Company Sizes not condition for corporate governance says NCC

Okey Itanyi

*DNSSEC Roadshow ends in Lagos

The size of a company is not condition for upholding corporate governance says the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Speaking in Lagos at a forum on corporate governance by the Commission and Lagos Business School, the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholders Management, Hon. Okey Itanyi made this know to participants of the one-day event.

According to him, NCC is determined to promote good governance in the nation’s telecommunications sector, hence the event, adding that all types of companies operating in the industry whether public or private, large or small, as the requirement for good corporate governance does not wane on account of size or type of business affiliation.

Meanwhile, DNSSEC Roadshow has ended in Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria.

The three-day Roadshow on Domain Name System Security Extension (DNSSEC) ended in Lagos, with the President of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA), Mrs. Mary Uduma commending participants.

She said it offered Nigerians the opportunity to learn more on DNSSEC and for the techies and hands-on, especially on Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) cum Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRT).

“We are excited that decision makers across industries, including registrants, registrars, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government, were part of this 2013 roadshow, which came to Nigeria, courtesy of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), especially Mr. Richard Lamb who facilitated the roadshow.

Correspondent/DigitalSENSE Business News
... Making SENSE of digital revolution!

ALTON, NATCOMS urge NCC to extend SIM registration deadline

The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) and National Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) have urged the industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to extend the registration of Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards deadline.

DigitalSENSE Business News Both ALTON and NATCOM are asking for a three-month extension to be granted telecom subscribers for the last time and for various reasons.

While ALTON attributed its request on the security situation in the country and the general logistic problem, NATCOMS alleged that inappropriate data collection by some agents gave rise to its request.

ALTON in a letter dated Friday, June 28, 2013 and signed by the duo of its chairman, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo and Executive Secretary, Mr. Kazeem Ladepo, addressed to the Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, noted “It has been very difficult for the subscribers, registration agents and our members – Operators; to meet the 30^th June 2013 deadline.”

A copy of the letter made available to DigitalSENSE Business News, ALTON warned of the eluding danger in of mass disconnection of un-registered subscribers as notified by NCC before now.

“We would like to draw your attention that although the SIM Card Registration has been ongoing for sometimes but subscribers has embraced this exercise more in the past few weeks leading to the 30^th June 2013 deadline,” ALTON said.

The group appreciated efforts of NCC on this process and the attendant public awareness campaign over the past few weeks; hence ALTON believes the exercise would be more successful if an extension of time is considered.

“We hereby request for a three (3) months extension to the SIM Card Registration exercise in order for its overall success,” ALTON submitted.

Equally NATCOMS President, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, told DigitalSENSE Business News that during the SIM Registration exercise, some umbrella SIM registration agents were not collecting the full details needed because of the rush by the agents to register as many subscribers so as get paid big.

Also, the consumer group alleged that agents were asking subscribers to pay N100 before registration, which discourages a large number of subscribers.

These were in addition to claims by some agents that they were of a particular network operator, thereby refusing to register other operators’ SIM cards in order to shore up the number of SIM Cards they register daily.

Even as NATCOMS further alleged that some of the agents copy their daily registered list of subscribers to their colleagues so as to ‘help’ them.

According to NATCOMS, in view of the above submissions, a lot of subscribers will be locked out due to no fault of theirs as they think they have registered their SIM Cards.

“Against the backdrop of the above and in order to ensure that every subscriber is given fair consideration, we are appealing to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to give Nigerian subscribers a 3-Month one-way final warning extension on SIM Cards registration, to enable them to receive calls only,” Ogunbanjo argued.

DigitalSENSE Business News recalls that NCC had introduced SIM registration programme on March, 2011 and was to end in September, 2011, but owing to pleas by the likes of these two organization, it was extended by 21 months, which now expires on June 30, 2013.

Remmy Nweke/DigitalSENSE Business News

... Making SENSE of digital revolution!

World Record: 300,000 Nigerians to brush teeth with Close Up

(L-R), Founder, HEIT Solutions and Project Head, Lagos World Record

 Teeth brushing Challenge, Dr. Lawal Bakare; Category Manager, Oral Care,

Unilever Nigeria Plc, Mrs. Oiza Gyang; Brand Manager, Close Up, Mr.

Dexter Adeola; and Head Protocol, Lagos World Record Teeth brushing

Challenge, Dr. Bimbo Oyedokun at the press briefing for the World Record

Teeth Brushing Challenge at the Unilever Head Office recently in Lagos.

Come Thursday, July 4, 2013, an estimated 300,000 Nigerians may have confirmed their desire to brush teeth at the same time in order to break the world record with Close Up toothpaste.

DigitalSENSE Business News recalls that leading oral care brand, Close Up toothpaste, reiterated commitment to promoting a healthy oral care culture.

The world record breaking teeth brushing challenge is being organised in partnership with Lagos State government, Nigerian Dental Association (NDA), HEIT Solutions, Vas2Net & Core Media.

Also, DigitalSENSE Business News, gathered that the challenge would assemble 300,000 students who will brush at the same time at different locations. The latest World Record on such feat was done in India where an event brought together 177,003 people to brush their teeth at the same time.

With the foregoing, Nigeria hopes to rubbish the Indian six-year-old record with the current teeth brushing challenge.

Category Manager Oral Care, Unilever Nigeria, makers of Close Up toothpaste, Ozia Gyang, said that Close Up was putting its weight behind the challenge as a way of reemphasising the importance of healthy oral hygiene and regular care of the teeth and mouth by brushing twice daily. She said that the Challenge was in line with the brand’s ‘Brush Twice Daily’ campaign.

Close Up Brand Manager, Dexter Adeola, said Nigerians should join hands to make the World Record Tooth brushing challenge a success, urging Nigerians to show their support by brushing twice that day and every other day.

Adeola further said that the benefits of brushing twice daily cannot be overemphasised as a healthy mouth, gum and teeth play a huge role in the overall health of an individual.

Before now, DigitalSENSE Business News, gathered that as part of preparation for the challenge, 300 secondary school teachers have undergone a special Teacher’s Alignment Training Session are expected to lead 1000 students on the event.

The teachers have also been informed of the World Record standards for counting the number of students brushing in each school, the designed model for the tooth brushing as well as the waste recycling element to the attempt.

Close Up has, for over 38 years, been a household name for Nigerians families. This Challenge will go down in history in Nigeria and around the world, as one of the most memorable highlights that showcases the way Close Up loves Naija.

 

... Making SENSE of digital revolution!

Office 365 now available in nine African countries, boost SMEs

Office 365 from the shelf of Microsoft has touched base in nine new territories across the African continent.

The Office Division Group Lead for Microsoft West, East and Central Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, Mr. Marc Israel, confirmed this development to DigitalSENSE Business News saying that the entire suite of Office 365 packages is now available in Angola, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mauritius, Rwanda, Senegal and Zimbabwe.

DigitalSENSE Business News recalls that Office 365 is the next iteration of the company’s flagship Office product line which is made available for consumers, businesses and educational institutions via the cloud.

“Office 365 is available in various packages, each one specifically designed to meet a particular need,” he said, stressing that this means that whether you are a consumer, educational institution, small to mid-size business or a large enterprise, Microsoft has an Office 365 package that will meet all your software requirements in in an always-up-to-date cloud service, at a predictable monthly cost.

In Africa, he said, the Small and Medium Business sector continues to play a big, contributing heavily towards Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and employment.

He cited an instance with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) estimate, which showed that SMEs represent over 90 per cent of private business and contribute more than 50 percent of employment and of GDP in most African countries.

“One of the biggest challenges SMBs face in today’s harsh economic conditions is finding technology that meets their needs without breaking the bank,” says Marc Israel, Office Division Group Lead for Microsoft West, East and Central Africa and Indian Ocean Islands. “Just because your company is smaller, it does not mean you should have to compromise on the type of technology available to you.”

Further, he said, Office 365 has been designed for companies with between 1 and 10 employees, adding that Office 365 Small Business Premium gives organisations access to the richness of Office applications, extending the functionality to make it available via the cloud.

The pay-as-you-go model can save customers between up to 20% of their software budget, without them having to compromise on the technology they have within their organisations.

“Very few smaller organisations can afford the level of sophistication they need in terms of software,” he said, emphasizing that Office 365 is more affordable and less complex – within 15 minutes a company can be up and running with a domain, website, email addresses and the other functionality they require to function.

Remmy Nweke/DigitalSENSE Business News 
... Making SENSE of digital revolution!

Glo sets up data centres in Lagos, Abuja

Globacom has set up data centre in Lagos to provide dedicated co-location, disaster recovery and hosting services, just as the Abuja end of the plan has reached an advance stage. 

Corporate Chief Information Officer, Information Systems, Mr. Cesar Camara made this disclosure in Lagos and said that Globcom plans to expand existing data management platform to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

DigitalSENSE Business News gathered that the new data centre will provide network based services, applications, equipment and cloud services in a reportedly highly secured with backup environment.

He noted that most of the websites and servers of several Nigerian entities are hosted in the United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US), owing to some market challenges including erratic power supply among others. 

This, Camara said, is why Globacom has decided to venture into providing Managed Services in Nigeria and by extension the West Africa region.

“We do this by leveraging our existing telecoms infrastructure, Glo1 Submarine cable, reliable power supply network, experienced manpower and experience in building state-of-the-art technologies for our existing voice and data telephony services,” Camara said. He explained that data centres, particularly the Tier 3 and Tier 4 categories, would provide the highest level of failure proof, redundant, secure and safe environment, fault tolerance, compartmentalization and continuous cooling, are highly valued by most organizations because all mission-critical/real-time applications today depend on server uptimes. 

According to Camara this makes Glo option of data centres highly sought after by all categories of businesses including small, medium enterprises (SMEs), financial and educational institutions, oil and gas, telecoms service providers. 

Glo data centre, he said, has achieved 99.99 per cent uptime for all its servers and are housed in safe, fireproof and secure environment built to international standards with a 24- hour power supply, internet connectivity with data backup capacity and redundancy for all equipment. 

Correspondent/DigitalSENSE Business News
... Making SENSE of digital revolution!