govTechnology

Can Nigeria meet digital TV transition 2015 deadline?

an eMaginations Publication

August / September 2012

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AS GOVTS AIM TO RUN MORE AS BUSINESS, SURPRISING NUMBER DO SO WITHOUT A CIO

POINT OF VIEW

PUBLISHER eMaginations Comm

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EDITORIAL SUITE Editor-in-Chief SOLA FANAWOPO sola@govtechnology.com.ng

Wink in the dark Why do you want to publish another magazine?

That was the question a senior colleague asked when we broached the idea of govTechnology magazine to him. He could not see it now nor envision the need for a magazine that would focus solely on how government, which finds expression through ministries, department and agencies (MDAs),applies information technology [IT] to enable governance, deliver quality services to the citizens and makes working in government establishments attractive to core IT professionals.

He cannot see it. For him, it is too complicated. He agrees government is the biggest spender in IT. However, when a colleague reels out the figure of what the US government spends annually on IT and what it would spend in the next five years, and the caliber of IT professionals within its fold, a bulb lights up in his head. He sees the figures, not the future. He sees the records, not its local relevance.

We see the future, the opportunities, and above all, we see the responsibility to inform and educate the people on several government IT initiatives, how such would influence the lives and future of the present citizens and unborn generation.

programmes, support decisions regarding government IT investments and bring IT professionals who are the Chief Information Officers [CIOs] within the establishments to the fore.

Not doing this, the efforts and IT investments of government would amount to a man who is winking in the dark at a woman. It is an effort in futility: the woman would not even notice the man!

However, we are concerned with the impact of government IT projects on lives;contributions of CIOs to ensuring government [through IT] do what it is meant to do: govern. We are concerned with bringing CIOs together to share information and experience through networking.

We are concerned with mirroring their activities, prodding them and assisting with disseminating relevant information in season and out of season.

Read the cover story and other stories in govTechnology and send your feedback to the editor.

Thank you.

With this magazine, we are shouldering the responsibility to provide information on the effectiveness of government IT

RAISE YOUR VOICE: Your opinions matter to us. Send comments to the editors at editorial@govtechnology.com.ng. Publication is solely at the discretion of the editors. govTechnology reserves the right to edit submissions for brevity and clarity.

Managing Editors PSALM:SON R. OLAEGBE psalm-son@govtechnology.com.ng SEYI BANGUDU (Features) seyi@govtechnology.com.ng RESEARCH & ANALYSIS TUNDE BALOGUN tunde@govtechnology.com.ng CREATIVE DIRECTOR SEYI SULAIMAN seyis@govtechnology.com.ng

Technology increasingly is seen as a weapon in government's arsenal to cut costs and increase efficiency. As such, it might seem a matter of course that a state government or even a local government would have a Chief Information Officer (CIO), someone to provide direction on technology policy and advocate for it at cabinet or executive level. But the reality is that many state governments don't have a C-level (cabinet level) technology leaders.

PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION Production Executive ISIAKA HASSAN

WHO IS IN CHARGE?

Production Assistants JOHN OGUNGBOLA ABIMBOLA KAREEM

AS GOVTS AIM TO RUN MORE AS BUSINESS, SURPRISING NUMBER DO SO WITHOUT A CIO

ACCOUNTS IFEANYI ANAZIA

Nigeria 'not Leveraging ICT' For Social, Economic Development

LEGAL ADVISOR KUNLE FAGBILE

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Nigeria 'not leveraging ICT' for social, economic development Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have evolved into a key enabling infrastructure across industries while proving to be a powerful driver of enhanced living conditions...

WEB CONSULTANT OLUWASEGUN MATTHEW PRINTED IN NIGERIA The BrickHouse 17, Yinusa Adeniji Street (Muslim Avenue) | off Toyin Street/Unity Road Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria Tel | +234-1-4036276

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SOCIAL MEDIA METRICS

Governor’s twitter details ranked according to followers, tweets

Can Nigeria meet digital TV transition 2015 deadline?

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At last, Nigeria’s federal government has set January 2015 deadline as the date for the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting in Nigeria. This would synchronise Nigeria's broadcasting system with the global trends. Briefing news men... www.govtechnology.com.ng email| info@govtechnology.com.ng govTechnology is published by eMaginations Communications. Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. govTechnology is a registered trademark of eMaginations Communications. Opinions expressed by writers are not necessarily those of the publisher or editors.

Article submissions should be sent to the attention of the Managing Editor. Reprints of all articles in this issue and past issues are available (500 words minimum).

Please direct inquiries for reprints and licensing to Damilola | sales@govtechnology.com.ng Subscription information: Requests for subscriptions may be directed to Subscription coordinator by phone to the numbers above. You can also subscribe online at www.govtechnology.com.ng 4

CIO should be a Cabinet-level Officer

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Technology increasingly is seen as a weapon in government's arsenal to cut costs and increase efficiency. As such, it might seem a matter of course that a state government or even a local government would have a Chief Information Officer (CIO), someone to provide direction...

The Berkeley-darfur Stove & UV Waterworks Ashok Gadgil is a professor at Berkeley. But in his spare time, he's come up with solutions for water, cooking and energy quandaries, improving lives from Sudan...

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GOVERNOR

STATE

TWITTER HANDLE

TWEETS

FOLLOWERS

Raji Fashola

Lagos

@tundefashola

1701

58, 935

Kayode Fayemi

Ekiti

@kfayemi

1989

3,943

Rauf Aregbesola Olusegun Mimiko

Osun Ondo

@raufaregbesola @OlusegunMimiko

148 167

3, 883 1, 783

Rotimi Amaechi Liyel Imoke

Rivers Cross River

@ChibuikeAmaechi @LiyelImoke

222 430

1, 1650 1, 371

Abdulfatah Ahmed Ibikunle Oyelaja Amosun Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi

Kwara Ogun Oyo

Owelle R. Okorocha

Imo

@Governor_Ahmed @Govsia @AAAjimobi @OwelleRochas

140 1063 471 13

1, 105 1050 1032 825

5

INN TELEVISION

INN COLUMN

Tony Ojobo, Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) speaks on poor quality of service's sanctions on MNOs

SOCIAL MEDIA METRICS

Will there be money from mobile payment? James Agada, our leading columnist asks, as mobile money services take root in Nigeria.

Governor’s twitter details ranked according to followers, tweets

govTechnology.com.ng/extra

WHAT IS ONLINE?

HIGHLIGHS

HOT OR COLD MOST READ STORIES ONLINE

Digital Government: Obama wants mobile strategy The White House Office of Management and Budget released a digital government strategy report, “Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People’. President Obama issued the directive to make services accessible from mobile devices and charged OMB with developing a strategy to build a 21st Century Digital Government that delivers better digital services. The report also paves the way for federal employees to bring your own device and calls for new solutions for identity, authentication and credential management.

POSTED DATE: MAY24, 2012 VIEWS: 77

10 cars engineered with high-end technologies Your car is the representation of your way of living, personality, preferences and your posh nature. These stylish, but expensive four wheelers are the sign of luxury and power and when they come engineered with high-end technologies they become a man's dream bird.

Check out these thunderbirds of 2012 that have got standing ovation around the world.

NCC fines MTN, GLO N480 Million for poor QOS for March, April Failure to meet the minimum standard of quality of service including the Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) as specified in Schedule 1, Table 2 of the Quality of Service (QoS) Regulations 2012, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has fined the largest MNOs, MTN Nigeria and Glo Mobile a total sum of N480 million. MTN was fined N360 million while Glo will pay N120 million.

POSTED: MAY 11, 2012 VIEWS: 133 LEAST READ STORIES ONLINE

Governor Amosun Inaugurates IT Centre with 10 Incubation Units Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, recently inaugurated a Technology Incubation Centre (TIC) in Abeokuta, the state capital.

POSTED: MAY 23, 2012 VIEWS: 4

POSTED DATE: MAY 26, 2012 VIEWS: 52

Only 30 % of computers sold in 2011 are Made-in-Nigeria - Minister Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, has lamented that local participation in the ICT industry had been very minimal with only 30 per cent of the total of 690,000 computers sold in the country in 2011 manufactured in the country POSTED: MAY 23, 2012 VIEWS: 17

@gov_technology

@gov_technology

govtechnologytv

6

GOVERNOR

STATE

TWITTER HANDLE

TWEETS

FOLLOWERS

Raji Fashola

Lagos

@tundefashola

1701

58, 935

Kayode Fayemi

Ekiti

@kfayemi

1989

3,943

Rauf Aregbesola Olusegun Mimiko

Osun Ondo

@raufaregbesola @OlusegunMimiko

148 167

3, 883 1, 783

Rotimi Amaechi Liyel Imoke

Rivers Cross River

@ChibuikeAmaechi @LiyelImoke

222 430

1, 1650 1, 371

Abdulfatah Ahmed Ibikunle Oyelaja Amosun Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi

Kwara Ogun Oyo

Owelle R. Okorocha

Imo

@Governor_Ahmed @Govsia @AAAjimobi @OwelleRochas

140 1063 471 13

1, 105 1050 1032 825

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SMART PICTURE

The Lekki-Ikoyi link bridge is to be one of the first major cables stayed bridges to be built in West Africa. The 1.4km long bridge has a cable stayed pylon of 90m at the middle and a full span approach and departing bridge linking Admiralty Way to Bourdillon road.

Value-confliCT

Innovations | Case Study

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM VERDICT

SOLA FANAWOPO

From e-Fillings to e-Payments remember my encounter with Gerald Ilukwe, General Manager of Galaxy Backbone at the Abuja Airport. He was on his way to Yola while I was returning to Lagos. We had several discussions while awaiting our flights. One of the issues we dealt with was how the federal ministries, department and agencies (MDAs) are responding to the directives from the Accountant General of the Federation that all payments should be done in a cashless format.

I

affirmed. My checks afterward confirmed Gerald's explanation. I also discovered that the banks are culpable. Most times, it is the banks, through the account managers, that advised the MDAs to package the payment process through e-Filling.

As the boss of an IT firm that has the mandate to connect the MDAs to the information highways, Gerald could be described as Nigeria's number one Public CIO if there is a name like that. I knew him back in his years as the pioneer Nigeria's Country Manager for Microsoft. I was an IT writer then, working for the then leading financial newspapers, Financial Standard.

This is what has been happening in the last two years. However, there is no doubt that the road to cashless or cash-lite or better still Lesscash Nigeria is going to be very rough. I mean very, very rough. Along the way there's sure to be plenty of frustration, angst, bewilderment and soul searching as we look for the right mix of strategies.

Though belated, CBN has said it would commence full implementation of electronic payment system in all private and public organisations. To this end, the banking sector regulator has directed all DMBs in the country to dishonour payment instructions with schedules delivered via unsecured methods.

One of the highlights of our polemic discourse was the way he described how the MDAs are responding to the e-payments directives.

Gerald explained that instead of integrating payment technologies that enable them to power payment services from their systems, the MDAs have adopted what he called eFilling strategy.

I asked him, what is e-Filling? He explained that what MDAs are doing is e-Filling and not ePayments. “They simply prepare their payment instruction to the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) with schedules delivered via unsecured method such as flash drives, compact discs or e-mail attachments�, he

Consequently, all DMBs are to dishonour payment instructions with schedules delivered via unsecured methods such as flash drives, compact discs or e-mail attachments with effect from that date. To support this initiative, DMBs are implored to properly educate and advise their customers on the adoption and implementation procedures for an end-to-end e-payment.

The major lesson from the e-Filling fiasco is that it will require multi-agency collaboration to achieve the lofty ideal of Cashless Nigeria.

Since CBN had come out with this directive, all MDAs must have fully complied with the Chief Accountant of the Federation's directive.

| Developments

Henceforth, the cashless project should not be treated as CBN's project or else it would not achieve its objectives. Every hand must be on deck. Another lesson is the absence of incentives. How do you compensate those who on their own went the whole hog to implement the cashless policy? We need to ginger the policy with incentives. However, a detail survey of developing economies that have successfully implemented cashless initiatives revealed that Cashless Nigeria scheme would benefit more from offering of incentives than application of sanctions.

NIGERIA 'NOT LEVERAGING ICT' FOR SOCIAL, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Script: Seyi Bangudu

In Brazil, a country with similar challenges like Nigeria, corporations receive a tax break from the government for issuing prepaid cards, as they are legally exempted from paying payroll and social security taxes on the money they load onto them. Brazil has one of the world's largest markets for prepaid food cards because of tax incentives that are given to companies.

Yet another lesson from the e-Filling adventure is that companies that have developed solutions for government and corporate e-payment are made to suffer undue gestation periods because of poor implementation of the policy. Solutions such as Remita from SystemSpecs, CorporatePay developed by eTranzact and AutoPay powered

by Interswitch are example of solutions that are ready to play in this arena. It is only through continuing usage of these solutions that the country can produce software applications that can be exported to other countries.

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Nigeria 'not leveraging ICT' for social, economic development nformation and communication technologies (ICTs) have evolved into a key enabling infrastructure across industries while proving to be a powerful driver of enhanced l iving conditions and opportunities around the globe. ICT has changed the world dramatically and it is bound to continue to do so in the future.

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The global IT report series Over the past decade, The Global IT Report series, powered by the World Economic Forum has become the most comprehensive and respected international assessment of the preparedness of economies to leverage the networked economy. Its research provides a unique platform for publicprivate dialogue on best policies and for determining what actions will further

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national ICT readiness and innovation potential.

Through the evolved methodological framework of the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), The Global IT Report 2012 measures the extent to which 142 economies take advantage of ICT and other new technologies to increase their growth and well-being.

This year, Sweden tops the rankings, followed by Singapore and Finland.

The report also includes detailed profiles for the 142 economies covered this year, together with data for each of the 53 indicators used in the computation of the NRI. Nigeria's economy is not benefiting from ICT The verdict of the report on Nigeria ICT readiness is very damning.

Nigeria's lacks ICT readiness, the world Economic Forum said. This means that Nigeria's economy is not benefiting as much as it should from technology, and social impacts are very “disappointing”. Nigeria ranks behind other 111 other countries surveyed by the World Economic Forum on network readiness, and its digitisation has been found to be “constrained”. The World Economic Forum found Nigeria ranks 16 in Africa behind Tunisia, Mauritius, South Africa, Egypt, Cape Verde, Rwanda, Botswana, Morocco, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, The Gambia, Namibia, Zambia and Uganda.

Nigeria like other low ranked country “is not yet leveraging the potential benefits associated with ICT”, notes the report. It cites important shortcomings in terms of basic skills availability in large segments of the population. It also states that the

Nigeria ranks & scores

In many countries, a simulcast service is operated where a broadcast is made available to viewers in both analogue and digital at the same time. As digital becomes more popular, it is likely that the existing analogue services will be removed.

high costs of accessing “insufficiently developed” ICT infrastructure have led to poor rates of ICT use.

“As a result, the economic impacts accruing from ICT are patchy and the social impacts disappointing,” says the report. It argues that upgrading overall skills at all layers of society and increasing efforts to build affordable infrastructure for all would allow Nigeria to increase its ICT readiness and uptake, which would spread ICT impacts across society.

Environment subindex The environment subindex gauges the friendliness of a country's market and regulatory framework in supporting high levels of ICT uptake and the development of entrepreneurship and innovation-prone conditions. A supportive environment is necessary to maximize the potential impacts of ICT in boosting competitiveness and wellbeing. It includes a total of 18 variables distributed into two pillars.

The political and regulatory environment pillar (nine variables) assesses the extent to which the national legal framework facilitates ICT penetration and the safe development of business activities, taking into account general features of the regulatory environment (including the protection afforded to property rights, the independence of the judiciary, and the efficiency of the lawmaking process) as well as more ICTspecific dimensions (the passing of laws relating ICT and software piracy rates).

The business and innovation environment pillar (nine variables) gauges the quality of the business framework conditions to boost entrepreneurship, taking into account dimensions related to the ease of doing business (including the presence of red tape and excessive fiscal charges).

This pillar also measures the presence of conditions that allow innovation to flourish by including variables on the overall availability of technology, the demand conditions for innovative products (as proxied by the development

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of government procurement of advanced technology products), the availability of venture capital for financing innovation-related projects, and the presence of a skilful labour force.

Readiness subindex The readiness subindex with a total of 12 variables, measures the degree to which a society is prepared to make good use of an affordable ICT infrastructure and digital content.

NIGERIA READINESS SUBINDEX TABLE OVERALL

RANK

123

SCORE

3.09

INFRASTRUCTURE & DIGITAL CONTENT

AFFORDABILITY

SKILL

118

123

119

2.75

3.8

3.44

NIGERIA USAGE SUBINDEX TABLE OVERALL

INDIVIDUAL USAGE

BUSINESS USAGE

GOVERNMENT USAGE

RANK

109

105

77

116

SCORE

2.98

2.33

3.49

3.13

The infrastructure and digital content pillar (five variables) captures the development of ICT infrastructure (including the mobile network coverage, international internet bandwidth, secure Internet servers, and electricity production) as well as the accessibility of digital content. The affordability pillar (three variables) assesses the cost of accessing ICT, either via mobile telephony or fixed broadband internet, as well as the level of competition in the Internet and telephony sectors that determine this cost. The skills pillar (four variables) gauges the ability of a society to make effective use of ICT thanks to the existence of basic educational skills captured by the quality of the educational system, the level of adult literacy, and the rate of secondary education enrolment.

Usage subindex The usage subindex assesses the individual efforts of the main social agents—that is, individuals, business and government—to increase their capacity to use ICT as well as their actual use in their day-to-day activities with other agents. It includes 15 variables.

The individual usage pillar (seven variables) measures ICT penetration and

diffusion at the individual level, using indicators such as the number of mobile phone subscriptions, individuals using the Internet, households with a personal computer (PC), households with Internet access, both fixed and mobile broadband subscriptions, and the use of social networks.

The business usage pillar (five variables) captures the extent of business Internet use as well as the efforts of the firms in an economy to integrate ICT into an internal, technology-savvy, innovationconducive environment that generates productivity gains. Consequently, this pillar measures the firm's technology absorption capacity and its overall capacity to innovate and the production of technology novelties measured by the number of PCT patent applications. It also measures the extent of staff training available, which indicates the extent to which management and employees are better capable of identifying and developing business innovations.

The government usage pillar (three variables) provides insights into the importance that governments place on carrying out ICT policies for

competitiveness and the well-being of their citizens, the efforts they make to implement their visions for ICT development, and the number of government services they provide online.

Impact subindex The impact subindex gauges the broad economic and social impacts accruing from ICT to boost competitiveness and well-being and that reflect the transformations toward an ICT- and technology-savvy economy and society. It includes a total of eight variables.

The economic impacts pillar measures the effect of ICT on competitiveness, thanks to the generation of technological and non-technological innovations in the shape of patents, new products or processes, and organizational practices.

In addition, it also measures the overall shift of an economy toward more knowledge-intensive activities.

The social impacts pillar aims at assessing the ICT-driven improvements in well-being, thanks to its impacts on the environment, education, energy consumption, health progress, or moreactive civil participation. At the moment, because of data limitations, this pillar focuses on measuring the extent to which governments are becoming more efficient in the use of ICT and providing increasing online services to their citizens, and, thus, improving their eparticipation.

It also assess the extent to which ICT is present in education, as a proxy for the potential benefits that are associated with the use of ICT in education. In general, measuring the impacts of ICT is a complex task and the development of 13

rigorous quantitative data to do so is still in its infancy. As a result, many of the dimensions where ICT is producing important impacts—especially when these impacts are not translated into commercial activities, such as the environment of health, cannot be covered yet. Therefore, this subindex should be regarded as a work in progress that will evolve to accommodate new data on many of these dimensions as they become available.

NIGERIA ENVIRONMENT SUBINDEX TABLE OVERALL

POLITICAL & REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT

BUSINESS & INNOVATION ENVIRONMENT

RANK

98

91

104

SCORE

3.55

3.45

3.71

NIGERIA IMPACT SUBINDEX TABLE OVERALL

ECONOMIC IMPACT

SOCIAL IMPACT

RANK

88

60

102

SCORE

3.25

3.33

3.16

Europe @ the forefront Overall, Europe remains at the forefront of the efforts to leverage ICT to transform its economy and society.

Seven European counties are positioned in the top 10 of our rankings, with the Nordic countries including Sweden at the very top, leading the way.

Notwithstanding the overall strength of Europe as a whole, there are important disparities within the region.

Four broadly defined groups of countries sharing different ICT development paths and facing different challenges to further leverage ICT can be identified: the Nordic countries, advanced economies of Western Europe, Southern Europe, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Nordic countries most successful The Nordic countries are the most successful in the world at leveraging ICT. They have fully integrated ICT in their competitiveness strategies to boost innovation and ICT is present everywhere and in all areas of society, such as education and healthcare.

Asia and the pacific region most innovative Asia and the Pacific region is home to some of the world's wealthiest, most

innovative and digitized nations in the world and also to some of its poorest, least connected countries. Six economies besides Singapore feature among the top 20, namely Taiwan, China (11th), Korea, Rep. (12th), Hong Kong SAR (13th), New Zealand (14th), Australia (17th), and Japan (18th). At 51st place, China leads the BRICS, the group of large emerging economies. Yet the country faces important challenges ahead that must be met to more fully adopt and leverage ICT. China's institutional framework and especially its business environment present a number of shortcomings that stifle entrepreneurship and innovation.

Latin America & Caribbean suffer lag in adopting ICT Latin America and the Caribbean continue to suffer from an important lag in adopting ICT and technology more broadly. This is reflected in the rankings, as no country manages to reach the top 30 and only a handful of small economies manage to be included among the top 50—the exceptions are Barbados, Puerto Rico, Chile, and Uruguay ICT readiness in Sub-Saharan Africa very low

The level of ICT readiness in sub-Saharan Africa is still very low, with most countries evidencing strong lags in connectivity because of an insufficient development of ICT infrastructure, which remains too costly. Low levels of skills that do not allow for an efficient use of the available technology add to the challenges these countries face if they are to increase ICT uptake.

Moreover, most countries still suffer from poor framework conditions for business activity that, coupled with the aboveexplained weaknesses, result in poor economic impacts that hinder the muchneeded transformation of the region toward less resource-extraction-oriented activities and higher value-added production. Nine out of the last 10 countries in our sample belong to the region and the results evidence the digital divide the region suffers vis-á-vis more developed regions.

Mixed Result from Middle East & North Africa There are large differences across the Middle East and North Africa, with countries grouping around three sub regions: Israel and the Gulf Cooperation Council states; the Levantine nations; and, finally, the countries in North Africa.

While Israel and most of the Gulf Cooperation Council states seem to have embraced ICT uptake and have started to gain from the associated benefits, countries in the former two groups still suffer from important weaknesses that hinder their capacity to fully leverage the use of ICT to increase competitiveness and accelerate the positive social impacts that are associated with technology.

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Bar Codes

Technology helps, it also sulks t is everywhere. From your car, doorbell, wrist watch and mobile phone, technology is alive and kicking in every facet of life. As a friend observed recently, if future societies look back at the kind of life we are living today, they may cite our focus on technologies as being what defined our society. But that is what defines your life, isn't it? You obviously rely on technology almost every hour of the day, and for a good reason: technology helps you get things done, easier, safer and faster.

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Without your gas cooker, you would be unable to cook that chicken soup. Without the remote control, you would have to get up and change the channel or volume every 30 seconds you are bored with a channel or a programme. Without your phone, you cannot make that call, send that text, take that picture or record your favourite ring tone. Let's admit it. Technology helps. If your TV malfunctions, you would be unhappy and would have to visit the neighbourhood viewing centre to watch a football involving your favourite football club.

If your car breaks down, oh,my and your phone packs up, you would be sad and you would not be able to reach your mechanic. If your laptop fails to come up, mine did recently; your entire life would literally come to a standstill. Technology also sulks. That is why without biometric data capture, the London Olympic would not hold!

Reports had it that UK has launched international operation to gather information on Olympic participants and coaches, as over 10,000 Olympic athletes and coaches have had their fingerprints and face-scans taken by UK officials around the world in the biggest operation of its type to prevent the London Games from being targeted by illegal immigrants or terrorists.

To prevent any act of terrorism, UK has built a temporary terminal at Heathrow to take the strain of the 20,000 accredited people and millions of ticketholders and visitors. UK government has also stepped up the national terror threat during the 16-day Games. Meaning: An attempted attack

is highly likely. UK Border Agency staff in visa offices in Nigeria and other countries had started the painstaking task of taking biometric details of around 10,000 individuals.

In addition, UK would collect data, profile and facial image scan and 10-finger scans of all athletes and keep such in a single digital record.

Athletes from some competing nations have biometric information in their passports. These athletes would not need to hand over their data.

But the Home Office believes there are 10,000 athletes and other team members who need to have details taken, particularly athletes from Nigeria. In case you are wondering why the UK government would go to this length because of some games, the extra security is needed because each Games Family Members (GFMs) will have an accredited pass to go in and out of the Olympic Village and venues where there are no tough security checks.

However, athletes will not be forced to give scans in their own countries, but if as an athlete you decline you would have to provide the biometrics information on arrival in the UK. The security crackdown applies to all foreign nationals including Nigeria regardless of whether you are entitled to a visa waiver. While this may speed up security lines in the UK at the airport and upon entering the Olympic Village, it does nothing to allay the most glaring privacy issues.

Now, let's dissect this: What is going to happen to the biometric data after the Olympic Games? Who is going to have access to the data before, during, and after the games? How long is the data going to be kept? The biometric data collected in Nigeria will it be transmitted? What security measures are in place to ensure a secure transmission? If the biometric information is going to be kept, what countries and corporations will, ultimately, have access to it? Technology helps, or does it sulks?

There are simply too many questions that have been left unanswered for anyone to know or even begin to comprehend how their biometric

PSALM:SON OLAEGBE

information is going to be used or accessed. Hey, are you going to the Games? If yes, you would have to submit to the biometric test. Or you may forgo this procedure altogether. If you do not see your family member for a couple of weeks, would you have heart attack?

Perhaps no; perhaps yes, perhaps, as an athlete, you may have to consider if competing in the Olympic Games is worth many unknown people having access to your personal data, particularly when no one is sure how long it's going to be held or where it's going to end up. Being paranoid would not prevent terrorism; it would just make the athletes a bit uncomfortable, you know, and the GFMs would be suspicious of every face at the Games.

If disagree, examine this. This is the first time Olympic host nation would undertake such a widespread biometrics operation. Costing about £24bn, pray the entire operation and the Games yield good returns on investment, because Wenlock [the Olympic mascot] knows this is the biggest and most expensive security operation in British history, which is packaged as tourist commodity. While these strict measures may protect athletes within the Olympic Village, it would not prevent any type of attack outside the village. If terrorists would make a splash, they will cause terror where there are large gathering. It is unlikely that there would be a small-scale, targeted attack, such as the one in Munich in 1972. Do you remember that experience?However, bear this in mind: Biometric data capture at the Olympics gives a false sense of security. Because you pass the security checks, and have a biometric ID is not an assurance that there would not be an attack.

Biometric ID can never determine or predict whether you are havingnefarious thoughts or plots in mind. Meaning: technology sulks. It may define your life. It also makes you paranoid. That is why it is everywhere.

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TOO CLOSE TO CALL

Can Nigeria meet digital TV transition 2015 deadline?

Script: Psalm:son Olaegbe

t last Nigeria’s Federal Government has set January 2015 deadline as the date for the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting in Nigeria. This would synchronise Nigeria's broadcasting system with the global trends. Briefing news men, Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, his counterpart in the ICT, Omobolaji Johnson and Minister of Environment, Hajia Hadiza Mailafia, said the migration will, in addition to improving signal quality through set-up boxes that will deliver signals to television sets in the country, also free more spectrum for communications purposes.

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The White Paper The White Paper for the migration was submitted to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in February 2012, but on deliberation, FEC discovered some grey areas and mandated a committee headed by the Secretary to the Federal Government, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, to review. Maku explained that a minimum of two and a maximum of three Broadcast Signal Distributors would be licenced at the commencement of the migration from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting.

Switch over date “By January 1, 2015 consumers should be able to get higher quality signals as well as have more channels because we are broadcasting digitally. You can have many channels on your television set and what that means is that there is a lot more content coming through the feeds which is NTA”, Maku said. The digital television transition is the process in which analogue television broadcasting is converted to and replaced by digital television. This primarily involves both TV stations and over-the-air viewers; however, it also involves content providers like TV networks and cable television conversion to digital cable.

“Basically, what this means is that we are now well on our way to joining the rest of the world in digital technology in our broadcasting, using digital technology and radio frequency spectrum much more effectively than we have done in the past because digital technology uses frequencies better than analogue.

“We would be licensing, at least, two signal distributors; one will be public signal distributor that would comprise broadcasting access of NTA, FRCN and the VON. We will be licensing another private signal distributor to provide the necessary competition that will give values to consumers of broadcasting content.

“The White Paper gave approval for the inauguration of digital implementation team. This team will comprise stakeholders in the industry including government officials with the responsibility of supervising this implementation over the next few years.

We have a deadline of January 2015 when we must have migrated to digital broadcasting and NBC will be the regulator”.

16

In many countries, a simulcast service is operated where a broadcast is made available to viewers in both analogue and digital at the same time. As digital becomes more popular, it is likely that the existing analogue services will be removed.

In many countries, a simulcast service is operated where a broadcast is made available to viewers in both analogue and digital at the same time. As digital becomes more popular, it is likely that the existing analogue services will be removed. In some cases this has already happened, where a broadcaster has offered incentives to viewers to encourage them to switch to digital. In other cases government’s policies have been introduced to encourage or force the switch-over process, especially with regard to terrestrial broadcasts.

Purpose of switch-over Almost all analogue formats in current use were standardised between the1940s and 1950s and have had to be adapted to the technological innovations since then. Initially offering only black and white images with monophonic sound, the formats were modified to broadcast in colour, stereo sound, SAP, captioning and other information.

Additionally, engineers have had to implement these protocols within the limits of a set bandwidth and the tolerances of an inefficient analogue format.

However, during this time, the application and distribution of digital communications evolved and proved to be a superior means to distribute the same content. A digital television transmission is more efficient, easily integrating other digital processes, for features completely unavailable or unimaginable with analogue formats.

Benefits of switch over For the end-user, digital TV has potential for resolutions and sound fidelity comparable with blu-ray home video and with digital multiplexing, it is also

17

possible to offer sub-channels, distinct simulcast programming, from the same broadcaster.

For government and industry, digital TV reallocates the radio spectrum so that it can be auctioned off by the government.

In the subsequent auctions, telecommunications industries can introduce new services and products in mobile telephony, wi-fi internet, and other nationwide telecommunications projects.

Government subsidy Government’s intervention usually involves providing some funding for broadcasters and, in some cases monetary relief to viewers, to enable a switch-over to happen by a given deadline. For example, after the switch from analogue to digital broadcasts is completed, analogue TVs will be incapable of receiving over-the-air broadcasts without the addition of a settop converter box. A digital converter box – an electronic device that connects to an analogue TV – must be used in order to allow the TV to receive digital broadcasts.

In the United States of America, government is subsidizing the purchase of such boxes via their coupon-eligible converter box programme, funded by a small part of the billions of dollars brought in by the spectrum auction of 12 of the upper UHF channels.

In South Africa, government will pay for poor households to buy new aerials to move to digital TV. Government has approved the ownership support rollout framework for set-top boxes (STBs) for poor households and also said it would pay for new antennas.

Global switch-over time table The switch-over for individual countries varies; in some countries such as the UK

TRANSITION COMPLETED COUNTRY FLAG

COUNTRY

DATE OF SWITCH ON TO DIGITAL TV

COMPLETION OF SWITCH OVER TO DIGITAL TV

Luxembourg

September 1, 2006

Netherland

December 11, 2006

Finland

September 1, 2007

Sweden

Switzerland

September 19, 2005

July 24, 2006

ANALOGUE TV SWITCH OFF DATE

August 31, 2007

October 29, 2007

November 13, 2006

November 26, 2007

TRANSITION CONTINUED GHANA

Kenya

SA

Argentina

Q3 of 2011

December 31, 2014

December 9, 2009

November 2008

september 9, 2008

To be determined according to locations and conditions June 2012

November 1, 2011

Yet to be determined

September 1, 2019

it is being implemented in stages , where each region has a separate date to switch-over; in others the whole country switches on one date: France switched off all analogue services on November 29, 2011 followed by Japan on March 31, 2012.

after six years, how would Nigeria deliver the project in three years? However, unlike SA that still has three solid years to get it right before the international deadline, Nigeria is condemned to digitize its TV by whatever means by 2015.

However, the process of switching-over to the digitized platform has not been easy in Africa. For instance, South Africa with its sophistication has missed several due dates. As it stands today, the country is not likely to meet the 2012 September date she set for herself. The entire process has been marred by delay after delay ever since SA signed up to move to a digital broadcasting platform about six years ago; and a lack of cohesion from the top means any potential benefit will be pushed out yet again. So, if SA could deliver the project

Timeline for stopping analogue services The Geneva 2006 Agreement sets June 17, 2015 as the date after which countries may use those frequencies currently assigned for analogue TV transmission for digital services without being required to protect the analogue services of neighbouring countries against interference. This date is generally viewed as an internationally mandated analogue switch-off date, at least, along national borders. It is hoped that the Federal Government's 2015 January deadline is not too close to call.

18

echnology increasingly is seen as a weapon in government's arsenal to cut costs and increase efficiency. As such, it might seem a matter of course that a state government or even a local government would have a Chief Information Officer (CIO), someone to provide direction on technology policy and advocate for it at cabinet or executive level. But the reality is that many state governments don't have a C-level (cabinet level) technology leaders.

T

TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

technology nor special adviser to the governor on ICT affairs.

CIO responsibility without CIO's authority govTechnology findings reveals some of those state that appreciate the importance of ICT and even have technology experts appointed as special advisers still depend instead on systems administrators and even friends to formulate technology policies and implement technology initiatives. These people most times are saddled with a CIO responsibility but do not have CIO's authority.

AS GOVTS AIM TO RUN MORE AS BUSINESS, SURPRISING NUMBER DO SO WITHOUT A CIO For myriad of reasons, many states don't even see the relevance of ICT in public administration. Out of the 36 states and Federal Government (FG), only 13 governments have C-level technology officials managing their ICT policies and projects. These include FG, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Lagos, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Bauchi, Plateau and Rivers states.

Though four governments have commissioners for science and technology portfolio, it is doubtful if they have IT mandate under their offices. The state governments in this category include Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra and Kaduna states.

Other 19 state governments and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) neither have commissioners for science and

Script: Sola Fanawopo

20

Recent survey revealed that most political leaders often lack a good grasp of what exactly a technology adviser or CIO does, making the decision to hire one less likely. If a local or a state government, for example, needs a new finance director, the chairman or the governor knows exactly what to look for. If they need someone in purchasing or a state attorney, those positions have been around for so long, there's no question what to look for. But when it comes to the chief technology person or whatever the title, that really freaks political leaders out.

However, the establishment of the Ministry of Communications Technology followed with the 21

appointment of a cabinet-level minister for the ministry by the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan administration signposted a new era for ICT leadership and career in public governance arena. It should be noted, however, that some tech loving state governments like Lagos, Cross River, Edo, Ondo and Delta already had cabinet-level technology leaders in their state before the advent of the CommTech ministry at the federal level.

Public CIO nomenclature The name for C-Level technology leaders varies from government to government. Some are called either ministers or commissioners, some are tagged Senior Special Advisers to Governor on ICT while some are Private Advisers. Whatever the nomenclature, the most important need for appointing technical leaders is that their views, opinions, input are sought on technology contents of any project in the local, state and Federal Government.

However, it is important for them to be C-Level officers. This will give them an equal voice with their peers on decisionmaking.

Mr Odo Effiong, Special Adviser on ICT to governor of Cross River State, Senator Liyel Imoke, said as the driver of the ICT development of a state government, the CIO should be a cabinet-level officer.

“Any state that desires to grow in this information age must recognise the importance of technology in all its dealings. And as a result, the state must have an officer with the same status as commissioners so that he can be with them whenever decision on a project is being made. Every state must realise that there is ICT content for almost all the

CIO must avoid IT projects that deliver questionable outcomes or outcomes that are not measurable.

CIO must bear in mind the fact that elected officials are leery of massive 18- to 36-month “Hoover Dam”. projects being implemented in this information age”, he emphasised.

Getting listening ear of President, Governor and Chairman But how can a CIO get the listening ear of the chief executive officer of a local government, a state and a country?

WHO IS IN

CHARGE?

Often times technology experts don't realise that elected officials are highly specialized people whose priorities can at times be seemingly vexing when one has a technology agenda to promote.

Let's face it, everything an elected official does in a tenure is to make or keep citizens happy so a to get reelected. Period. Despite this reality, a CIO can win the confidence of the political leaders by doing the following: CIO must avoid IT projects that deliver questionable outcomes or outcomes that are not measurable. CIO must bear in mind the fact that elected officials are leery of massive 18- to 36-month “Hoover Dam”. Consequently, they want quick wins that ultimately impact many users/citizens and that are deliverable in a short time span. So, it is in the interest of the CIO to pursue wins that may only involve one agency or constituent group at the outset, but ultimately prove out a larger concept without the 36 months of hand wringing and perceived risk.

Once proven, the focus becomes the next agency, next electronic form, next constituent group, etc. But for the elected official, the perception of risks must have been reduced and trust gained. The projects must be strategically visible and deliver incremental value.

Much of the success a CIO will record is most likely to be as result of his ability to change the conversation (and, by extension, the perception) of the elected officers. Several reports have revealed that opinions held by political leaders on IT related issues are often adversarial. It is the job of a CIO to refocus that.

22

Who are Nigeria's leading Public CIOs? STATE

NAME

PORT FOLIO

GENDER

Abia

Barrister Charles Nwator

Commissioner for Science & Technology

Male

Akwa Ibom

Comfort Etuk

Commissioner for Science & Tech

Female

Anambra

Alloy Egwuatu

Commissioner for Science & Tech

Male

Bayelsa

-

-

-

Bauchi

Akinyemi Olowokere

Special Assistant on (ICT)

Male

Cross River

Odo Effiong

SA on ICT

Male

Delta

Sunny Ofilli

SA on ICT

Male

Ebonyi

Lawrence Nwezza

SA on ICT

Male

Edo

Yemi Keri

ED, Directorate of ICT

Female

Ekiti

Toyin Oluniteru

Director-General ICT Department

Male

Enugu

Ozo Okechukwu

Imo

-

-

-

Kaduna

Bashir Ibrahim Sakadadi

Commissioner for Science & Tech

Male

Kebbi

-

-

-

Katsina

-

-

-

Kogi

-

-

-

Kwara

-

-

-

Lagos

Adebiyi Mabadeje

Commissioner for Science & Tech

Male

Ondo

Tunde Yadeka

Chairman ICT agency

-

Ogun

Bunmi Adebayo

Senior Special Adviser on Information, Communication and Technology,

Male

Osun

Aderemi Ojikutu

Personal Adviser on ICT Applications

Male

Oyo

Tayo Koleosho

Senior Special Adviser (ICT)

Male

Plateau

Nyeng Gyang

Senior Special Adviser on Information and Communication Technology

Male

River

Eng. Goodliffe Nmekini

Senior Special Adviser on Information and Communication Technology

Yobe

-

-

-

Zamfara

-

-

-

SA, ICT

Male

23

LEADING PUBLIC CIOs

PROMOTION

OMOBOLA JOHNSON Minister for Communication Technology Nigeria

TOYIN OLONITERU Director-General ICT Department Ekiti State

YEMI KERI ED, Directorate of ICT Edo State

SUNNY OFILI SA on ICT Delta State

ADEBIYI MABADEJE Commissioner for Science & Tech Lagos Satte

ODO EFFIONG SA on ICT Cross River State

TAYO KOLEOSHO Senior SA on ICT Oyo State

govtechnology.com.ng

ADEREMI OJIKUTU PA on ICT Applications Osun State

CONNECT WITH

PRINT

TUNDE YADEKA Chairman ICT Agency Ondo State

BUNMI ADEBAYO Senior SA on ICT Ogun State

. MOBILE . SOCIAL . ONLINE . TABLET

NYENG GYANG Senior SA on ICT Plateau State

GOODLIFFE NMEKINI Senior SA on ICT River State

24

25

system with the capacity to support various configurable electronic transactions which are accessible through multiple channels and locations operated by the smartcards and the ability to automate various MDAs as well as private sector processes to utilise the systems in biometric electronic smartcard and fund transfer system.

Who drives the Smartgov.CRSG initiative?

Two principal parties are government of Cross River state and Interswitch Limited.

Individual drivers exist in the board of Smartgov.CRSG. Like I told you earlier, our focus is to use public and private sector partnership to drive our automation initiatives. We are using the Smartgov.CRSG as a template for partnership with the private sector.

SIX QUESTIONS FOR CIO

3

CIO SHOULD BE A CABINET-LEVEL OFFICER – Effiong, Special Adviser to Cross River governor on ICT Special Adviser, Mr. Odo Effiong, on ICT to governor of Cross River State, Senator Liyel Imoke, spoke with govtechnology on Smartgov.CRSG, an initiative undertaken by the state government to bring governance closer to the citizens through information and communication technology (ICT) among other issues:

The condition of ICT space in the state wasn’t as it is. Tell us how it was before you came in and what is the position now? efore we came in 2007, what existed was a small ICT unit. It provided internet service to the governor's office and a few other ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). There was also a department that carried out maintenance and repairs. Many staff helped with creating database of civil servants in the offices of Head of Service, Local Government Commission, Accountant General Office and Ministry of Education. In 2005 there was an Oracle financials project that was terminated due to non-delivery. When we came in we were given a comprehensive mandate by the governor, Senator Liyel Imoke. His vision is

1

B

for the state to be the leading ICT-driven state in Nigeria; and we can confidently say that the state already is on the list of top three.

Our mission is to create a knowledge-driven society in the state. So, we still have a lot of work to do. One of the mandates given to us by the governor was that we must partner with the private sector to achieve our objectives of driving government’s businesses and processes with the help of IT. Today, we have partnered with Interswitch to use smartcard powered ID management to automate most of the government’s processes. The project is being implemented under a platform called Smartgov.CRSG initiative. We are also partnering with Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) to develop Tinapa Knowledge City (TKC). The two projects signpost Cross River State's determination to leverage on the

On the government side, we have the Commissioner for Finance, who represents the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) Cross River state's investment vehicle, the Attorney General, who is the default signatory and representative of the state government for transactions and Special Adviser on ICT development since it is a technology driven project.

professionalism of the private sector to drive its ICT objectives.

What would you say are the main ideas behind the Smartgov.CRSG initiative?

The idea behind the Smartgov.CRSG initiative is the delivery of various public and private services to the people of Cross River State utilizing the platform of ID management and electronic transactions.

The main objective of the Smartgov.CRSG initiative is the creation of an automated transaction platform and the application of the platform to automate and deliver a variety of social services to the people of Cross River State. Some of the main components of the Smartgov.CRSG initiative are the biometric electronic smartcards that are capable of uniquely identifying individuals and entities, electronic funds transfer (EFT)

2

26

Our chairman is an experienced private sector finance industry chieftain in the person of Chief Asuquo Ekpenyong and others. State governments see this initiative as a game changer. It has the potential to transform state economies. For the citizens it is an initiative that will enable government's services to be brought closer to the people through various automated channels. It is an initiative that will take government to the people, make governance available to the people in a way that they have not seen before.

For the private sector, it is going to create additional platforms for services to and from government, additional channels for payments, and so give easier and greater access to services, real time, online payment services, access to additional business transactions and additional information access.

L-R: Special Assistant to Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River on ICT Development, Mr Odo Effiong exchanging a copy of the JV agreement with Mr. Mitchell Elegbe, MD/CEO, Interswitch Limited shortly after signing the document for the implementation of the state's ID management and epayment backbone in Calabar, the state capital

What has Tinapa Knowledge City concept got to do with it?

That is another testimony of our determination to partner with the private sector to deliver dividends of democracy to our people.

Tinapa Knowledge City would enable us to leverage the huge investment we have committed into the Tinapa Business Resort in the last few years to create a knowledge driven cluster in collaboration with Federal Government and private sector led by ISPON. The governor is particularly committed to this project because of its multiplier effects on the growth and development of the knowledge economy in the state. We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in January. Activities have already started in Tinapa. We are bringing broadband Internet facility to the knowledge city. We are also tackling the challenges of power supply. As you know, Tinapa already has its own dedicated power station. But we are planning to have a more reliable back-up.

4

5

As the pioneer public CIO for Cross River State, how would you define your role?

It has not been easy. But we are

making progress now. I could remember how I was shouted down by my colleagues when I mooted the idea of having computers in the schools sometime ago. They thought the challenges of insecurity, inadequate power and all sorts would make it impossible. But I convinced them that if private businesses could operate under the same environment and they still record successes, public concerns should find a way to do the same.

But with the support of the governor, who is committed to making the state one of the leading states to leverage ICT for development, things are getting better.

Should a state CIO be a cabinet-level officer?

As the driver of the ICT development of a state government, I think the state CIO should be a cabinet-level officer. Any state that desires to grow in this information age must recognise the importance of technology in all its dealings. And as a result, the state must have an officer with the same status as commissioners so that he can be with them whenever decision on a project is being made. Every state must realise that there is ICT content for almost all the projects being implemented in this information age.

6

27 33

turned to another overwhelming global problem: access to clean water. He was inspired to take on the issue in the summer of 1993, when a particularly nasty strain of cholera killed more than 10,000 of people in India (Gadgil himself grew up in Mumbai).

"That's when I got interested in finding out why these people died when it should be so easy to disinfect water," he says.

Directory | Product Review | Product News

UV Waterworks His solution: UV Waterworks. This is a technology developed in the mid-1990s that uses ultraviolet light to eliminate waterborne pathogens. "The idea was to disinfect water highly effectively but at an extremely low cost and have it robust enough to work in deep rural areas with almost no tech backup or support, and where a whole village might just have a couple of screwdrivers”, he says.

UV Waterworks devices are currently distributed by WaterHealth International, and can disinfect water for just two cents per 10 litres (that's about 42 cups of water).

The technology provides water to 5 million people on a daily basis in India, Liberia, Nigeria, the Philippines and Ghana.

THE BERKELEY-DARFUR STOVE & UV WATERWORKS Script: Tunde Balogun

A

If you're a lucky inventor, maybe, you can come up with one big thing that makes an impact on people. Gadgil, winner of the 2012 $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation, has produced two inventions that have changed the lives of people in the developing world, and is now working on a third. How has he pulled this off? It helps that Gadgil, a professor in the

Department of Civil Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, has a science background. But his explanation is fairly simple: "In each case it was becoming aware of how serious the problem was and then being aware that actually there is some technical solution that could help. It's like you find a puzzle, but the nice thing about this puzzle is that if you solve it, you're making people's lives better”.

Gadgil started his career helping developing countries not with an invention, but with a programme to promote utility-sponsored energy efficiency. In most developing countries, customers don't have enough

Year of invention

2004

Motivation

Exposure of women to armed gangs when collecting firewood at Darfur Refugee Camp

Sponsor

USAID

Input

Women living in Darfur Camp

Milestones

1. The Berkeley-Darfur Stove saves 55% on fuel compared to traditional stoves 2. Withstand the environmental conditions -- wind and sand -- of the region

Gadgil's invention is saving developing world

shok Gadgil is a professor at Berkeley. But in his spare time, he's come up with solutions for water, cooking and energy quandaries, improving lives from Sudan to India. How is he doing it? He just likes a good puzzle.

ANALYTIC OF UV WATERWORKS

money to pay the full price on electricity, so they get subsidized rates from government.

But when efficient energy technology isn't subsidized, there's no incentive for residential customers to use it (using compact fluorescent light bulbs, for example). "My solution was to point out to utilities that if you spend a little amount of money for efficient lamps, you will be selling less subsidized electricity and you get to keep more money”, explains Gadgil.

The idea, which Gadgil hatched in the late 1980s, was a success. Over 100 million people participate in these utility-sponsored CFL programmes in dozens countries, including Algeria, Cuba, India, Iraq, Panama, Russia, Sudan and Mexico. Next, Gadgil

28

Berkeley-Darfur Stove Gadgil's most recent invention was not, he admits, entirely his own idea. In 2004, an officer from USAID called him with a tragic problem: 80% of all displaced persons in Darfur are females. The UN World Food Programme provides these people with raw food. In order to cook the food, the women would leave the safety of their camps to collect firewood, which left them exposed to armed gangs that would systematically rape them. Gadgil's challenge was to come up with a more efficient stove so that the women didn't have to collect firewood so often. And so he did.

The Berkeley-Darfur Stove saves 55% on fuel compared to traditional stoves. The stove, designed by Gadgil and his team with input from women living in Darfur's camps, is also designed to withstand the environmental conditions - wind and sand -

3. 20,000 stoves have been distributed 4. Gadgil is working on a modified version for Ethiopia

ANALYTIC OF UV WATERWORKS Year of invention

Mid-1990s

Motivation

Nasty strain of cholera that killed more than 10,000 of people in India in 90s

Sponsor

-

Input

-

Milestones

1. Disinfects wate r for just two cents per 10 lit res 2. Robust enough to work in deep rural areas with almost no tech backup or support, and where a whole village might just have a couple screwdrivers 3. Disinfect water highly effectively but at an extremely low cost 4. The technology provides water to 5 million people on a daily basis in India, Liberia, Nigeria, the Philippines and Ghana

of the region. Version 14 of the stove is now in production. So far, 20,000 stoves have been distributed, and Gadgil is working on a modified version for Ethiopia. Gadgil is also working on a technology to remove arsenic from water. In the future, he wants to develop something that addresses over-

fluoridation problem of drinking water, which can cause a crippling bone disease.

This is all in his free time. Gadgil's day job is being a professor, and for that award money? "I would love to use it for something that's high risk and high reward”, he says.

29

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

NIGERIA SIM REGISTRATION SURVEY STATUS REPORT

CONDUCTED BY

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

NIGERIA SIM REGISTRATION SURVEY STATUS REPORT

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

NIGERIA SIM REGISTRATION SURVEY STATUS REPORT

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

1.

INTRODUCTION

2.

INFOGRAPHIC SUMMARY

3.

THE REPORT

Since its conception in March 2008, much has been written about Subscribers Identification Module (SIM) card registration in Nigeria. Though the importance and imperative of the exercise was never in doubt; however, there were divided opinions on who should be involved in the registration process, the integrity of the data gathered, ability of the regulatory body to meet the lofty objectives of the scheme and the judicious management of the N6.1 billion fund appropriated by the National Assembly for the scheme.

i.

Front-end Partners versus MNOs

ii.

Impact of technical assistance

iii.

SIM VS RUIM

iv.

Too close to call for Glo, Airtel & Etisalat

v.

Risk Management & Corporate Governance

vi.

Multiple Registration Of SIMs

vii. Pre-Registered SIMs viii. Project cost implications ix.

4.

SIMs registration Important landmark dates CONCLUSION

The public reactions generated by the scheme, so far, is not unexpected given the outcomes of the past national ID schemes. Nigeria is arguably the only country in the world without a single trusted means of identifying the citizens but yet suffused with silos of ID initiatives. The objectives of the Nigeria SIM Card Registration Survey 2012 include capturing the state of SIM registration project from the view point of independent observers without pecuniary and consulting stake. The survey is also expected to access the credibility of the processes adopted and evaluate the roles and responsibilities of parties involved in the exercise.

The picture that emerged from this survey, of which the inference was primarily drawn on the SIM cards registration data submitted to Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) by its appointed front-end (Enrolment) partners and MNOs, revealed that seven network operators registered 80 per cent (78,647,422) of the SIMs, while the seven front-end partners engaged by NCC registered the remaining 20 per cent (22,831,253).

Lagos recorded highest number of SIM registered in the country based on the figures submitted by NCC's front-end partners. It is, however, difficult to know the overall SIM registered in each state because MNOs did not classified the data state by state.

According to figures from front-end partners, Lagos residents

registered (5,395,783 SIMs), South West States (4,581,155), North Central States (4,105,165), South-South States (4,070,156), North West States (2,140,938 ), North East States (1,776,657) and South East States (761,399).

Based on comprehensive interview with NCC's senior officers in charge of the project, our survey also would suggests that adequate risk management and corporate governance processes should be in place to forestall project failure and ensure prudent management of the appropriated fund. For example, initial payments of 15% of contract sums to the front-end partners were predicated on submission of Advance Payment Guaranty (APG) of equivalent value from reputable Nigerian bank.

Subsequent payments were based on certification of milestones achieved as follows: payment of 20% of contract sum upon certification of deployment of facilities in not less than 50% of the coverage areas; further payments upon certification of submitted data by the Project Management Consultant, i.e. KPMG. The APG is recoverable in 3 equal installments from the 3rd payments, i.e. for certified data. Besides, KPMG carries out monthly monitoring of the registration exercise across the country to ensure conformity with guidelines and specifications.

This survey also confirmed that NCC envisaged the possibility of multiple SIM registration, hence, requisite software were procured to clean, scrub and match all SIMs data submitted by MNOs and NCC's front-end partners. As at the time of gathering data for the survey, NCC had cleaned 40% of the data received.

However, our survey suggests that NCC and the parties involved in the scheme did not envisage the possibility of pre-registered sales of SIMs card by fraudulent persons. As a result, no risks mitigation strategy was put in place during the enrolment phase. However, measures have been promptly established to address the seback.

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NIGERIA SIM REGISTRATION SURVEY STATUS REPORT

NIGERIA SIM REGISTRATION SURVEY STATUS REPORT

PRE-REGISTERED SIMS

There were several instances of sales of some pre-registered SIMs were discovered at the completion of exercise by the front-end partners and the MNOs. Sales of pre-registered SIMs were possible because of a loophole which existed in the process adopted by MNOs to activate registered SIMs. The system merely confirms that there are records and thus activates SIMs without confirming the genuineness or authenticity of the data.

SIMS REGISTRATION IMPORTANT LANDMARK (DATES)

prudently managed the N6.1 billion allocated for the scheme by the National Assembly. The contract sums were originally drawn with the mindset that the front-end partners would register all the existing SIMs. However, the need to complete the exercise on time necessitated the inclusion of MNOs in this category of registration and this scaled down the money paid to the front-end partners significantly such that less than 40 per cent of the budgeted amount was paid. NCC paid the frontend based on the number of SIMs registered. Only the technical partners to the scheme are expected to be paid fully. The actual (eventual) contract sums are highlighted as follows:

Because MNOs agents were being paid based on the number of SIMs registered, the agents capitalized on the loophole in the registration process by simply registering as many SIMs as possible and selling them to unsuspecting Nigerians as “Active SIMs”. They also made S/N CONTRACTED extra income by selling the activated SIMs at PARTNER a premium.

This was also possible because the average subscriber would rather buy an “Active SIM” and pay a premium price rather than go through the registration process or be compelled to provide “confidential information”. To a considerable extent, this is buoyed by ignorance on the part of the buyer since such SIMs would be deactivated eventually once it is discovered that the required data, especially finger prints and portrait images are absent.

PROJECT COST IMPLICATIONS One of the banes of the public sector project management in Nigeria is mismanagement of allocated resources. NCC seems to have

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

ASSIGNED COVERAGE AREA

CONTRACT SUM

1.

Chams Plc

Lagos

760,142,640.00

2.

DataGroup IT Limited

North East

650,978,510.00

3.

North West South - South

677,017,640.00

4.

Eagle CBC Consortium E- Kenneth/Sagemetrics

5.

JKK Limited

South West

693,617,670.00

6.

PNN Limited

North Central

693,164,685.00

7.

SW Global Limited

South East

620,269,980.00

However, since mid-2009, the implementation of the project had been fraught with a number of challenges, primary amongst which are the following: a)

REMARK Less thanz 40% paid to date

Delays in securing budget approval for the project continued to put a constrain on the takeoff in various ways, including inability to formally engage/execute agreements with that front-end and back-end service providers/partners, and carry out the desired awareness campaigns.

b)

Inability to finalize relevant documents owing to delay in contracting back-end provider.

c)

Failure to release draft regulations for the required public consultation due to unstable leadership of the commission.

768,354,910.00

Sub-Total

4,863,546,035.00

8.

SW Global Limited (DATABASE)

903,828,476.40

Sub-Total

5,767,374,511.40

9.

NIMC (Consultancy)

45,000,000.00

Fully Paid

10.

KPMG (Consultancy)

10 0,504,467.00

85% paid

11.

Banwo & Ighodalo Law Firm (Regulations)

7,500,000.00

Fully Paid

12.

E-Kenneth Group Ltd. (Confirmation Platform) – in view

8,500,000.00

No payment

GRAND TOTAL

The first three months (May-July 2010) after the take-off of the registration of new SIMs by the operators was classified as 'Transition Period' to perfect the various specifications and modalities. Thus, by the time the registration of existing SIMs commenced nine months thereafter, the entire process and specifications had been perfected.

5,928,878,978.40

Less than 40% paid to date

The primary implication of these challenges was that the planned date for the commencement of the second phase of the project, i.e. Existing Subscribers, could no longer subsist; hence, the delay till March 2011, instead of August 2010.

S/N

Landmark Achievement

Completion date

1.

Conce ption & Initiation A ctivities

March 2008

2.

Consultation Workshop

July 2008

3.

Approval of Implementation Framework Document

March 20 09

4.

Approval and release of Guidelines, i.e. Data Dictionary, Business Rules and specifications for Finger prints & Portrait Image, as well as the transmission protocol document

April 2010

5.

Commencement of registration of new SIMs by Operators

May 1 st 2010

6.

Selection of Front -end & Back -end Partners

June 2010

7.

Approval of Budget by the National Assembly

November 2010

8.

Commencement of registration (enrolment) of existing SIMs b y NCC Front -End Partners and Operators

March 28, 2011

9.

Execution of Back -end Contract for the establishment of Central Database

July 2011

10.

Expiration of specified duration for enrolment of existing SIMs

September 28, 2011

11.

Extension of Enrolment

January 2012

12.

Discontinuation of enrolment by NCC Partners

January 20, 2012

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

NIGERIA SIM REGISTRATION SURVEY STATUS REPORT

INFOGRAPHIC SUMMARY

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

NIGERIA SIM REGISTRATION SURVEY STATUS REPORT

RISK MANAGEMENT & CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

The absence of corporate governance and risk management has been identified as one of the reasons for the failure of most public projects in the country. To forestall project failure, NCC seems to have put in place a well-articulated and enforceable corporate governance strategy and risk mitigation processes. Initial payments of 15% of contract sums to the front-end partners were predicated on submission of Advance Payment Guaranty (APG) of equivalent value from a reputable Nigerian bank. Subsequent payments were based on certification of milestones achieved as follows:

33,900,000

2,152,609

15,119,033

445,369

14,172,411

108,000

Apart from the initial 15% APG-backed payments, other payments to the Enrolment Partners were subjected to validation of data by the back-end partner, followed by certification by the Project Management Consultant.

MULTIPLE REGISTRATION OF SIMS Several cases of multiple registration of SIMs were

TOTAL

12,750,000

Payment of 20% of contract sum upon certification of deployment of facilities in not less than 50% of the coverage areas; further payments upon certification of submitted data by the Project Management Consultant, i.e. KPMG. The APG is recoverable in three equal installments from the third payments, i.e. for certified data. To ensure the integrity of the project, a reputable international consulting firm, KPMG Professional Service was engaged to manage the entire project. KPMG carries out monthly monitoring of the registration exercise across the country to ensure conformity to guidelines and specifications.

78,647,422

discovered during the cleaning and matching of the data submitted by front-end partners and MNOs. This is expected since both registrars carried out the SIM registration at the same time and most time at the same locations.

Whereas the front-end partners were, hitherto, expected to register all existing SIMs, the need to complete the exercise in record time necessitated the inclusion of MNOs in this category of registration and this was a serious source of challenge to the front-end partners.

As a result of the incentives being given by the operators, most subscribers preferred to register with them.

The incentives given by MNOs expectedly were the major catalyst for multiple registrations. For instance, it was observed that a subscriber with three SIMs, who had registered these SIMs at one NCC-point would go to each of the networks to re-register the relevant number, as result, his data is discovered in, at least, four registers (three operators' & NCC partner's) Another challenge that attracted subscribers and push them to prefer the operators was the delay in establishing the back-end (central database), which affected the ability of the commission to establish a veritable platform for subscribers to confirm the status of their registration.

To safeguard against multiple and possible improper registration, all improper registration will be exposed during data scrubbing and operators would be directed to partially deactivate the SIMs (on receive only) to enable the 'owners' of such numbers (if they exist) to update their records and thereafter deactivate the lines if there are no responses from the users.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

NIGERIA SIM REGISTRATION SURVEY STATUS REPORT

TOO CLOSE TO CALL FOR GLO, AIRTEL & ETISALAT

With 33,900,000 registered SIMs, just 100,000 away from the golden 40 million mark, and still expecting significant percentage from the 22 million registered by the front-end partners, MTN's dominance of mobile telecommunications industry was once again confirmed. With this figure MTN commanded over 50 per cent of all SIMs and RUIMs registered by both GSM and CDMA operators. However, it is too close to call for the trio of Airtel, Glo and Etisalat. On the maiden Econet Wireless, now known as

Airtel, began operations in Nigeria on August 5, 2001 as Nigeria's first GSM service provider, registered only 14,172,411 subscribers while Glo, the only surviving indigenous operator that started operations on August 29, 2003, two years after MTN and Airtel, registered 15,119,411 SIMs. Etisalat Nigeria that began commercial operations on October 23, 2008, seven years after MTN, and five years after Glo, registered 12,750,000 SIMs. However, this figure excludes the SIMs registered by the front-end partners.

SIM Registration by GSM Mobile Network Operators

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

NIGERIA SIM REGISTRATION SURVEY STATUS REPORT

FRONT-END PARTNERS VERSUS MNOs

Whereas the NCC’s front-end partners were, hitherto, expected to register all the existing SIMs, while MNOs were only to make sure new SIMs were registered before activation, the need to complete the exercise in record time necessitated the inclusion of MNOs in this category of registration and this became a serious source of challenge to the front-end partners. As a result of the incentives given by the MNOs, most subscribers preferred to register with them.

The front-end partners were appointed in February 2011 to carry our SIM enrolment as follow:

12,750,000

14,172,411

15,119,033

33,900,000

MNOs did not disclose how much it cost to register each of the subscribers. However, it is not likely to be cheaper than what NCC arrived at, if all the variables such as cost of mobilizing the agents, marketing communications and promotions embarked upon to incentivize subscribers to enroll their SIM before the terminal date.

76,021,444

The seven MNOs namely, MTN Nigeria, Glo, Airtel, Etisalat (GSM Operators) Visafone, Starcomms and Multilinks (CDMA Operators), on the other hands, deployed their agents to register their subscribers across the country. This unsurprisingly created a competitive situation since the front-end partners were being paid based on the number of SIMs registered. Payments for SIMs registered differed from region to region.

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

NIGERIA SIM REGISTRATION SURVEY STATUS REPORT

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

NIGERIA SIM REGISTRATION SURVEY STATUS REPORT

IMPACT OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

SIM vs RUIM

Apparently guiding against a possible failure of the scheme, NCC contacted the best available consultants to provide requisite technical assistance to the initiative. National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), the public commission with expertise in enrolment and database management, assisted NCC in developing the framework, modalities, structure, specifications and selection of the front-end and back-end partners.

GSM and CDMA have serve as shorthand for different mobile phone technologies. GSM stands for Global System for Mobile Communications; it's the world's most prolific mobile standard.

While CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple Access, in the context of cellphones and mobile networks, people tend to use it interchangeably to refer to two different mobile standards: CDMAOne or CDMA 2000.

KPMG Professional Service, a reputable international private consulting firm with expertise in advisory services and experiences in diverse industries, including telecommunications

provided project management consultancy, including monitoring, verification and certification of milestone achievements of front-end and back-end activities. Banwo & Ighodalo Chambers, a reputable Nigerian law firm, assisted in the development of the regulations for the exercise and SW Global Ltd, one of the front-end partners, also doubled as the sole back-end partners. It helped in the development of specifications (Data Dictionary, Business Rules, etc), establishment and management of the central database, including collection, harmonisation, cleaning and scrubbing of data and establishment of reporting tools. i. Names, Profiles, Roles,Responsibilities/Functions of NCC Technical Partners such as KPMG, SW Global, amongst others

i.NAMES, PROFILES, ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES/FUNCTIONS OF NCC TECHNICAL PARTNERS SUCH AS KPMG, SW GLOBAL, AMONGST OTHERS S/N

ROLE

NAME

National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)

Public Commission with expertise in enrolment and database management

Consultant

KPMG Professional Service

Reputable international private consulting firm with expertise in advisory services and experiences in diverse industries, including telecommunications

Consultant

Reputable Nigerian Law Firm

Consultant

Banwo & Ighodalo Chambers

SW Global Ltd.

Back-end Partner

GSM and CDMA standards outline a way that phones are identified by carriers. In GSM phones, it's a removable chip called SIM card. In theory, you can pop a SIM card out of a GSM phone and stick it in any other GSM phone. Although quite a number of phones are "locked" to a specific carrier through promotions.

SIM registration data submitted by MNOs to NCC brought to fore once again the widing gulf between GSM and CDMA technology platforms in the country. While GSM platform accounted for 76,021,444 of the 78,647,422 registered SIMs, CDMA operators were able to register only 2, 705,978 RUIM. Similar ratio is expected from the exercise conducted

by NCC's front-end partners.

iv.SIM & RUIM Registration by Mobile Network Operators NUMBER OF REGISTERED SIM CARDS (AS @ MARCH 31, 2012)

RESPONSIBILITIES & FUNCTIONS

Assisted the commission in developing the framework, modalities, structure, specifications and selection of the frontend and back-end partners Project Management Consultancy, including monitoring, verification and certification of milestone achievements of front-end and back-end activities

NUMBER OF REGISTERED SIM CARDS (AS @ MARCH 31, 2012)

33,900,000

2,152,609

15,119,033

445,369

14,172,411

108,000

Assisted in the development of the Regulations for the exercise

TOTAL

12,750,000 Development of specifications (Data Dictionary, Business Rules, etc).

Establishment and management of the Central Database, including collection, harmonisation, cleaning and scrubbing of data and establishment of reporting tools

Initially, CDMA phones were locked to one network, and can only be switched to another with the cooperation of both the old and new carriers. But few years back, the CDMA standard developed something similar to SIM, called the RUIM (Removable User ID Module). But due to overwhelming popularity of GSM in Nigeria, it is called SIM card in the country.

TOTAL

76,021,444

2, 705,978

NIGERIA SIM REGISTRATION SURVEY STATUS REPORT

CONCLUSION

NOTAP to build oil & gas Technology Park in UNIPORT Going by the strict rules of engagement established by NCC and its technical partners, particularly NIMC, the Nigeria SIMs database could become the most trusted database that would eventually make up the planned Nigeria National Identity Database. Other database would include data from existing government agencies such as INEC (voters' registration), immigration (international passport registration), FRSC (drivers' license) and FIRS (tax registration). These would be integrated with the Nigeria Identity Number (NIN) to be issued by NIMC. The decision by the NCC to engage NIMC as technical consultant to the project would ensure the seamless integration of the SIMs card database to the National ID database.

RIVERS, NIGERIA: University of PortHarcourt (UNIPORT), Rivers State, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) for the building of Nigeria's premier oil and gas technology park.

The MoU was signed at UNIPORT campus when a delegation from NOTAP led by the Director-General, Umar Bindir, visited the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ajienka, as part of activities marking the school's Annual Research Fair and Conference. By virtue of the MoU, signed by head, Public Relations, Adoiye Dagogo-George, UNIPORT and NOTAP are to evolve efficient methodologies for the

south for the actualisation of the mandates of the agency in refocusing research and development (R&D) results in universities, institutions of higher learning and research institutes in order to meet the entrepreneurial needs of the people.

development of the park, as well as encourage the development of other technology corridors that may be identified within the sub-region.

UNIPORT has, therefore, accepted to act as the co-ordinator of NOTAP in the South-

UNIPORT is also expected to facilitate the promotion of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), link R&D results to industry and create opportunity for the establishment of technology based Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) from start-up, and boost innovation, creativity and research through the Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Office (IPTTO) established by NOTAP in the university.

Nigeria to unveil local content policy for ICT industry LAGOS, NIGERIA: The Federal Government is developing a local content policy for the Information and Communication Technology industry, which it plans to release during the fourth quarter of this year, Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, has said.

The minister also canvassed increased local production of e-Payment and other smartcards in the country ahead of the card explosion expected to be stimulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria's cash-less

economic policy, among other factors.

Johnson, who noted that an average Nigerian carries about three cards, decried the situation where significant parts of the cards were produced abroad.

She said, “On the issue of card manufacture, production and personalisation, we are working on local content guidelines that will be issued in Q4 of 2012, that will result in an increase in domestic value added to the ICT industry and, of course, the creation of low, medium and highly skilled jobs in the

ICT industry. Basically, this will create a competitive playing field and incentives for companies that manufacture, produce or personalise cards�.

She explained that successful implementation of the two priorities would contribute significantly to the growth of the card industry as more Nigerians use cards as a means of transacting business and obtaining government and other services. This, she said, would in turn drive local innovation in the industry.

43

FG endorses $2 million e-Health system

World Bank commends Ekiti on biometric payroll, laptops distribution to schools ADO-EKITI, EKITI: The World Bank Country Director in Nigeria, Mrs. Marie Francise Marie-Nelly, has commended Ekiti State’s governor, Kayode Fayemi, for his initiatives in the area of ICT. Marie-Nelly specifically commended the giant step being taken by Fayemi in the introduction of biometric payroll application system in the civil service and the distribution of laptops to secondary schools. T he World Bank’s chief said these in AdoEkiti while leading a delegation to the state on behalf of the bank to have a rapport with the government to ascertain which sector the state would like the international agency to intervene to fast track the level of development. MarieNelly said the introduction of biometric system in the payment of workers' salaries has helped in tackling the

Osun begins tech training with OYES-TECH OSOGBO, OSUN: Training for the participants for the newly introduced Osun Youth Employment SchemeTechnology (OYES-TECH) has commenced and the state government assured that there is guaranteed job security with such trainings.

The training, which commenced at the 10 centres located in the nine federal constituencies, is one of the series of youth employment initiatives of the Aregbesola-led administration.

Project Coordinator, Mr. Bambo Bashorun, told journalists that

distribution of laptops to students and teachers in secondary schools, would not only help in bringing back the lost glories of the state but will also go a long way in exposing the citizens to opportunities, far and near.

menace of ghost workers in the state civil service. She also added that the

The World Bank’s chief noted that the bank has taken up an advocacy to alert all nations to open their flanks in the area of ICT, saying it presents the veritable avenue for human capital development.

ABUJA, NIGERIA: The government of Nigeria has approved a new e-health system designed to improve the efficiencies of the delivery of health services in the country. The Federal Executive Council has approved the Regulatory and Business Practices Improvement and Information

Management system for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Ebuchi Chukwu, put forward the E-NHIS project, which will be run collaboration with IFC/World Bank. The bank will provide a grant of USD1.36 million, while the Nigerian government has approved the payment of

President Jonathan inaugurates e-library with 16.5 million e-Documents

Teledom introduces smart classroom technology LAGOS, NIGERIA: Teledom International Limited has unveiled its latest in stock smart classroom technology. The Group CEO, Teledom Group, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, says the solution would boost the education sector in the country.

He says smart classroom technology affords the teacher opportunity to think, teach, create and innovate smart. He also said that students are bound to learn in a smart way, exciting and great fun wherever this smart classroom in installed. He explained that the systems involve the networking of students' desktop or laptop systems in the class to the touch-screen symposium, which transfers whatever the teacher writes to an interactive whiteboard in

registration was high as participants were eager to be trained, stressing that the training programme will run concurrently in 10 centres across the

front of the class. “What the teacher writes is recorded centrally in the symposium server as well as in each of the students' desktop or laptop computers”, he enlightened.

Ekuwem noted that in the recent past, the education sector in Nigeria has been experiencing decline in standards, stressing that teachers have complained about the lack of basic infrastructure and conducive or enabling environment for effective teaching amongst other challenges.

UYO, AKWA IBOM: President Goodluck Jonathan has inaugurated the e-library built

by Akwa Ibom government. Jonathan said that the Federal Government was happy to be identified with the project which is in line with digital revolution in the world. He commended Gov. Godswill Akpabio for his efforts at transforming the state and expressed the hope that the e-library would be used for the uplift of humanity.

The President was in the state to also declare open the Senate Retreat.

He pointed out that experts have noted that an average Nigerian child, if exposed to the type of learning environment his counterparts in developed countries have access to, would definitely perform better than what obtains today

geo-political zones in the state, giving the entire youths in the state opportunity to participate.

44

Speaking earlier, Gov. Akpabio described the e-library as a knowledge-based centre, which, according to him, is the first in Nigeria and in West Africa. He said the library has a conference centre with language translators, as he urged the president to bring most of ECOWAS meetings to the state. Its cost was, however, not stated. The governor said that the state had also embarked on the construction of Tropicana Entertainment

and Conference Centre that could host international conferences of any magnitude. The Commissioner for Housing and Urban Renewal, Mr Emmanuel Enoidem, said that the e-library project started in 2007.

He said that the initial idea was to have a headquarters for the State Library Board but the vision later changed to a state-ofthe-art edifice. The three-storey library complex has digital collections of 16.5 million e-documents which could be accessible to users simultaneously. It also has two million electronic books that could be downloaded in addition to 14.5 million electronic research e-journals. The facility has children multi-media resource centre, 1,260 educational games for children, 1,000 simulations and mathematics practice tools, as well as 80,000 question and answer series for tertiary examinations.

the 40% contribution - USD554,785.78 for the project. The project will deliver an electronic network that will facilitate transactions between NHIS and other organizations, including health management organisations, health financiers and insurance companies.

River State unveils RivCloud initiative PORT HARCOURT, RIVERS: Rivers State has unveiled its cloud computing initiative called RivCloud, a local cloud computing enterprise designed to bring computing access to Nigerians. It is achieved by bringing infrastructure and connectivity together to securely deliver contents to users through major internet service providers (ISPs), thus, guaranteeing faster service from the cloud to all parts of the country. In the process, it will open new markets, drive competiveness, create jobs and boost the local economy.

Cloud Computing is a method of providing applications and technologies in a shared computing model that allows for quick deployment of computing resources to Nigerians. “As a government, RivCloud gives us the opportunity to implement more online services to our citizens in a cost-effective manner”. In addition to the services to the citizens of the state, RivCloud is designed for the creation of an ICT economy through the engagement and support of new ICT entrepreneurs by provision of the resources needed for their start-up businesses.

45

govTechnology Directory Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) Federal Ministry of Communications Technology The mandate of the ministry includes development of appropriate policies that facilitate the build-up of a ubiquitous, reliable and cost-effective infrastructure across the country, drive, support and encourage the utilisation of the infrastructure through wide spread ownership of ICT devices, digital content production; application development and the deployment of public and private services on the infrastructure and to leverage ICT to drive the effectiveness and efficiency of the public service.

Address Federal Secretariat Complex 3rd Floor, B Wing - Phase I, Annex II Shehu Shagari Way E-mail:roundtable@commtech.gov.ng Website:www.commtech.gov.ng Head:

NBC is a parastatal of the Federal Government of Nigeria, empowered to regulate the broadcasting industry by Act No. 38 of 1992 as amended by Act No. 55 of 1999. Its responsibilities include advising the Federal Government on the implementation of the National Mass Communication Policy, with particular reference to broadcasting, as well as licensing Cable, DTH, and all terrestrial radio and television services.

Address: Plot 20, Ibrahim Taiwo Street, (By Aso Villa), Asokoro, Abuja P.M.B. 5747, Garki, Abuja, Nigeria Website: http://www.nbc.gov.ng E-mail: info@nbc.gov.ng Head:

Engr. Yomi Bolarinwa Director General/CEO

NITDA is the clearinghouse for IT projects in the public sector in Nigeria. The agency is committed to the drive to bring government and its services closer to the people through IT. It is entrusted with the implementation of the National IT policy, which seeks to make Nigeria an IT capable country in no distant future.

Address Obasanjo Space Centre, Airport Road, Lugbe, Abuja E-Mail: servicom@nigcomsat.net Website: www.nigcomsat.com

Address 28, Port-Harcourt Crescent, Off Gimbiya Street, Area II, Garki, Abuja, Nigeria E-mail: info@nitda.gov.ng Website: www.nitda.gov.ng

NCC BUILDING

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) National Broadcasting Commission (NBC)

NIGCOMSAT Limited's mission is to manage and exploit the commercial viability of Nigerian Communication Satellite for the social and economic benefits of the nation. It is also charged with the management and operation of the first geostationary communications satellite in sub-Saharan Africa.

Head: Engr. Ahmed Rufai Managing Director/Chief Executive

Mrs.Omobola Johnson

National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion NOTAP is one of the parastatals established by the Federal Government of Nigeria, under the Science and Technology Ministry. Its activities include Evaluation/Registration of Technology Transfer Agreements; Promotion of Intellectual Property; Technology Advisory and Support Services; Commercialization of R&D Results; Research Industry Linkage; Production of Compenduim, Management Information System; Publication of Project Profiles on R&D Results among others.

Address 4 Blantyre Street Wuse II, Off Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja Website: http://www.notap.gov.ng Tel: 09- 4611189 E-mail:info@notap.gov.ng Head:

Head: Prof. Cleaopas Angaye Director General (DG)

Umar Buba Bindir Director General/CEO

Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) Galaxy Backbone

NCC is the independent national regulatory authority for the telecommunications industry in Nigeria. It is responsible for creating an enabling environment for competition among operators in the industry and ensuring the provision of qualitative and efficient telecommunications services throughout the country.

This is a public enterprise of the Federal Government incorporated in 2006 with the primary mandate of setting up and operating a unified ICT infrastructure platform that addresses the connectivity, transversal and other technology imperatives for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government.

Address Plot 423, Aguiyi-Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja, Nigeria E-mail: ncc@ncc.gov.ng Website:www.ncc.gov.ng

Address 61, Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent Wuse 2, Abuja, Nigeria E-mail:info@ galaxybackbone.com.ng Website: www.galaxybackbone.com.ng

Head:

Head:

Dr. Eugene Juwah Executive Vice Chairman (CEO)

National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA)

NIPOST is a government agency set up to develop, promote and provide adequate and efficiently coordinated postal services at reasonable rates; maintain an efficient system of collection, sorting and delivery of mail nationwide; provide various types of mail services to meet the needs of different categories of mailers; establish and maintain postal facilities of such character and in such locations consistent with reasonable economics as will enable the generality of the public to have ready access to essential postal services.

Address: Corporate Headquarters, Abubakar Musa Argungu House, Abuja, Nigeria.

E-mail: info@nipost.gov.ng Website: www.nipost.gov.ng

NITDA BUILDING

Gerald Ilukwe Managing Director/CEO

Head:

46

Ibrahim Mori Baba, Post Master General/CEO

47