DAILY TRUST Monday, March 14,2011 Hotline: 08056159961
VConnect unveils local contents search engine
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From Nahimah Ajikanle Nurudeen,l.agos
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VCONNECf Global Services Limited, an inrormation service provider has unveiled a Nigerian local search engine to bridge the information gap that existed between consumers seeking information and the suppliers thereby connecting people to corporate organisation. businesses as well as locations across the country with ease. Speaking at the media launch of the search engine in Lagos. General Manager. VConnect Global Services Limited. Mr. Deepankar Rustagi said the company is set to revolutionalise the in rormation services industry in Nigeria by prOviding information "whenever wherever" free of charge to the users. Heexplained that VConnectprovides the most comprehensive and updated information about products and services available in Nigeria with over200.ooo Nigerian businesses currently listed on VConnect Database. He said the main objective of VConnea is to provide accurate information to the users with the aim of becoming the most rellable and most used local search engine for every information seeker in Nigeria. He said: "We observed that in daily routine. people look out for certain information rdating to products and services around them like, where can I get this? who can give me the best service? how do I get their contacts? and so on:' He said that VConnea provides ready answers to these questions through two channds which are Web and Tdesearch.
Fadama III introduces I(T to farmers By TIna AHassan &SundayWiUiams
FARMERS in 17 states across Nigeria have been sdected to participate in an Wormation Communication Technology (ICf) project that will hdp improve food production. National Project Coordinator (NPC) of the Fadarna Devdopment Programme Dr. BukarTijani said the ICf project is part of governmen~s effort to introduce modem technological advancement to local farmers in order to be able to compete with farmers in other countries and in the international market He said every state under the fadama project would be connected to the internet which would be managed by the states' Agriculrural Devdopment Programme (ADP) who will also guide farmers on how to apply such technolOgies to boost production.
Speaking at thesigningofaMemoranda of Understanding (MoU) on ICf resource clinic and internet connectivity between Fadama ill and the ADPs at the weekend in Abuja.the National Project Coordinator urged all programme managers in the project to show more commitment in meeting up with their contribution quota III order to drive the programme effectively.
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Google gives $500,000 to Nigeria ICT Forum From Nahimah Ajikanle Nurudeen,lagos GOOGLE has given 5500.000 to Nigeria ICf forum in its recently announced 55 million package of grimts to African institutions designed to get more Africans online to improve access to internet infrastructure in tertiary institutions. The package includes a number of significant individual grants including a $1,25 million (N 195.800.000) grant to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and the US5500.ooo grant to the Nigeria ICf forum. amongst others. Housed at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg. the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory will help to preserve and give unprecedented digital access to thousands of archival documents. photographs. and audio-visual materials about the life and times of Nelson Mandela. Google's grant will assist in expanding the online Mandela archive and make it available to the global audiences. scholars and researchers in the future. In addition to Significant audio-visual mate-
rials. the online multimedia archive will include Mr. Mandel"s letters and correspondence with family. comrades and friends; prison diaries; and notes he made while leading the negotiations that led to the end of apartheid in South Africa. A grant of the same size has also been made to the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in Cape Town. for the documentation and digitisation of Desmond Tutu's archives. and an interactive digital learning centre. The Nigeria ICf Forum is an initiative of the Nigerian Caucus (a joint meeting of the Vice-Chancellors and leI Coordinators) of the six partnership Nigerian Uoiversities. Its mandate is to develop ICf-based capacity for strengthening Research and Higher Education Institutions {HEls),facilitate and nurture collaboration between HEIs to cultivate a favourable policy environment. develop. utilise and sustain ICf networks. services and shared resources consistent with institutional roles as focus for development. Commenting on the initiative. Lola Masha. Business Development Manager at Google
Nigeria said they want to help bring the world's historical heritage online. adding that the internet offers new ways to preserve and share this information. • Our grants for the Mandela and Tutu archives will give the global public an opportunity to engage with the history of some of the most extraordinary leaders of our time. We are also thrilled to be announcing a grant to the Nigeria leI Forum which will help more Nigerian students access the internet and benefit from access to information; she said. Commenting on the grant. the board secretaryofthe Nigeria ICf Forum, Mr. Nasir Bello said that "we are delighted with the grant to Nigerian ICf Forum which supports our goals to nurture the building of vibrant e-communities through training. innovation and partnerships. It will support the efforts in developing the community around shared internet infrastructure. greatly reducing cost and therefore barriers to affordable connectivity in tertiary educational institutions in Nigeria."
CONTEC announces N.5m scholarship for IT students 8y Hamisu Muhammad
CONTEC Global UK has announced the endowment of N500. 000 scholarships annually for two best Information Technology students in Nigeria for 10 years. CONTEC Global Chairman, Dr. Benoy Berry made the remarks Friday in Abuja while delivering the key note speech at the International Science Communicators Conference organized by the Nigeria Association . of Science Journalists (NASJ). Dr Berry who was represented by
the Head. Legal Admin and Human Resource. CONTEC Global. Sir Debo Aderibigbe said the scholarship is¡instiruted in the name Nigerian Association of Science Journalists. targeting the best two students in the IT field Each best student, one from the Northern and another from the Southern part of Nigeria will get N250.ooo each. while the CONTEC Global. NASJ and the Nigerian Academy of Science will work out the selection modalities soon. According to him. the company has established its presence on the }.orld stage as specialists in the area
of security technologies by offering state-of-the-art solutions in automated systems for the authentication of people. objects arid documents. He commended the organizers. saying that the conference is timely in this era of technological breakthrough. "With many years of experience and a long track record at the top of the security technologies market. the company has successfully implemented a number oflarge scale. mission-critical projects on the e-Governance platform:' He added that CONTEC Global has extensive practical experience of the development and installation
of user-friendly biometric solutions based on fingerprint and facial recognition. Speaking. Minister of Science and Technology. Professor Mohammed K. Abubakar said the ministry is working out action plans towards improvement of dissemirulting science and tech information in the country. Represented by the Director Research and Poticy. Mr Ochapa Ogenyi.the minister said the mmistry will continue to support the media in promoting science, technology. innovation reportage in the country.