Stories by Bisi Olaleye
Software pirates will no longer have a field day in the Nigerian market as modern software is being made to become unprofitable being hoisted in the cloud, thereby making it difficult for software pirates but easier for practioners to check logs of users.
Newly elected President of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Mr Olorogun Emadoye disclosed this shortly after a handover from the former President of the association, Mr Pius Okigbo.
According to Emadoye, who is a consummate software developer of note and Managing Director of BSSL Technologies Ltd, with this development Nigeria will generate more revenue coupled with the fact that foreign products have since lost relevance in Nigeria with local content is gaining upper hand.
“We are challenged as professionals in software development to enforce professionalism, improve the quality of our products and provide the highest standards that are obtainable anywhere in the world. The ISPON brand Software Nigeria shall be upgraded and shall be the main theme for the 2016-2018 presidential years. ISPON is to strategise to become more relevant in the new Nigeria towards contributing to help position the economy on the right path by providing required solutions locally to combat unemployment, corruptions and development challenges”.
Emadoye became the 4th President of the 17 year old professional body which is one of the most important and strategic groups in the Nigeria Technology ecosystem on April 29,2016. As a passionate Nigerian who believes that 90 percent of Nigeria’s technological needs and in fact all its needs can be obtained locally noting that the country produces over 40,000 Computer Science/Information Technology and related computational sciences graduates from the Universities and Polytechnics annually, he argues that Nigeria and the over 25,000 MDAs have no reasons to spend millions of dollars importing relevant solutions for use in Nigeria.
Airtel offers data free services on Facebook
With the introduction of free data on Facebook by Airtel Nigeria, its teeming customers who are Facebook users will be able to post status updates, comment and write on walls, send message to others, and also be able to view or upload photos without any data charges.
Automatically, the request pops up for these set of people and they are left to either browse for free or not irrespective of the network. For existing mobile internet customers on Airtel, there is no need to do anything – they can immediately start connecting with their friends by visiting the Facebook mobile site.
Commenting on this platform Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Segun Ogunsanya , says, “This marks a significant milestone in our nation’s drive towards deepening digital connectivity and enhancing mobile broadband access for millions of Nigerians in line with the key objective of Nigeria’s National Broadband Plan (NBBP). It is our belief that this partnership, the first of its kind in Nigeria, will create a plethora of opportunities for millions of Nigerians, empowering them to connect to their dreams, realise their full potentials, and succeed in their professional and personal endeavours.”
Meanwhile Bharti Airtel had disclosed that it has launched Free Basics in Nigeria in partnership with Facebook. Nigerians with Airtel mobile connection will be able to access all the services that are available through Free Basics without paying extra for data charges or rental. Free Basics provides basic mobile websites and services for free to people around the world and demonstrating the value the internet can provide. Free Basics will launch in Nigeria with more than 85 free services dedicated to health, education, jobs, and finance.
To date, Facebook estimates that its connectivity efforts, which include Free Basics, have brought more than 25 million people online who would not be online. Airtel Africa will also be offering Facebook Flex in Nigeria, which will allow people to access a version of Facebook without data charges.
According to the Vice President of Internet.org at Facebook, Chris Daniels, this initiative is part of Facebook’s commitment to bringing people online and reducing affordability barriers.
“We’re pleased to take this big step forward in our partnership with Facebook, bringing more people online in Africa’s most populous country and helping to further narrow the digital divide. This builds on our vision of using our widespread 3G network to help improve lives and communities by empowering them with access to digital content and services that are tailored to their needs”.
Nigeria’s potentials yet untapped –HP boss
The Managing Director, Hewlet Packard (HP) Incorporated in Nigeria, Mrs Ify Afe, has disclosed in Lagos that Nigerians have not harnessed half of the huge and massive potentials in the country unlike most countries of the world.
Speaking shortly after the unveiling of several HP’s consumables products, Afe pointed out that Nigeria is a very strong market to Africa owing to her population and is a force to reckon with in Africa and in the world. However, the only thing she has to improve on is how to get this message to every household and every individual.
“In Nigeria, the potential is huge, massive, untapped, and we haven’t even harnessed half of it and we have quite a while to keep improving on it. Nigeria is a very strong market to Africa and then we move to global economy. I think one of the key things we have in Nigeria is that we have a lot of strength pace and strength starter in the country. We have a lot of people that are exposed and open to this technology we talk about and so we have a strong adoption of these services we still push. A lot of countries today may not be on the same level with Nigeria, so, when you bring out this innovation, the second challenge is to find out where you can then play into, we don’t have that problem here. We have the population working for us, and we also have the minds of the people working for us.”
Afe further explained reasons for the untapped opportunities ,which include naivety and lack of infrastructure saying, “I think it is a bit of everything. First of all, awareness is very important, the education of the people is important. We have seen a lot of product today in our presentation but how many of you are aware of them? In the same way, we are moving on to the population at large.
Slot invests in human capacity
With the dwindling human capital and brain drain in the country, Slot Systems Ltd graduates the first set of 40 students its Academy.
The Academy, which is the brain child of Slot Foundation, is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative aimed at providing technical skills and creating jobs for Nigerians.
According to the Chairman of Slot Foundation and Managing Director of Slot systems, Engr Nnamdi Ezeigbo, at the graduation ceremony in Lagos, the mission of the foundation is to help and assist young people become employable.
“Assessing the outgrowing need for skills and empowerment, we decided to set up a proper technical school where Nigerians will be provided with quality technical skills that will further enrich their lives.
“Slot Foundation is primarily to help budding Entrepreneurs and promote locally made Nigeria products that would create jobs and promote local content. However, it would promote the importance of vocational training and fostering creativity and employment for the Nigerian youth”.
Also speaking, Head of Marketing at SLOT, Jonathan Uzomba “this is in line with underlying principle and philosophy of SLOT to add value to people’s lives especially as it is coming on the heels of various services unveiled by SLOT which includes ‘Free Screen Warranty’, ‘The SLOT Trade-In’, slot.ng (the Slot Online Stores) and the unveiling of D’banj as SLOT’s brand ambassador”.
Firm introduces enterprise malware removal tool
Sophos a firm in network and endpoint security, has introduced Sophos Clean, latest addition to its end-user protection portfolio of advanced malware detection, remediation and removal software. The signature-less technology uses progressive behavior analytics, forensics and collective intelligence to discover and remove code from zero-day threats, Trojans, rootkits, polymorphic malware, irritating cookies, spyware and adware.
According to the General manager and Senior Vice President for Enduser Security at Sophos, Mr, Dan Schiappa, the latest software is built on technology acquired from SurfRight B.V. in December 2015, Sophos Clean represents the next generation of malware detection and removal tools that can detect known and unknown threats.
“ The on-demand scan does not need to be installed, which is particularly useful in cases of ransom ware infection or in situations where malware is manipulating installed security software.