Stories by Olabisi Olaleye [email protected] 08094000013, 08111813040
Before long,many technology companies may begin to fold up due to lack of activity or business contracts.
Recently, some local Business Process outsourcing(BPO),firms are lamenting that bussinesses are being handed over to foreigners, who in turn are muscling them out of business.
BPO, according to wikipeadia, is the practice of performing tasks, providing services or manufacturing products for another company.
BPO is a subset of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of a specific business process to a third-party service provider.
Some couple of days ago,over 4,000 staffs were disengaged from MTN outsourced call centre:Communication Network Support Services Limited (CSNNL), because of contract expiration.
The call centre was outsourced in 2008 CSNNL, but after a peach recently, it lost to iSON, an indian firm.
The list of mass sack is endless in the industry and these people are being returned to the labour market, which is a major reason for the federal government to salvage future collapse of some of these companies.
Meanwhile, at a recent stakeholders’forum organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Information and Communications Technology (ICT) stakeholders, disclosed that there is need to review existing local content policy in ICT,which was drafted in 2013, with a view to fine-tuning it, for better presentation at the National Assembly, for speedy passage into law.
According to a member of the House of Representatives, Honorable Oghene Emma Egoh, who raised concerns over the implications of not having a Local Content Development Law in ICT, called on stakeholders to expedite action in the formulation and presentation of local content bill in ICT before the National Assembly and assured stakeholders of speedy hearing of such bill, either as an executive bill or a private bill.
Stakeholders are troubled because Nigerians are losing jobs and contracts in the ICT sector to foreigners that are doing businesses in Nigeria, which they said have resulted in capital flight and heavy depletion of the Nigerian economy.
They heaped the blame on the lack of Local Content Development Act for ICT, which could have protected the interests of Nigerians and Nigerian-owned businesses, if it had existed.
Speaking on phone to Daily Sun, a stakeholder,Chairman Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (Alton),Mr Gbenga Adebayo, government must protect local content, there must be a law that should protect smaller companies , if not disengagements will continue to happen.
“Bigger companies have the financial strength to kill smaller ones and this could be the end of some of these companies”.
On the implications of not having an existing local content law in ICT, National Coordinator, Office for Nigerian Content Development in ICT, Mr. Inye Kemabonta, said, it will spell doom for the sector if not urgently addressed. He called on all stakeholders to rise to the challenge and ensure that the issue of local content in ICT is addressed to a logical conclusion, in order to encourage fair competition and to protect the interests of Nigerians and their businesses.
The stakeholders were worried that licensed telecoms operators in the county are majorly foreigners who do business in Nigeria by bringing in foreign staff to handle the jobs that Nigerians could successfully handle, if given the opportunity.
The stakeholders also blamed the Nigerian government for licensing more of foreign operators in the ICT sector, at the detriment of local investors that have small businesses in the country.
The former President of the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Lanre Ajayi, also expressed worries over the manner at which Nigerians are losing ICT jobs and contracts to foreign companies.
Mobile phone safety for kids
As a parent, you must take preventive measures to minimise your child’s exposure to the harmful effects of mobile phones. These include:
•Do not give cell phone if your child is under 16 years. A child’s brain is too sensitive to withstand the effects of mobile radiation.
•Do not let your child hold a mobile phone directly up to his head. Use an air-tube headset instead.
•Do not let your child make calls in buses, trains, cars, and elevators. The mobile phone works harder to get the signal out through the metal, which increases the power level.
•Do not let your child use cell phone when the signal is weak. It will increase the power to the maximum, as the phone attempts to connect to a new relay antenna.
•Limit the use of cell phone around children.
•Make sure that there is no mobile phone mast or network tower near your home or your kid’s school.
•Do not let children take mobile phones to school.
•Do not leave mobile phones in your children’s bedroom at night.
•Courtesy: momjunction.com
What to look for when buying a mobile phone
By Ajibola Olaniyan
Just like the computer, there must be some particular function that a user needs in a mobile phone before purchasing , and it needs to do with their features. Here are the major phone features: screen type, screen size, connectivity, battery size, operating system and software version. Screen type/ size Just as your television at home, so is the phone screen type. It has Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Light Emitting Diode (LED) and Thin Film Transistor (TFT).
A LED TV is just a new generation of LCD TV. The difference is that an LED TV is not using fluorescent tubes, but rather a series of light emitting diodes (LEDs), while TFT elements are directly deposited into a substrate that is usually made of glass instead of the traditional semiconductor creation process. TFT produces better images and are less prone to crosstalk compared to traditional LCD.
We have different sizes of screen phones, this has nothing to do with their makes of capacities but rather as Original Equipments Manufacturers (OEMs) wanted it, for instance, 2.4 inch, 3.5 inch, 4.1 inch, 4.5 inch, 5.1 inch, 5.5 inch, 6.1 inch and 6.5 inch. The implication is simply that the bigger the screen, the bigger the phone.
Connectivity
Infrared, Wireless (Wi-Fi), Bluetooth, Mobile Hotspot Tethering, and so on. Most of the early mobile phones come with Infrared (slow in sharing) and most of them are fading away from the market, the recent ones are replaced with Bluetooth (fast in sharing), wireless is used for internet connectivity for browsing while hotspot is used for internet sharing connectivity.
Battery size
Battery size determine the type of phone: feature or smart phoneThe multiple the valves in the engine the faster is moves and the higher the fuel consumption, just as it is in the vehicles, same way with phone, the multiple the features the higher the battery consumption. For instance you cannot compare the battery consumption of a phone you are using to browse with the phone only meant for calls. That is why the phones are made that the higher the features of a phone the higher its battery capacity.
Operating system
Just as your computers with different operating system, so are the mobile phones too. We have four major mobile phone operating system (OS), Microsoft Windows, Android, Blackberry, and Symbian, but they have similar features. Examples of Microsoft Windows phones are HTC, Samsung, Nokia, LG and so on. Some of Android phones are Nexus, Nokia, Infinix, HTC, Samsung, Apple iphone, LG e.t.c. Few of Blackberry phones are Blackberry Bold, Blackberry Curve, Blackberry Torch, Blackberry Passport, Blackberry Porsche and many others. Examples of Symbian phones are majorly on Nokia phones like Nokia C-series, Nokia E-series, Nokia N-series, Nokia X-series amidst of others. However, the OEMs have stopped the production of Symbian OS phones production since 2011.
Meanwhile, all these phones operating systems have their different versions, and the higher their versions the higher their performances
Intel empowers 40,000 girls
By Sampson Unamka
Intel, organiser of the She Will Connect programme, has disclosed that it has been able to reach out to about 40,000 girls in Nigeria in the last 24 months and would not relent in reaching out to even more.
The company stated this during a recent meeting for its potential partners and the public to intimate them on the success of the programme. According to the Corporate Affairs Manager, Intel Africa, Babatunde Akinlola, the programme was launched in 2014 and the tech firm wants to reduce the disparity “in terms of income, employment, so that women can use technology and the Internet to leverage the state.”
“Our goal was to bridge the digital divide, enable girls get access to the Internet and use the resources on the Internet to improve their well-being.
“Technology is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity, and that is why we believe that if we are able to enable our girls and women, they can change the face of our society,” he said.
Director Digital Empowerment, Intel, Marne Dunn, took a session to showcase the application, which would enable women have easy access to the Internet.
On his part, Intel’s African Programme Manager, Suraj Shah, said the idea behind the event was to let people to know the various gains of having the program, to enable
