thanked Globacom for its generous donation even though the firm, it has not started operating in Ghana. Mpiani said he was particularly impressed with Globacom’s operational achievements within just three-and-a-half years in operation. "We have investigated you and confirmed that you are a credible organisation. I am happy to note the rapid progress made by your company within such a short time. This is a rare achievement and yours is the kind of corporate citizens that should be invited to invest in Ghana", he said. He pledged the support of the peop...

Jonah Iboma Six universities and poly-technics have installed eTranzact payment system, including the three campuses of the Nigeria Law School. eTranzact, a multichannel payment solutions provider, has linked these schools to its payment channel, which enables students to pay their tuition and other school related charges online. In addition, the schools will be able to monitor payments as they are made, thereby reducing to the barest minimum the amount of time it takes to confirm payments. The payment system, initiated by eTranzact in conjunction with Socketworks and some banks in Nigeria, has been installed at the University of Ilorin; University of Jos; University of Ibadan; Ambrose Alli University; Covenant University; and the Yaba College of Technology. Some others have commissioned the payment system. Before long, all tertiary institutions in Nigeria would be linked to the online payment system, says Mr. Valentine Obi, Chief Executive Officer of eTranzact. The cards allow the stu...

Jonah Iboma Microsoft will on Thursday, inaugurate the Windows Vista™ operating system and Microsoft® Office 2007. The company said, “With the product available in over 39,000 retail stores worldwide including our local PC Outlet Store at the Palms Shopping Mall, Lagos, you can of course, buy a copy from retail outlets right away. In fact, one very lucky Nigerian shopper will get an invitation to the February 22 launch event in Lagos and a copy of Windows Vista signed by Microsoft Chairman, BillGates.” The Marketing Manager of Microsoft Nigeria, Mr. Victor Okigbo said that Microsoft Nigeria was collaborating closely with business partners and distributors notably HP, Zinox, Intel, Coscharis Technologies, Technology Distributors, Computer Warehouse and Bi- Traxaxxent as part of the product launch process. The events in both Abuja and Lagos will include high-impact product demonstrations, and top level interactions. “The way that Nigerians work, play and communicate will be profoundly af...

Jonah Iboma Symbology, a bar code invented by Intermec Technologies Corporation of United States of America, is now available in Nigeria following the firm’s commencement of operations in Nigeria. A barcode is a machine-readable representation of information in a visual format on a surface. They are present on the surfaces of the packages of most products especially manufactured by well-established firms. Though originally barcodes stored data in the widths and spacings of printed parallel lines, they also come in patterns of dots, concentric circles, and hidden within images. Speaking at the launch in Lagos on Wednesday, Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ayo Eso of 3Consulting, the sole partner of Intermec in the country, said the Solutions provide supply chain information products, services and systems to companies in hundreds of industries around the world. He explained that supply chain information systems allow companies to compile previously unheard of amounts of information from one e...