Online Golf game information platform with a PRO-Shop where you can buy all your Golf game needs from Kits to Gloves to Balls or sell your verified fairly used golf equipment.
Tola Roberts is passionate about whatever she does and is always looking out for opportunities to make life easy.
GolfGuruNg was born out of that passion and zeal. The website has interviews, information on all golf courses in Nigeria, the number of holes, ratings etc. There is also the kids section.It is your stop for everything Golf.
She is currently working on a project to promote grassroot golf game participation. She recently organized the Indigenous People’s Day charity golf tournament at the Sagamu Golf club that saw the sponsorship of 10 caddies for training.
The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, has congratulated the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, on his appointment as the Chairman of the 2022 World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Forum by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Danbatta described the choice of the Minister as chair of the Forum as a worthy recognition of Nigeria’s leadership role in the global digital economy ecosystem, noting that Nigeria has continued to hold a front-row seat in the promotion of information and communication technology (ICT) as a driving force for national development since the assumption of office of the Minister.
“On behalf of the Board, Management and Staff of the Nigerian Communications Commission, I want to express our profound delight and congratulations to the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, on his well-deserved appointment by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to chair this year’s WSIS Forum”, Danbatta stated.
“The appointment did not surprise us at NCC, given the important role the Hon. Minister has been playing in driving fundamental digital economy policies, being implemented by agencies under his supervision, in order to boost the diversification policy of the Federal Government,” the EVC said.
“We are, therefore, happy to associate with the Minister on this feat, as it means greater recognition for Nigeria. The appointment is an indication that the world has continued to take notice of the giant strides of Nigeria’s digital economy under the supervision of the Minister.
The NCC will continue to do everything within its regulatory mandate to further support the Federal Government’s drive for ubiquitous, affordable and accessible digital services across all nooks and crannies of the country,” Danbatta said.
Following consultations with various stakeholders, the ITU recently notified the Minister via a letter, of his appointment as the 2022 WSIS Chairman.
The ITU is orgainsing the WSIS 2022 Forum in collaboration with other agencies with the United Nations with a focus on “ICTs for Well-Being, Inclusion and Resilience: WSIS Cooperation for Accelerating Progress on the SDGs”.
As has been noted elsewhere, the appointment of Prof. Pantami has given Nigeria, and indeed, the African continent, the unique role of coordinating the activities of the WSIS in its 20th year, following the WSIS Phase I meeting which took place in 2003.
The WSIS Forum 2022, which will be attended by several high-level stakeholders, including Cabinet Ministers from ITU countries, will serve as a key platform to discuss the role of ICTs as a means to bolster the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals targets. The discourse will take place in the context of the mechanism for follow-up and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UNGA Resolution A/70/1).
The WSIS Forum also provides an opportunity to track the achievements of WSIS Action Lines in collaboration with the UN Agencies involved and provides information and analysis on the implementation of WSIS Action Lines since 2005. The Forum aims at enhancing cooperation, partnership, innovation, exchange of experiences and good practices in ICTs for sustainable development across the world.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), and the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, have promised to continue to drive policy initiatives that promote investment in infrastructure in the Nigerian telecom industry in order to deepen connectivity to enhance the nation’s growth and development.
The duo stated this on the sideline of the reception marking the landing of the Equiano undersea Cable System in Nigeria at the Open Access Data Centre at Lekki in Lagos. Pantami and Danbatta commended Google LLC, the West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC), and other investors for bringing additional bandwidth capacity into the country to drive connectivity and growth.
While Pantami was represented at the event by NCC’s Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Adeleke Adewolu, Danbatta was represented by the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services at NCC, Ubale Maska. Other senior management staff of the Commission at the event included the NCC’s Director, Technical Standards and Network Integrity, Bako Wakil, and the Controller, NCC’s Ibadan Zonal Office, Yomi Arowosafe.
The Minister said the Federal Government, through the Ministry, will continue to drive the implementation of existing digital economy-oriented policies already put in place by the current administration. Pantami also promised an enabling environment that encourages foreign and local investment in infrastructure project such as the way Google and its co-investors have done.
Also commenting, Danbatta said the Commission’s expectations, initiatives, and vision towards increasing broadband penetration, quality of service, advancement of a digital economy, and commitment to improving national security through technological advancement, are on the priority list of its regulatory interventions.
Danbatta expressed delight that Equiano has joined the list of other submarine cables at the shores of Nigeria, including SAT3 cable, MainOne cable, Glo1 cable, ACE cable WACS cable, Dolphin by Natcom, and MTN respectively.
The EVC assured stakeholders of Commission’s commitment towards ensuring that the huge bandwidth capacity from these cables at shore in Lagos would be transmitted to different part of the country to drive robust and ubiquitous infrastructure. This is in keeping with the provisions of the digital economy policy being implemented by government in collaboration with all stakeholders.
The EVC expressed optimism that Google’s investment in the subsea cable, Equiano, will be significant in driving NCC’s ongoing implementation of the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP) 2020-2025, which aims at increasing broadband penetration to 70 per cent by 2025.
“We are hopeful that Equiano, together with earlier undersea cables in the country, will have additional landing points in the hinterlands through collaborative efforts with NCC-licensed Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos). This will help to reduce retail data prices significantly and thereby complementing the Commission’s efforts at ensuring that affordable Internet services are available to boost Commission’s onbgoing broadband policy initiatives”. Danbatta stated and thereby helped to reiterate the objective linkages of policies and plans in the telecom ecosystem, and the national economic strategies.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who also witnessed the unveiling of the Google submarine cable, underscored its centrality to Nigeria’s ongoing efforts to boost job creation and contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), over the next three years.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of WIOCC, Chris Wood, also described the landing of the submarine cables as a major investment in the Nigerian digital economy.
The new cable system is named after a Nigerian hero, Olaudah Equiano, who survived enslavement in the 18th century and went on to become a famous writer and anti-slavery activist. Besides, the triumph over challenges, which Equiano’s life symbolised, the landing of the cable in Nigeria is expected to underscore Nigeria’s leadership as a regional hub for connectivity, and thus, set to attract cloud operators, content providers, content distribution networks and their associated ecosystems.
Enugu is Nigeria’s greenest city. Well…may be not. Yet, I don’t know any other Nigerian city with a large park in its center, heaving with green trees, not flower gardens. Or one with long streets lined with trees blooming in the soft rays of the morning sun. Enugu is different! Enugu is the I Eastern Nigeria capital the way Ibadan is western Nigeria capital and kano that of northern Nigeria
Perhaps, only few things compare to the joy of watching the sun rise slowly over Enugu’s quaint little hills. And if one is patient enough, it is possible to see the outline of the city’s famous hills in the distance, brooding over rows of roofs in a bewitching overcast in harmattan. Of course everybody knows that Enugu and her hills are like the tortoise and her iron coat. You can’t envision one without the other.
When the first wandering Europeans arrived in Enugu in 1903 they were essentially scavenging for minerals. They believed that the crouching hills of Ngwo must be keeping a heavy secret. They found the secret beneath the hills in 1909. Coal. And so began the modern story of Enugu… the aspirational city of the Igbo; the mirror image of Igbo quest in city aesthetics and urban lifestyle.
Christmas is different in Enugu. It creeps slowly into the atmosphere in early December with heightened festivities and a sense of freedom and happiness that is not easy to explain. Suddenly, the social circuits blink awake with colorful weddings, reunions, end-of-year parties, musical concerts, art exhibitions, award ceremonies, comedy shows and a shopping frenzy across the city. The feeling intensifies when Christmas carols begin to filter out of overhead speakers in malls and car steroes. Excitement hangs in the air. Like the harmattan haze, you can feel it but you can’t touch it. There’s a swirl of anticipation; a sense of expectancy.
Enugu finally shivers in the cold clasp of the Yuletide season, a few days to Christmas. Traffic is heavy on all roads. You could feel the pulse of the city in the drinking gardens, lounges, night clubs and a thousand other watering holes. At Extreme, a popular hangout in upper class Independence Layout, the mood is infectious. Youngsters down assorted cocktails as they munch on spicey recipes. Cubana stirs awake at midnight with shimering lights beckoning revelers to her warm bosom. Skimpy clad ladies line up the once serene Igbo Eze Street with deceptive smiles that promise cheap thrills behind closed doors. Cars crouch on either side of the roads, stretching as far as the eyes can see. It’s about to go down. 042, as residents call it, is on the swing.
It’s hard to imagine Christmas in Enugu without folks from the diaspora. You can easily detect them from their fake American accents and slightly arrogant air. The joke is often on returnees from China, Malaysia, Pakistan, Vietnam and other little Asian countries who speak in fake American accents. Returnees from the UK, Germany and Italy usually look too serious for everyone’s comfort. They are known to be tight-fisted and often at odds with themselves, wearing stern looks to put beggarly relatives at bay. Someone said they were usually weighed down by a mountain of unpaid bills and had to hide behind unsmiling faces to dodge financial obligations. The American and Canadian returnees are not any better although their expansive ways chime in with the mood of the season. Some of them come with light entertainment, regaling their besotted relatives and friends with outlandish tales about life in America. Sometimes they pull off some showboating; dropping a few dollar notes into expectant arms. But even with the soaring exchange rates, the naira value of those notes reduces them to a mere a token. Still, they are the preferred. Everybody loves the dollar.
Enugu shrivels into a shy metropolis on Christmas day. Many residents celebrate Christmas indoors, preferring the warmth of family to the razzmatazz outdoors. The city sheds much of its traffic; revealing elegant roads lined with houses whose roofs are covered in mist at dawn. Distances shrink into a few kilometers and family visits and reunions can be done with amazing ease. And if one is patient, one could even pullover to admire Enugu’s many impressive sculptures at close quarters. Halfway into the yuletide season, the city empties its crowd into several villages where wrinkled elders and loving relatives wait with wise words and welcoming smiles. Harmattan cold is felt more in the villages. And when it becomes very cold, elders warm themselves around log fires in the early morning. Igbo villages come alive at Christmas. Familes give their children out in marriage under the kind gaze of their ancestors. New houses are opened with fanfare and firece football matches light up playgrounds in the evening. In recent times, a colourful twist has been added to the Christmas pizzazz in Igboland. Delectable maidens file out for beauty pageants in the evening and in the nubile dance of the pageant, a man might pick his bride.
It is normal to wake up to slices of steamy okpa on an Enugu morning. The soft, yellow recipe has sustained many generations with a taste to die for and instant filling of every space in the stomach. In the evening, abacha, a delicious mix of cassava, ukpaka and vegetables with the allure of a carnival in a plate, comes handy. Folks believe that Abacha travels faster when washed down with cups of juicy palm wine. The conversation between palm wine and Abacha in a roomy stomach has never led to a shouting match, they say.
The city roars back to life on New Year’s eve. But it is a different kind of roar. The contrast is sharp. The ebullience of Christmas has given way to fanatical spirituality and fear. No one could tell what the New Year would bring. So, it’s best to approach the year through the open doors of religion and surrender all fears and anxities of the New Year to God. And this is why when firecrackers rent the air to welcome the New Year in Dubai, Sydney and Tokyo, shouts of “hallelujah” usually split midnight churches in Enugu and other Nigerian cities to hand the new year over to God.
Enugu. The ageless bride whose spell breaks the resistence of everyone that has found warmth in her soothing embrace!
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has condoled with the family, friends and fans of the late highlife musician, Julius Aremu Olusanya Ekemode, popularly known as Orlando Julius, saying his death robs the music industry of another trailblazing legend and the nation of another giant star.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Friday, the Minister described the late Orlando Julius as an all-rounder in his field, noting that he made his mark as a singer, song writer, saxophonist and performer.
”Despite a larger than life image, he remained a decent gentleman and a good family man. His passion for music was unparalleled, hence he excelled in his chosen field.
”By dint of hard work, he and others like him laid the foundation and helped to nurture Afrobeat to global prominence,” he said, adding:
”It was therefore most fitting that he lived long enough to witness the moment in which Nigerian music has taken the world by storm.”
Alhaji Mohammed urged the family of the late music legend to take solace in the good and remarkable life of their patriarch, and prayed for repose to the soul of the departed.
Cloud is a hot topic, with seemingly everyone making the change to cloud. But the numbers don’t add up. What’s happening behind the scenes?
In a recent survey by large-scale tech learning platform O’Reilly, 90% of respondents said their organisations are using cloud, and 30% said they’re fully cloud native. This makes it clear why ‘cloud’ is the buzzword on every IT leader’s lips. Seemingly, if you’re not getting on the cloud, you’re getting left behind.
But other insights reveal that the numbers just don’t add up. Cloud spend still accounts for just 6% of total IT spend, according to tech analyst IDC. And, while global cloud spend surged in the first quarter of 2021, the numbers dipped by 1.9% in Q2 – the first decline after seven quarters of spending growth since 2019.
The reasons
IDC proposes the dip in spending is due to the need for new infrastructure as a result of the pandemic. That may be the case, but it doesn’t explain why total cloud spend remains a small sliver of total IT spend – despite indicators of rapid growth and large-scale adoption, says Andrew Cruise, CEO of Routed.
“It could also be that cloud is, quite simply, cool. For years, decision makers have been told to go big on cloud or risk losing out to competitors. And while this is certainly true, the money doesn’t lie. What organisations are saying and what organisations are doing are quite different. And, until they do make the move, some might be bluffing for fear of sounding like they’re behind.” It might also be that IT leaders, for now, are facing challenges in their move to cloud, he adds.
“They want to make the move, they plan on making the move, but they’re not quite getting there yet. Eliminating traditional infrastructure is a major undertaking and it’s unlikely that every cloud provider is fit-for-purpose for every app. Migrating everything to cloud is a daunting task and, while companies are clearly migrating certain services or apps onto cloud, they’re still running their own datacentres.”
Getting there
“Cloud hype has progressed from the urgent ‘move to cloud!’ call of a decade ago, to ‘hybrid cloud rules’ five years ago, to the ‘multicloud or bust!’ message of today. Of course, each of these blanket statements has merit, but there is no magic silver bullet for a businesses’ infrastructure requirements,” says Cruise.
Multicloud environments have grown increasingly complex, with no comprehensive visibility. Organisations are running different services on the cloud provider that best meets their needs for the given application – with no overarching system to link all these siloes. “That is until you consider the virtual machine, like VMware, which is able to optimise applications independent of the cloud environment. And all the benefits of cloud are not just hype – it truly does increase agility, efficiency, longer-term hardware efficacy and even greater security,” adds Cruise. And decisionmakers are clearly aware of this – albeit that the predicted shift is happening slower than expected. All signs point to ever more adoption. IDC predicts that compute and storage spending for cloud infrastructure will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 12.4% for 2020-2025 before reaching $118.8bn in 2025.
“Although the move to cloud has been slower than experts predicted, I believe that the multicloud story will be slightly more common than niche. There’s still a long road ahead, but the truth is that it’s not too late to start considering the cloud journey and benefit from the great savings and efficiency that virtual hosted environments offer. Using the right tech, and partnering with the right provider, can create the most efficient systems your organisation has seen to date.”
The brand new governor of Anamabra state, one of the most progressing states in Nigeria has made his position known on social media. Coming from corporate background, Charles Soludo understands the important of information dissemination.
In his Facebook, the banker said “I read you!The social media is a critical infrastructure no serious leader should esteem lightly. Just like life itself, I spend considerable time to read the good, the bad and, if you like, the ugly on this space.”
About spreading fake news, Charles said” I have also observed the efforts by a few faceless persons who proliferate uncanny information with the intent to spread fear, disinform and distort the minds of uncritical readers. I call them “mind bugs”, and would like to propose to our people with some sort of strong following, to step into the gap to begin the process of “debugging” by standing up boldly to dispel shared ignorance. “
” What we consume online is of immense consequence to how we carry on with life on the physical space. There is a lot to leverage on this space, a lot to learn and much more to create from the depth of our limitless minds.”
He added that” Whatever be the case, I have found more reasons to deepen engagements here. Soon, the feedbacks would become more instant. I am also on Twitter and Instagram. “
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has emphasised that telecommunications consumers in Nigeria have a major role to play in complementing efforts being put in place to ensure effective protection of telecommunications infrastructure. This is important to sustain and improve on the quality of service delivery by the service providers.
The Commission made this request and assertion recently at a sensitization programme it organized at Wannune, Tarka Local Government Area of Benue State.
According to the Commission, aside from the role of the law enforcement agencies in protecting telecom infrastructure, the consumers, who are the subscribers and ultimate users of telecom services, have an obligation to do everything to protect telecoms infrastructure in their environment. These include the base transceiver stations (BTS), the underground fibre optic cable, as well as associated infrastructure.
Addressing audience at the programme, the Director, Zonal Operations, NCC, Amina Shehu, decried the problem of vandalism caused to telecom infrastructure which often result in poor quality of service delivery to the end users.
“One of the major challenges to quality of service that operator provide to you, is vandalism of telecom infrastructure, such as Base Transceiver Stations (BTS). Others are theft, hostility from some host communities, which have continued to pose a major setback to the industry. Therefore, it is imperative for the public to regard telecom facilities as collectively-owned infrastructure that are crucial and essential for the provision of efficient and acceptable telecom services. The more reason these facilities need to be adequately protected,” she urged.
While imploring the indigenes of Tarka Local Government Area of Benue State to ensure that they protect telecom facilities in their community, Shehu, who was represented at the event by an Assistant Director, Zonal Operations, NCC, Abubakar Usman, further enjoined the consumers to always alert law enforcement agencies close to them once they suspect any act of vandalism, theft or other suspicious activities directed at telecom infrastructure because such nefarious activities have implications for quality of service delivery in the communities.
Shehu underscored the centrality of telecommunications sector to the economy and she also informed the audience that in the last 15 years, telecom has been a major contributor to the nation’s economic growth and development. The Director Zonal Operations said the Commission will continue to collaborate with relevant agencies and keep sensitising the consumers on their role in ensuring the security of telecom infrastructure.
One issue Shehu discussed in her speech was the misinformation about Electromagnetic Frequency (EMF) radiation emanating from telecommunications infrastructure which she asserted was not harmful according to studies conducted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Commission for Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).
Shehu stated that the overall objective of the event is to sensitize members of the public on the need to protect telecommunication infrastructure, and more importantly, to correct the misconception people have on the effect of radio magnetic waves on human health. “So, the Commission is saying again to you that there is no scientific evidence yet that shows that radiation from telecom masts constitute health hazards to human and we want you to help spread this information to those that are not here,” she said.
During the event, participants were also enlightened on the illegality of pre-registered Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards, the imperatives of proper SIM registration, the importance of National Identification Number,NIN-SIM linkage exercise. The consumers were also informed about facilities provided by the Commission which they can use to improve their telecom experience and quality of life in general. These include the NCC Toll-free Number (622); the 112 National Emergency Number; and the Do-Not-Disturb (DND) 2442 short code for managing cases of unsolicited text messages, amongst others.
Meanwhile, the Paramount Ruler of Wannune, Chief Gandeorun Orokaa, who attended the event, thanked the Commission on behalf of the participants for bringing the sensitization programme to the Community to educate the consumers on sensitive consumer-related issues as well as correcting wrong notions and clarifying misconceptions. He also called on the indigenes to support NCC in protecting telecoms infrastructure so as to ensure that quality of service improves in the areas.
The event ended with an audience session, where questions and answers were asked, and observations and recommendations were also made on many aspects of telecom services. In attendance at the event were Local Government workers, Village Heads, Community leaders, Students, Women leaders, Staff of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
The recently “concluded” National Identity Numbers (NIN) registration for Nigerians is one thing or exercise that is very important. It is said that it will bring down crime, identify real Nigerians and people have argued that it is duplicity but the issue of banning over 72 million of Nigerians from making basic uses of their phones such as making calls via their mobile phones is a bleeding the economy.
Many have argued that, with SIM registrations where Nigerians queued up in various Telecommunication centers to register to their bank verification Numbers (BVN) where Nigerians line up again for that so that they can get their numbers to enable them bank. Nigerians lined up again for voters’ card, driver’s license, passports etc, all these are forms of valid ways of identifying us Nigerians then NIMC came to town with theirs. Nigerians were of the opinion that they have escaped these now they realized that they cannot make calls again due to NIN number! That is the quagmire of about 72 million of Nigerians as of today.
Being run by National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), this agency has put a deadline on the registration and syncing of these numbers with their mobile phones till March 31st. Today about 50% of Nigerians mobile phone or GSM users have been barred from making calls till they get their NIN numbers synced with their devices. This has already rendered these Nigerians incommunicado!
Some of these Nigerians like the average mechanic can’t even call the parts seller to supply him parts, the lady that is baking cakes can’t order for flour, the boy going to school can’t call the parents to come pick him up! The driver can’t call the boss to inform him of the necessary repairs in his car. These set of Nigerians are in crossroads or quagmire and these are the artisans that drive the economy! These are the over 50% of phone users mentioned ab initio!
Do we blame the regulator of the telecoms space for sitting down and watch the industry loose about 40% of their revenue through calls being lost? I do not blame the NCC to an extent, I do not think they should be blamed here, think that the blame should be on the government and NIMC! The NCC are just acting according to directives in my own view, the NCC is one of the foremost regulators that knows their onions and they are not happy that the telecom industry is bleeding! If Nigerians can’t make calls, the industry loses money, and if the industry loses money, NCC will be sad and unhappy but MIMC doesn’t care because their do not play in the telecommunication ecosystem, and also if Nigerians do not make calls, the government loses money from tax and interconnect, termination rates!
Do NIMC know these basic principles of telecommunications, I doubt that they do, if they do, they can’t stop over 70 million of Nigerians from making calls. We are talking billion lost weekly here as revenue! That is the clearer picture and folks must start smelling the coffee and know how are cookies are crumbling in such a perilous economy. From the above deductions, one can understand that NCC might not and will not be happy seeing the telecom ecosystem bleed!
There is no place in the world that the greater part of citizenry is stopped from communicating just because of they didn’t have their national identity numbers, this is akin to disrupting the greater public their freedom of speech and communication. And the Nigerian government through their agency NIMC have successfully denied Nigerians of this crucial right to speech and communication via this fiasco of mandating NCC to stop their communication while the telecoms industry loses billions daily due to this ill-conceived fact. Stopping people from communication is very bad way of ensuring that people register up, this NIN numbers of a thing can be likened to social security numbers of many countries, unfortunately, we Nigerians are copycats but bad ones for that matter.
Having a full data base of citizens is crucial, we are thinking that b now NIMC would have been creative by ensuring their online platform is robust where people abroad and diaspora can have their registration done seamlessly. A lot of Nigerians have been in diaspora for many years like three years upwards, they make use of their numbers to transacts businesses at home, they roam these lines and how do you expect them not to make calls due to the singular fact that they do not have NIN numbers our own version of social security numbers. Doing this have successfully cut off these set of Nigerians out! This means the scarce forex we are looking for is cut off! This is cutting the nose to spite the face!
NIMC should be creative, you can’t just wake up one morning and cut of Nigerians! What about those in incarceration? What those in prisons? What about the Nigerians in mental asylums or sanatoriums? what about those Nigerians that have been in admission at various hospitals for months that were unable to do their NIN registrations? Are we saying that because they are incapacitated, they shouldn’t reach out to their family and friends to get support especially those in the health facilities, we understand that those in prisons “cannot make calls”, but what about others? Are they less Nigerians?
There is various way to catch a monkey, you can use a banana or you can use other fruits to catch the monkey, that is a popular saying, what this means is that NIMC should be able to find a middle ground in dealing with this errant and erratic Nigerians that have (un)willingly refused to be captured or counted. Many of their grouse is that they are tired of the government data policies and inconstancies. They have many valid arguments and they are right, what they haven’t thought of is doing a class action against NIMC demanding billions in terms of damages due to loss of revenue from their inability to make calls. Some have questioned the constitution and its position of stopping their fundamental rights of freedom of speech by NIMC? They have asked if NIMC was mandated to take this right away from them? But they are yet to think of class action or any ambitious legal luminary taking up these cases.
In sane climes and nations, there are majors that are taken to ensure that folks get social security Numbers such as inability to get a decent job, inability to get good medical service. Let me break it down, the SSN which is known as the social security number is composed of three parts the first three digits are known as area number, then group number which is two digits while the last is serial numbers. We are yet to understand how NIN grouped their numbers and what they are doing about the dead Nigerians that have NIN. What are criminal elements that will the numbers of the dead to do crazy things like SIM card registrations? Is this nit what NIMC is trying to avoid? What if people get the NIN of dead Nigerians and use it to buy SIM cards and get it registered? Is there a mechanism that is in place to counter this? Did NIMC think of this? Did NCC think of this? Did the telecoms stakeholders such as ALTON, ATCON etc think of this? they ought to know by now that Nigerians are some of the smartest bunches on the face of earth and what are they doing to be in tandem with these “smartness” or bunch of smart Aleks hovering around in our ecosystem?
To ensure about 95% compliance NIMC must devise ways to ensure that Nigerians comply not tampering with their devices. Stopping their devices from communicating is a wrong devise. In other countries as mentioned they have devised ingenious means to ensure that people have their SSN that even make people que for them without even compelled to. The USA government created theirs about 1936 to track how much Americans make during their lifetime and calculate their social benefits. Do NIMC have any form of social benefits for Nigerians after unblocking or unbarring our ability to call ourselves?
With the Social Security Number, you need to have it to collect government benefits, get a job and use for identification. So, in this case where do we place NIN numbers? It is of the opinion that NIMC should harmonize their data as the topmost identity protection agency, they are what CBN is to bank and what NCC is to telecoms, they should harmonize various agencies from CBN, NCC, INEC, FRSC, IMMIGRATION and others that collect identities and sync them with their own data to give Nigerians their unique identities without having to go through making Nigerians que and then for those that didn’t que get the Easter present of not calling their loved ones to wish them Happy Easter. NIMC must start looking at how to deploy robust technology, rejig their IT infrastructure and build world-class capacity that can mandate above mentioned agencies to sync their data in their highly secured tier IV data center and cloud. This sync will make creating of national identity number seamless for many Nigerians without queuing under the sun or loosing ability to make calls. A simple artificial intelligence (AI) solution can get this done.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Google Global Services Nigeria have expressed determination to work together toward advancing the actualisation of auspicious national targets for ubiquitous broadband access in furtherance of Nigeria’s digital transformation policy. This aligns with and gives unambiguous expression to NCC’s strategic vision plan centering on strategic partnership and collaboration with necessary stakeholders in order to achieve regulatory objectives.
The two organisations made the commitment when a delegation from Google Global Services Nigeria paid a courtesy visit to the Commission’s Head Office in Abuja recently to deliberate on viable collaborative interventions to propel digital transformation across the country and Africa.
Receiving the Google delegation, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (EVC/CEO) of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, said the Commission’s expectations, initiatives, and vision towards increasing broadband penetration, quality of service, advancement of a digital economy and commitment to improving national security through technological advancement are at the front burner of its regulatory interventions.
Underscoring the importance of such synergy between the Commission and Google, Danbatta, who was represented by the Executive Commissioner, Technical Services (ECTS), NCC, Engr. Ubale Maska, said the Commission looked forward to making the initiatives of both parties more impactful by enhancing cooperation between the NCC and Google Nigeria for quantifiable and remarkable impact.
The EVC expressed optimism that Google’s investment in the subsea cable, Equiano, which is expected to land in Nigeria by end of April 2022, will be more impactful in driving NCC’s ongoing implementation of the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (NNBP), 2020-2025, aimed at increasing broadband penetration to 70 per cent by 2025.
“I am hopeful that Equiano will have additional landing points in the hinterlands through collaborative efforts with the licensed Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos) to reduce retail data prices significantly and thereby complementing the Commission’s efforts at ensuring affordable Internet services are available to boost the Commission’s ongoing broadband policy drive,” he said.
Earlier in her remarks, the Director, Google West Africa, Juliet Ehimuan, who led the delegation to NCC, commended the NCC for its consultative approach in formulating regulatory policies, as engine room for optimal delivery of telecommunications services that will in turn impact the digital economy drive of the government.
She particularly applauded the Commission for its seamless, fair, credible, impartial and successful auction of the 3.5 Gigahertz spectrum for the deployment of Fifth Generation (5G) in Nigeria, stating that it is evident that both the NCC and Google share a common goal.
According to Ehimuan, demands for internet services have increased the need for more capacity, and sustainable collaborations with all relevant stakeholders within the public and private sectors. She asserted that Google’s commitment of $1billion across five years in various interventions will support digital transformation in Nigeria and across Africa.
Ehimuan stated that research has proven that Africa will have an additional 300 million Internet users and Nigeria will lead in that number, given its current statistics of over 141 million internet subscribers and broadband penetration of over 40.88 percent as at January 2022.
The Equiano cable system is the third private international cable owned by Google and the 14th subsea cable invested by Google. Equiano connects Portugal and South Africa, running along the West Coast of Africa, with branching units along the way that can be used to extend connectivity to more African countries. The first branch is expected to land in Nigeria by end of April 2022
