Nigerian Businesses Need Technology to Survive, Says Expert

HEWLETT PACKARD (HP) has said that Nigeria was not exempted from the growing trend whereby organisations are keying into the potentials of technology to improve their business.

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology, Lagos State, Mrs. Nike Animashaun, who made the remark at the opening ceremony of the 2015 Hewlett Packard Technology Tour said businesses around the world are using advanced technology to reduce the cost of doing business while also churning out high scale productivity that redefines economies globally.

Animashaun said as a responsible government, Lagos State is aware that with information technology, business transactions have become seamless globally, reducing physical presence and creating breath.

According to her, the Lagos State Government is excited to be part of the HP Technology Tour 2015, noting that the magnitude has the capacity to boost Nigeria’s ICT sector and enhance greater technological advancements through extensive brainstorming on pertinent issues within the IT industry.

She said that growing with businesses globally, HP recognized the potential of Information Technology and have consistently re-innovate to ensure its customers are not left behind, especially businesses who dare to survive the very challenging global economic terrain.

Commercial Director, Middle East and Mediterranean Africa, HP, David Rozzio said that the HP Technology Tour was conducted across the globe to bring HP customers closer to the latest in information technology.

He said that the technology tour was meant to provide Nigerian businesses and IT professionals the opportunity to tap into the latest technology; and improve the performance and overall profitability of businesses while also guaranteeing security of business intelligence.

70,000 IT Personnel Needed to Tackle Skill Shortage

FOR the country to effectively tackle its current IT skill challenges, about 70, 000 personnel must be added to the nation’s IT workforce.

Cisco Nigeria gave the projection at the end the Cisco Networking Academy held at the University of Lagos, noting that tertiary institutions are not producing enough ICT graduates to meet this demand.

General Manager, Cisco, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Mr. Dare Ogunlade said in a remark during the training that governments urgently need to deploy policy and training programmes to help solve the world’s fastest-growing gap in networking professionals.

He stated the demand for Internet Technical Professionals is increasing in proportion to the demand for connectivity adding that the global shortage of skilled IP networking professionals will be at least 1.2 million people in 2015, according to INSEAD Business School’s Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2014 co-authored by Cisco.

The industry expert disclosed that the latest Cisco Visual Networking Index, Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2014-2019 revealed that mobile data traffic is expected to grow 11-fold over the next five years in Nigeria, which is a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 63 percent – two times faster than expected fixed IP traffic growth.

He explained that it highlights that connectivity is accelerating at a fast pace in the country therefore creating a growing need for skilled ICT professionals stressing that the lack of young ICT professionals is not limited to just Nigeria.

He said that increased connectivity, the Internet of Everything, rising digitisation of all business activity, globalisation of trade and travel, and economic growth globally has created the same problem in a number of countries globally.

Ogunlade said: “Specific programmes and targeted policies are needed to expand the total pool of qualified people in Nigeria, as well as globally. More effort is particularly needed to expand the pool of qualified networking talent by increasing the number of new Networking employees.”

Nigeria’s Mobile Phone Sales Worth N4.4bn Monthly

THE AMOUNT of mobile phones sold monthly in Nigeria has been estimated at about $20 million, while the country is also described to be very environmentally friendly to most devices that are imported in the country.

Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of BLU Nigeria, the sole distributor of a US-based BLU mobile phones, Mr. Stephen Fevrier, disclosed that the entry into the already saturated Nigerian mobile phone market was to bring something different to mobile phone users in the country.

According to him, though some of the world’s leading mobile phone brands are already in the Nigerian market, BLU’s unique design, quality and affordable price give it an edge over the other brands.

“If you look at most of the specs, you can compare the phone to Samsung and Apple, and not with these other phones that litter the market in Nigeria. There are three major selling points of the BLU phone and they are design, quality and affordable price. There is a phone for everybody in BLU mobile,” he said.

He said BLU mobile phone has long lasting battery life of over 72 hours of heavy usage, after about two hours of charge adding that other features include upgradable operating system (OS), which gives its users the ability to upgrade its operating system as new version OS is released.

He pointed out that the phones also had dual SIM ports, water resistance features, camera, television and radio, with one year warranty that covers factory errors.

Fevrier noted that though the product is barely a year in the Nigerian mobile phone market, it has recorded tremendous success especially in the low and high-end categories adding that its popularity is more with the feature phones.

He said that BLU is not unmindful of the fact that it is competing in a market already dominated by some notable big brands but expressed the belief that with the quality of product it has brought into the Nigerian market, it will not be long it takes over the Nigerian mobile phone market.

“We are pretty much aware of the quality of product that we have. You know we have some strong brands too that we are competing against. For that reason, we needed to put our house in order first so as to compete well.

“Once we are done with putting our house in order, we shall commence serious campaigns in form of road shows and media campaigns.’’

Source Code Theft Threatens Nation’s Software Industry

The nation’s software industry has over the years been bedeviled with teething problems such as piracy and unbridled importation and patronage of foreign software. However, investigation revealed that source code theft may soon be the latest burden investors and professional s in the industry may have to contend with as quacks have identified this area as major source of cheap money. 

THE GROWING trend of software piracy in the country has for long be a subject of concern for regulatory agencies, investors and professionals in the industry based on the damaging impact on their investments and the economy generally.

However, investigation indicated that despite sundry efforts to deal with the patristic monster of piracy in the industry, the problem is still prevalent as less than 50 per cent of software in the economy is believed to be purchased from developers or their authorized vendors.

Even as stakeholders, including the governments, are determined to sanitise the market, a new dimension has been added by pirates and their other ICT fraudsters to the war with the latest but gradually booming source code theft menace.

Although not yet popular in the industry, our investigations showed that some notable software developers in the country are currently having involved in a running battle against source code thieves, with one of them alleging the theft of his code by another professional colleague.

Indeed, it was gathered that the software developer, whose software is believed to have a strong share of the nation’s software market, may run into further losses following an alleged stealing of his source code by somebody he trusted.

According to a computer programmer and founder of Compucat System, Emmanuel Okitiakpe, the source code is the brain behind every software released by a developer into the market noting that without the source code, the developer is no longer in business.

He explained that software is usually written in a kind of computer instructions or programme before it can be referred to as software saying that before such programme is written, it is first analysed to solve a particular problem.

Okitiape clarified further that it is after such programme had been carefully written that it is given to the computer, and it is that state that it becomes software saying that after that the developer can then begin the process of debugging the software using the source code.

Corroborating the importance of the source code as stated by Okitiakpe, the President of Programos Software Group Limited, Emmanuel Amos said that if at that point the source code is stolen or copied by another person the investment made by the original owner of the software nullified noting that in such situation the one who stolen the source code may just be using it do another business.

Amos explained that it is a little easy for the original developer to start all over if the source code is merely copied, since it is possible for him to start rewriting the programme for the software saying that if the source code is stolen without the a copy, the developer is invariably left naked.

He further described the source code as an asset to the developer by which he uses to maintain a relationship with those clients that are using his software stressing that any lost of that means that the developer is out of business since he will not be able to improve further on the product.

Investigations reflected that although source code theft was not as common as that of software piracy yet the damage it is capable of doing to the investments of a developer can be substantial.

The Programos boss pointed out that sharing income may be lesser to bear noting that more precarious is a situation where the owner of the source code does not known that it has been be stolen, since such crime is usually committed by a trusted person.

He said that the financial implication is that the trade security of someone has been taken away from the person thereby making it impossible for the individual to do maintenance work on the software, which is an additional income for the developer of the software besides actual cost of the sale for the software.

He disclosed that due to the technical nature of software piracy the Nigerian Copyright Commission is founding difficult handling it adding that the stealing of source code is even more complex since it is a near abstract product.

Amos called on the Federal Government to set up a Software Copyright Commission that will be made up of experts in the field of programming stressing that the practitioners are in a better position to understand the gravity of source code theft.

He said further that the lost of source code could also affect other staff working in the company whose source code for a particular software has been stole.

According to Business Software Alliance’s (BSA) latest findings, an increase in the use of genuine software by one percent contributes $73 billion to the global economy while pirated software contributes $20 billion.

On the economic losses, the International Data Company, IDC disclosed that consumers globally will spend 1.5 billion hours and $22 billion identifying and recovering from the impact of malware, which arises from the use of pirated software.

The IDC further said in his latest report that businesses all over the world will be spending $114 billion to deal with the effects of malware-induced cyber-attacks.

Expert Asks FG For Software Copyright Commission

A SOFTWARE developer has called for the establishment of a Software Copyright Commission, SCC, in order to effectively tackle the growing menace of software piracy in the country.

Speaking in an interview, the Founder and President Programos Software Group Limited, Mr. Emmanuel Amos said that the country is currently not winning the war against software piracy because the police and lawyers lack the capacity to fight offenders.

According to Amos, who is the brain behind development of software for the Nigerian capital market, a software protection body is in a better position to secure the right of digital intellectual property saying that the Nigeria Copy Commission is well enabled to do that.

He said that the current copyright law is not inclusive enough for abstract professions like the software profession noting that “many other software developers in this country also suffer this silently and helplessly from the attack of software pirate but would not talk.”

He added that although there may be related law but that such laws may just be in silos and not effective in the fight against software piracy saying that the agencies like the Nigerian Technology Development Agency, NITDA, and National Office of Technology Acquisition and Promotion, NOTAP, can control the menace if empowered.

Referring to a recent discussion he had with a security operative whereby there was a display of lack of knowledge about software, he said that only a Commission on it can properly educate and inform security agencies on the protection of digital intellectual.

He disclosed that infringement on digital intellectual property is a great lost to the owner of that property stating that many software development companies in the country have been grounded as a result of software piracy.

He noted if it is so difficulty for big companies to survive the attack of software pirate, how then easy will it be for start-up companies and individuals to weather the storm software piracy.

Amos disclosed that once the source code of a software is stolen it therefore means that the company has been pushed out of business saying that an If “One luck I have is that I have groomed the Nigerian Capital Market for almost two decades and I have a clientele that is currently fighting for me.”

He said that he ready to fight the battle against software pirate because of the future of the industry in Nigeria and so that those who steal source code in order to kill others business will not succeed.

He further said that whenever a software developer suffer piracy challenge it puts the company in bad light before its customer stressing that in that case the solution is getting the source code back or rewriting the code.

Malfunctioning Websites Hamper MDAs’ E-governance Dividends to Citizens

Claims by governments across the country about their commitment to using IT driven platforms to enhance governance appear to be mere slogans. Investigations show that most MDAs’ websites that should keep the citizens informed about government policies and programmes are either nonexistent of malfunctioning. Staff reports.

In the first quarter of this year and before the exit of the former Minister of Communication Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson, a report she credited to the bi-annual United Nations e-Government Development Ranking index stated that Nigeria has moved 21 places in the ranking.

However, assessment of some government websites does not reflect the indices that gave e-governance in Nigeria that ranking.

According to the ranking, there was said to be standardisation of all MDA websites and deployment of ICT in all government parastatals while daily routines had become seamless.

Nigeria in the ranking pooled a total of 190 points to climb to 141st position in 2014, from 162nd in 2012, thereby moving to 21 places from the previous ranking in 2012.

How investigation  revealed that a lot of the MDAs websites far from what should be regarded as standard websites.

Our investigation, which was narrowed to key areas such News and Media menu, and the link of such websites to the social media as well as social media activities on some selected MDAs website reveals a sad state.

Our investigation particularly examined how often news and development are updated on such websites. It also examined the news update from national dailies posted on

the website.

A visit to the website of the Ministry of Communications Technology revealed that the last posting made in the News and Media menu of the website was in March 2015 while most of the photos posted on the photo gallery were photos of 2013 and 2014.

The last posting of daily newspaper report posted on the Daily News Report menu of the website was made in March 2015 while the last tweeting activities on the Ministry’s tweeter was June 24.

It was gathered that even in the use of the social media, the Ministry of Communications Technology was far behind global standard.

For instance, the last post on the Facebook of the Ministry was in April 2015 while only 144 people of the about 80 million Nigerians that visited the page which was created in 2012.

The Ministry has five departments under its supervision namely: Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Nigeria Technology and Development Agency, NITDA, NIPOST and Galaxy Backbone Plc but of all, the most active of them is the NCC.

It was discovered that NITDA has no news event menu that captures development and trends in an agency that is supposed to technology development in the country while the last news item posted on its latest news menu was in April 2015.

Investigation further revealed a dormant social media presence for NITDA as the last post on its Facebook page was in September 29, 2014 while the page, which was created in 2001 so far had only 3,566 likes.

Its tweeter account revealed that NITDA has only one tweet, five following, 25 followers and one favourite.

As for the Nigeria Postal Service, its website has no posting on its News and Media menu and there was no link to any Facebook and Tweeter accounts while the only post made was on its photo gallery, which was a 2013 photo award ceremony.

For NIGCOMSAT, the story was the same with no link to a Facebook account except for Tweeter account whose last tweet was in June 15, 2015 while the last time its News menu content update was in June 8, 2015.

Also a visit to the website of Galaxy Backbone Plc., a company that is a key driver of telecoms infrastructure in the country revealed that the last news update concerning its online activity was in May 2015, besides there is no news update of national dailies its the website.

A look at the Galaxy Backbone Face- Book page showed that the page, which was created in 2006 had only 384 likes while the last post on the page was in June 18, 2013.

However, it discovered that the Galaxy Backbone appears to be current with global trending events and news as indicated in its Tweeter account although the news item tweeted on June 29 2015 reported on June 18 on a telecoms news websites. The last tweet was tweeted on June 29, 2015 at the time of filing in this report.

But the account, which was created in 2010, has only 176 tweets, 45 following and 316 followers.

So far in the entire MDAs websites visited, only that of the NCC has a Norton security protection while none of them have the security key icon meaning that they are not secured and are vulnerable to the least experienced hackers.

Commenting on our investigation, software developer for the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, Mr. Emmanuel Amos disclosed that it is a reflection of the infancy state of e-governance in the country.

He noted that an efficient government website must not only be functional but should start and end a process for the common citizen, which should indeed reflect standard e-governance.

According to Amos, most of what is hosted today as websites by the MDAs in the country are just screen paintings with no effect saying that the cheapest service such drivers licence application or immigration service cannot fly on those websites.

While expressing worry about the kind of websites qualified platform for e-governance he stated that “to a great extent our people contribute to these failures because they want to truncate standard best practice processes and give room for human circumventions for corruption.”

He noted that these websites are not up to standard because of lack of readiness and enforcement to do the right adding that “Why do they work in other countries. We are simply corrupt.”

Amos observed that Nigerians are a major problem of e-governance and that technologies have always been in government stressing that the people do not want the government to get to the level of deploying technology for everything due to corruption.

While revealing that government automation process lacks auditing, he said that there are evidences that every aspect of governance requires technology to be effective saying that even the “Our health system needs data. The power supply we all worry about need data to enable proper planning.”

Notwithstanding the poor standard of most government websites, Amos noted that there good efforts made in many areas of e-governance saying however that they are all work in silos which reduces our egovernance next to nothing.

He explained that “you can see the National ID thing, e-voting system deployment, the banking BVN, the XoXo try ‘ s Credit Bureau responsibility has gone into oblivion.”

According to him, that is one reason government cannot function well and thereby satisfy the citizens in the current dispensation.

Managing Director, Internet eXchange Point of Nigeria, IXPN, Mr. Muhammed Rudman however said that there areas that these MDAs have done well besides the current state of their websites stating that there are challenges in the country as far as e-governance is concern.

He explained that the challenges of e-governance was what gave rise to the Nigerian e-Governance Forum so that issues that security and how to protect children and youths online.

He added that there are still challenges as to why Nigeria cannot share telecoms infrastructure with neighbouring West African countries so that regional traffic will not be a problem to the citizens of the region.