By Jessica Dogo

Dr Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, has commended the World Bank for its role in facilitating capacity building in the sector.

Pantami, gave the commendation when he addressed participants during a virtual interaction, where he served as the Special Guest of Honour, on Thursday in Abuja.

He expressed satisfaction that the partnership between the ministry and the financial apex body was yielding the desired results as the training on Innovative Business Models for Expanding Broadband and Closing Access Gaps was underway.

The Minister disclosed that the training would subsequently include the public and private sectors as well as the academia and professional bodies.

This, he said, was an initiative of the ministry and the World Bank aimed at strengthening digital capacities in the sector, specifically in the area of broadband improvement and access.

Mr Doyle Galleops, Lead Facilitator of the programme and World Bank’s Global Broadband Specialist, expressed gratitude to the Minister for the partnership and the opportunity to facilitate the project.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy had in December 2020 initiated the strategy in partnership with the World Bank. (NAN)

By Naomi Sharang

The Chairman, T&T Web Designing and Marketing Services, Dr Thaddeaus Thompson has advised Nigerian business owners to explore advanced marketing systems and web design technology to be more competitive.

Thompson  gave the advice in interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.

He noted that online or web-based business environment could facilitate growth, expansion, improved patronage and higher profit.

He stressed that T&T Web Designing and Marketing Services, which was established to advance such business environment, had mastery in web designing technology that could link businesses and consumers.

The chairman expressed concern that most businesses in Nigeria were operating under 30 per cent of their actual potential for not taking advantage of the online opportunities.

Thompson allayed fears of hidden dangers nursed by some people on the use of the web.

He said while there was no doubt that there were risks most times to faulty website designs, issues of identity theft and hacking could be detected and minimised with “foolproof system in place.”

Thompson also said one of such measures was to ensure that “websites are encrypted to prevent cyber-crime.”

He encouraged companies to see the COVID-19 challenge as an opportunity to adapt to online business, which had become the new normal.

Thompson said: “Most businesses, who were reluctant to explore benefits of reaching out to customers outside their vicinity, have realised that a huge resource was left untapped for years.

“As part of our marketing package, we have always encouraged our clients to focus on the positive and avoid the negative. A business must be built to withstand adversity.

“For us, our business has expanded, not declined due to the pandemic because more customers are using our services than before.

“We assist businesses in Nigeria to develop transactional customer relationship system with their customers using artificial intelligence (AI) and visual communication technology.

“We make them understand that websites should not be only for photo-fronts where products and services are displayed, but a platform for entire operations of a company.” (NAN)

By Ifeanyi Nwoko
The Federal and States Governments have been urged to use satellite technology and other available technologies to harness disasters such as flooding for positive economic purposes.

The Executive Director, Centre for Space Science and Technology Education (CSSTE), Dr Ganiyu Agbaje, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.

Agbaje made the call on the sidelines of the on-going three-day Online Regional Training on Flood Monitoring and Forecasting Modelling organised for Disaster Management Organisations.

He said that the use of new technologies would make it easy to predict flood and harness the water for many economic activities including ranching that had become topical in Nigeria.

Agbaje explained that with technology such as satellite technology, which the CSSTE would partner with disaster management agencies on, patterns, timing and volume of flood can be predicted early and preparation made to utilise the water.

“We need to support our rural communities on how best to use flood when it occurs because at times if it’s coming far away from this country, you can harness the water overflowing for many other things in agriculture.

“When you know that the flood will last for three months or five months for instance, you can use the water to plant rice, or you can gather it into a reservoir that can be used during the dry season.

“There are so many things that can be done with this, and if you know that certain places are lacking water, you can channel it to those farms that need those water.

“Like all these ranches that we have been talking about, that river is coming from the north, if you have a ranch there, when the water is coming, you will channel it and store it.

“You can purify the water and it becomes drinking water, so why are we not using the flood water to make life easier,” he said.

Speaking on the training which held simultaneously in four other West African Countries, Agbaje, said it was aimed at equipping participants with skills and requisite tools to identify flood-hotpot areas.

He said the tool would further equip them to make quick flood damage assessment, identify flood monitoring and forecast model as well as hydrological and hydraulic modelling.

He, therefore, advised governments to embrace technology for creative solutions and consider stronger laws to control the indiscriminate dumping of refuse which is a major cause of flooding in Africa.

“Human beings are somehow meant to be unruly. So, the society needs to be guided by law, else I can go to your house and just mess it up. If there are no laws to say ‘you cannot dump refuse here’ then everywhere will be messy. We need to abide by the regulations and rules.

“Also, it has been said that the whole of Netherlands is on a flood plain but they use engineering and other means to ensure that they stay afloat most of the time.

“We lose millions of dollars every year to flooding in Africa, forcing ECOWAS to make a policy on disaster risk reduction but more has to be done to ensure that the impact is lower in Nigeria and other countries,” he said.

According to him, the training is not to teach the over 300 participants who have benefitted on how to predict but to show them how to use additional satellite data to predict and support other methods.

He said the technology had been on for a while around the world, adding that African leaders in collaboration with the EU initiated the training to help Africa better monitor the environment and mitigate disasters.

Agbaje said that with the data, rainfall, rivers and the environment would be better monitored, adding that in the case of Nigeria, more information on the activities of River Niger would be known using the technology.

The three-day training was backed by the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU) under its Global Monitoring for Environment and Security and Africa (GMES & Africa) initiative and conducted by the CSSTE.

On his part, the GMES & Africa Programme Coordinator at the AU Commission, Dr Tidiane Ouattara, who joined via video conferencing, expressed joy that the activities of the CSSTE consortium was able to continue in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Emphasising on the need for constant training of young people and experts on the African continent, he described the training as a major achievement to help Africa build infrastructure and reduce the economic damage of flooding.

Participants at the workshop were drawn from the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, Nigerian Meteorological Agency, Nigerian Emergency Management Authority and the Federal Ministry of Environment.

By Jessica Dogo

The Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy is collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to ensure citizens with Bank Verification Number (BVN) are automatically provided with the National Identification Number (NIN).

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, disclosed this on Monday when he led a delegation of chief executive officers on a visit to Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and a private enrolling center in Abuja.

Pantami said after making a presentation to National Economic Sustainability Committee, his attention and that 0f the CBN Governor were drawn to the need to replace BVN with NIN.

He said since then, the two  establishments had been working on the initiative, adding that CBN had more workload to facilitate the process in order to make it much easier for Nigerians.

According to Pantami, the challenge is that the BVN records may not be 100 per cent the same as the NIN, but what is most important is that the NIN is the primary identity of every legal resident in the country.

He said “BVN is a policy of a bank and has not been established by law.

“The NIMC Act 2007 provides that all our citizens must enroll and the law gives them 60 days to enroll from the time the law was enacted and a maximum of 180 days.

“All permanent residents in the country and legal residents that have to stay here for a minimum of 24 months must enroll so that the primary identification of all and all other databases are supposed to utilise this and not for NIN to utilise the BVN because it is the primary one.

“Some of the challenges encountered, NIMC produced the template for registering citizens in passport, BVN and others but some institutions did not comply with the requirements.

“Even in biometrics, some will just take four, some two, so you cannot harmonise without upgrading and integrating the system.”

He listed members on the board of NIMC, which include CBN Governor, DG SSS, Chairman FIRS, INEC Chairman, Office of National Security Adviser, National Population Commission and Nigeria Immigration Service as members.

He hinted that the Federal Government had accredited 203 operators that would help enroll citizens to secure their NIN, adding that the visit was to oversee how the exercise had been.

Mr Okechukwu Ikpe, the Chief Executive Officer of Office Machines Nigeria Limited, one of the accredited operators center that was visited by the minister expressed delight and assured that the center would do its best to meet with expectations.

On her path, Mrs Regina Omenogor, Stock Controller, Gloworld, Abuja, showed appreciation and commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the initiative, adding that a lot people can just walk in and register.

“It is accessible now and since we work for private organisation, we maintain all the COVID-19 protocols as directed by Nigerian Centre for Disease Control and the presidency, ” she said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the delegation included the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Director General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). (NAN)

By Ijeoma Olorunfemi

The Federal Government on Thursday, launched the country’s pioneer National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre to create an atmosphere that would usher in innovation driven culture among citizens.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, performed the ground breaking ceremony of the National Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre championed by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in Abuja.

Pantami said the centre was critical for digital economy and would play a huge role in creating value and prosperity among the people.

He assured that the centre would be replicated at least in the six Geo-Political zones of the country, beginning with the pioneer centre in the FCT.

‘‘Digital Innovation and entrepreneurship are globally recognised as two prerequisites for achieving an indigenous digital economy.

“A successful digital innovation and entrepreneurship programme will support us in the development of our digital economy and this is exactly what we want this centre to achieve.

‘‘Today’s event is critical for our journey to digital economy because in digital economy, innovation and entrepreneurship play huge roles in creating value and prosperity. That is why we are investing in this initiative.

‘‘Our journey started in Oct. 2019, when President Muhammadu Buhari re-designated and expanded the mandate of our ministry to cover digital economy.

“To sustain and consolidate the growth, we need to ignite innovation and entrepreneurship in the digital space,” he said.

The minister said that COVID-19 had impacted our lives in an unprecedented way, hence the need to leverage on skills and innovation.

Pantami said that in building the centre, the Federal Government was not undermining certificates but trying to redirect citizens toward soft skills which were recently valuable.

He, therefore, enjoined states and the Organised Private Sector to key into the establishment of ICT Innovation and Entrepreneurship parks to address unemployment and other social challenges in Nigeria.

He said this had become necessary to complement the present administration’s resolve to diversify national economy, generate employment and wealth for the country.

Pantami who listed benefits of the centre, argued that the economic challenges facing Nigeria provided opportunities for the people to embrace digital platforms for self empowerment.

“President Buhari approved the building of this centre on Nov. 11, 2020, during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

“Prior to that, I made a detailed presentation to council on the project and successfully answered around 22 questions in the robust debate that followed the presentation.

“The idea received overwhelming support of FEC because of the huge positive impact it can have on the lives of Nigerians,” he said.

Earlier, in his address, the Director-General of NITDA, Mr Kashifu Inuwa, said the objective of the centre was to serve as a catalyst for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship among both public and private sector organisations and the academia.

Inuwa said it would foster development along with emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT) Quantum Computing and Smart Energy Solutions to drive ICT.

According to him, it will provide enabling environment for technology startups to accelerate and experience innovations, foster the development of indigenous businesses to become world class service providers. (NAN)

By Naomi Sharang/Jessica Dogo

Mr Bright Echefu, the Managing Director, TStv, an indigenous digital service television has said that the company was not “threatened” by the presence of other digital TV operators in the country.

Echefu who said this at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday added that the Pay TV had a national spread across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

He said that with its modern facilities, TStv was well-equipped to compete with other Pay TV operators in the country.

Echefu said competition in the industry would improv quality of services offered to Nigerians.

“So it creates market for improvement for us where it gives us the urge to improve on what we have to just get an edge over what other people have.

“So competition has created some kind of zeal in us to get what we are doing and we don’t see our competitors as a threat at all.

“The landscape is big for everybody. So there is large market. TStv comes handy for those who want value for money in such situation. So the competition is not in any way a threat to us.

“It has created a standard for us that we must carry at any point in time,” he said.

The managing director added that one of the benefits of owning a TStv decoder was that it was “a Pay Per View model for subscribers.

“Subscribers can pay as low as N2 per day. What we have done is to put those channels; put some figures around them. Some channels are N1, some channels are N2 per day.

“The maximum on our bouquets is 2 naira per day. If u pick some channels, at the end of the day you are practically spending N50 a day.

“So if you put it up together for a month you are spending just about N450 and you able to satisfy a heavy need of yours.

“That is what Nigeria needs and that is what we have offered our people,” Echefu said.

Also speaking, Director Engineering and Technology, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mrs Victoria Eke said that Nigeria was glad to have an indigenous Pay TV.

“It has been our yearnings to have such a service; the Pay As You View.”

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the packages offered to subscribers by the company include Cinemachi Comedy and Cinemachi Romance among others. (NAN)