INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY SHOW SET FOR AFRICA'S CONSUMER GOODS MARKET

YourTechLive is a new full-value-chain event set to take place in Sandton in November 2014. The first of its kind on the African continent, the show will present the latest and greatest technology & gadgets from existing manufacturers and distributors operating on the continent. More importantly, it is also a channel for manufacturers looking to enter the world’s fastest growing consumer electronics market and will challenge the industry to lose its complacency and give consumers what they know their counterparts in Europe and the US are already using.

 A 2012 Deloitte & Touche report noted that ‘the consumer technology market in South Africa alone was worth $9.4 billion in 2012 and is projected to rise to $13.6 billion in 2016.’ To assist in stimulating this sector to achieve these projections, YourTechLive will combine trade and consumer days, and encompass the development of business partnerships and supply-chains required to facilitate business as well as develop brand and product exposure to the consumer.

The show will provide a shop window for manufacturers, distributors and retailers to connect with each other and will create a platform for opening new distribution channels looking to trade in Africa whether through traditional models or online. Suppliers will also expose technology to new consumer markets as well as established tech savvy audiences after a touch of the extraordinary. 

Paul Dunne, CEO of Your Tech Media Limited, organisers of YourTechLive, believes that the time is right for a concept of this nature to enter the African business arena. “Over the past 24 months we have researched the consumer electronics market on the continent and spoken to numerous companies and experts. Our findings confirm that the market is ripe for innovation and disruption of the current status quo.” Dunne believes that in so doing, YourTechLive can positively influence the future African electronics market. “Not only do we anticipate the increased economics in this sector, but consumers will ultimately benefit with a raft of new price competitive electronic offerings that can assist today’s modern lifestyle.”

Supporting Dunne’s hypothesis, Toby Shapshak, editor of Stuff magazine, concurred: "As ‘The Economist’ has noted, Africa is rising. There is no more exciting place to be in the world in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship than Africa, especially in the mobile space. This event isn't the extension of an international one, but is specifically focused on tech in Africa. That is stand-out in itself.”

Drawing on their international expertise of presenting large-scale tech shows, the organisers have created a format designed to give maximum exposure to all exhibitors and provide visitors with an exceptional experience: a diagonal boulevard will ensure easy visibility and accessibility while elements like product shoot-outs for visitors to enjoy and comment on; exposure to never before seen technology (except that offered through international online portals) will provide a fresh experience, one not to be ignored or forgotten.

NIGERIA MUST NURTURE, DEVELOP TALENTS TO SUSTAIN DEVELOPMENT – AIRTEL CEO

L-R: Regional Operation Manager, South, MultiChoice Nigeria, Mr. Saliu Aliu presenting memorandum of understanding to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Bayelsa State, Mr. Durban Whyte during the launch of additional 10 MultiChoice Resource Centres in Bayelsa State held at Saint Jude Secondry School, Bayelsa State.

IN ORDER to sustain development and growth in Nigeria as well as other African countries, leaders and people in positions of authority have been urged to strive at discovering, nurturing and developing talents. 

The Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Segun Ogunsanya, during the weekend in Lagos, gave this advice at the monthly Role Model Forum of the Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL), where in his role as guest speaker, he shared his life story and experience with some young people who were participants at the event.

The Airtel boss said, “If Nigeria and other countries in Africa are to develop; we must start developing our people. For development to be sustainable we must develop African talents,” he also added that “leaders are created and those who are leaders today must create the next leaders.” As an example, he recalled that when he was CEO of Coca-Cola in Ghana for nine years, he nurtured three CEOs before leaving Ghana.

He shared some of his nuggets of success with the young men and women at the forum, saying they must focus on goals they desire to achieve and watch against being arrogant because there is a thin line between confidence and arrogance.

Speaking further, Ogunsanya inspired the young audience to be prepared and not miss any opportunity to shine in their career. He encouraged them to always ensure they are prepared for opportunities that may come their way. As a piece of advice to some of the participants who are employees, the Airtel boss urged them to be result-oriented because employers reward results not efforts.

“So, be focused on what is truly measured, the result. That is the only thing that will guarantee you success. Mark my words; nobody pays for efforts any more. Efforts are important but you are only and truly rewarded for the results you put on the table when you get to certain levels. Of course we talk about values, they are as important as producing results. When you have values just make sure the values lead to the results. The results are the only true measurement of your success,” Ogunsanya said.

Among other points, Ogunsanya also cautioned that youths should avoid distraction because in his words, “there are always many distractions, in any endeavour. Running a business, NGO, family, you must avoid distractions. I call it noise of the market. If you are going to the market to buy onions perhaps, you will see someone selling handset, fruits or oranges. If you are not careful you will buy the oranges and the handset and not have enough to meet your main purpose, which are to buy onions”.

Ogunsanya further advised the participants to ignore prejudice as it could hold one down from making progress; making example of the prejudice that Airtel in an Indian Company. “Airtel is not an Indian company; it is a multinational company with Indian heritage. It is actually the fourth largest telecom company in the world. Of course the company must be started by someone; Coke was started by an American man. Airtel was started by an Indian man but it has grown beyond its founder. So, once you are clear about what you want to do, don’t let prejudice hold you down,” he urged.

His presentation also briefly narrated his inspiring journey from his Secondary school days at Mayflower, Ikenne, Ogun State to the University of Ife.

Segun Ogunsanya is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University of Ife, Nigeria. He worked with a consulting firm, Arthur Anderson & Co. in Nigeria, between 1988 to 1992, before joining Coca-Cola.  He gradually transited into senior leadership roles with various bottling operations of Coca-Cola Company across countries in Africa. He rose to become the CEO of operations for Coca-Cola in Kenya and few other African countries before he finally became CEO for NBC Nigeria.

Others who attended the CVL monthly Role Model Forum were popular TV host/ presenter of ‘Moments with Mo’, Mrs Mo Abudu; Director, MacArthur Foundation, Africa Office, Mr. Kole Shettima and former Minister of National Planning and Chairman Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), former Commissioner in Lagos, Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi; Director of Corporate Communications & CSR, Airtel Nigeria, Emeka Oparah; Chief Executive Officer of Blueflower, Chido Nwakanma and Professor Pat Utomi, who is the Founder and CEO of the CVL.

The CVL Role Model Forum is a monthly interactive programme where individuals who have excelled in various field of endeavour share their life experiences and stories with participants in order to impart values, leadership qualities and motivate them towards becoming great leaders.

UNITEL, ERICSSON UNVIEL AFRICA’S FIRST LTE-ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY

For the first time in Africa, Ericsson, together with Angola’s leading telecommunications provider Unitel, has successfully demonstrated LTE Advanced (LTE-A) Carrier Aggregation technology. The demonstration was done on both 1800MHz and 900MHz spectrum bands on a commercial network, using a commercial terminal, and took place on December 18, when Unitel transferred data across its live network in Luanda, Angola, carrying commercial traffic.

LTE Carrier Aggregation is the next step in the evolution of high-speed mobile broadband services, enabling operators to make the most of their existing spectrum assets by combining multiple spectrum bands to enable higher mobile broadband download speeds.
Amilcar Safeca, Deputy CEO of Unitel, says: “Unitel is always innovating to enhance the customer experience. With the global leap toward higher data access speeds for sophisticated video and mobility services, we are enhancing our network to ensure we continually provide high-quality services to our high-demanding subscriber base. With this demo, we are well on the way to launching the most advanced mobile network in Angola and perhaps Africa in the near future. We are working with Ericsson to make this happen.” 

Magnus Mchunguzi, Vice President, Ericsson sub-Saharan Africa, says: “Using LTE-A technology, operators can increase their network capacity and enhance the mobile broadband user experience, enabling up to 1Gbps data rates in the future. This demo places Unitel on the very limited list of operators in the world to demonstrate LTE-A in a live network using a commercial terminal. We are very proud to have partnered with Unitel in this achievement, further extending our long-standing relationship with Unitel.” 

Across the region and the globe, many operators have cleared spectrum in the 1800MHz and 900MHz bands as they migrate subscribers from 2G to 3G or 4G. Ericsson is also supporting the deployment of LTE-A Carrier Aggregation on other spectrum bands in countries such as Australia, Portugal and South Korea.
Ericsson is the market leader in LTE. Today, approximately 50 percent of the world’s LTE smartphone traffic is handled by Ericsson networks, which is more than double the traffic of our closest competitor. More than 180 LTE RAN and Evolved Packet Core networks have been delivered worldwide, of which more than 110 have gone live commercially. Ericsson is present today in all high-traffic LTE markets including Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea and the US, and has been selected by the top 10 LTE operators, ranked in terms of worldwide LTE subscriptions. We expect to hold 25 percent of all essential patents in LTE, covering both TDD and FDD mode, and we support common hardware and software for FDD and TDD systems, giving operators maximum flexibility in their FDD and TDD deployments.

BAYELSA GET MULTICHOICE RESOURCE CENTRE

MultiChoice Nigeria, provider of premium pay-TV services on the DStv and GOtv platformshas extended its major Corporate Social Investment project in the education sector, the MultiChoice Resource Centre (MRC) initiative, which it started in 2004 to 10 additional public secondary schools in Bayelsa Sate. The CSR initiative, which kicked-off in Abuja and Lagos State will avail students of 10 public schools in Bayelsa State access to world-class learning facilities.

The intervention comprises a TV set, a HD PVR decoder, satellite dish, a power generator, uninterrupted power system (UPS), a set of chairs and desks for the laboratory, in additional to training for teachers. The MRC facilitates teaching and learning enhancement by enabling school children access educational TV channels that include: Education TV, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, BBC Knowledge, BBC World, History Channel, Animal Planet and Mindset Learn, at no cost.

The novel intervention which has been introduced to 274 schools in 27 states of the federation and proven to make critical impact on the knowledge levels and understanding especially of technical subject areas by students, is now within the reach of students of the public secondary schools in Bayelsa State, bringing the total to 284 in 28 states across the country, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

A commemorative commissioning ceremony of the 10 new MRC in Bayelsa State held at Saint Jude’s Secondary School, Yenagoa, on Thursday, January 16. The launch in Bayelsa is in furtherance of the ninth Phase of the MRC project, which include scheduled launches in other beneficiary schools in some select states to be announced by the company.

The Commissioner for Education, Bayelsa State, Hon. Salo Adikumo, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Bayelsa State Ministry of Education, Hon Durban Whyte, lauded MultiChoice and its implementing partner, Innovative Technology Literacy Services Limited, for the initiative which she described as a veritable tool for the provision of valuable learning resource components for public schools across the country. “The MultiChoice Resource Centre project, which provides valuable learning resource components for 10 selected public schools in the State of Bayelsa to support the government’s efforts especially at a time when the Chief Executive Officer of the State, His Excellency Governor Dickson Seriake is leading a restoration agenda following his declaration of a state of emergency in the education sector, is a welcome development,” he said.

“The launch in Yenagoa makes Bayelsa a proud and happy 28th beneficiary state in Nigeria from the laudable project funded by MultiChoice in several African countries. This partnership is to reaffirm the commitment of our administration to providing qualitative education to the entire students of the state and to sustain the high level of educational development attained through innovative project like the MRC. By this achievement, our students are guaranteed to be kept abreast of happening on the global scene through methodical teaching and learning introduced by the resource centre project,” Hon Adikumo added.

Mr. John Ugbe, Managing Director, MultiChoice Nigeria, said: “The resource centre initiative is our corporate social investment project that has grown from only four centres at inception.”

 He added that the technological, economic, socio-political advancement of any country has a direct correlation with its level of educational development and that the future of a country is intrinsically tied to the quality of education that the youths are exposed to, a belief which informs MultiChoice’s roll-out of the audio-visual learning aid across the country. He further said that MultiChoice plans to launch the resource centres in all the states of the federation.

 “The MultiChoice Resource Centre project is our way of promoting the use of integrated and communication technologies to raise the standard of education by deploying the imagery of sight and sound to make learning more vivid and creative. To achieve these, we have partnered with the relevant educational stakeholders to integrate learning from the resource centres into the relevant school curriculum. This way, we are assured that television, which is a powerful communication tool, is also used as a potent education resource,” Ugbe stated.

Mrs Ronke Bello, Managing Director, Innovative Technology Literacy Services Ltd, said: “The MultiChoice resource centre is designed to grant beneficiary schools access to the special MultiChoice Educationbouquet with the aim of integrating the programmes into their curriculum to further enhance the teaching and learning processes in classrooms.”

 She added that MultiChoice, in conjunction with Innovative Technology Literacy Services also conducted a Teacher-Training programme for 50 selected teachers, five each from the 10 beneficiary schools. “The teachers were trained as Master-Trainers who would in turn train their colleagues on the use and integration of the special education bouquet into their learning environment. A MultiChoice Resource Centre Educator’s Guide has also been provided to guide the teachers and the schools on the use and maintenance of the facilities.”

EU CERTIFIES NIGERIA’S IDENTIFICATION PROJECT

The European Union (EU) has certified the Unified Identification System in Nigeria being mid-wife by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC’s). The UIS is expected bring real and recognizable benefits to Nigeria and other countries across the globe.

 The new Ambassador/Head of Delegation of European Union (EU) to Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), His Excellency, Ambassador Michel Arrion made the remark when he paid a courtesy visit to the NIMC Headquarters in Abuja.

According to him, Identity plays a key role in the growth and development of any economy and the NIMC’s quest to create a paradigm shift from the Identity Card issuance to the National Identity Management System (NIMS) is a great potential for the country.

He said: “I see potentials for the NIMS project; the NIMC objectives and mandate, when fully implemented will boost the nation’s economy and help drive foreign investment.”

“The European Union also has links with the INEC, the EFCC, and other Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and will together with the NIMC, create a database of all Nigerians who do business with members of the European Union (EU),” he added.

The Ambassador however cautioned the Commission on human rights issues and on the protection of data captured from citizens and legal residents of the country saying it must be done with every sense of authority and discipline.

The Director General of the Commission, Barrister Chris  Onyemenam, while responding said that the Commission since its new mandate of creating a National Identity Management System (NIMS) in 2007, has made conscious efforts to establish relationships with International Institutions in order to tap into the vast experiences and resources of these Institutions.

Onyemenam started that creating such relationships is important for NIMC, because “the mandate to create a NIMS and harmonize the captured data into a National Database is more or less a green field for the Commission, which was centred on Card Issuance in its previous efforts.”

He noted that the Commission should be able to leverage on the experiences in Europe and America, as well as draw support from the International Institutions to scale up the NIMS enrollment exercise, and the Verification and Harmonization process.