Globacom N1m gift dazzles local horse ride

A local horse ride from Kebbi State, Mr. Bashiru Danzaki was dazed when he was given a cheque of N1million by Globacom for simply registering SIM card with the mobile operator.

Although he was initailty in doubt about the news but he was later convinced when a staff of Globacom in his state offered to give a gift of N10, 000.00 to enable him come to Lagos to receive his prize.

While pouring praise on the second national carrier in his native language, he said: “I am now short of words because I thought it was a fraud. In fact, I am so grateful to Glo and thankful to God for this great opportunity.

“Glo went as far as giving me money to travel to Lagos to collect this prize. I will use the money to buy a white horse for my sport, support my mother in her trading business and open a store to sell provisions and Glo recharge cards.”

Danzaki is one of the nine lucky Glo subscribers who recently emerged winners in the ongoing Glo N 1 Billion SIM registration promo. They got their cheque last week at Globacom’s corporate headquarters in Lagos .

It was indeed a time of celebration for the winners as they danced with joy while expressing their appreciation to Globacom for making them millionaires and changing their lives. Many of them found it difficult to believe that they could win N1 million by just registering their SIM cards.

For Moses Ogundana, a professional photographer based in Yagba, Kogi state, winning N1 million in the Glo SIM registration promo has put a stamp of certainty on the realization of his dream of acquiring the most sophisticated photography equipment for his studio.

“I was called more than 10 times but I refused to pick the calls until my friends encouraged me to go and make verifications at the Glo office in Ilorin. Thank you Glo for what you have done. I pray that your company will continue to grow in leaps and bounds. I will use the money to buy those sophisticated professional cameras I’ve been dreaming about and support my wife with funds to invest in her recharge card business”, he stated.

Speaking at the event, Mrs Funmilola Odufuwa, a nursing mother and staff of an insurance company in Ibadan, Oyo state said that though she found it difficult to believe initially that she could so easily win N 1million from Glo, her husband was even more sceptical.

“When my husband came back from work and I told him about the calls, he just told me to stop bothering him and find some food for him to eat after a long day at work. But now that I have the cheque, I want to thank Glo for making me a millionaire. I appreciate Glo so much because this money will make it possible for me to start a small business”, she said.

Globacom’s Director of Sales, Patrick Awotwi said that the “Glo N1 Billion SIM registration promo” was a special initiative intended to show appreciation to Glo subscribers who register their SIM cards and also thank them for remaining loyal to the Glo network over the years.

He urged existing and potential Glo subscribers to go ahead and quickly register their SIM cards as the promo would come to a conclusion by the end of March. The Glo N1 Billion SIM registration Blast rewards Glo subscribers across the country who register their SIM cards with prizes of N1 million for 10 subscribers daily and N500 worth of airtime/sms for 60,000 people daily.

FG tasks states on development via ICT

The minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobolaji Johnson has said that states in the country could grow their economy faster, if they tap into the many possibilities that Information Communications Technology offer that youths in the country have imbibed already.

According to her, the massive investment that ICT has brought into the country as well as the landing of four submarine cables in Lagos by 2014 would increase the current level of broadband internet access.

The minister who dropped the hit at the Ogun State Business Forum in Abeokuta said that Nigeria has a tremendous advantage to grow its economy through ICT due to its large population made up mostly of young entrepreneurial people saying that it would be a terrifying if the states do not harness the great opportunity that the growing number of the young population offers the nation.

She said that the Federal Government has taken the lead in that direction by creating ICT incubation centres across the country, charging the states to take advantage of the innovative mind of the youths, their energy and capacity for learning to growing their economy through ICT

Johnson explained that in the United Nations entrepreneur competition that the President Goodluck Jonathan and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonji-Iweala are championing, the 1200 winners ICT based business are 11 per cent of them are in ICT, and second to agriculture.

That according to the minister is an indication that more young people are starting businesses in ICT saying that governments have great opportunity to create jobs in the ICT sectors for youths in the country.

She stressed that taking the software industry as an example, there are several ways that governments in the country could assist in job creation adding that states could also begin to export software skills of its young people.

She disclosed states in the country like Ogun have the capacity to develop a vibrant software industry due to the presence of high institutions of learning that can offer research opportunity.

She also said that the growing numbers of private university in the country with research capacity is an advantage for the states in the country to tap into ICT to grow their individual economies.

While noting the need of ICT as a tool of increasing development in the across the country, she said that the vast advantage that ICT has on health, education and agriculture development of the several states cannot be underestimated.

For instance she said that one of the easiest means of reaching the huge population the in the rural areas of the country with health services is through tele-medicine, which is driven via ICT infrastructure.

She further said that there is also a tremendous opportunity for social and educational development using ICT saying that for every 10 per cent increase in mobile penetration in a state, the GDP is increase by .08 per cent and for every 10 per cent broadband increase there is a 1.6 per cent GDP increase

Telecoms body commend Lagos State over disability law

The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, (ATCON) has commended the Lagos State Government House of Assemble for enacting the Lagos State Special People’s Law 2011, which seeks to safeguard people living with disability from all forms of discrimination and equalise their opportunities in all aspects of living in the society.

The Law provides for protection of the interest of persons who live with disabilities and particularly addresses the issues of protection for them on matters of access, employment, privileges, and standard of living, among others.

President of the association, Engr Titi Omo-Ettu also commended the state over its plan establish the Office of Disability Affairs that the Law prescribes as the Implementation Agency.

According to Omo-Ettu, the legislation which is capable of lifting Nigeria out of a so-called third-world classification into one which truly counts among those that have climbed into true civilisation.

“We pledge to support the implementation of the Law in the hope that its operators implement with a human face and in the spirit and letter of its objects and prescriptions”, he said.

He disclosed that “the Law has a bearing to our industry in its prescription on access of persons who live with disabilities to telecommunications services which it specifically mentions and indeed access of such persons to all other services which it presents largely as implied”.

While inviting members of ATCON to take into cognisance the operation of the law in the state, he said other players in our industry, and indeed all employers of labour in the land should accord priority to people with disability.

He urged other State Governments and indeed the Federal Government to take a lesson from this law and do the needful to ensure its national embrace and progressive implementation.

According to him:“We certainly cannot continue to ignore the significant contribution which those, among us, who live with disabilities, are capable of bringing into productivity and national development”.

He also called on the soon to be established Office of Disability Affairs to do good and not turn out to be an exuberant organisation whose attention would only be to extort, abuse, or focus only on a particular industry or on a set of employers.

A winner in the Glo N1 Billion SIM registration promo, Louis Okoye Okwudili from Abia state receiving his cheque of N1 million from Glo ambassadors Desmond Elliot and Ali Nuhu at a presentation ceremony held recently in Abuja.

Main One Cable establishes Point of Presence in Lagos

Main one Cable Company has opened a Point-of-Presence in Ikeja, Lagos, providing broadband connectivity to businesses on the mainland axis of the state.
At the unveiling of the infrastructure in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Ms. Funke Opeke, said with the infrastructure, the company’s prospective clients in places such as Ojota, Opebi, Allen, Ikeja, Oregun, Maryland, Ikorodu Road and Ikeja Airport axes of the state could now benefit from cost effective and reliable Internet services.
Opeke said, “It is necessary, at this point, for excellent broadband Internet to be available to all enterprise concerns that require the capacity that Main One brings to Nigeria.
“This is the reason we have sought to distribute more of our capacity inland, especially across business areas in Lagos where demand for ubiquitous broadband is the driving force of successful businesses.”
According to the CEO, Internet Service Providers, manufacturing companies, hotels and other hospitality outfits, media and advertising concerns, FMCGs and other enterprises in the Ikeja area and its environs are the primary beneficiary of the extended infrastructure.
The company’s effort, she said, was in line with its commitment to assisting enterprises in their stride for growth, and expediting the speed of broadband penetration across Nigeria.
She said that the Main One Cable network has continued to innovate with its open access platform, offering wholesale broadband connectivity, Internet Protocol products and collocation services to service providers and enterprise customers.
Main One currently has a growing list of major customers in Nigeria including MTN, Etisalat, Starcomms, Swift Networks, Mobitel, Netcom, IPNX, Visafone, e-Tranzact, GT Bank, and ExxonMobil.

Phase3 builds Lagos-Northern Nigeria network

Northern Nigeria network backbone redundancy Nigeria's leading provider of carrier services, Phase3 Telecom, has made a significant improvement to its Lagos-Northern Nigeria network with the provision of backbone redundancy on the route.

The firm, West Africa's only electricity grid aerial optic fiber carrier said with the provision of the backbone redundancy, quality of service to its clients would now be significantly enhanced as an alternate route for all traffic on its network between Lagos and Abuja had been provisioned.

According to Chief Operating Officer, Phase3 Telecom, Mr. Olusola Teniola, the achievement of the backbone redundancy was the fulfilment of a vision of the firm to ensure that its network would always be available to users in the event of any eventuality.

"In line with our determination to continually improve our services to our customers (IP and Clear channel), this backbone redundancy, effectively provides our clients currently enjoying peering, transit and MPLS VPN solutions and services from Lagos, a more reliable solution for their traffic, " he said.

He added that the new system now has a provision in which load has been configured to equally balance at peak periods, thereby eliminating clogs, saturation and bottlenecks. In addition, he explained that the system allows traffic load to choose the least saturated path during off peak periods and failover entirely in the event of discontinuity on any of the two routes.

"With this new arrangement, essentially our uptime has been greatly increased and we will see a 99.999 per cent efficiency leap in service delivery for all our IP clients," Teniola added.

NCC, ATCON align on broadband expansion program

The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC and the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, ATCON, has aligned on agenda broadband expansion.
Speaking during a meet between the duo, Dr Eugene Juwah, Executive Vice-Chairman of NCC said: “the issue of broadband availability and penetration in Nigeria today is very dear to our hearts at the Commission, and you will recall that it is one of the key areas that we have indicated to occupy our focus in the next few years”.
He said that the Commission has developed a model based on ‘Open Access’ in which the role of the Network Operator is distinct from those of the Service Providers.
“In this arrangement”, according to him, “the network provider offers access to the service providers on a non-discriminatory basis in a competitively neutral environment. Service providers, or corporations, or institutions, or even the public are allowed to access services in line with their needs”.
“Underlining these models and strategies are issues of availability, affordability, stimulation of demands for services, attraction of investments, creation of more employment opportunities, penetration of services to the nooks and crannies of the country, improving governance and energizing the economy”.
President of ATCON, Mr Titi Omo-Ettu in response said that “our reason for initiating this meeting is to enable us compare notes with the Commission on its Broadband Expansion Vision, and harmonise our plans with the Commission’s.
“Also, we seek the Commission’s listening ears when we would have latched unto its programme and require its support and intervention at any bend as we start implementing our plans. He thanked the commission for always supporting the programs of the Association.
The meeting discussed the ways of using Broadband to motivate investments, generate employment, improve governance and create an environment for investments to prosper.
The two teams agreed on the need to protect small businesses and to help big ones expand their networks.

Don lauds Glo's support for academic community

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Prof Bartho Okolo, has praised the efforts of Gloworld academic community across the country, thanking the company for opening new a Gloworld centre opposite the Institution at its main campus in Nsukka, Enugu.

Speaking through his Deputy Prof. Isaac Asuzu, the Vice Chancellor said that the one stop complex would meet critical needs of the University community and the rest of the town.

The don who commissioned the new Gloworld centre, stated that the facility was important because it would enhance both the social life and academic pursuits of the teachers and students as well as the conduct of business in the environment.

“This Gloworld is important for all of us, students, staff and the entire Nsukka Community as it has brought telecommunications closer to us” he said.

Glo opened her flagship outlet known as Gloworld in Nsukka to ensure adequate provision of products and world class service delivery to the good people of the city and the entire University Community.

Globacom’s Divisional Director, South East, Mr. Mike Ehumadu said it was the cordial relationship between the University and Globacom and by extension the entire Zone that culminated in the establishment of the outlet to serve the University and the good people of Nsukka.

“This is the first flagship outlet by any Telecommunications operator either in the Institution or the entire Nsukka Zone”, Ehumadu said.

In her remarks, the Head of Gloworld, Titi Ebinisi, said the Gloworld concept was aimed at efficient service delivery on a state-of-the-arts technology platform to subscribers by well-trained members of staff.

Other special guests at the occasion included the traditional ruler of Nkpunano Nsukka Community, HRH Igwe (Dr.) Patrick Okolo and the Deputy Chairman of Nsukka Local Government Area Hon. Cosmas Ukwueze.

We are in a hurry to develop ICT- Minister

In the next few months, Nigeria should have a new information and Communications Technology (ICT) policy. That was the assurance given by the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson at a public forum on the review of the draft ICT by stakeholders in the industry.

According her: ”We are a nation in a hurry. We are in a hurry to develop the ICT industry and make progress as a nation. We will not waste time developing this policy that will get us on the part of progress”.

She said that the ministry needs to move quickly and closed up everything concerning the draft policy so that it would be forwarded to cabinet for approval and for execution.

Those closing remarks by the minister at the end of the brain storming session with stakeholders over the weekend has put to rest the agitation in the mind of stakeholders over the fears that government bureaucracy would not keep the draft policy in the cooler indefinitely.

The event was organised by the new ministry to address grey areas in the draft policy, which was first made public in January by the ministry.

The policy document was the first major attempt to craft a policy for the industry since the revolution of the sector began 10 years ago, although each other the five agencies that are under the ministry had some policy that guild their operators.

While stating the determination of the ministry to get a response from the stakeholders that would ensure that the ministry produce an inclusive policy for the industry, Johnson said that the new policy would agree with the roadmap that was unveiled in September 2011.

She said that the high point of the forum was to gather additional information beside the one that was received online from stakeholders saying that efforts would be made to make the policy more robust.

According to the stakeholders who represented a cross section of the ICT industry, the decision of the minister to put the draft policy in public domain before taking it to the lawmakers was a laudable one.

The managing director of Omatek Computers, Mrs. Florence Serike, the only computer company managed by a woman in Africa, while making remark on the draft policy said that research and development is very important if the Nigerian must be economically empowered.

In her observation she made reference to how the ICT sector in China is run by the government in partnership with the private sector to empower the people saying that there are markets that focus on specific or specialist on parts of the computer.

According to her that was possible because the educational curriculum has taken care of that adding that funding should be made adequately to drive the ICT sector by the government.

She said that there must be a proactive steps towards directing and encouraging the industry to grow noting that there are no more computer companies in the country that are making hardware.

She also said that the youths are not learning what should make them creative in the ICT sector stressing that local content alone will not drive the industry.

According to her, foreign investment is needed to assist the local company to grow and create impact in the growth of the ICT industry stating that during the time of the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, there were a lot of policy guidelines that have helped the industry.

The Omatek boss who called for the restoration of such policy said that the policy had helped a lot of the computer companies to survive.

President of the Computer Professionals of Nigeria, (CPN), Mr. Ibrahim Tizhe said that there was the need for proposed draft policy to be streamlined to be in line existing policies in the industry saying that like Kenyan we should make room for a policy review even after it becomes law.

As Niyi Yusuf ICT expert from Accenture, the new policy should make room for the disable saying that NIPOST office across the country do not have consideration for them.

He also requested that the kind of software coming from the country should according to the proposed policy be made to follow international standard.

The President of the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers, (NATCOMS), Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo said that telecommunications companies have suffered a great deal from the government since exiting policies do not give protect to their infrastructure.

He said that while government policies give priority protection to PHCN infrastructure that of the telecoms operators are at the mercy of vandals and at all levels government as well as their agencies.

For instance he explained that multiply taxation and regulation as shutting down of base station and the lack of consumer protection still bedevilled the industry saying that there should be celebrate effort in the proposed policy that would address such issues.

The stakeholders also urged government to view ICT a human right issue while efforts should be made to create in the policy sections that would cater for the less privilege as well as the physically challenge per sons in the society.

Ericsson tackles network challenges

As part of efforts to help network operators tackle the challenges of quality of service and mitigate drop calls, Ericsson has launched its SON Optimization Manager, which would automatically optimizes the performance of mobile networks.

It would also extends self-organizing network features developed for LTE to multi-standard and multi-vendor networks while also helping operators get the most out of their existing network assets as part of a future-proof hetnet strategy

According to Ericsson in a statement, “the rapid uptake of smartphones and mobile broadband has dramatically increased people’s access to information while on the go, but it has also significantly increased the complexity of operator networks, making them more difficult to manage”.

It further said that “at the same time, consumers’ expectations of operators have increased and they are unwilling to tolerate poor service quality or dropped calls”.

The self-organizing networks (SON) product automates the process of optimizing the capacity, coverage and quality of mobile networks.

The end result is that users experience fewer dropped calls and get a better internet browsing experience, while operators benefit from happier customers, reduced operating expenses, as well as increased traffic and revenue from their existing networks.

Ulf Ewaldsson, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, Head of Group Function Technology & Portfolio Management at Ericsson, said: “SON Optimization Manager is based on a simple idea – increasing automation to overcome increasing complexity. We call this Smart Simplicity, because it simplifies operators’ processes and makes them more efficient.”

LTE standardization introduced a range of network optimization and management features that Ericsson is now making available for automating multi-standard networks, bringing the latest self-organizing management features to existing operator networks.

This solution helps extend SON functionality to existing networks, regardless of how many vendors or standards are involved. Optimizing the use of existing network assets is a key component of any heterogeneous (hetnet) network strategy, so SON Optimization Manager is a good fit for operators that are looking to build future-proof networks.

Ericsson’s optimization solutions are already in use in more than half of the world’s major cities. SON Optimization Manager has the potential to improve the mobile broadband experience for customers the world over – and has clear business benefits for operators in the fast-moving mobile market.

Whereas optimization is traditionally a slow, complex process carried out at regular intervals by teams of network experts, SON Optimization Manager fully automates the process. Optimization can take place network-wide on a daily or hourly basis and expert staff are freed from having to perform repetitive manual tasks and able to focus instead on more strategic activities.

SON Optimization Manager is part of Ericsson’s Smart Simplicity concept, which focuses on increasing automation in today’s increasingly complex networks in order to reduce operating expenses and deliver a better Mobile Broadband experience.

Now you can watch live videos on facebook

Aylus Networks, a leading provider of infrastructure for enabling live mobile video services, announced today the world’s first live mobile video sharing to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks at the GSMA Mobile World Congress Show in Barcelona, Spain.

The new solution, according to the company in a statement would allow enable the mobile customers to share live video with their social media networks.

“The special beauty of live video is that it is live. The immediacy of live video is unlike that of recorded video for sharing special moments or unfolding events,” said Mark Edwards, CEO of Aylus Networks.

“Bringing this live video experience to the world of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook makes for the ultimate social currency.”

For mobile operators launching Rich Communication Services (RCS/RCSe) this year, the company said that the Aylus Video Platform could “transform the impact of video sharing by enabling everyone, even if they don’t have an RCSe-enabled mobile, to receive shared live video content”.

The statement added that “the Aylus Video Platform is unique in its ability to support video sharing from RCS/RCSe-enabled devices to social networks, the one-to-many sharing practice of Generation. It also supports video sharing from any RCS/RCSe smartphone user to any Internet-enabled device with a media player, not just the restricted use case of one RCS/RCSe device to another.

“Subscribers are gravitating to this type of a service offering, whether they want to instantaneously broadcast a national political debate, town hall meeting, protest in the streets, graduation ceremony, concert, sporting event, wedding, school play, or even a keynote speaker at a trade show,” Edwards added.

He also said that “The tools are now here to enable everyone to participate in live mobile video, regardless of the network they’re running on or the client on their device.”

Nokia unveils cheaper Windows smartphone

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has unveiled a cheaper smartphone using Microsoft's Windows Phone software with the intention of winning back market share by targeting a wider audience.

It would be recalled that Nokia last year dumped its own smartphone software in favour of Windows Phone to step up its fight against rivals such as Apple's iPhone, but the high prices of its phones have been a major weak point.

The company in a statement said that its new Lumia 610 model would be excluding subsidies and taxes, when it goes on sale next quarter.

"The 610 takes Nokia's Lumia portfolio to an encouraging new price point in its pursuit of cheaper Android rivals," said head of research at CCS Insight, Ben Wood.

Investors, however, were unconvinced the new model and pricing would do the trick, and Nokia shares were down.

Analysts noted that Asian handset makers such as Huawei and ZTE were coming out with even cheaper smartphones.

"I had hoped for a slightly lower price range. Maybe the markets were a bit disappointed with the price, which was quite high," Inderes analyst Mikael Rautanen said, adding the shares had spiked in anticipation of the event.

Nokia also announced a global version of its high-end Lumia 900 phone and unveiled a new top-of-the range cameraphone 808, which comes with a 41 megapixel camera sensor, as well as three more basic models.

The move comes over a year after Chief Executive, Stephen Elop compared Nokia to a "man standing on a burning oil platform" and teamed up with Microsoft to take on Apple and Google's Android phones.

Wall Street and industry analysts said that although the latest Windows phones could be worthy competitors to Apple's iPhone and top-of-the-range Android handsets, the devices lack unique qualities to make their sales take off.

Microsoft's share of the smartphone market fell to just 2 percent last quarter, from 3 percent a year ago and 13 percent four years earlier, according to Strategy Analytics.

In addition to its struggle in high-end smartphones, Nokia also faces an increasing threat from Asian manufacturers.

Analysts said both Huawei and ZTE are set to grab more market share globally in 2012, as they shift their focus from basic phones to smartphones.

Huawei and ZTE are now selling smartphones running on Google's Android operating system, attracted to the higher margins the market provides.

Both companies made new handset announcements at the same trade show, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

RIM,Globe Telecom to integrate BB billings

Research In Motion and Globe Telecom today announced that Globe customers would enjoy the ease and convenience of applying their app purchases on BlackBerry App World to their postpaid or prepaid accounts.

The new billing service would enable Globe Telecom subscribers to purchase applications on BlackBerry App World and charge the transaction directly to their monthly postpaid bill or prepaid account credits.

Globe subscribers would also be offered the flexibility of charging in-app purchases to their regular bill or deducted from their prepaid load, which allows digital goods to be purchased without interrupting the app experience. The new service is expected to roll out in the second quarter of 2012.

Hastings Singh, Vice President of South Asia at RIM commented: “BlackBerry App World is a great place for customers to discover and download new BlackBerry apps and themes. Today’s announcement with Globe is a first for the Philippines and is testament to both companies’ drive to continuously improve the customer experience.”

“Integrated billing will make it easier than ever for our subscribers to purchase apps for their BlackBerry smartphones,” said Peter Bithos, Globe Senior Advisor for Consumer Business.

“Through the secure billing system interface, we are able to provide our subscribers a convenient and worry-free way to purchase premium content on BlackBerry App World without the need for a credit card or direct cash payments.

The cost of apps purchased from the app store will be charged to their postpaid phone bill or from their prepaid credits. We are delighted to enable this new level of flexibility and convenience in purchasing BlackBerry apps for our customers.”

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.

L-R: Chief Marketing Officer, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Bola Akingbade;
Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Brett Goschen; Assistant
Director, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Saka Adebola Adeyemo; Chief
Executive Officer, Guaranty Trust Bank Nigeria Plc, Mr. Segun Agbaje
and Managing Director/CEO, Fortis Mobile Money, Mr. Henry Nwawuba at
the launch of Mobile Money powered by MTN in Lagos.

Power crisis may cripple telecoms services in Nigeria

If the statement credited to the Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji on the near impossibility of having a regular electricity power supply even in the future is taken serious then telecoms operators may have to continue to plough bulk of their earning into power generation.

The reason is that the minister is introducing a plan that would further worsen the condition under which the GSM and CDMA’s are operating.

And indeed, their subscribers may have to continue to suffer from the consequences of poor quality service, caused more often by power failure at base stations. All mobile telephone operators in the country power their base stations with generating sets, not one but two.

Investigations revealed that the operators do maintenance on the generating sets at least twice in a month that is besides unplanned repair, which maybe done those generating sets as break-down occurs.

Recently at a public function, the President of Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators in Nigeria, (ALTON), Engr. Gbenga Adebayo noted that power is a major money gulper for the operators stressing that depending solely on government for electricity power provision to power base stations and switching centre is one risk that the operators cannot take.

According to him, when the base stations goes off, the subscriber would be the first to raise usual alarm of service failure adding that very few subscribers would realise that the fault is not entirely that of the operator.

While explaining further on the essence of electricity power to stable and reliable telecoms services, Adebayo disclosed that bulk of the revenue of the operators go into generating electricity power to run their base stations adding that it is the huge investment that they have made in electricity power generation that is keeping them in business.

It would be recalled that one of the reasons at the wake of the deregulation of the telecoms sector given by foreign investors who were shying away from Nigeria was the issue of the operating environment. The initial complain of the foreign investors was that as a leading economy in Africa, Nigeria was unable to tackle the problem of electricity. And as such was considered an unsafe destination for investment in telecoms.

However, those who brave the odds to make investment in that regard have had to paid dearly for it by making huge investment in electricity power generation unlike what they would have done in other countries of the world.

The statement of the minister, some industry sources said capable of cripplingly the telecoms sector saying that it embracing that 10 years after the deregulation and considering the huge money that government made from them (operators) with none of it ploughed back to develop the power sector, at least for the sake of the telecoms industry.

The source in one of the telecoms company wondered why it is so difficult for government to sacrifice part of the fund that they have made from the operators to give special funding for power in the telecoms sector.

Besides the fact that the statement of the minister is considered a bad omen by some sources in the industry, as it means more years of struggling by the operators to give reliable, efficient and quality services to their subscribers, yet industry leaders have begun criticise some of the decision of the minister.

President Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Engr Titi Omo-Ettu said that the establishment of Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Board is a pointer that all is not well in the energy sector.

The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Board was one of the strategy of the minister tackle the age long electricity power problem in the nation but Omo-Ettu, noted that “The fact that the craftsmen of the reform have identified the need for that board is an admission of dangers the entire concept portends for that all important sector."

According to him, establishing a bureaucracy to solve a problem which needs a private sector orientation and solution is a waste of time and resources saying "How can they be breeding another bureaucracy after the establishment of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), which from all readings and inferences does not have a focus as things stand now?".

"They want to use an illegal body to confuse a legal but impotent body. We need private sector initiatives to run in parallel with government bodies if they insist on perpetuating government companies to provide electricity and allow our people have a choice to make."

The ATCON boss stated that “We cannot and should not keep breeding bureaucracies which are fundamentally sluggish and put civil servants in charge of businesses that mean much to our economy.”

He observed that the privatization power generating plants, implies a dash of our commonwealth and also discouragement of private initiatives from providing alternatives that are needed.

Explaining on how best to tackle the power problem, he urged the minister to take clue from the reforms of the telecoms sector stressing that "what we did was to allow the private sector compete with government bureaucracies and you can see that when they killed NITEL, we still had alternatives to fall back on."

Omo-Ettu said that he is worried about the trend of events in the power sector saying that as a stakeholder in the power sector and as a concerned Nigerian, who is part of the long suffering citizenry, the subject matter on power needs to be revisited. And the reason is not far fetch, because its constituency is one of the worst hit.

An analysis of the huge investment made by the telecoms operators showed that over N3.63 billion is invested by the operators monthly on generating power sets. The money is for the powering of about 15,000 cell sites owned by the operators. The money is for the cost of diesel, maintenance and other miscellaneous expenses.

The ALTON boss at a function recently said that the erratic power supply in the country is taking a heavy toll on the operation of member companies of the association saying both the GSM and CDMA operators use an average of 25 million litres of diesel every month.

He said that since their license mandates them provide interrupted services across the country for 24/7 hours, they had to provide alternative sources of power in the absence of power supply from the government owned Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

He added that in most communities access to the sites is often difficulty either due to the activities of the community leaders as well as that of the miscreant also known as ‘area boys’.

The implication, of that according to Adebayo is the persistent network failure resulting to poor service delivery, increase operational and capital expenditure as well as and the threat to operational integrity of telecoms networks in the country.

Also, MTN Nigeria had at a seminar on telecoms infrastructure in Lagos revealed that it spent over N12bilion in acquiring generators to provide power for its many base stations nationwide.

He explained that spend N500m monthly on diesel procurement and generator maintenance, adding that it had 7,000 base stations covering 85 per cent of Nigeria’s landmass, which must be constantly powered.

The President, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, Mr. Titi Omo-Ettu, had recently said that inadequate power supply posed a serious impediment to Information Communications Technology growth in the country.

“What the telecoms sector needs now is radically improved public power supply. That is an issue the President must address sincerely and genuinely. If the problems of the telecoms sector are weighted, energy takes 70 per cent,” the ATCON boss said.

Omo-Ettu also said that about 45 per cent of the indigenous telecoms licensees, who commenced business when the telecoms industry was liberalised in 1993, had collapsed now due to the harsh economic environment, with inadequate power supply being a major problem.

“Unknown to the public, 40 per cent of telecoms licensees, who commenced business at the turn of liberalisation in 1993, had shut up shop because of erratic power supply,” he said.

He noted that many of the affected companies were Internet Service Providers, adding that erratic power supply could limit future ICT growth in the country if nothing was done to reverse the ugly trend.

To solve the protracted power supply crisis in the country, Omo-Ettu called on the Federal Government to urgently and sincerely liberalise the energy sector.

Since help seems not to have been coming from the government, some of the operators have fashioned out ways to help themselves.

One of such method is the introduction of co-location of base stations which has helped to cut down cost for the operators. For instance there are co-location agreement between MTN and Etisalat.

Recently, Airtel Networks Limited, disclosed that it has invested over $600m in the past one year to expand the capacity and enhance the robustness of its network in pursuit of world class Quality of Service (QoS).

The company’s Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, Mr. Deepak Srivastava, said that the investment was meant to to upgrade 250 diesel powered stations in Nigeria to Green-sites, an initiative designed to enable the company harness solar energy to operate its base stations.

According to him, the Green-Sites would contribute to a considerable reduction of CO2 emissions and prevent network outages associated with inconsistent power supply.

Srivastava regretted that non-availability of regular grid power supply to sites across the country is responsible for over 70 per cent of down time resulting in poor QoS, adding that the Green-Site would go a long way in addressing this critical challenge.

He hinted that the company was exploring other options including a partnership with the World Bank to address the nagging issue of power supply especially to the remote communities.

“Even as we pursue the Green-Site solution”, he revealed “Airtel has in the last six months installed dual generating sets in 200 sites and installed high back up batteries in 600 sites, while noting that an additional high capacity back up batteries and 500 new Generating Sets are to be deployed by March 2012”.

He lamented that in some other countries, operators are concerned with managing customer experience rather than keeping the sites up as is the case in Nigeria, where power outages, fibre cut and community issues have combined to undermine the integrity of the network quality.

Despite these moves, the regulatory body, Nigeria Communications Commission, (NCC) said that it would sanction any operator who failed to deliver quality services to its subscriber.

The slow pace response of the government to tackling the power issue may just be one factor that would easily expose the operators to the stiff sanction of the NCC.

Another consequence according Omo-Ettu the power problem would continue to deny the sector of world-class investors, which has continued to date.