IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

“We are looking to participate in future mobile spectrum licensing. We will be availing ourselves more in initiatives aimed at taking broadband services to rural areas”, Wale Goodluck, corporate services executive, MTN Nigeria told BusinessDay at an industry forum in Lagos.

Afolabi, who made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abeokuta, said he was sure that the card would help to check the movement of workers.

Kano State Pilgrims’ Welfare Board yesterday said it would commence biometric data capturing of about 50,000 prospective pilgrims in the North-West zone of the country.

In the same vein, the board had given intending pilgrims who had paid part of their deposits up to March 16 to complete payment as it planned to close registration of prospective pilgrims.

In a circular with reference number: Ref. Na. 59B03Nll/87 signed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, on 28th May, 2014 and obtained by LEADERSHIP, FG said only the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has the statutory responsibility to create, manage, maintain and operate including harmonisation and integration of existing identification databases in government agencies into the National identity Database housed in the commission.

Although the banks had begun the BVN registration in July this year, many customers are yet to be aware of the project.

Some bank customers who were questioned by LEADERSHIP in Lagos, last week, said they had received messages from their banks but do not know what the BVN was all about.

The world is largely becoming more of a global village with new innovations and technology springing up everyday. Now we have several Crypto-currencies the most popular amongst them is bitcoin.

Bitcoin is a form of digital currency, created and held electronically. It is not controlled by any government or agency and not printed like dollars or naira. Unlike paper money and gold, they are digital and centralized. Bitcoin was first introduced on October 31, 2008 by software developer called Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin is different than any currency you have used before, so it's very important to understand some key points. Unlike government issued money that cannot be inflated at will, the supply of bitcoin is mathematically limited to twenty-one million bitcoins, and that can never be changed. Bitcoins are impossible to counterfeit, payments are impossible to block, and bitcoin wallets can't be frozen except turning off the entire world's Internet, and keeping it turned off. Bitcoin stores details of every single transaction that has ever happened in the network in a huge version of a general ledger called a Block-chain.

The adoption and use of technology have been described as the bedrock for economic development of any nation. Technological development in Nigeria has however been foot-dragging, largely due to the little importance attached to training and re-training of the Nigerian youth by organisations that claim to have policies that are geared towards corporate social responsibility.

The recently concluded 2017 USPF Innovation Hackathon Challenge where winners emerged is an addition to several initiatives conceived and sponsored by organisations and government agencies to deepen technology innovation among startups, writes Emma Okonji

Having realised that data and technology innovation are the next oil and gas of global economies, organisations and government agencies, especially in developing countries, are beginning to tinker around the best form of technology solutions that will create positive disruptions within their economies.

The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) has begun the pilot phase of the implementation of first national action plan of the Nigeria Open Government Partnership (OGP) by training participants on open contracting project.

The training, which took place last Wednesday, in Abuja, was declared open by the Director-General, Mr Mamman Ahmadu.

Director, Data Base Department, Mr Aliyu Aliyu, said President Muhammadu Buhari had at the London Anti-Corruption Summit 2016, committed to applying the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) in certain projects in the country.

The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) has commenced the process of implementing a unified e-Government Procurement (e-GP) system, that will integrate with existing systems to provide a centrally and unitary collaborative government procurement platform for all public procurement at the federal level.

The implementation of the e-GP system will follow a phased approach to cover the entire public procurement lifecycle in line with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2007, related regulations and government Information Communication Technology (ICT) policies, and other standards.

As this today has become a critical infrastructure in the growing global digital economy, countries that fail to invest in it risk being excluded from online economy, as well as the next stage of the digital revolution and future Internet.

The Executive Vice- Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, says the ability of the government to provide electronic services to citizens is hinged on the availability of pervasive broadband penetration.

Danbatta made this known in a keynote address delivered at the maiden edition of the Nigeria e-Government Conference organised by DigiServe Networks in Lagos.

Amid pomp and ceremony, the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration unveiled the National Broadband Plan (NBP), which set milestones for the country to achieve in the immediate, short and long terms. The plan may be mere wishful thinking considering the investment in infrastructure, reports Lucas Ajanaku.

The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Dambatta, is not a politician. Coming from the ivory tower, he is not likely to play to the gallery. So he knew what he was saying when he said the government may not attain the 30 per cent broadband target set for 2018 in the National Broadband Plan (NBP) 2013-2018.

Stakeholders in the nation’s ICT sector gathered in Abuja recently to appraise the performance of the 30 per cent broadband target set for the country between 2013 and 2018 by the National Broadband Plan.

The event featured participants in the industry including, investors, regulators, government representatives as well as professionals in the sector.

This is as the national broadband strategy and roadmap developed by a Presidential Committee to facilitate the achievement of five-fold increase in broadband penetration by 2017 has been submitted and approved by the federal government.

The Federal Government is set to begin ranking of individual states of the federation according to their level of development digitally.

The move, which is part of the recommendations of the National Broadband Plan Committee set up by the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, is aimed at encouraging each state government to show more commitment to broadband penetration in their respective states.

A few weeks back, the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar picked up his mobile phone and called the Force Public Relations Spokesperson, Frank Mba, a Chief Superintendent of Police for final instruction. Afterwards Mba set out with the message. It was a long wait at the Senior Police Officers Mess in Ikeja, Lagos, as journalists from different media houses gathered to be briefed by Mba.

Johnson, who was speaking at an interactive session with ICT journalists in Lagos at the weekend applauded the GSM sector and explained that Nigeria had surpassed South Africa in terms of mobile subscription while unveiling her blueprint on ICT that would be executed over time in President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

Head, Shared Services, USTDA, Chidi Umeano, who made this known in Lagos said the grant would be used to finance a qualified US firm to provide expert consulting services in determining the technical requirements, business and operational models for the project.