28 COMPULIFE
THE GUARDIAN, Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Lenovo re-enters Nigerian market, introduces new solution, PCs By Adeyemi Adepetun
EADING global PC Company, Lenovo has restrategised and LNigeria mapped out new efforts, aimed at deepning its presence in and other African markets. According to the company’s delegation, led by Executive Director and General Manager, Lenovo Middle East and Africa (MEA), Oliver Ebel, and and the Africa General Manager, Graham Braum, at a meeting with representatives from government and private organizations, as well as business partners, reiterated the company’s commitment towards empowering its local channel through its Partner Network Program launch. Recognising the potential of Nigeria’s huge market, Ebel said Lenovo banks on the country’s market for sustained growth and improved profitability. “Nigeria is one of Lenovo Africa key growth markets and we are here today to affirm our commitment to customers and partners in the country. The ICT sector is continuously developing in Nigeria and technology plays a key role in the development and economic growth of countries; that is why, it is important for Lenovo to bring innovative devices to Nigeria to empower businesses and consumers. This further complements our mission to become the leader in PC+, by addressing the increasing demand to stay connected on different devices.” During the visit to Nigeria, Lenovo executives launched the Lenovo Partner Network program, designed to skill-up channel partners and strengthen relations across MEA. The introduction of the program in Nigeria, according to Ebel will help existing and new partners with in-depth knowledge and tools to enhance their relationship with Lenovo, including access to a free online resource and a loyalty reward scheme. Comprised of three membership levels - Member, Premium and Gold Partner – the program is designed to educate partners and potential members on the benefits of working with Lenovo. The program rewards loyal customers through an updated membership status (Premium or Gold) whereby they are entitled to additional resource and benefits. Commenting on the launch, Graham Braum said: “Our channel partners are fundamental to the success of our business as we strive towards becoming the number one PC manufacturer globally. The channel is our primary route to both the enterprise and consumer market and it is important our partners understand our products and capabilities. Our relationship with our partners is the crux of our success globally and in Africa; we invest heavily in this relationship and ensure our product portfolio and program is designed to enable our partners’ success.”
Founder, Visafone Communications Limited, Jim Ovia (left); President Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), Chris Uwaje, his wife, Kareen and former president, Nigeria Computer Society, Prof. Charles Uwadie at the ISPON’s President’s Dinner in Lagos at the weekend.
Venture capital and software development CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25 pared with Nigeria’s six per cent. He admonished countries and companies to innovate, arguing that those who refuse to innovate will continue to struggle to meet global demands. In his welcome address, the president of ISPON, Dr. Chris Uwaje said 2012 was a year of multiple challenges to the ICT sector in terms of venture capital investment, adoption of national software strategy, policy and patronage for indigenous software. Uwaje said there was need to look at the 2013 ICT outlook
ICANN appoints ATCON boss as member of working group on gTLD Directory Services HE Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers T (ICANN) has announced the selection of Mr. Lanre Ajayi, as one of the members of the Expert Working Group on gTLD Directory Services. Ajayi, an engineer is the Managing Director of Pinet Informatics Limited, one of the first ISPs in Nigeria. He is the President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON). He has served as the Vice-Chairman of the Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN) and Africa ISP
Association (AfrISPA). He is a founding member of AfriNIC. He also has served as a member of the National Cybercrime Working Group of Nigeria. He currently serves as a GNSO Council member appointed by the NomCom and is based in Nigeria. It will be recalled that on December 13, 2012, ICANN’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Fadi Chehadé announced the creation of an Expert Working Group on gTLD Directory Services and invited volunteers to submit applications to indicate their interest in serving on it.
and its windows of opportunities for IT entrepreneurs, with particular reference to software startups. “The comfortable mantra seeking to explain the inability to designate special funding scheme to promote innovation and youth entrepreneurship start-up development on the grounds of lack of realistic for lending opportunities collateral for lending opportunities, is to state the least, a blatant misinformation to the pioneers and champions of software Nigeria”, he stated. According to him, no time was more auspicious to address the national software issue than now. He stressed that there was an urgent need to retool the national workforce to respond to the challenges of the knowledge economy. Uwaje stressed the need for a political will in the drive towards software development “It should be note that there is a fundamental ICT shift both in policy articulation, strategic approach and implementation actions—consciously driven by political will”, he said. But the chairman of the occasion, Vice Chancellor, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun state, Prof. C.K. Ayo believed that education today would be incomplete without knowledge and support of enterprises. Prof. Ayo said the country should know that it is competing with other nationals and institutions in the world. “It is a known fact that in a capitalist economy, financial benefits flow to those who control and supply the financial capital but in a knowledge-based economy, necessitated by the current globalisation drive, financial benefits accrue to those who control and supply intellectual capital. “It is not surprising therefore that allover Africa; most lucrative jobs are gotten by foreign nationals, particularly the Asian Tigers. This is a wakeup call”, he stated. The Covenant VC believed that if software development must attract venture capital there was need to resolve the missing link in the nation’s knowledge capacity; stimulate software capacity development amongst Nigerian youths; recognize and mentor the best software start-up of the year and turn Nigeria into a globally recognized software devel-
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