Ericsson offers €15,000 award prize to application developers in Nigeria

Applications developers in Nigeria stand the chance to win €15,000 cash prize in a competition that is jointly organised by ERICSSON and Sony Ericsson for application developers in West Africa.

Country Manager, Ericsson Nigeria, Gary Dewing said in a statement that Ericsson application entries would be automatically registered for the global competition.

According to him, the partnership would run a regional competition for application developers on the Android platform, adding that the competition titled ‘Apps for Africa’ is to run under the aegis of the 2012 Ericsson Application Awards (EAA 2012) - an ongoing yearly competition for application developers worldwide organised by Ericsson Research.

The statement disclosed that, ‘Applications for Africa’ is designed to promote the development of innovative ideas and mobile applications from a variety of environments and situations peculiar to the region, which are expected to enable new opportunities for people to collaborate, innovate, learn, care and participate in more efficient ways that positively impact our environment.

According to Dewing, this competition is an amazing opportunity for local talent to showcase their capabilities in the global community of innovators and developers noting that “It reflects our ambition to use technology to change lives for the better.”

Partial elimination of fuel subsidy ‘ll affect Benin, IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that the partial elimination of fuel subsidies in Nigeria would have a negative effect this year in the Republic of Benin on household real income and growth.

The IMF mission chief for Benin, Mr. Mario de Zamaróczy, dropped the hit in a statement he made at the end of discussions on the third review of a program supported by the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) of the IMF.

The meeting, which had in attendance the President of Benin, Dr. Boni Yayi,Prime Minister Mr. Pascal Koupaki, Minister of Economic Analysis, Development, and Planning, Mr. Marcel de Souza,; Ms. Adidjatou Mathys, Minister of Economy and Finance; and other senior officials was held to discuss the disbursement of a third tranche of US$16.90 million to the country.

The discussion also focused Discussions on recent economic developments in Nigeria that are relevant for Benin, policy implementation under the ECF, and structural reforms.

According to Mario de Zamaróczy, the country is already suffering from setback caused by poor earnings from its port activities last year saying that “Economic growth in 2011 is estimated at 3.1 percent, 0.7 percentage point below earlier estimates, among others because of a slowdown in port activities that hampered commercial activity”.

He noted that “In 2012, growth is projected to remain moderate, despite an expected improvement in port activities, dragged down by the global economic slowdown and by the increase in the price of imported gasoline from Nigeria”.

The Mission chief who sounded gloomy in his assessment of the Benin economy said that “Annual average inflation, which in 2011 was below the 3 percent convergence criterion of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), is projected to be elevated in 2012, as a result of the above-mentioned fuel price hike. Despite the rise in non-traditional exports, the external current account deficit, excluding grants, deteriorated slightly in 2011 because of higher international fuel prices”.

He however said that there may be some hope for the country its export trade stating that “ It is expected to narrow in 2012 reflecting strong cotton exports. As a result, the overall balance of payments is expected to turn from a small deficit (0.1 percent of GDP) in 2011 to a small surplus (0.6 percent of GDP) in 2012”.

He said that “Revenue performance during the second half of 2011 was weaker than expected, and as a result, the end-year cumulative revenue target was missed by a margin of 1.3 percent of GDP”.

However, he noted that “the monthly revenue target for December was met. To preserve the stability of public finances, the authorities responded to the shortfall in revenue by compressing expenditure and with savings from the wage bill. The elimination of a number of ghost employees, a review of allowances and entitlements, and the postponement of some recruitment kept the wage bill below target.

Referring to preliminary data, he said that “the performance criteria on the primary fiscal balance and net domestic financing were met at end-September and the corresponding benchmarks at end-December. However, the indicative targets on priority social spending were missed by a wide margin in September and December, reflecting weaknesses in the monitoring process of these expenditure categories. The authorities intend to strengthen procedures for protecting the execution and timely disbursement of priority social expenditure in 2012”.

On some other feedings by the IMF mission to the country, he said that “the 2012 budget adopted by the National Assembly in December broadly supported a stable macroeconomic environment saying that “Objectives therein include a significant increase in the revenue-to-GDP ratio to create fiscal space for public investment and social spending”.

The mission, he said noted that “the launch of the one-stop-window at the Port of Cotonou, the installation of a scanner in the port, and the implementation of an enhanced program of import value verification. These reforms met with some initial resistance and start-up problems, but going forward, they are expected to improve revenue collection and the efficiency of the port.

Mario de Zamaróczy also said that “the several important structural measures are still behind schedule, including a study on wage policy in the civil service, and several measures related to the computerization of customs offices”.

While urging the authorities to accelerate the completion of these and other overdue reforms, he said that it should also discussed new structural measures to come, including fiscal and financial measures.

The mission also met with members of the National Assembly, and representatives of labour unions, banks, and the business and donor communities.

Saudi Telecom Company include Nigeria in transfer credit service

As part of a strategic move to enhance communication for Nigerians who want to keep in touch with loved ones in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Telecom Company 'STC' has enhanced is International Credit Transfer service for Sawa by including Nigeria in the list.

The feature has a list, which include other 16 countries across the globe allows prepaid Sawa users to transfer credit from their mobile to friends or family members living abroad, in one of the select countries, as a gift which they can use for local and international.

Amounts can be transferred in Saudi Riyals and would be received in the local currency based on the current exchange rate.

According to STC in a statement, the transfer process follows three simple steps consisting in first receiving the list of included countries by sending "10" to "801500"; then sending the country's name to the same number to receive the pricing list and corresponding country code; and finally sending an SMS to 801500 containing "133*the recipient's mobile number*amount reference" to transfer the specific amount.

To better secure the transfers, STC pointed out that the user receives an SMS containing the transferred amount with the mobile number that it has been transferred to which he then only needs to confirm by replying with a "Y".

STC said that the service has been provided and is now active in Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Morocco, Nigeria, Nepal, Tunis, Palestine, and, Turkey.

Cyber crime may cripple proposed mobile money policy

Ahead of the formal take-off of the mobile money in January 2012,an expert in cyber security have called on the government to take strategic decision that would curtail the activities of cyber criminals in the country.

President of Information Security Society of Africa in Nigeria (ISSAN), Mr. David Isiavwe who made the call at a technical workshop on security organised by (ISSAN), held in Lagos said that “Cybercrime is on the increase, hence there is need for all stakeholders to join hands together to fight this menace”.

He noted that the quest to achieve a cashless economy by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may be undermined by cybercrime if necessary steps are not taken to ensure security of data, systems and networks.

“This is particularly germane given the efforts being made by the Central Bank of Nigeria to achieve a cashless society”, he said.

He stressed that mobile money transaction can only thrive if there is information security explaining that Information security is concerned with the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data regardless of the form for data, which are now collected, processed and stored on computers and transmitted across computer networks.

The ISSAN leader therefore urged that organisations must take necessary steps to secure their data, systems and networks saying that where they do not have the technical resources in-house, they must engage skilled consultants to fill the gap.

According to him, the cyber crime menace in Nigeria has become one of the highest numbers in the world and was recently ranked third, in a report by the Internet Crime Complaint Centre, which tracks the prevalence of cybercrime globally.

He explained one the major threat, which include the Symantec research with 431 million adult victims globally in the past year and at an annual price of $388 billion globally based on financial losses and time lost, cybercrime costs the world significantly more than the global black market in marijuana, cocaine and heroin combined ($288 billion).”

According to him, cybercrime activities such as espionage, free ware, war dialling, crackers, Internet hoax, remote access tools, spyware, Trojan horses, viruses and worms, can wreak devastating havoc in information systems.

“Data breaches have been known to result in the loss of billions of dollars by various organisations. In some cases, lives are lost due to security breaches”, he stated.