MTN Partners Slot System to Offer Unique Services

THE season of surprises is still on. In another bold and innovative move, information and communications technology (ICT) company, MTN Nigeria, has commenced a data trade channel partnership with SLOT Systems Ltd, Nigeria's retailer of mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and accessories. The partnership would afford SLOT and MTN customers the opportunity to get MTN’s data services and other products in SLOT Stores nationwide.

Under this partnership, MTN will set up Store-in-Store in Slot Systems outlets across the country. To provide easy access to data services, customers who walk into Slot outlets on Akin Adesola Street, Victoria Island and Computer Village, Ikeja will have opportunity to get MTN Products and Services. Customers no longer have to go looking for the nearest Connect Store or Walk-in Centers to meet their data needs.

Slot Systems operates a chain of mobile phones, tablets and computers sales outlets in Nigeria. The company has over 40 outlets with an average sale of three thousand five hundred mobile phones on a daily basis.

Speaking excitedly on the new partnership, MTN's Sales and Distribution Executive, Omatsola Barrow, said the company was constantly developing new ways of making the lives of its customers very convenient by meeting them at the point of their needs. There is a high demand on features and smart phones and the phones in turn require data bundles for the customers to fully optimize the features.

Purchasing phones and subscribing to any of MTN’s data bundle of your choice is now easy and conveniently done at the MTN branded section of every Slot store across the country.

"It is a win-win development for us and Slot Systems. The needs of the customer are at the heart of this partnership” Barrow added.

By 2015, MTN will be physically present in all 45 Slot outlets across the country in the delivery of a bold new digital world to customers. 

Stakeholders Lament Slow E-Payment Uptake

Even in growing and small economies like Kenya, e-payment has be adjudged to be a success with particular reference to its mobile money,m-pesa, but for Nigeria, the case is different as investigations revealed that much success has been recorded.  Who is to blame for this, therefore, well stakeholders think that the users are not well informed or better still someone institution of government is not doing its work.

THE high dependence of   a large number of the Nigerian populace on cash business and the seemly lack of adequate information in the public domain about the electronic payment system are the reasons why the system is still yet unable to make appreciable success like as it has been in countries like Kenya.

Investigation showed that the epileptic failure of telecommunications infrastructures provided by the mobile telephone operators, which is critical to the deployment of the electronic payment, was before now blamed for most of the challenges encountered by users, particularly in the use of mobile money, point of sales,POS, and Automated Teller machine, TM.

However, key stakeholders at a training for information and communications technology journalist in Nigeria said that the banks have been able get the telecoms operators to ensure that there are no network failure, and indeed the stakeholders which include representative from the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System and Interswitch confirmed the new development.

According to them, Nigerians need more information on how the electronic payment system works saying that most problems they encountered in the use of electronic system are basically associated with the use of the system.

Speaking at the training, which was organised by the E-Payment Providers Association of Nigeria-PPAN, the Director, Banking & Payments System Department, Central Bank of Nigeria,Mr. Dipo Fatokun said that a major challenge why the electronic system is yet to fully entrenched in the economic life of Nigeria due to the fact the economic constrains and cash culture of the people.

He said that Nigeria is still a cashed-based economy and majority of its people prefer cash transactions to the detriment of e-payments noting that the public is very much not in tune to innovations.

Exe Sec,E-PPAN, Onajite Regha

He observed that infrastructure such as power, communication, roads and other means of transportations, network connectivity, arising from NIBSS, Switches, banks and telcos- unavailability of financial services 24/7 in remote locations are also challenges that are yet to addressed.

He said further that non-admissibility of electronic evidence in court is an impediment saying that lack of judicial understanding of the peculiarities of e-payments transactions as well as payments instruments limitation together with the integration of the various e-payments components in a common platform are factors limiting the impact of the e-payment system.

Also critical to the success of the e-payment success in the country as identified by Fatokun are issues related to consumer protection, lack of efficient risk management strategies, customer challenges like poor communication and literacy level as well as fraudulent and unethical practices  of banks’ staff  and customers, and skills gap of the stakeholders.

On how to effectively enhance the embrace of the e-payment system, he suggested that the continuous public awareness and seminars on electronic payments benefits saying that there should be incentives for the usage of e-payments channels

Due to the dynamics of crimes in the country, he called for improvement of security issues around the e-payments option so as to boost public confidence adding that there is the need for aggressive deployment of payments channels for easy availability and adequate training on oversight functions of e-payments schemes.

While highlighting the current challenges with e-payment landscape in Nigeria,

Group Head Industry and Retail Chains Interswitch Limited, Mr. Paul Ohakim said that government has a role to play in making a success of the system listing the key areas of challenges to include public private partnership collaboration, more investment on ICT infrastructure, addressing behavioural constraints of the people, building trust in the payment system and reduction in the cost of ICT deployment.

According to him, beyond the need for more sensitisation of the public on the benefit of the e-payment system, government need to build more enforcement mechanism saying that there is also the need not only to improve security and efficient regulation of the e-payment system so as to build trust on it but to develop proven security measures for payment security.

On cost reduction for ICT deployment in the e-payment system he said attention should be paid to outsourcing, lean operations and shared services. 

Ohakim noted that the benefit of the e-payment system spreads across aspects of the national economy covering individuals, organisations and government saying that while it offers risk reduction, convenience, cheaper option and multiple payment channels for the individual it offers reduced cash handling cost, reduced leakage in revenues and better efficiency for organisations.

He also said that government stands to enjoy increased revenue collection, transparency, reduction in wastages and reduced Risk when e-payment system is deployed in the management of its social services saying that for the economy, e-payment ensures financial inclusion and economic growth, tracing of illicit funds and reduced cash handling cost.

While assessing the growth rate of the e-payment system for 2013 a senior official of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Mr. Osamede Odiase disclosed that for almost all identified sectors experienced growth was only 11 per cent average.

According to him, educational services recorded the highest transaction growth rate of 27 percent followed by travel and logistics with 26 per cent growth rate while travel agencies and fuel station had a transaction rate of 19 per cent each followed by fast food and restaurant services and hotel and guest house which had 17 and 16 per cent transaction rate respectively.

He said that while religious transactions was 15 per cent that drugs and pharmacy was 14 per cent adding that retail  and wholesale merchants, airline operations which should high transaction rate each had 13,12 and 7 per cent respectively.

He listed the reasons for the poor performance of the e-payment system to the competitive landscape which include substitute products like quick teller, likely entry of potent new competitors, a shift in buyer needs and tastes away from the industry product and threat to marketing campaigns from Banks.

Odiase observed that regulator policy changes such as threat to pricing, of e-payment products by CBN, PoS merchant service fee, limit of cash deposit and withdrawal as well as ATM cash withdrawals fees are responsible for the poor performance of the sector.

Other reasons listed are dearth of required skills of personal to run the system, low adoption of e-payment from the people due to adversity to change and the operating environment.

Meanwhile, since its introduction in mid-2007, M-PESA, the Kenyan e-payment system had been adopted by 9 million customers as of late 2009 by 40 percent of Kenya’s adult population and is now facilitating an average of $320 million per month in person-to-person transfers (roughly 10 percent of Kenya’s GDP on an annualized basis).

Worthy of note is the extremely rapid uptake of M-PESA and a strong vote of confidence by local users in a new technology as well as an indication of significant latent demand for remittance services. 

Financial Software ‘ll Tackle Growth Challenges, Says CWG

FINANCIAL technology instruments have the potentials to drive the growth of business and meet the challenges of a growing business, the founder and chief executive officer, CWG Plc., Mr. Austin Okere has said.

According to him, when a small business grows, it adds locations from where to serve customers adding that with operations in multiple locations, the small business has difficulty keeping track of inventory, sales and cash from the different locations.

But with technology, business can over these challenges noting that larger organisations, especially those with affiliation to global multinational organisations, already know how to overcome many of these challenges using technology.

He disclosed that they invest heavily in hardware, communication networks, linking their locations together, and various software, typically for accounting, sales, operations and people management.

He urged business to invest in people with the requisite skills in technology and business to keep these all working seamlessly together and delivering value.
He stated that the introduction of FinEdge software for microfinance was designed to help microfinance growth and sustain their business saying it is now available on a monthly subscription basis through a partnership with MTN.

Okere observed that business systems cost a lot of money, typically beyond the reach of many SMEs saying that additional funding from banks and other financial institutions are needed to sustain the growth.

He said that for 20 years, CWG has built a 20 billion naira business helping large organisation rollout these systems and keep them running stressing that banks, Telcos, manufacturing, consulting and other such organisations have benefited from CWG’s service which quickly earned her the nickname - the technology of business.

He said further that in these years, CWG has built a name for herself in the quality of service it offers and the spirit of never leaving the customer stranded.

According to him, CWG launched the CWG 2.0 initiative to bring the same tools large organisations use to drive their operations and growth to the smaller businesses and SMEs, who do not have the kind of budget that the large organisations boast of.

He described the CWG 2.0 as a democratising access to technology for business growth that enables smaller companies and SMEs to utilize these toolsto drive economic revolution saying that there are 17.6 million micro, small and medium enterprises in Nigeria compared to the roughly 200 companies listed on the stock exchange.
Okere revealed that the openshopen.ng eCommerce platform that allows anyone to own and operate an online store with minimum fuss is now available adding that the CWG SMERP platform brings a complete business management solution to even one man businesses at the barest minimum cost. 

National e-ID Will Simplify Government Business

THE absence of a sustainable universal identification prompted the Federal Government to initiate the National identity card, how recently development has showed that it currently propelling the government into running a digital government driven solely by technology.

As part of that initiative, the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, had a joint media session with MasterCard where both organization attempted to unveil the link that exist between government and business in the private sector when technology is applied.

Speaking at the event, director-general/chief executive officer of NIMC,Dr.Chris Onyemenam said that the card technology, which the federal government has introduced will not only enhance government business but have impact on the national e-payment as well as other financial transaction.

He explained that for government, with the card technology details of every citizens’ life can be capture in the chips in the card saying details will include everything about the citizen from birth to death.

According to him, before the introduction of the card, there had been identity challenges which have implications on financial services, national security and economic development.

He noted that challenges with proof of identity in Nigeria has to do with the preponderance of multiple identities and identity tokens, absence of a sustainable universal identification infrastructure in Nigeria, card issuance mistaken for identity management, challenge of identity verification and authentication with implications for commerce and security, public cynicism arising from failed efforts of the past, and financial exclusion of the unbanked and increased cost of KYC.

Describing the new National Identity card as government’s response to identity management challenges Onyemenam said that in order to promote financial inclusion, the NIMS made provision for a payment functions in the card adding that all components of the NIMS are based on best practice in identity management to ensure proof of identity.

He stated that the National e-ID card has 13 applets and the Payment applet is just one of them and functions like a typical ATM Card saying that personal information is safeguarded by the National Identity Management Commission and is not shared with any private parties.

While asserting that the National e-ID card is a both a tool for national identity, he noted that the features in it makes possible for it to be used for electronic payment noting that the Europay, MasterCard and Visa,EMV, is a global standard for inter-operation of integrated circuit cards and IC card capable point of sale (POS) terminals and automated teller machines (ATMs), for authenticating credit and debit card transactions.

Onyemenam disclosed that a firewall is available between the other card applets and EMV applet to prevent information sharing between the EMV and other applets, and that the EMV Applet is activated upon request by the card user saying that cash is loaded on the card only after the user has given authorisation to the bank.

He added that the other benefits of card to the payment industry is improved visibility of the earning population, individual net worth and reduction of tax evasion and promotion of the ease of delivery of inter-bank related services in the financial sector as well as the promotion of the inclusion of the rural population and the introduction of micro ATMs.

Division President, Sub-Saharan, Africa, MasterCard, Daniel Monehin said that the electronic Identity holds a lot benefit for governments saying that it will help drive financial inclusion, reduce costs and promote transparency, spur economic growth, increase civic engagement and create savings and efficiencies.

He added that it will help government drive its business in the area of public sector salary, pension, social benefits, and agric subsidies.

Report Predicts Residential Internet Access By 2018

A NEW report from Cisco has revealed that by 2018 most part of the world will residential internet access while Middle East and Africa will have the second highest cloud workload growth rate by same year saying that more than half of those users will use personal cloud storage.

In the fourth annual Cisco Global Cloud Index (2013 – 2018), Cisco forecasts continued strong growth of cloud traffic, cloud workloads and cloud storage with private cloud significantly outpacing public cloud noting that in the next five years data center traffic will nearly triple, with cloud representing 76 percent of total data center traffic.

Cisco observed that African enterprises are steadily embracing cloud computing as the next big step in the advancement of the Internet adding that the  trend is definitely being witnessed in Africa as more and more individuals and companies are embracing could-based solutions.

Key highlights from the study for the region indicated that from 2013-2018, Middle East and Africa is expected to have the second highest cloud workload growth rate while  Asia Pacific (45 per cent CAGR); Middle East and Africa (39 per cent CAGR); and Latin America (34 per cent CAGR). In the Middle East and Africa, data center traffic will reach 366 exabytes per year (30 exabytes per month) by 2018, up from 68 exabytes per year (5.7 exabytes per month) in 2013, a CAGR of 40 per cent from 2013 to 2018.

On consumer cloud storage, by 2018, 53 per cent of all residential Internet users globally will use personal cloud storage and consumer cloud storage traffic per user will be 811 megabytes per month by 2018, compared to 186 megabytes per month in 2013.

For Global Data Center Traffic, the study predicts that global data center traffic will nearly triple from 2013 to 2018 with a combined annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23 per cent growing from 3.1 zettabytes/year in 2013 to 8.6 zettabytes/year in 2018. 8.6 zettabytes of data center traffic predicted for 2018 is equivalent to streaming all of the movies (approximately 500,000) and television shows (3 million) ever made in ultra-high definition (UHD) 250,000 times.

It also observed that global cloud traffic is growing faster than the overall global data center traffic. In 2013, cloud accounted for 54 per cent of total data center traffic and by 2018, cloud will account for 76 per cent of total data center traffic.

Head of Architectures Emerging Markets at Cisco, Den Sullivan, said, “As mobility is becoming more and more prolific across the continent, people are demanding to have access to personal, business and entertainment content wherever they go and on any device. This has increased the demand and use of cloud-based technology across Africa. The Cloud is definitely becoming a reality in Africa as businesses gain confidence in both the security and reliability of the Cloud.”

Oracle to Tackle Voice Revenue Decline for Operators

THE slow decline in voice revenue that some mobile operating in the country are experiencing may soon be over once support from Oracle begins to yield result.

Investigations revealed that revenue from voice for most mobile operator is on the downward trend as subscribers seems to favour the use of other media like text message or more advancing is the use of Whtsapp, BBM and FaceBook message to communicate.

Addressing journalist recently on the sideline of the Oracle Day held in Lagos in a joint media conference, country manager, Oracle Nigeria, Mr. Adebayo Sanni and vice president, Oracle Africa, Turkey & Central Asia, Mr. Janusz Naklicki  said that big data is the next buzz in the industry for mobile operators to leach on as they strategise for new businesses.

According to Sanni the average revenue per user for voice in the industry today is currently going down noting that data is becoming the key thing and that operators need to understand how to satisfy their customers considering the volume of videos and data that goes through their network from the subscribers.

He disclosed that Oracle is currently talking with two of the four mobile operators to look at alternative revenue source for their businesses particularly as the operating environment demanding additional cost for the running of their network.

The duos who were briefing the media on how their businesses affect the country and business disclosed that Oracle is currently discussing with one of the state government on how to move the business of the state into the cloud.

He stated that what Oracle will be doing for the particular state government, which he didn’t name will be putting a lot of information concerning the state, particularly the business aspect of it into the cloud for storage.

He explained that both data and clouding are the two key digital businesses that Oracle has introduced into the country and is taking advantage of it saying that Oracle is the only company that has the ability to totally use it to help its partners to drive innovation to improve on productivity.

He assured that Oracle will continue to do it and improve on it saying that for Nigeria to sustain the new GDP status that it has attain , it needs innovation as a key to truly drive the economy.

He stressed that further that Oracle is working with a lot of government and business leaders to be able use innovation to support most the current challenges in the system adding that the idea is to build an ICT culture that will ensure that most of the Nigerian youths. 

21st Century Healthcare System Must Be Technology Driven

 Governments across the global are faced with the challenge of providing effective healthcare delivery system to its citizens. The recent past mark given to Nigeria by the World Health Organisation, WHO, over its defeat of the dread Ebola virus indicates the need for governments to adopt proactive measures. Country Director, Oracle Nigeria, Adebayo Sanni in this interview  shared his thought on how government can apply technology to deliver effective healthcare in the 21^st century.

Profile of Sanni

Country Managing Director, Oracle, Nigeria

 Group Chief Executive Officer, XTI Data International

Regional Channel Director, Emerging Africa, Cisco Systems

Channel Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa, Cisco

Responsible for managing channel partners across all of Sub-Saharan Africa with the exception of South Africa

Sales Manager, Oil & Gas/Telecomms, Schlumberger Information Solutions

Account Manager, Logic Sciences Limited

Telecoms Engineer, Logic Sciences

Graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University in 1987-1996

Awarded the Cisco- Best Regional Sales/Channel Manager for Middle East Africa, 2000

Birthday is July 3

 What is trending now between health and technology?

The global healthcare industry is under constant pressure to provide more and better access to care, while managing ever-increasing demands and costs. Even advanced countries with long histories of universal healthcare are reeling under the pressure of increasing populations, especially amongst the aged who expect quality healthcare irrespective of the financial, technical and human resource pressures on national health systems.

Countries like Nigeria that are looking at ways to implement a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) that will ultimately provide cover for the whole population, are also faced with a difficult task. How can a country with only about 3% of its population benefiting from health cover currently, develop and grow its NHIS effectively to include more citizens.

This is an enormous task. Even the proposed first step of extending health cover to 30% of the population by 2015 requires careful planning to ensure the roll-out is successful and that it creates a solid foundation for future expansion.

Over the past few years we have seen an increase in investments into electronic healthcare technologies, which hold the promise of improving care and ensuring better outcomes, irrespective of the setting. We are moving from an episodic-based system to a longitudinal system that delivers continuous value.”

Does technology has the answer to healthcare solution?

The optimal use of technology in healthcare will allow caregivers to deal with any person, at any time, more effectively than ever before. Healthcare in the 21st century is far more than simply treating a specific condition or symptom; effective healthcare today means treating the whole person across a multitude of care settings and conditions. Achieving this ideal is only possible with a reliable, integrated healthcare system.

The question for any operation looking at healthcare provision, whether in a single home or across a vast country, is whether the process starts with the appropriate technology matching the right technology road-map. When planned and implemented correctly, this will empower healthcare organizations to meet their immediate challenges, while providing a solid foundation to build on for the future.

So what is the right technological approach?

The process through, which organizations approach building their technical healthcare solution varies. Many have taken a tactical approach, purchasing point solutions to tackle each challenge or implementing a service-intensive technology designed to deal with a particular problem, and then building on it as time and budgets permit. Unfortunately, this approach is likely to cause more problems than it solves.

Tackling each challenge with a separate product can lead to integration problems in the future that lead to a more complex environment that is much more difficult to support. Far from containing costs, this scenario can potentially drive up the cost of delivering healthcare as well as create new risks and potential safety issues. Many point solutions are just not built for addressing the challenges of integration, data consolidation and operational efficiency. Moreover, because they are designed to solve a single problem, most cannot assist with integration challenges, they only make it more difficult.

To take advantage of the incredible innovation in progress in healthcare information technology today, it is critical for organizations to look to a strategic partner that can provide vertical solutions as well as deep integration with underlying technology and mission-critical applications. Ultimately, this delivers a platform that delivers today’s requirements and will meet future growth demands, irrespective of the direction healthcare takes.

What has Oracle been doing?

Oracle is the global leader in connected healthcare solutions. It delivers strategic capabilities, such as the secure exchange of health records that complies with regulations. More importantly, it also delivers meaningful benefits to the end user – the patient.

Our connected health solutions provide accurate healthcare of information when and where it’s needed and we assist in improving customer engagement, continuity of care as well as long-term care capabilities from different service providers. Additionally, Oracle does this while providing the ability to seamlessly integrate new and exciting technologies such as tele-health and remote medical devices into the solution.

Technology is obviously not the only issue that needs to be addressed when contemplating a national health system such as the NHIS. However, the right technology provides the starting point for all that is possible in healthcare. In the past, there has always been a disconnect between the patient, payer and provider. Today, technology is giving us better ways to enable collaboration and ensure service providers are able to deliver quality care on a long-term basis.

Huawei to Investigate Hacking Allegation

ASIAN telecommunications vendor company, Huawei said it has begun full internal investigation into an allegation that it hacked into many governments official e-mails of South Sudan.

Public Relations Manager of Huawei Nigeria, Mr. Kevin Li told National Mirror that the company is carrying out the investigation to find out there were any infractions by any employee saying that we will take swift action to address them.

“We are carrying out a full internal investigation to ensure that our commitment to ethical business practices have not been violated by any of our employees”, he said. 

Li who made the disclosure while reacting to questions on Huawei’s business operation in Africa said that the company is committed to the development of the telecommunications industry in South Sudan noting that it has been supporting the government and the people of South Sudan in the modernization of the nation’s economy since 2005. 

According to him, “Since then, we have built a record of mutual trust and cooperation with the government, our business partners, and our customers in this important country.  That is a record that we work hard to protect and our efforts to do that include insisting that all our employees respect the laws and regulations of South Sudan and our own Business Conduct Guidelines.”

He disclosed that Huawei’s employees are aware of zero tolerance for any infractions of either the laws and regulations of South Sudan or our own strict governance procedures.

Li stated: “While we are heartened by the statements others in the government have made in the South Sudan media, we do not believe there is basis for the allegations, we take the concerns of the Information Minister very seriously and, as we have informed him and others in the government.”

Last week, the South Sudanese authorities ordered a probe into allegations that Huawei may have hacked into its systems.

 According to the South Sudanese Information Minister, Michael Makuei Lueth,

Huawei falsely authoured a document on his behalf to the president of Export-Import Bank of China, requesting that funding for its digital migration television project be postponed.

The report alleged that the letter was written on the letter headed paper of the ministry, signed and stamped before it was sent to China.

Lueth in a statement said that, “We are shocked by this Chinese private company unbecoming behaviour, which is tantamount to forgery. Huawei wanted to create confusion between our government and the Chinese.”

 According to him, “I suspect that Huawei has been hacking many government official e-mails and falsifying and forging documents on behalf of the senior government officials.”

 He said further that attempts to summon the company’s managing director or any of its senior staff for explanation on their intention were reportedly unsuccessful denying any request for suspension of funds to support digital migration television project from Export Import Bank of China.

The managing director of Huawei in China has reportedly denied his firm’s involvement.

NCS Seeks Inclusion on INEC Board

THE Nigerian Computer Society, NCS, has called on the federal government to include it on the board of the Independent National Election Commission, INEC, so as to fast track the adoption of the electronic voting system, E-Voting.

The NCS president, Prof. David Adewumi in an interview with journalist said that the Federal Government should as a matter of urgency include the NCS on the board of the NCS saying that NCS is needed on the board to be able to drive the quest for E-Voting.

Adewumi, who made the disclosure shortly after announcing the kick-off of the 2014 National Information Technology Merit Award, NITMA said that NCS is needed in the board of INEC so that it will be disposed towards giving the necessary advice and technical direction.

According to him, the country is ready for the use of the technology in the 2015 general election noting that professionals in the country are ready to provide the nation with the ICT infrastructure that it needs to conduct an E-Voting election.

“We are more than ready for E-Voting today saying that the ICT industry in Nigeria has the capacity and infrastructure to conduct a credible election using the electronic voting system”, he said.

He noted that NCS is committed to shaping the future of IT, supporting people who make IT work and employing IT to drive positive change in the society stressing that that is why it is organizing the 2014 National Information Technology Merit Award,NITMA.

NITMA, according to him, is an annual event of NCS designed to honour and reward excellence and outstanding contributions in the Nigeria’s Information Technology Industry.

He said that the awards are categorised and based on IT specialisation, NCS standards and global best practices adding that among the categories of awards is the distinguished IT Personality of the Year Award.

He added that personalities have been nominated and voting is on saying that attracting serious attention in the award is the Professional Fellowships that will be conferred on deserving practitioners.

Samsung Deploys Latest Tv to Hotels

SAMSUNG Electronics West Africa, SEWA, has installed its latest state-of-the-art HC690 Series at The Lilygate, a hotel located in Lekki Phase 1 in Lagos. The hotel is the first in Nigeria to feature this technology.

The HC690 Series combines high picture quality and enhanced energy efficiency to help hoteliers deliver the ultimate in-room guest experience. Available in 32", 40", 48" and a 55” models, the solution fits perfectly into any hotel environment, from standard rooms to lavish suites.

Each display is equipped with Samsung’s unique suite of applications and smart TV features that provide guests with access to various apps and widgets, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Guests can also stream movies, music and much more from their laptops, tablets or smartphones as part of their in-room entertainment and content experience.

 Samsung’s Hospitality TV solution offers guests a premium experience that features both free and video-on-demand content and internet capabilities on existing hotel networks, without the need for, or additional cost of extra HDMI cabling or set-top boxes. With just a touch of buttons on their remote control, guests can request hotel services such as laundry pick-up or taxi service, access up-to-date restaurant menus and hotel activity schedules, check messages, access current flight information, review their accounts with the hotel and check out, in addition to many other services.

 Director of SEWA’s Enterprise Business Division, Mr. Charles Ojei, said the appliance is designed to bring hoteliers the best equipment for innovative content management and cost savings while helping them provide their guests with a premium in-room experience and rich viewing content.

General Manager of The Lilygate, Mr. Ronald Stilting said the new appliance will provide its guests with a world-class hospitality experience saying that through Samsung’s HC690 hospitality TV series, we are able to offer our guests the latest in-room entertainment.

Social Marketplace Portal Set to Tackle Online Scam in Nigeria

A SOCIAL marketplace portal, Mobofree said it has put in place strategy to tackle the menace online scam and high level of crimes in the country.

The company said that currently, the success of the social market place is being hampered by online scam and high level of crimes

Co-founder and chairman of the board of MoboFree, Mr. Cristobal Alonso said at the public presentation of Mobofree in Lagos that part of its strategy is to get a big part of community members  involved in scam control activities as volunteers adding that “ We have dedicated technical solution allowing to identify suspicious behaviour.”

He stated:” Every classified advert goes live only after manual check by customer support officers. We are social and empower our social network to make trading more save. Before going to meet buyer or seller each member can communicate and negotiate online without leaving MoboFree, can check common friends, photos, history, feedback and ratings of other members.”

He said further that MoboFree is social marketplace and has unique user- centric approach instead of traditional item-centric approach stressing that “We allow our buyers and sellers to get a lot of personal information about each other –starting from photos and common friends and ending with ratings or other data which allows to identify if the person is worth to trust.”

Alonso also said that negotiation and communication during buying/selling process is an important part of the African culture and as such, “We allow our members conveniently communicate and negotiate without leaving a platform. They can do it via private messages or via chat. Our members send over 8 M private messages per month. We personalize project and proposals according to customers’ behavior and interests. It allows to make buying and selling much more effective.”

He observed that it can be dangerous to go to “blind date” with buyer or seller with money or expensive item in your pocket.”

According to him, most boards of classifieds provide only poor contact info,phone and sometimes email adding that MoboFree is well adopted not only for PC and smartphones but also for old phones with small screens (so called “feature” phones).  

He said that there are over 60 % of  Africans are  accessing the internet via old phones saying that “So our technical solution makes buying and selling online available for any African user with any device.”

Fresh Worries Trial Law to Hunt Yahoo Boys

Ten years after former President Olusegun Obasanjo formation of a cyber crime committee, a cyber crime law was finally last week presented to the nation but reactions trailing the new suggest that the National Assemble must get ready for a periodic review due to technological trend.

THE siege of criminal elements, commonly referred to Yahoo-Boys may soon be on the decline following the passing into law last week the cyber crime bill by the senate a

rm of the National Assemble, however, reactions from key experts and stakeholders observed that there may be a loophole if the law does not take care of the effects in technology trend.

The Act provides for the Prohibition, Prevention, Detection, Response, Investigation and Prosecution of Cybercrimes and for Other Related Matters 2014.

The new law, described as long overdue by the President of the Nigerian Internet Group, Engr. Bayo Banjo was the result of years of the call for a cyber crime to deal with the menace of the cyber crime, which have persistently put the nation in bad light in the global community.

Key stakeholders that were at the forefront of agitation for a law to regulate life on the cyber space include the Nigerian Internet Group, Computer Professionals’ Registration Council, Nigerian Computer Society, Paradigm Initiative and a host of including the some international multinational companies like Google and Microsoft.

In the early years of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, under whose regime the nation began to witness the IT and Telecoms revolution, stakeholders saw the need for a law to regulate life on the internet as criminal activities went viral.

And so in 2005 the he announced the formation of a cyber crime committee. The 15 member committee consisted of representatives from both the Government and private sector, and were asked to design solutions for Nigerian Internet based fraud and cyber crime.

After many weeks of deliberations, the committee presented a Draft Cyber Crime Act to the President, and the committee formed the Nigerian Cyber crime Working Group (NCWG), to accelerate the implementation of its cyber crime research efforts, and to assist the Nigeria National Assembly in the quick passage of a Cyber Crime Bill. 

In nutshell, the Draft Nigerian Cyber Crime Act provides the legal framework for the establishment of an independent Cyber Crime Agency and for the Legislation concerning Cyber Crime and Cyber-security. Basically, the Draft Act was divided into eight different parts, namely: Preliminary, Offences, Protection and security of critical information and communication infrastructure, Ancillary and General Provisions, Cyber Crime and Cyber Security Agencies Establishment, Functions and powers of the agency and Financial Provisions.

           Criminal aspects of the Draft Act include Unauthorized access to compute, electronic or ancillary devices, Access with intent to commit an offence, Unauthorized modification of the of any computer, Illegal communication using electronic messages, Illegal interception, Data interference, System interference, Misuse of devices, Denial of service, Email bombing, Computer trespass, Computer vandalism, Computer identity and impersonation, Attempt, conspiracy and abetment, Duties of service providers, Record retention by service providers, Cyber squatting, Computer communication, Cyber terrorism Intellectual property, Soliciting a minor with a computer for unlawful sexual purposes, Computer offences against minors and Other sexual offences.

            While the birth of a cyber crime delayed, cyber criminal activities were perpetuated and in some cases resulting to death as was recorded in the widely celebrated murder of a young lady Cynthia Osokogu who was killed by some young men she met on the social network site, Facebook.

            President of the Nigerian Internet Group, Engr. Bayo Banjo in an interview told National Mirror that the law is a good fight against the activities of criminal elements that have not only stained the image of Nigeria but caused huge monitory lost to the country.

He attributed the long delay in getting a cyber crime to the current situation in the country, where someone needs to push before he does his job, even when it is obvious that he needs to be up and doing in his job.

He added that while some bills are hurriedly passed into law, others are left alone for long before they are actually attended to adding that the passage of the cyber crime law is better late than never.

            He noted that technology changes every four years as a result both legislature and the judiciary should brace up for the changes that will be needed to make the enforcement of the law effective.

According to him the new cyber crime is one law that needs to be updated regularly to be compliant with the global trend in technology noting that technology is the only discipline where things can change completely thereby making the old things obsolete.

Banjo however observed that the new law may not slow down the activities of the criminal cyber crooks known as Yahoo Boys noting that just like the anti-money laundry law which seems to have left so many people un-arrested, the cyber crime law may not result to arrest and persecution of many.

“It is good that we have the cyber crime law in our legal books but we need the political will and the conviction to go after the Yahoo Boys. It is so rampart that there is even a name for the profession. And like as it is common there are those who benefit from the activities of those boys.”

He said that to be able to measure the success that is expected from the enforcement of the new law in the fight over cyber crime, suspect arrest and conviction should be publicised for the nation to know adding, “So that every young people will know that people are going to jail for getting involved in Yahoo business.”

He added that if you are convicting Yahoo Boys without it being reported massively then nobody will know that people are going to jail for the crime saying that the empathy in the Nigeria culture will make security agents to over the Yahoo Boys since they cannot go after the public officers and politicians who are stealing more than the Yahoo Boys.

The NIG president however, expressed optimism that it will help to reduce the volume of obscene things and falsehood that people post on the internet particularly Facebook stressing, “You will see people write on Facebook President Jonathan is a thief or this other person is a thief. We must have some form of orderliness in the kind of things that we post on the internet.”

 The new Act according to Senator Adegbenga Kaka from Ogun East constituency stipulates a seven year jail term for cyber crime and online fraud perpetrators in Nigeria.

The law, which was a bill sponsored by Kaka, seeks among others to punish interception of data, system interference and misuse of devices.

Also, anyone found guilty of possessing a manipulative device, unauthorised automatic teller machine (ATM) card, damaging a computer with the intention to defraud, trafficking in any password to defraud customers or financial institutions will be sentenced to seven years imprisonment or a fine of N7 million.

Similarly, any person or organisation who unlawfully traffics in any password or similar information through a computer with the intention to defraud public and private interests within or outside Nigeria will be liable upon conviction to a fine of N7 million or three years imprisonment.

The law further spelt out a three-year jail term or N2 million fine for anyone who knows that a crime has been committed in his premises or cybercafé and fails to report it to relevant authorities within seven days.

While the law provides for compulsory registration of all cyber cafe businesses with Computer Professionals’ Registration Council, in addition to business name registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), it also spells out three-year jail term or a fine of N1 million for anyone who perpetrates electronic fraud through a cybercafé.

Where the fraud is found to have been perpetrated in connivance with the owner(s) of the cybercafé, such owner(s) shall be liable to a fine of N2 million or three years’ jail term.

It also seeks to punish all kinds of computer-related fraud, computer-related forgery, offences relating to pornography, cyber-stalking and cyber squatting, as well as to promote cyber security, protection of computer systems and networks, electronic communication, data and computer programmes, intellectual property and privacy rights.

The law stipulates that anyone who commits fraud using a computer system or network with the intention of obtaining computer data, securing access to any programme, commercial or industrial secrets or classified information will upon conviction be sentenced to seven years in jail or a fine of N7 million or both.