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THE GUARDIAN, Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Achebe: There was a software icon By Chris Uwaje HE human brain is a computer. And software is a knowledge logic system. The Nigerian Knowledge Profession and Industry is grossly underestimated – due to technophobia mindset – generated by external influences! Indeed, it is the factory and wealth ecosystem in our heads. The Nigeria Knowledge industry is worth perhaps ten times (1000 per cent) more than the oil and Gas sector. All these knowledge-wares can be classified as “Knowledge Software” Nigeria has abundance knowledge – in almost all significant measurable levels of human Endeavour. Prof. Chinua Achebe is software; J.P. Clark is software; Wole Soyinka is software, Christopher Okigbo was a great poetic software; Ken Saro Wiwa was software, Nnamdi Azikiwe was Software-Nigeria/Africa, so was Aminu Kano and, Obafemi Awolowo and many millions of African knowledge giants such as Nelson Madiba Mandela, Helie Salasie., Kwame Nkrumah. Software is innovation and creativity. Indeed, there is software brain and architecture in this country populated by innovative man and women with creative knowledge. After all, Fela Anikulapo Kuti was software Art in his own right – so is Malam Maitama Sule. There is Software-Nigeria. However, one aspect is to recognise indigenous knowledge and the other is a conscious patronage of the products and services of our national software knowledge resources. Imagine if Prof. Chinua Achebe after writing ‘Things Fall Apart’ in 1958, the product was never patronised or read by Nigerians, Africans and the world at large? Imagine if this innovative knowledge-ware was never given the attention it deserved by government and business policy makers? Currently, we know that the Achebe’s knowledge Software masterpiece titled ‘Things Fall Apart’ was translated into 50 international languages and sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. The above provides us with the technical and vivid alibi of the potency of Software-Nigeria and justifies the decade-long advocacy of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) for the national recognition, promotion and mandatory patronage of Software-Nigeria by Government and related stakeholders. With the demise of Prof. Achebe, I am sure that it is high time government seriously engages her ‘Technophobia Syndrome” and timely understand the critical importance of indigenous knowledge-ware and Information Technology Software in Particular – as the engine room of her transformation and devel-
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Nollywood actress, Iyabo Ojo (left); Head of Gloworld, Mrs. Titi Ebinisi; Head of Corporate Sales, Globacom, Kamal Shonibare and the Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Corporation, Otunba Segun Runsewe, when Globacom bags the ‘Most Innovative Company’ of the year at the City People Awards in Lagos.
PFS strengthens CBN’s cheques truncation process across Nigeria By Adeyemi Adepetun S part of ongoing efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to shorten the settlement cycle of a cheque to one day, the apex bank is working with Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) and Nigeria’s leading financial services software provider, Precise Financial Systems, PFS, to achieve this objective thereby ensuring cheques presented for settlement are resolved within stipulated date across the country. PFS has implemented the cheque truncation lifecycle for the CBN. PFS and NIBSS have enabled the CBN to execute the project, as the cheque truncation platform has gone live in Lagos and Abuja. Other branches of the CBN would be concluded by the end of March, PFS said in a statement. The cheque truncation system would allow all branches of the CBN to capture all cheques in the respective branches and maintain them in a central server in Lagos. The system then allows all captured cheques from the bank to be transmitted to the clearinghouse from Lagos. According to the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of PFS, Mr. Yele Okeremi, the system is responsible for the processing of all inward cheques and NEFT transactions of banks. While it would address all required management reporting, its controls are guided “as the system implements all required maker checker rules of the banks”, he said. With the activation of cheque truncation regime through iTELLER platform in Nigeria, one important challenge the system has addressed is the ability of the CBN to meet the deadline for cheque truncation nationwide. Aside, the platform has also assisted the CBN to reduce cost, time and the stress involved in its cheque clearing operations, as the system removes all “logistics costs associated with clearing”. While further enumerating on the benefits of cheque truncation system, he said before the
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new regime, Nigerian banks would have to send their outward cheques to respective central clearing departments by dispatch riders or bullion vans. There would not be any need for that again, as cheques can be truncated directly at the branch of deposit. “This removes time-wasting collation and photocopying exercises usually carried out at the bank branches. It also removes the need to postencode cheques, and this provides the platform to use more
agile cheque scanners for image and MICR capture”. Other benefits of the new systems, according to him, include reduction of stress and human efforts in clearing, elimination of all cheques substitution tendencies, reduction of time of consummating manual transaction thereby enabling the cashier to focus on other customer requirements as well as reduction of the man-hours required to attend to other customer’s need among others.
Titans of Tech conference gets Globacom’s backing LOBACOM has emerged as the lead sponsor of this year’s “TiG tans of Tech” night, an evening of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) professionals in West Africa in 2013. The event, which is now in its eighth year, is billed to hold in Lagos on April 12, and would feature two sessions, namely a technology conference session early in the evening and the awards/gala night immediate afterwards. Managing Consultant, Technology Africa, organiser of the forum, Don Pedro Aganbi, while commending Globacom for expressing support for the conference, noted that it is typical of the telecommunications firm to back initiatives that portrays the country in favourable light. He stated as the telecommunications giant marks a decade of operations, it is significant that Globacom has not only commenced a massive network expansion and technical network upgrade project that will considerably enhance the quality of customer experience on the network, it is also supporting programmes that seek to expand the conversation in the telecommunication space. He remarked that the Titans of Tech conference is indeed meant to engender further growth of Nigeria’s telecommunications sector and indeed the ICT market, through the provision of a platform for constructive dialogue and opportunity to network and influence policy. According to him, “with the theme “Broadband, Data Centres and the Quest for Inclusive Society” the conference will afford the esteemed sponsors ample opportunities to reveal the extent of their investment in Nigeria and the growing need to promote access to broadband across the country.” He revealed that former Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission and Director, Centre for Infrastructure Policy, Regulation and Advancement (CIPRA), Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, would chair the conference. Aganbi noted that the Titans of Tech conference would provide a veritable platform for government to present its plans/policies and the private sector to provide insights into challenges, opportunities, available solutions and options in deploying infrastructure to support the emerging digital economy. In addition it is a great opportunity for networking and forging strategic partnerships amongst key stakeholders in the sector, he added.
Late Achebe opment Agenda. The argument is that ‘no foreigner’ would have written “Things Fall Apart” the way and manner it was culturally and traditionally structured and expressed by Prof. Chinua Achebe. The same logic applies to Software in the ICT Domain, which centrally focuses on the e-needs of the people and designing solutions peculiar to those needs to fulfill her development aspirations and sustainable goals. Those marketers of foreign software may be forgiven for their pathetic and blind ignorance. Recognising Software Development as a new productive knowledge frontier and potential instrument for economic empowerment and creation of wealth, ISPON advised government in 2005, to launch a nation-wide awareness campaign – based on the technical report submitted to it by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on National Software Development Initiative (NSDI). The above observation was based on a factual study recognising the acute danger in allowing the deployment of foreign software in key Federal Government functions/operations domain to foreigners. The advocacy aims to foster and promote the establishment of a National Software Development Policy and encourage the inclusion of the patronage and protection of indigenous software in the IT Bill. This will serve to improve the level of the nation’s computer knowledge and content competitiveness, as well as promote and spread the development and use of indigenous software applications and services in governance, education, health, business and industry, agriculture, transportation, public administration, law and justice, entertainment and national security. Currently, our knowledge-base and technology environment of the “new economy” is greatly influenced, under-
Ambiom Wireless to enhance internet penetration in Lagos By Bankole Orimisan N indigenous internet service provider, Ambiom Wireless, has said its services will come live this year, with Lagos State as the first beneficiary. The firm indicated that it was leveraging on superwifi technology championed by Google and Microsoft. The Managing Director, of the firm Mr. Tolulope Buraimoh, said the peculiarities of the Nigerian market had been understudied by Ambiom Wireless hence, adoption of a technology that was cost effective and
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easy to use. According to him, the firm is working towards using lesser equipment to achieve seamless internet connection in the country, starting from Lagos. He said the e-commerce market in Nigeria was growing exponentially, and the firm remained committed to serving the fast growing market, adding that its connection were not limited to laptops, iPads and mobile phones. “We will go live by April 4 and we are starting from Alausa, Ikeja in Lagos. Our targets are individuals and businesses,” Buraimoh said.
Also commenting, an Executive Director of the company, Mr. Olumide Oladimeji, said payments for the firm’s services could be done online. In tandem with the country’s cash-less policy, adding that the firm was targeting Alausa as its first hotspot. According to him, the firm had MainOne, Phase 3 Telecoms and Altai as technical partners, and is building a robust customer service framework to handle its customer base. With a well advanced technology running on its network, Oladimeji said systems had been configured to handle huge traffic.
mined and controlled by foreign information system and database – where software plays a fundamental roll and viewed as the backbone of modern wealth creation and national security. Setting a national software development policy and awareness agenda therefore, is also against the backdrop that building software capacities presents immense economic opportunities for nation building. Suffice to state that Nigeria can earn $10 billion in foreign exchange yearly from the software industry. Every software-exporting country has evolved a unique industry, shaped by its own resources and situation and by the particular global opportunities presented at the time. For example, Japan exports mostly software games, India exports primarily software services to large software development shops, Ireland exports software products (created by MNCs located in-country as well as by a growing number of indigenous companies), and Israel mostly exports software technology which is subsequently productised by firms in the United States and Europe. The global software industry continues to evolve, and countries now looking to develop their national software potentials for security, exports and survivability face a different global situation, and are likely to evolve fundamentally different software industries. The current shape and dynamics of the global software industry should, therefore, inform ICT planning and policy, no matter the country’s stage of economic development. For countries with deficient infrastructure and tight resources (such as Ireland in the 1970’s), selective government initiatives have been critical to successful software industry development. Professor Chinua Achebe has lightened up the literary knowledge-ware Domain and Indigenous Software advocates can do even much more for the creation of wealth and survivability of our future. Goodnight our Professor Knowledge Emeritus and software literature enigma. Sleep well and Rest in perfect peace, because Software-Nigeria is alive. We pledge to carry on the fight with assurances of success in the human knowledge Olympiad. Uwaje is the president of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON)