All is now set for the federal government to equip Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) with necessary digital skills as the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has set up a multi-million naira training centre for IDPs in Abuja.
The NITDA says the multi-million naira Digital Capacity Building Centre for training of IDPs is located at the Praxis Catholic e-School for IDPs in Abuja.
The Chief Executive of the school, Mr. Ben Onwudinjo made the disclosure in a statement made available to TheNewsGuru on Monday.
According to Onwudinjo, NITDA Director-General, Dr Isa Pantani set up the centre at the school as part of the agency’s mandate of corporate social responsibility.
He said that the school had awarded scholarship to 300 IDP students drawn from Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states to support the Presidential Committee on Northeast Initiative (PCNI).
Onwudinjo said that the centre, equipped with e-learning facilities would empower IDPs in Abuja and its environs in the area of ICT to make them self-reliant.
“The digital capacity building centre is being used to equally provide free ICT training for students preparing for Universities Matriculation Examination computer based test in Abuja and its environs.
“It will also assist other Nigerians interested in acquiring knowledge in all areas of information and communication technology to boost the quality of education for national development,” he said.
Onwudinjo explained that the gesture by the NITDA Director-General would not only bridge the knowledge gap of the IDP, it would also help to support the efforts of the PCNI at rebuilding the Northeast.
He said, “The gesture has also given boost to the efforts of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) towards its computer based test.
“It has totally eradicated the ignorance earlier associated with the use of ICT during the exams by providing free training facilities for interested candidates.
Onwudinjo commended the NITDA Director-General for his kind gesture and assured him of judicious use of the digital capacity learning centre.
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), whose policy and programmes shape the nation’s tech sector, has hinted that Smart City is not a priority for the federal government of Nigeria at the moment as other economic issues are hitting hard.
Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, Director General (DG) of NITDA, said this in his office when Mr. Richard Edet, Managing Director of Nokia Nigeria, came seeking the partnership of the NITDA with Nokia in areas of capacity building, establishment of innovation hubs and deployment of Nigeria’s Smart City projects across the country.
“Smart city is very critical to our collective development as a nation but it should not be seen as our immediate priority. Our immediate priority is to see the advancement of capacity building, digital literacy and creation of hubs across the country where IT start-ups could be incubated,” the NITDA DG said.
However, NITDA’s stance on support for creation of hubs in Nigeria has come under radar in recent times over alleged failure to meet its funding obligations to Information Technology Developers Entrepreneurship Accelerator (iDEA), an incubator jointly created by the IT agency in partnership with the private sector.
But, Pantami believes that the projects are failing because of the failure to consider the peculiar problems of Nigeria in rolling out IT solutions.
One of such projects he cited to have fallen short on this count was “the case of whopping sum of $470m the nation invested on the Close Circuit Television, (CCTV) project which has now become moribund”.
“As a people we need to think globally and act locally,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Communications, cites Smart Cities among projects like e-Government, Girls in ICT, Open Data Initiative are being implemented by the government technology arm and the supervisory Ministry of NITDA.
Smart cities use a mix of technology innovation to create futuristic cities that makes it easier for residents to live, work and play.
Nigeria has in recent years embraced the idea of smart city which has become a growing agenda, while some State Government like Lagos, which is promoting its Smart City Initiative with Government of Dubai, have gone ahead to unfold implementation plans.
Lagos State has also announced plans to train one million Lagos residents by 2019 to advance its Smart City ambition and position the State as the technology frontier in Africa “in line with the Lagos state Smart City initiative in partnership with Dubai Smart City.
Smart City Resorts Plc which is promoting the Smart City sited in Lekki Lagos says on its website that the Innovation Hub from conception “has the close support and partnership of major public sector, corporate and private ICT-industry stakeholders”.
Promoters of the Lagos-based Smart City says that “Sector regulator and enabler, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is collaborating with private sector players and teams to develop the technology park in furtherance of a shared vision to grow the contribution of Information and Communication Technology to national development”.
When completed the ambitious Smart City’s Innovation Hub “will provide a conducive cocoon in terms of physical and ICT infrastructure, energy, regulatory and fiscal policies for the optimum and most profitable operation and development of technology products and/or service companies. It will bring together in physical proximity world-class ICT industry companies desirous of benefiting from the regional market and the #1 African market and its biggest economy, Nigeria.”
The question of when Nigerian universities research works will leave rusty shelves has been asked time and time again with no end seems to be in view, but experts have provided a tech solution, and there is one university in Nigeria that is at the forefront driving efforts in that direction to removing its pile of research works from rusty shelves.
Universities have great data that can benefit the Nigerian economy, and researches kept in rusty shelves if recouped can actually make a lot of money for the ailing Nigerian economy. This was the position held by a panel of experts at the Nigerian International Technology Exhibition and Conference (NITEC) 2017 that held in Lagos recently.
The experts agreed based on the following facts that the Nigerian university community is a critical ecosystem for generating useful data.
Nigeria presently has about 160 public and private universities. About 600 thousand students are admitted in all universities in Nigeria every session meaning that about 3 million students study in all Nigerian universities annually. Factorizing this into a 10-year period, you have 30 million students who pass through the Nigerian universities system.
These students carry out painstaking researches to write assignments, term papers, seminar papers and final year research project. The data so generated are yet to find the light of day and lying in waste in the shelves of Nigerian universities.
Putting into consideration postgraduate students and lecturers who make up the universities ecosystem, and who churn out large amount of research data as well, the university system then become an important point of call in the discourse of big data.
Experts are saying nations of the world making huge impacts are moving away from commodity-based economy to knowledge-based economy, and that huge data being generated by the Nigerian university system can create huge revenue for the Nigerian economy, if the data are properly harnessed.
UNN innovation with Roar Nigeria hub
Professor Benjamin Chukwuma Ozumba, the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), who has seen value in the data lying in waste in Nigerian universities, said his institution is already leading the course in harnessing its data for revenue generation, especially with the establishment of Roar Nigeria Hub.
Prof. Ozumba said with Roar Nigeria Hub, UNN is poised to become the first full-fledged technology-embedded university in West Africa.
“We are trying to make UNN a Smart University. Everybody on campus has bought into it,” he said.
The VC, who was a panellist at the NITEC 2017 event, agreed with other panellists that research and data analytics form crucial part in deepening local content in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector of the Nigerian economy.
“Universities are centres for learning, researches and educating the public. We talk about our universities graduating three million students annually; there are lecturers and non-academic staff, who are generating and warehousing data relevant to the society. But have we really harnessed these data? The answer is no! These data exist, but they have not been harnessed,” the VC said.
“We know that most of these data are warehoused in ICT repositories. They use it in ranking universities. They want to know if you are creating output in the numbers of researches published.
“We are working to connect what we have in the library to the main repository. We found out there are issues with that. We have to hire an ICT specialist to fix it, and our university repository shot up immensely.
“There are a lot of missing links. We have to get it right. That is why I am saying I want to make my university a smart university in that direction.
“We know that if these data in the universities are properly harvested and warehoused, and well researched, organizations can buy them.
“Data is a tool for making money. That is why Google is thriving; they harness the data they have to make fortunes out of them. So, we need infrastructure and intelligent use of data,” the VC espoused.
TheNewsGuru tech editor found out from a visit to the UNN recently that the Roar Nigeria Hub was opened to the public with a mission to produce the next generation of entrepreneurs by creating an enabling environment, support systems and relevant skills to succeed with technology entrepreneurship.
“With about 50 kilometres of fibre optic cable connecting the university, we also intend to solve the challenges faced by businesses with available data on the campuses.
“University is where you are taught to explore. There is no infinity to acquiring knowledge. It’s where you get education before exploration to getting problems solved. Exploration requires a lot of components or tools; but in Nigeria where the laboratories are not functional how do you want it done. This motivated us to pursue the meeting — the town and gown — a meeting point of the universities and the industry.
“With the new trends of creating innovation/incubation hubs, such as Roar Nigeria, we will move Nigeria from commodity to a country creating items,” the VC further stated.
The need to rethink Big Data
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cymantiks, Mr. Emeka Okoye, who is also a panellist at the event, highlighted the relevance of universities’ researches to the economy, and stressed there need to rethink Big Data.
He said universities’ researches have become more needed as the world enters the fourth industrial revolution driven by Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics and Machine Learning.
“Let’s take ‘big’ aside… data is just an observation,” the Cymantiks CEO said, adding that “When students interact with academic and non-academic staff, they generate data… it dwells down to universities policy on how data are managed. When it is become massive, we now say big data”.
“Focusing on research is actually very huge. We need to understand the current trends. We are about to enter the 4th industrial revolution, and it is driven by data. There are up to 34 disruptive technologies right now — from IoT to AI — and they all feast on data.
“It means that the way we understand data before has got to change; because right now, we need to change by incorporating data into our everyday activities,” he further stated.
Mr. Okoye said it has become imperative for Nigerian universities to rethink on how to commercialize the huge repository of research data developed over the years.
“They ought to make lot of money from data. A university in Kenya is earning close to $1 billion from patents. University as a mini-community is very crucial in research and a test-bed for new technology,” Okoye said.
Also part of the panel was the CEO of Crestsage, Mr. Charles Emembolu, who said value creation should drive universities’ motivation to monetize their data and research works, and assist government’s ideas on local content concepts and development of young people with relevant skill sets.
Mr. Emembolu, who played a pivotal role in the establishment of Roar Nigeria, said research works contain useful facts capable of solving puzzles in the ICT industry and the society in general, adding that “Standardization, skilled professionals are needed in our industry today”.
He further stated that “awareness creation for people to understand the essence of big data must start from the universities” adding that “The Universities boards need to improve the system to further understand graduation and post-graduation achievements of students”.
He, however, advised that students of Nigerian universities must learn to embark on only research works that are capable of generating revenue not just for the university system or the government, but for themselves as well.
Communications Minister has disclosed that the proposed Information and Communications Technology, ICT University will take off before the end of the year.
Mr. Adebayo Shittu made the disclosure yesterday in Lagos while declaring TechPlus 2017 open.
Shittu explained that the university, which will have six campuses spread across the federation, barring any unforeseen circumstances, will start operations in September.
He said the university is focused on adding value to the current level and pace of economic development in Nigeria, diversifying the economy and positioning the country as the leading ICT light in Africa.
He noted that the era of university graduates roaming the streets looking for work after graduation would soon be over.
“The ICT University will be the first of its kind in Africa. It will compete with similar institutions in India and South Korea. It will be the first of its kind in public-private sector partnership and private bodies, institutions and organizations would be invited to adopt and take ownership of various departments and campuses and bring in all that is needed to create the desired ICT revolution in the country,” he stated.
TheNewsGuru recently reports a meeting between the ministry of communications and Hewlett Packard (HP) that is keen to adopt one of the ICT University campuses.
Speaking on TechPlus, Shittu commended the organizers for holding the event consistently for three years.
TechPlus is a gathering of everything technology, providing a robust tripartite tech experience through its conferences, exhibitions and gaming structures whilst serving as a platform for knowledge sharing and networking for the consumers and businesses.
The minister also commended the efforts of TechPlus in providing a robust platform that allows companies, individuals and businesses in the tech space to bring together customers, clients, and stakeholders to showcase their products and services.
The federal government is presently urging tech equipment manufacturing company, Hewlett Packard (HP) to adopt one of the campuses of the proposed Information and Communication Technology (ICT) University, and develop it into a smart campus.
The FG through its Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu described HP as an ‘end to end’ organisation and one of the global leaders in ICT, and in that vein urged the tech firm to adopt the ICT University of Nigeria.
This was when the management of HP visited the minister to seek for areas of collaboration in the development of the university.
According to a statement signed by Mr Austin Asoluka of the Press and Public Relations Department of the ministry, the minister commended the company for being at the forefront among international organisations to take the initiative of collaborating with the ministry in the establishment of the ICT University.
Shittu challenged the company to prepare to adopt one of the campuses, focused on a specialised area and develop it into a smart campus for business interest.
He said that his vision to open the university was predicated upon his findings that most Nigerian ICT related graduates lacked skills.
The minister said that the availability of infrastructure at the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) among others were the reasons for the establishment of the university.
He therefore urged HP to develop a business model by creating areas of entrepreneurship which would ensure that graduates of the university would become self employed.
Shittu advised the management to send in its proposals for consideration and a possible signing of an agreement soon.
Chukwuma Okpaka, the Managing Director of HP Nigeria said that the visit was to intimate the minister of the company’s willingness to collaborate on ICT capacity development.
He said that the organisation was ready to venture into content and ICT infrastructure roadmap development.
He promised that there would be special discount to the ministry on purchases of HP products and services.
HP is a multinational information technology corporation with the headquarters in Palo Alto, California, U.S.
Plans for Nigeria to host an investment forum at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) conference that will hold later in the year in South Korea are in the offing.
This was made known by a spokesman of Nigeria’s telecoms regulatory commission in a statement today, saying broadband Nigeria will be the focus of discussions at the investment forum.
“Nigeria will host an investment forum at ITU Telecom World 2017 and Broadband Nigeria will be at the focus of discussions.
“The participation of Nigeria at the yearly International Telecommunications Union (ITU) conference will focus on deepening the growing broadband segment of the market in the country,” the spokesman said.
The ITU Telecom World 2017 is a global platform for major industry players, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Countries and Organisations to network and share ideas about new developments and technologies that would lead to better connected societies.
It is an event for International visibility of innovative Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Products/Services and solutions from around the World.
In general terms, it involves high level debates on the core issues affecting ICT industry, sharing knowledge and working for sustainable development.
The event is due to hold in Busan, South Korea, from September 25 – 28, 2017.
According to the statement signed by Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Director of Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo, Nigeria’s high level delegation to the ITU conference will be led by the Minister of Communications, Barrister Abdulraheem Adebayo Shittu.
Nigeria’s Chief Telecoms Regulator and Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, industry stakeholders and operators will be on the delegation.
Although Nigeria has had a very robust telecommunications sector with active connected subscribers in the region of 150 million and about 110 percent teledensity, the NCC believes that more efforts should be deployed to deepen broadband penetration in the country.
By the National Broadband Plan (NBP), the country is expected to attain 30% broadband penetration by 2018, which currently stands at 21%.
Given that 2018 is around the corner, with the conference, the Ministry of Communications, and its driving force, the NCC, hope to bring back investment to Nigeria that will steer the achievement of the 30% broadband penetration in the country.
…vows IT scholarship’ll be affordable to all Nigerians
The Nigerian Institute of Information Technology (NIIT) has announced application is open for its 18th National Scholarship.
The Information Technology (IT) institute says it is subsidizing its fees to make sure that IT skills acquisition is affordable to all Nigerians.
Mrs. Onyedikachi Aruma, Head, Kaduna Centre of NIIT reveals this while speaking with newsmen in Kaduna on Monday.
Mrs. Aruma said the scholarship examination has been scheduled to hold July 15, and that it is open to all interested persons in its Kaduna and Abuja centres.
Speaking on the modalities guiding the scholarship, Mrs Aruma said, “The scheme is performance based,” adding, “What you score in the examination would determine the discount you get as fees”.
“What this means is that, the higher your scores the higher your discount,” she further stated.
Aruma said candidates had the liberty to choose from different IT programmes such as Oracle, Software Engineering, Network Engineering, Java and Web Development, among others.
She said that the training would last from four months to two years, depending on the progranme, noting that registration for the scholarship examination was ongoing, but would closed on July 13.
“Registrations forms are available in our Kaduna and Abuja centres for free or you can register online at www.niit.com/nigeria.
“Our main goal is to give back to our host community, particularly as ICT is currently the driver of global economy,” she explained.
NIIT Ltd. is an Indian Multinational company that offers learning management and training delivery solutions to corporations, institutions and individuals.
It claims that since its establishment in Nigeria in 1999 with offices in Abuja and Kaduna, it has trained more than 16,000 students annually and shaped the career of 160,000 students in the past 16 years.
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has halted plans by the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) to procure foreign banking system for its operations in a move to domesticate the public sector’s appetite for foreign solutions and FOREX.
The agency faulted the DBN’s action as being in conflict with government’s policy on promotion and adoption of IT Local Content.
NITDA is the clearinghouse for all IT procurement and services for the Nigerian government. It is within the purview of its mandate to advise and assert government’s policy-thrust on IT.
NITDA’s action is a new shift in how the agency has hitherto functioned; often shying away from asserting its mandate and government’s position on IT. Its new leadership under its Director General/CEO, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has indicated it would aggressively pursue the agency’s mandate.
The DBN was notified of government’s stance through an official letter to it by the NITDA, TheNewsGuru learnt.
Titled “Computerisation of Development Bank of Nigeria: Stoppage of planned award to procure foreign banking system,” part of letter states: “In line with NITDA’s mandate of promoting Local Content in Information Technology in Nigeria, the agency wishes to draw the attention of the managing Director/ CEO of Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) to sections 10.4 and 11.4 of Guidelines for Nigeria Content Development in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) which mandates all MDAs to source and procure software and computer hardware from local and indigenous companies where available”.
“In view of the above, your attention is drawn on the need to, with immediate effect, put the procurement process on hold and seek NITDA’s clearance for this and any other IT projects before proceeding to the next,” the letter added.
The agency further advised the DBN that continuing the procurement process will be a breach of the law. The procurement exercise will be a breach of the provision of the NITDA Act and an offence under Section 17 which is punishable under the Section 18 of the Act.
NITDA was established in April 2001 to implement IT policy and coordinate general IT development in the country backed by the NITDA Act 2007.
As part of section 6 of the NITDA Act 2007 and among its mandates, the Agency is to serve as a clearing house for all IT procurement and services in the public sector.
Gov. Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State on Monday launched e-governance initiative to promote fast, efficient and service-oriented process of governance in the state.
The governor launched the initiative at the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) centre in the governor’s office in Ibadan.
Ajimobi said that technological innovation would help government do things faster and improve the job and processes of governance.
He said that the state was migrating from paper governance to e-governance.
“Information is key, knowledge and power. The ability to manipulate the power is essential and that is why we are launching this today.
“All ministries, departments and agencies of government should now migrate from manual or paper system to automated form of governance,’’ he said.
The governor said that his administration was about turning the state into a technological hub, adding that it was the reason for the establishment of the Technical University, Oyo State.
According to him, “I know Lagos and some other states have started it but we can still improve on what they have done.
“We are going to establish a training centre and organise training workshop for the civil servants on ICT compliance.’’
Earlier, Niyi Ajao, the Special Adviser to the Governor on ICT stressed that the idea was to make the state a technological hub which would allow people key into the vision for a knowledge-driven economy.
Stakeholders in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector have called for a National Broadband Fibre provider to further deepen broadband penetration in the country.
The stakeholders made the call at the Broadband Summit 2017 organized by BusinessDay Media Ltd in Lagos on Friday.
The Chief Executive Officer of Spectranet, Mr David Venn said that there was the need for the National Broadband Fibre provider so that Nigerians would benefit from the broadband revolution.
Venn said that voice calls through mobile phone had changed everything but the next phase was broadband.
He said that broadband would have greater impact on the lives of Nigerians, hence the need to ensure it got to every part of the country.
According to him, the challenges hindering broadband penetration should be addressed.
“Nigeria needs a National Broadband Fibre provider. There is need for carriers to be able to get broadband to the hinterlands.
“The cost of international bandwidth has changed demand for broadband in the last two years.
“The Nigerian Communications Commission must sanitise the sector of anti-competitive issues,” he said.
The Managing Director of Vodacom Business Nigeria, Mr Lanre Kolade said that the economy was biting hard on all the operators.
Kolade said that the Tier II Telecommunications operators were struggling to survive.
He said that there was need for a level playing field as such would stop anti-competition in the sector.
According to him, the Tier I operators cannot be everywhere hence, the need for the smaller operators to go to the smaller areas and deploy business strategies that will work.
“For this to happen, anti-competition should be addressed.
“To deepen broadband penetration, there should be data centres across the country so that the rate at which our traffic goes outside Nigeria will reduce,” he said.
The Chief Transformation Officer of MTN Nigeria, Mr Bayo Adekanmbi, said that there was high demand of broadband by Nigerians; but no adequate infrastructure to deliver high speed internet to them.
Adekanmbi said that the nature of broadband was holistically different as it was more of a long term project as the issue of cost was critical.
He said that infrastructure to deliver broadband should not be taxed; to ensure delivery to last mile at an affordable cost.
The Chief Executive Officer of Ntel, Mr Kamar Abass said that to deepen broadband penetration, the industry should consider infrastructure sharing as active engagement on it was still lacking.
Abass said that there was the need for more spectrums to deliver broadband to Nigeria.
The Chief Executive Officer of MainOne, Ms Funke Opeke said that broadband was an enabler of economic growth.
Opeke however said that recession had changed the dynamics of the broadband industry.
She said that the industry depended on importation of its infrastructure and there had been the challenge of foreign exchange.
According to her, the country must pull itself out of oil dependency and broadband is the step toward economy recovery.
“There is need to know we can create more power houses like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Alibaba, among other to develop the economy,” she said.
