Public Relations and media professionals and other important institutions/agents of change in Nigeria have been urged to join advocacy for gender balancing, inclusion and fairness for the promotion of socio-economic development in the country.

Mrs. Grace Bose Ojougboh, Head, Media and Public Relations at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and producer/host of the weekly inspirational programme ‘Amazing Grace with Bose’ on YouTube, made the call while delivering a paper around gender balancing and fairness at the March 2022 monthly meeting of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Abuja Chapter which took place at the National Press Centre, Radio House, Abuja recently (Wednesday March 30, 2021).

Speaking to NIPR members, including Fellows of the Institute at the event on the thought-provoking paper titled: “Achieving Gender Equality In Nigeria: The Role Of Public Relations”, Ojougboh perceptively re-awakened the consciousness of the audience to the often-misconstrued concept of feminism while taking pragmatic look at how this concept should be understood by all to actualise the lofty desire of maximizing the innate potentials of female gender towards achieving greater developmental goals in the society.

She equated feminism with the philosophical aspiration for gender equality as a fundamental human right, which also finds concrete expression in the Goal Five of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) centering on gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls with the hope to end all acts of discrimination against the female gender.

Ojougboh noted with copious instances, that, till date, issues pertaining to women gender has not always received the expected attention, whether by government, parents, the media, communication professionals; traditional and religious leaders, adding that there was need for a change of narrative with respect to how issues pertaining to gender balancing and fairness are effectively mainstreamed into Nigeria’s developmental drive.

According to her, the continuous imbalance in women participation in politics and governance and all the sectors of the economy is glaring, as she submitted that, women are given almost no opportunity to participate in politics and in other spheres of life, this is in spite of the advocacy and call for inclusion and the strategies by various international agencies to reduce gender inequality to the barest minimum.

“Only recently, bills seeking gender equality were rejected by the National Assembly. Appointments across parastatals are dominated by men, this has got to change. If we want economic growth, we must include women, women are transformational agents. We need much more that 35 per cent affirmative action,” she said.

She stated that the fact that women represent about 50 per cent of Nigerian population, according to a 2020 report, means that Nigeria, as a country, cannot afford to neglect the wisdom and the capability of this group and the contribution that women can bring to make Nigeria a truly prosperous nation.

Justifying the need for media/Public Relations practitioners to be at the forefront of driving the narrative for gender balancing, Ojougboh cited an empirical study on media and gender inequality in Nigerian politics, which found that women were denied fair access to the media just as the study also identified media bias in the coverage of female news stories.

She said the findings of the study is a wake-up call that media and Public Relations practitioners have a whole lot to do in the fight for gender balancing in Nigeria. “We need to understand our social responsibility as perception drivers to promote unity, social cohesion, gender balancing/equality and the fundamental human rights of every Nigerian,” she said

She also tasked them to be deliberate and intentional about their communication such that it builds understanding, trust, and acceptance and becomes a win-win for men and women alike and all who desire to see equal representation of men and women across all sectors of the society.

“As Public Relations practitioners, we must help to create gender-sensitive and gender-transformative content that will change perceptions and break gender stereotypes. We must use every available medium to challenge traditional and cultural norms and attitudes that demean womanhood and does not serve humanity,” she said.

Flour Mills of Nigeria PLC, a leader in the Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) recently passed the PECB ISO 27001certification audit for its Information Technology (IT) and cybersecurity framework and policies. This certification has placed Flour Mills of Nigeria PLC as the foremost Nigerian firm in the FMCG sector to be presented with such a certification. ISO 27001(Information Security Management System) is the most recognized international standards for information security management for any organization globally. It provides clear processes for effective implementation and continuous mitigation to data/security breach for any organization. This certification has placed Flour Mills of Nigeria PLC as an organization that is in line with the global best practices when it has to do with cybersecurity and data breach.

The PECB ISO 27001 Certification was facilitated by Nigeria’s cybersecurity firms, Kecam Technologies Limited and DataSixth CyberSecurity Limited. These firms in line with an international recognized audit firm conducted series of interviews, ensured that the right implementation was in place and also guided the organization to achieve the PECB ISO/27001 certification.

On the importance of the certification to Flour Mills of Nigeria PLC, Omoboyede Olusanya, Group Managing Director / CEO said ” We appreciate this certificate and the credit should go to the team that ensured that this happened. This is a document that shows that we have done something and we are very particular in the areas of cybersecurity. We are desirous to build a world-class organization. It is a process and it is an engrained process, there is a continuous stride that we have here. We will keep improving.”

Speaking to the media, Serge Yao, the Group Head of Information Technology (IT) Flour Mills of Nigeria PLC said, “This certification brings reassurance to business’s cybersecurity posture. It proves that we have well-defined system to handle cyber-attacks and cybersecurity. This certification testifies that FMN take seriously the confidentiality of information asset and IT risks are controlled. (Financial loss and damage to reputation are mitigated). We started our cybersecurity program fourteen months ago; the whole organization was engaged, and I want to thank FMN leadership team for the continuous support. It has been a transformational journey for all our employees toward cybersecurity; weak areas were exposed and rectified. Globally targets for cyber-attacks have shifted toward manufacturing firms; so, we must mitigate IT risks and potential damage. We are the first indigenous FMCG to be certified and many more will follow for sure. This is a beginning, and we will continue to follow the best practices and ensure that we have our recertification next year. “

On the importance of certification, Bonny Mekwunye, the Chief Executive Officer of, Kecam Technologies Limited, an indigenous Cybersecurity company in Nigeria said “About 10.5 trillion dollars will be the cost of cybercrime by the year 2025, what does this mean, it is basically that many organizations will be exposed to cyber-attack, it is important that organizations must start thinking how to build their cyber security framework such as people, processes and technology. This is where ISO certification comes in. This is a globally recognized body that is designed for organizations that are desirous and serious to look into their cyber security processes. Flour Mills Nigeria PLC has seen the relevance to protect their digital infrastructure and we were invited to provide a consulting service with our other partner which is DataSixth CyberSecurity Limited. This certification means that they are globally recognized in the area of data security just like other big firms in the world. “

The country manager of DataSixth CyberSecurity Limited, Happiness Obioha said “This certification is all about data security for the organization and the need to have a round the clock continuous protection. This is a bold step for Flour Mills of Nigeria PLC. There is cyber resilience and they are sure that their critical infrastructure is protected. This certification demonstrates that the organization is equal to task in the area of cybersecurity and it shows that they are digitally inclined. This certification will build a lot of moral, trust and confidence for the organization and their stakeholders.”

The ISO 27001 is a globally acceptable certification for organizations that are desirous of strengthening the IT and cybersecurity frameworks. It uses a top down, risk-based approach and most time it is technology-neutral. The approach mostly is in six phases such as the organization’s security policy, the scope of their Information Security Management System, risk assessment, how they manage identified risks, how objectives and controls are implemented and statement of applicability.

ANTHONY EMEKA NWOSU

Cloud computing is nothing new, but as the technology continues to evolve, companies are increasingly embracing the cloud to stay current and competitive. Marilyn Moodley, Country Leader for South Africa and WECA (West, East, Central Africa) at SoftwareONE looks at why the cloud is vital to businesses, and why some are still reluctant to make the move.

Are you on the cloud yet? This is an organisation’s equivalent of a young person’s ‘when are you getting married?’ which moves swiftly to ‘why aren’t you married yet?’ And the reasons for not making the jump in both cases are often the same: resistance to change; wariness of taking a risk; caution about compliance to a new situation; and aversion to the initial investment, which can be high.

While these are all valid concerns about cloud migration, it is still unwise to ignore the many benefits of doing so. The COVID-19 pandemic showed businesses that contingency plans are a non-negotiable in the face of potentially catastrophic events. Organisations that deploy to the cloud are very much on the front foot when it comes to being agile, flexible, and able to move quickly when adverse situations do arise.

According to research conducted by the Cloud Industry Forum on the state of cloud adoption, 91 percent of businesses said that shifting to the cloud has been vital in coping with the effects of the pandemic, as going digital enabled them to respond more readily to changing circumstances. In addition, 77 percent feel that the cloud has simplified their IT challenge. 50 percent of IT infrastructure is now cloud based, the first time it has ever topped this milestone in the 12 years since the Cloud Industry Forum started doing research.

Clearly, the cloud is the place to be, and businesses today are becoming more aware of the benefits of using the cloud to save on costs, enable scalability, innovate at pace, speed up operating systems, and increase flexibility and resilience.

However, making the move to the cloud isn’t always straightforward. One of the main worries expressed by organisations is that they lack the skills to do it. What’s more, over the years, as data centres have grown and evolved, servers added, acquisitions taken place and software installed, it is difficult to know what applications an organisation even has, much less knowing what to migrate and what to leave behind. Gordon Davey, Global Head of Azure Cloud Services at SoftwareONE, refers to this mass of technology as the ‘nachos effect’. Everything is interconnected, like a plate of nachos – when you pick up one nacho, hoping it won’t disturb the rest, strands of cheese bring three or four other nachos with it. So, too, with cloud migration, with so many interconnected parts. 

This is where selecting a trusted partner, like SoftwareONE, is so important. An organisation’s journey to the cloud can be a smooth transition, backed by a clear strategy that takes an organisation’s unique environment and workloads into account.  Experts can assist in establishing a consolidated and rationalised view of the current IT landscape, prioritise and recommend workloads to run in the cloud and define and execute the next steps in the cloud migration. Essentially, they can identify which nachos can be taken alone, and which are inextricably connected to others and need to have a migration plan to address this. Partners can also help organisations understand the licensing and cost ramifications of moving workloads to the cloud, how to optimise spend and ongoing cloud management to ensure value is realised.

The past few years have seen a significant increase in the use of the cloud and 69 percent of companies interviewed as part of the Cloud Industry Forum’s research are speeding up digital transformation plans. By 2025, research company Gartner estimates that 85 percent of enterprises will have a cloud-first strategy. It is undoubtedly the engine of transformation and companies need to keep up with the pace of change or risk being left behind.

Airbus Secure Land Communications recently partnered with Wearin’, a division of Conextivity Group, providing connected wearables for workers’ safety and performance, to combine the power of their technologies to make the work of mission-critical personnel safer and smarter.

The two parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the sidelines of the recently concluded Mobile World Congress (Barcelona) in Spain. The MoU will pave the way for the integration of Airbus’ Tactilon Agnet collaboration platform with Wearin’s IoT-driven wearable sensors.

Under the terms of the MoU, the companies will initially conduct demonstrations of the integration at the referential World Police Summit in Dubai (taking place from 14 to 17 of March) before offering them to interested organizations. Through the demonstrations, Airbus and Wearin’ aim to receive feedback from end-users concerning their approach to IoT and mission-critical services.

Airbus’ Tactilon Agnet allows end-to-end secure instant sharing of information with a defined group of people at the push of a button. It can run on a wide range of devices such as regular iOS and Android smartphones, radios, and special gadgets and gears. Business- and mission-critical users, including first responders, utilize the platform designed with a hybrid work environment for enhanced communication and collaboration.

On the other hand, Wearin’ integrates modular sensors into field gears and use artificial intelligence to create smart, actionable insights. The agent-worn sensors provide real-time insights from user-generated field data to improve productivity, save lives and protect health.

Selim Bouri, Head of Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific for Airbus Secure Land Communications said : “Airbus shares the mission of Wearin’ to harness the power of cutting-edge technologies to keep people safe, protect lives and property, and maintain public safety. This MoU will benefit our security forces and emergency personnel, as well as improve our response during crises. Our agreement will bring to the fore the important role of technologies in keeping our communities secure.”

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