MTN Refutes Improper Fund Repatriation Allegations

THE MTN Group has denied the allegation of improper repatriation of money out of Nigeria by the company, which was made made on the floor of the Senate.

The allegation said that MTN had illegally repatriated $13.92 billion out of Nigeria over a period of 10 years in collusion with a number of commercial banks.

MTN Nigeria Chief Executive Officer, Ferdi Moolman while reacting to allegations from Senator Dino Melaye, a member of the Senate representing Kogi-West Senatorial District, said, “The allegations made against MTN are completely unfounded and without any merit”.

Melaye alleged that MTN Nigeria had repatriated $13.9 billion from Nigeria to other countries between 2006 and now with the help of a serving minister and some banks.

He said that  Stanbic IBTC,  allegedly helped the firm to transfer $4.87 billion; Standard Chartered Bank, $5.72 billion; Citi Bank, $2.98 billion; and Diamond Bank, $0.35billion.

The lawmaker further disclosed that he had documentary evidences to back his claims, some of which he brought to the floor of the chamber and said would be made available for investigation.

He said, “The Senate observes that MTN did not request for the Certificate of Capital Importation from its bankers, Standard Chartered Bank, within the regulatory period of 24 hours of the inflow. The Senate observes also that the CBN was not notified of this inflow by Standard Chartered Bank within 48 hours of receipt and conversion of the proceeds to naira as required by regulation.

“It further observes that the sum of $117,683,987bn was also brought in by MTN between 2001 and 2003 in three different tranches. It is concerned that since inception, MTN had sought the collaboration of influential and unpatriotic Nigerians to assist them in looting our external reserves.”

Melaye added, that a serving minister, was used in moving $13.92bn out of Nigeria by  which was over 50 per cent of the country’s external reserves, to floating and incorporating offshore Special Purpose Vehicles in the Cayman Island, Mauritius and British Virgin Island.

The senator listed the names of the SPVs, their promoters/shareholders and their share loan between MTN South Africa as: Cel Telephone Investment Limited, Port Louis, Mauritius; Dr. Pascal Dozie and Dr. Okechuckwu Elenemah; $20,749,532; Celtel funded shares SPV (which was renamed NISPV Limited in 2008), Port Louis, Mauritius; Dr. Pascal Dozie, Ahmed Dasuki, Gbenga Oyebode, Babatunde Folawiyo and Dr. Okechukwu Elenemah, $2,019,232.

Others are Mobile Communication Investment Limited, Port Louis, Mauritius; Mohammed Sanni Bello; $3,862,985; Mobile Communication Holdings, Port Louis, Mauritius; Mohammed Sanni Bello; $3,454,102; Hermitage Overseas Corporation Limited; Victor Odili; $10,273,986; SASPV Limited and Ahmed Dasuki, $10,058,991.

The list also includes NCell Limited, Geneva Water Front Drive, British Virgin Island; Gbenga Oyebode, $4,512,593; Universal Communication Limited, Barkly House, George Town, Cayman Island; and Babatunde Folawiyo, $5,534,941.

FG Names New DG For NITDA

• PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim as the substantive director general and chief executive  the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) he takes over from Dr. Vincent  Olatunji.
•  Pantami is one of 13 the new chief executives for different federal government agencies were appointed yesterday.

Pantami is a professor of Computer & Info Systems at the Islamic University of Madina and former lecturer, Department of Information Technology, ATBU takes over from Olatunji, an establishment man who put up perfunctory efforts to get President Buhari’s confirmation.

He is expected to turn around NITDA, which is a waltzing story of failures and inadequacies unable to meet its clear mandate of fostering the development and growth of IT in Nigeria.

Since its establishment in May 2001, NITDA has operated in fits and starts and abdicated its responsibilities in a country where ICT is growing at an increasing rate.

Perhaps, nothing could have been more damning on the NITDA as a failed agency than the recommendation that it should be scrapped by the Steven Oronsaye 2012 Committee Report on Rationalization and Harmonization of MDAs.

Oronsaye recommended that NITDA should become a department inside the newly created Ministry of Communications Technology and its duty as IT clearinghouse for government to taken over by Galaxy Backbone Plc.

To some extent, NITDA’s careworn state is a direct doppelgänger of past leaderships at the agency since inception.

They all displayed clear lack of focus and understanding of the role of the agency in the present ‘knowledge era’.

Drive and innovation are scare at the agency beyond its mechanical civil service role.

It is so worrisome that an agency with so much powers from the National Information Technology Development Agency ACT 2007, has failed over the course of 14 years to plan, develop and promote the use of Information technology in Nigeria.

Olatunji who has acted since Mr. Peter Jack, former DG was sacked earlier in the year, over alleged “misconduct” did little to lift the image of the agency still remains as a director at NITDA playing leading role.

Data Connection Still Slow in Nigeria, Says ntel Boss

THE growth in broadband penetration in the country has not been evidently clear in the speed of internet connection prompting the Managing Director of NATCOM, owners of ntel, Mr. Abass Kamar to describe data connection in Nigeria to be slow.

Kamar who made the remark while speaking at the 2016 NigeriaCom Conference and Exhibition, said that despite the slow speed of data connection in the country, there are clear evidence that there is hunger for reliable data connection in the country noting that the industry is presently witnessing a fundamental phenomenal shift from narrow band to broadband connection.

He said that to meet the quest of the consumers for high speed broadband connection it has become necessary to embrace the 4G technology, and that the migration to 4G broadband in the next five years will be greater that the migration to mobile communication.

He disclosed that the 92 million internet subscribers are connected through the narrow band connection and as such the active subscribers had to contend with a 2G connection, which is lower than one megabyte connection per second.

He observed that as a result the average consumption under the 2G connection is lower than 200 megabytes monthly compared to a global stand of 800 megabyte monthly stressing that there is urgent need to address this deficit.

According to Kamar, the way out of the present trend of low speed data connection in Nigeria is 4G technology if the industry must carter for the mass market needs saying that the industry needs solutions that does not focus on cities but on the vast area of the country.

He said that the need of the internet communities goes beyond city hotspots but mobile solutions that can carry a lot of capacity just like noting that ntel has the ability to build Nigeria’s most constant efficient mass market mobile  broadband network.

Kamar explained that although it went out to acquire a company that has been out of fashion and business, it has been very clear on the fundamental requirement of the telecoms market today noting that is built on what is called the golden spectrum.

He added that ntel is built on the 4G/LTE –Advanced technology is  built on the 900/1800MHz spectrum, which can deliver the unbeatable and game changer customer experience of high speed internet access up to 230Mbps,”thus enabling a world of full mobile broadband experiences that will transform both lives and livelihoods.”

Abbas, an ex-Country Manager of Ericsson Nigeria said that ntel is the biggest 4G network in the country today, but that the decision of the company to rollout only Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt was strategic saying that beyond its inherited infrastructure, it also has secondary sites from tower companies.

In an address while declaring open the event, Portfolio Manager, Africa TMT KNects365, organisers of the event, Adam Thompson observed that Nigeria requires the diversification away from a heavy dependence on the oil and gas sector, and expansion of the knowledge economy.

He said that the development of the ICTs and skills mark stronger prospect for social benefit and that this can only occur through convincing actions from the NigeriaCom participants.

Stakeholders To Tackle Dwindling IGR At E-PPAN’S E-Govt Summit

KEY stakeholders in the nation’s economy are expected to tackle the issue of dwindling Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, across the country at the 5th E-Government Summit holding in Abuja next week.

They include senior officials from the Central Bank of Nigeria and across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government with thoughts leaders, executives and players in the electronic payment industry.

Organisers of the event, the Electronic Payment Association of Nigeria (E-PPAN), in  a statement, said its ready to play host to over 150 delegates made up of strategist, policy-makers and leaders’ at the two-day event starting from Tuesday next week.

The E-Government Summit is an annual event that provides a pedestal for the public and private sector to dialogue with each other on a topical issues revolving around developments in electronic payment space with bias for public sector.

The 2016 Summit with the theme: ‘Attaining Increased Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR), Efficiency and Accountability through Smart Innovations,’ provides yet unique opportunity for stakeholders to dialogue and share ideas on how to leverage and harness smart technologies with positive strides to increasing the nations’ IGR.

According to the E-PPAN, the forum will focus on areas that can foster innovative ideas on how the government can use revenue generation, data management, opportunities on shared infrastructure, reduce capital costs and operating overheads to build a nation that is self-reliance.

“This years’ summit will cover topics such as Increasing IGR, for Government MDA’s through Implementation of Smart Solution; Delivering Innovative Citizen-centric Services using ICT; Adopting the Financial Inclusion Roadmap for Improved Economy and Good Governance; Smart Government through Shared Services Model; Data Integration and Analysis, for Strategic Economic Development amongst others,” the statement said.

E-PPAN has unveiled a list of confirmed speakers at the event, including the Acting Director, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Vincent Olatunji; Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC); Boboye Oyeyemi; MD, Galaxy BackBone, Mr. Yusuf Kazaure; Country Manager, HP, Chukwuma Okpaka; and General Manager, CSCS, Mr. Taiwo Otiti.

They also include MD, Nextzon Business Services, Mr. Macauley Atasie; Former CBN Deputy Governor, Mr. Tunde Lemo; MD, Knowledge Resources, Geradine Llukwe; MD, Visual Earth Ltd., Dr. Nicholas Allo; Senator Ayo Arise; CEO, Interswitch, Mr. Mitchell Elegbe; Head, E-Government, NITDA, Ben Ewah; Co-founder/Lead Partner, Budg IT, Mr. Olusegum Onigbinde; Head, Financial Inclusion Secretariat, CBN, Temitope Akin-Fadeyi and the Division CEO, Interswitch Financial Inclusion, Mike Ogbalu III.

Stakeholders Task FG, MDAs On telecoms Regulations

KEY stakeholders in the nation’s telecommunications industry in Nigeria cautioned the Federal Government and ministries, department and agencies at the federal and state level as well in the local governments not to take regulatory decisions that can kill the sector.

The stakeholders who gave the warning at the Third Quarter Nigeria Technology and Communications Reporters Association, NITRA, with the theme: ‘The Impact of over Regulation of the Telecommunications Industry on Service Quality’, said the warning became necessary since the telecoms sector is now described as the main source of national revenue considering the crisis in the oil sector.

 Delivering a keynote address at the event, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof Umar Garba Danbatta revealed that for over a decade, some of the most intractable problems of the industry were the discordant relationship among government agencies, and the relationship between the industry and the various governments and environments where they operate.

According to him, that has lead the NCC to reach out to other agencies and the state governors with the view to convince them to take another look at the industry and create environments that will favour operators and thus be able to contribute more in terms of investment, employment and taxes.

The NCC helmsman who was represented by the Director Public Affairs of the Commission, Mr Toy Ojobo noted that this course of action, “which we will want to describe as quiet diplomacy, is helping to bring some needed stability to the sector”, adding that the Commission has met with some state governors under the Governors Forum.

Danbatta said: “We have told them about the existence of a document put together by the National Economic Council which spells out charges on telco infrastructure rollout. This document stipulates charges of N145 per metre of fibre and another N20 for maintenance. There are some states where they charge as much as N8, 000 per metre length of fibre.”

He explained that certain actions, which could affect the industry, should not be taken and that “stakeholders of the industry are not to begrudge anybody for their actions but to use your knowledge of the industry to explain why certain actions should not be taken.”

On why certain actions in the past should not have been taken, Chairman of the occasion and Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, ALTON, Engr Gbenga Adebayo questioned some of the regulations that are prevalent in the sector.

Making reference to Over-The-Top, OTT, media, he said that he had at several times wondered if it was the technology in the industry that was been regulated or the content of the technology.

He noted that the current over-regulation of the sector began immediately after the industry was deregulated and liberalisation was implemented adding that what the telecoms operators suffer today at the hands of governments and their agents could affect the quality of services.

He disclosed that the industry must protected as the current sources of the national revenue so that what happened in the textile and rail transport will not repeated in the telecoms industry warning that the present 30 per cent broadband penetration is being challenged by over-regulation.

Similarly, President Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, ATCON, Mr Olusola Teniola, said that the incessant shut down of telecoms facilities by multiple regulatory have an adverse effect on the quality of services offered by operators in the industry.

Prof Danbatta

He noted that the outages occasioned by these shut downs negatively impact quality of service indices such as reduced call completion rates, increased call drop rates, increased voice quality impairment, and transmission quality impairment.

Teniola who was represented by the First Vice President of ATCON, Engr. Anthony Nwosu said that the overall implication of these is heightened consumer dissatisfaction with the quality of services provided by operators.

But the General Manger of the Lagos State Infrastructure and Maintenance and Regulatory Agency, LASIMRA, Mr. Babajide Odekunle noted that the agency will not deliberately tamper with telecoms infrastructure saying it is aware of its value to the economy.

Odekunle who was represented by his aide, Mr. Adeyinke Adehunle said that LASIMRA is very transparent in its operation and that it often seeks partnership with other concerned stakeholders urging telecoms operators to stick to rules and regulations of deploying telecoms infrastructure.

IPV6 Council Advocates For Speedy Adoption

THE Internet Protocol Version Six,IPv6, Council Nigeria, has called on key players in the telecoms sector of the country to speedy up the adoption of the protocol.

The Council Chairman, Mr. Muhammed Rudman who made the call during a courtesy visit to the Executive Vice Chairman, EVC, of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta noted that the world of Internet is going out of Internet Protocol version Four (IPv4) addresses, hence the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocated the remaining eight IPv4 address blocks to each of the 5 Regional Internet Registries, RIR namely AP-NIC, RIPE-NCC, AFRI-NIC, ARIN and LACNIC in 2011.

He explained that the new IPv6 will open a pool of Internet addresses, a billion-trillion times larger than the total pool of IPv4 address, which is about 4.3 billion, pointing out that this means the number of IPv6 addresses is virtually inexhaustible for the foreseeable future.

According to him, his, the need of the ever expanding world population, the growth of the domain name system is due to the opening of the new generic Top Level Domains and the emerging Internet of Things.

He equally said most of the developed world has already embraced IPv6, with countries competing for positions in the global ranking on IPv6 adoption, lamenting that Nigeria is lacking so far.

IPV6 Counncil with NCC officails

"Unfortunately, most of the African countries are late on this mass migration, with Nigeria particularly lagging behind even within Africa, this should not be taken lightly considering that we have the largest number of Internet users in Africa and the seventh in the world." he said.

Rudman who is also the Chief Executive Officer, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) disclosed that major content producers such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft have all adapted IPv6 giving the opportunity to IPv6 networks access to their contents.

Danbatta assured the Council of NCC’s to encourage telcos to key into IPv6 deployment in the country and through facilitation of capacity building workshops, pointing that it may be difficult to identify all the challenges hindering IPv6 adoption in Nigeria.

NCC Orders Visafone to Vacate 800 MHz Band

THE Nigerian Communication Commission has ordered Visafone Communications Limited to stop operating in the 800 MHz band due to its interference with Smile Communications Limited signals.

The Commission gave the directive after the end of its second Quarter spectrum monitoring exercise, saying that Visafone should switch off all CDMA signals in the 800 MHz band entering into Ikeja, Lagos area.

EVC NCC Prof Danbatta

This is even as the report showed that the industry regulator had recovered from Layer 3 Limited, one of the internet service and metropolitan fibre optic network operators the sum of N34, 066,537.28 outstanding financial obligations due to the NCC.

The amount is the Annual Operating Levy (AOL) due to the Commission, of which the NCC had directed Layer 3 Limited to make full payment during the period as a precondition for renewal of its expired licence.

It also indicated that Spatials Limited entered into a joint venture agreement with Vodacom Business Africa Nigeria Limited for the marketing and distribution of AVTS services without obtaining approval from the Commission contrary to Condition 13 of the terms and condition of its licence.

During the quarter under review, the Commission conducted a compliance monitoring exercise on Automated Vehicular Tracking Service (AVTS) Licensees adding that “given the peculiar security issues
associated with the provision of vehicle tracking services and given concerns of increasing activities of illegal operators in this market segment it became most imperative that a comprehensive compliance monitoring checks is done.”

It also hinted of plans to commence enforcement action against all defaulters to recover.

“Pursuant to the Commission’s goal of sustaining the integrity of the Mobile Number Portability Scheme in the country, the Commission has continued to monitor the porting process with a view to ensuring strict adherence to the MNP Regulation 2014 in addition to the business rules. To this end, a system audit of operator’s MNP Platform and Short Message Service Center, SMSC, was carried out during the period”, the report stated.

The report from the NCC said that in Q2 of 2016, its exercise focused attention on reviewing all rejected
port requests by the donor within the period to ensure that these rejections were made for valid reasons consistent with the MNP Business Rules.

On the currently menace of unsolicited calls and text messages, thereport stated that all mobile  network operators, MNOs, had been directed to ensure full compliance and that  failure to comply attracts a fine of N5,000,000.00.

The decision to be hard on the MNO, according the NCC, became necessary because of the avalanche
of complaints from telecoms subscribers on the menace of unsolicited text messages and nuisance calls from mobile network operators in the industry.

The True Story About The Frog In CWAY Bottle Water

RECENTLY, a video emerged on the Facebook posted by one Niyi Ogunbiade showing a dead frog in dispenser bottled water manufactured by CWAY Nigeria Drinking Water Science and Technology Company Limited.

According to Ogunbiade, he claimed to have bought the water in his neighbourhood in the Lekki area of Lagos, and that drinking water for his family, which includes a new baby, was also from the bottled water mounted on the dispenser.

Worried by the public health risk associated with the development, ICT-BizAfrica paid a visit to the factory of CWAY Nigeria Drinking Water Science and Technology Company located at the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, Lagos to examine the production line from which the CWAY dispenser bottled water is produced.

Contrary to our expectation, senior executive of the company granted full access to our correspondent to examine the production line, and to see if there was any sanitary breach that could have made it possible for a frog to have found its way into the dispenser bottled water.

Our investigation however confirmed that the production facility for the CWAY dispenser bottled water had no sanitary breach that would have allowed a frog into any of its bottle water notwithstanding the technology deployed by the company, which is meets global standard.

Narrating how the company received the news of a dead frog found in one of its dispenser bottled water, Deputy Director, CWAY Group, Mr. Tony Ojumoola said that it was shocking to the management of the company because it has never possible for the size of a frog to go through its tight production line where 100 percent sanitary level is maintained.

According to Ojumoola, when the video came to the notice of the company swung into to action to study the video to confirm if its quality assurance seal was intact but unfortunately it was discovered that the two level quality assurance seal has been tampered with.

He said further that those who are passionate about the CWAY brand of bottled water confirmed on its FaceBook page that the person, who posted the video, without drawing attention of the company to it for proper investigation was mischievous.

He disclosed that upon physical examination of the said bottle when a team from CWAY visited the complainant at his Lekki home, the Blue Seal (Shrink Wrap) was not present on the product, and that no batch or production date was found on the seal of the bottle, as against the standard for all CWAY products.

Ojumoola wondered why the complainant did not dim it fit to inform the company of his discovery at the point of purchase noting that it is the standard of CWAY to often to let his consumer to check the security features before making any purchase, the possibility of fake CWAY water in a competitive market cannot be ruled out.

He stated that since the security features and the quality assurance seal from CWAY were not found on the dispenser bottled water examined at the home of Niyi Ogunbiade in Lekki, Lagos the product is obviously not from CWAY.

He said that because the brand is doing well in the market, there are those who are taking advantage of that to adulterate it by counterfeiting its security and quality assurance features stressing that some of them have been seized and that the case is already in court.

Water Group Senior Advertising Manager for CWAY Group, Auscar Ikoro described the development as an attempt to adulterate the CWAY water saying that while examine the video he discovered that there people laughing at the background of the video while the recording was going on.

He noted that the development is one of the traces of stiff competition in the market saying that the complainant was obviously ignorant of the security features that comes with the CWAY bottled.

He said further CWAY has already informed the general public through its Facebook page that the matter is under investigations and preliminary findings from its investigations will be revealed soon.

 The Quality Control and Assurance Officer, Mr. Franklin Okwara who took ICT-BizAfrica through the production plant of the CWAY water products said that the entire production is devoid of any human related efforts beside the operation of the high-tech machine.

He explained that the CWAY water is refined and packaged that utilizes micro-filters that  makes in practically impossible for anything even the size of a frog to go through the membrane in the double reverse osmosis process.

According to him, all impurity are trapped and the pure water allowed to go through stressing that all processes are repeated at least two times, which involves eight filtration bed of silicon, titanium filters.

Besides, he said that the double reverse osmosis, ozone dozing, the bottles are also automatically washed more than 24 times over thereby making it impossible to even have microbes in CWAY product noting that after each bottle water has gone through the filling process they are checked through power energy light manual for organisms.

Okwara also showed our correspondent, a production line of personnel that smell each bottle as they arrive from customers to check for bad odor noting that “sometimes we have discovered that some customers after exhausting the content of the bottle result to using it for storing kerosene.

Nokia Opens $79bn New Revenue Stream For Operators

NOKIA has launched a multiscreen advertising solution to help operators tap TV and video service advertising revenues forecast to reach $79 billion in 2021.

The solution, which supports targeted ad placements for linear TV, time-shifted TV and video on demand, is available now and Nokia is conducting trials with several operators in the United States.

The Velocix Multiscreen Advertising Solution is a cloud-based, service-oriented architecture (SOA) that provides client-independent, network-based ad insertion and replacement.

According to Nokia, the solution scales by dynamically adding virtual machines and allowing the distribution of personalized advertising content at the edge of the network - both of which are critical to support popular live events saying that it is flexibility and allows advertisers to greater capitalize on time-shifted and localized audiences.

Velocix Multiscreen Advertising builds on Nokia's Velocix Personalization Platform, which collects individual viewing information and presents it to an ad decision server to improve the relevance of every ad.

The advanced tracking captures every single viewing experience, determines whether an ad reaches its intended target viewer and delivers that data to operators to demonstrate value for ad buyers.

Nokia disclosed that when deployed with a distributed content delivery network such as the Velocix Media Delivery Platform, the solution allows manipulation of the content and caching of ads closer to subscribers saying that this leads to a superior end-user experience, simpler operations and more efficient use of network resources.

The Velocix Multiscreen Advertising Solution supports a variety of ad decision servers including Cadent Technology's (formerly BlackArrow) Central(TM), an advertising control plane which manages multiple advertising workflows through a centralized platform, and Cadent Technology's Campaign(TM), an ad decisioning server and web-based application to plan, manage and analyze advanced advertising campaigns. This allows operators to select partners to be part of a multi-vendor, best-of-breed cloud-based infrastructure.

Head of IP Video at Nokia, Paul Larbey, said: "Nokia is committed to helping our customers optimize their infrastructure for the delivery of added-value, personalized services. The Velocix Multiscreen Advertising solution is the first truly scalable ad placement solution in the market and supports a sound strategy to deliver profitable Cloud TV."

Managing Director and Vice President, ABI Research, Sam Rosen, said: "Nokia's innovative targeted advertising solution is architected to help operators optimize the monetization opportunities resulting from the consumer shift to on-demand and IP content, without further straining the network delivering video content. The solution's network-centric architecture works with existing devices and applications, while its flexibility allows it to address a variety of complementary business cases." 

How Pastor Adeboye Speends Money in His 49 Years of Wedlock

THE love story of Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, General Overseer of RCCG popularly known as Daddy GO and his darling wife Pastor Mrs. Folu Adeboye is one that would go down in history as one of the most romantic love stories ever. 

Notably because this couple were very prudent despite having the opportunity to be lavish in spending.

When he could not avoid a wedding ring for the wife, he told her and she understood, and when he could afford he told her there was no need for and she too understood.

Daddy GO has not only proved that having God at the centre of your life is key but he has also proved that real men still exist.

As they celebrate the faithfulness of God on their 49th anniversary this year. Here are 20 things you would never believe Daddy GO does:

•        Adeboye married twice surprise face hahaha...not what you’re thinking. He had a traditional marriage first then a white wedding in church about two years after.

•        Adeboye couldn’t afford a ring then but he promised his wife that she will never lack anything and has since kept this promise.

•        When Adeboye could finally afford a ring, he refused to buy or wear one. He also mandated his last son, Leke Adeboye, to do same.

•        Adeboye wouldn’t eat food or drink anywhere his wife doesn’t approve first.

•        Adeboye prefers his meals freshly cooked daily.

•        Adeboye expects his wife to fast with him when he is fasting.

•        Adeboye eats dinner between 4-5pm and that’s it for the day.

•        Adeboye sometimes goes into the kitchen to give moral support and taste the food. He also advices on which food needs more seasoning or salt.

•        At least 3 times every year, Adeboye leaves his whole family for about 5 days, no phone calls, no sex, no distractions, even his wife is not allowed around him.

•        Adeboye used to be very fat, his weight was so disturbing that his wife begged him to do something about it.

•        Adeboye started making efforts toward reducing his weight by totally avoiding fizzy drinks and alcohol. Now, he only drinks water, fresh fruit juice and teas.

•        Adeboye would never leave Nigeria and is never more than a 2-hours’ drive or flight away from his wife on the month of her birthday. This is one of the promises he made to her when they got married.

•        Adeboye still gives monthly household expenses fees to his wife till date. This even increases year by year as inflation goes up

•        Adeboye also gives his wife monthly self-maintenance allowance.

•        When he is at home, Adeboye kisses his wife every morning and prays for her even before coming out to see anyone else.

•        Adeboye always buys marching watches, suit cases. Everything he needs to get, he always makes sure to get her own version of it.

•        Adeboye always puts his wife first before his children. Besides they will and have all left home anyways.

•        Adeboye has never stopped appreciating his wife for her sacrifice over the years and putting her dreams on hold so he could become who he is today hence he never leaves her behind in anything and everything he does.

Ericsson, Galaxy Backbone Signs MOU On ICT For Public Services

ERICSSON and Galaxy Backbone, the Government ICT shared services provider in Nigeria, has today announced a partnership to design and deploy ICT based solutions and services supporting the delivery of efficient public services in the country.

This partnership is in keeping with the Nigerian Government’s commitment to leverage ICT for job creation, improved security, economic diversification and social inclusion. It also supports the Minister of Communication’s vision to deploy e-Government as a tool to improve governance and efficiency in the delivery of quality public services.

Yusuf Kazaure, Chief Executive Officer, Galaxy Backbone says: “The transformative role of ICT for improved delivery of public services has become quite significant and in Nigeria Galaxy is at the forefront in terms of the provision of the infrastructure and services that empower MDAs to achieve their mandates through better service delivery to the citizens they serve”.

Under the terms of the partnership, spanning three years, Ericsson will serve as advisor, systems integrator and implementation partner for ICT based solutions and services covering the transport, utility and safety and security sectors.

Ericsson will also manage all deployed solutions and services while building capacity within Galaxy Backbone and partner public parastatals ensuring that all deployments are eventually handed over to the government along with selected private sector players.

Johan Jemdahl, Head of Ericsson Nigeria, says: “A recent report by Ericsson and the Earth Institute at Columbia University on the impact of ICT on sustainable development, calls on governments to harness technology, investment and new types of partnerships to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

"This partnership with Galaxy Backbone touches upon all of these criteria and places Nigeria on a clear path towards meeting the needs of a growing economy using ICT. This partnership also supports our vision of building a networked society in Nigeria and we are excited to be partnering Galaxy Backbone on this journey.”

Upon the finalization of scoping the required solutions, all involved parties will jointly agree on the investment business models that best suit what is required to most efficiently roll out this new vision. Additionally, the inclusion of outside participation from third party investors will be discussed and finalized.

NCC, AIRTEL, LASIMRA, Others Set For Telecoms Seminar

STAKEHOLDERS from public and private sectors at Federal and State levels are set for the third quarter seminar series being organised by the Nigeria Information and Communication Technology Reporters’ Association.

The programme being sponsored by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and one of Nigeria’s leading telecoms companies, Airtel, will bring together industry stakeholders to brainstorm on the theme: “The Impact of Over-Regulation of Telecoms Industry on Service Quality.”

The event is scheduled to hold in September 16, 2016, the seminar will bring together industry regulators including the NCC, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) as well as representation from the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS) and ZInox Group, among others.

Already, most industry stakeholders have confirmed attendance at the one-day forum to be chaired by the Chairman of ALTON, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo.

The General Manager of Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Authority (LASIMRA), Mr. Jide Odekunle will be the keynote speaker at the event with Airtel Nigeria making another paper presentation on the theme of the event.

The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta, will give an overall review of the telecoms industry, the value that the sector has added to the Nigerian economy, as well and the effect of multiple regulations on service quality.

The Acting Director-General of NITDA, Dr. Vincent Olatunji; President of ATCON, Engr. Olusola Teniola and Chairman, Zinox Group, Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, among other stakeholders, are expected at the seminar.

Telecoms subscribers are said to be losing a whopping N750 million annually to intermittent poor service quality such as call-drops, unfair billings, charges on Value Added Service (VAS) not subscribed to, among others.

“Nigeria telecoms industry has grown significantly in the past 15 years in such a way that it is now regarded as one of the fastest-growing in the world. 

Nigerians telecoms has, indeed, witnessed exponential growth in the last 13 years moving from active subscriber base of 400,000 with teledensity of 0.004 per cent to active subscriber base of 149.8 million with teledensity of 107.01 per cent, as of June 2016 statistics,” said NITRA President, Mr. Emma Okonji in a statement.

He noted that despite the growth, more conducive regulatory environment needed to be provided for the network so as to be able to deliver quality service for their growing subscriber base.

“It is our belief that the forum will provide opportunities for industry stakeholders to dialogue on regulatory challenges facing the operators and their effects on the service delivery to the subscribers. It will also help in offering workable solutions for effective industry regulation that will bring about greater growth of the over $38 billion telecoms industry,” Okonji added.