JUNE, 2009

 
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Breaking News

WAFICT Congress 2009 a hit success; described as solution to West Africa's ICT growth challenges

  ICT Today

Ernest Ndukwe crowned Pillar of Telecom in Africa as IT & Telecom Digest institutes African Telecom Hall of Fame

 
 

No to interference in NCC's operations

The Nigerian telecommunications industry recently consolidated on its history-making path when it successfully licensed three companies to provide services in the 2.3GHz spectrum which is essentially an authorisation to the licensed companies to deploy WiMAX services.

Although a fourth licence winner was yet to be announced by the Nigerian Communications Commission at press time,

 
 
 
 
  Cover
Revolution West Africa



ICT Leads the Change

Where telecommunications comes, enlightenment enters. To put it more succinctly, from the backwaters of an industry in ferment a sub-region has risen through commitment and perseverance, to prominence. Emergence from relative obscurity to global centre stage seems apt to sum up the ascendancy of West Africa as a world telecommunications leader. By DENNIS ONWUEGBU


 
 
 
   Wilson's Cafe  

Democracy consolidated

In 2006, in a major work that essentially celebrated South Africa’s

liberal-democratic achievements since 1994, land expert, Prof. Lungisile Ntsebeza, nonetheless lamented the relative absence of democratic robustness in the country’s rural hinterland, where patriarchal authority systems still held sway. Ntsebeza titled his work Democracy Compromised.

A key focus of the book was the lack of transformation in the character of traditional institutions, their new-found visibility and influence in the post-1994 dispensation (thanks to recognition and support from the ruling ANC) and their vice-grip on land within their jurisdictions. These, ironically, were the same institutions whose roles under apartheid were not particularly enviable, Ntsebeza argued.

Well, South Africa has recently demonstrated that even in the face of such criticisms, its democracy and institutional capacity had reached enviable levels in terms of maturity. The smooth conduct and widely accepted outcome of the April 22, 2009 general elections have shown that countries that invest heavily in institutional capacity-building stand to reap huge dividends – not least in the confidence they enjoy from the world community.

With a new president (Jacob Zuma), a fairly enlarged national cabinet, provincial premiers and members of provincial executive councils all sworn in (five of the country’s nine premiers are women), analysts are turning attention to mundane permutations about how the new administration will perform vis-à-vis the rising expectations of the populace, and how the democratic and developmental gains made since 1994 will be deepened.

       
   
 
   Fast Forward
   
 

Finally, Electricity for all in Nigeria!

 

“Nigeria has finally made it to the Promised Land! I am happy it happened in my lifetime. Sometimes I

Mkpe Abang

 

wonder what it was like in those days; just two years ago, when this miracle took place. But it appears like a century already. Ah! What a sweet relief!”

“But you knew it was going to be so; or did you not? Because I knew it was going to be so, that is why it does not surprise me.”

“Before I ask you how you knew it would be so, let me just recall what it was like. Do you remember those days before I went abroad, when getting diesel to fuel all those giant industrial generators was like getting blood into your veins? Look at how industries are booming today; all thanks to electricity. Small scale businesses, the small shop by the street corner, hotels, in fact, which sector has not been touched by this electricity miracle?”

“I agree with you; you can also see that all that talk in those days about forcefully crashing phone tariffs was not well thought through. Look at how the tariffs have found their level naturally, and no one is

 
     
 
Talking Quality
What the gods would destroy they first give to corporate brand managers

I took a first look at TikiTag. It's perfect for Santa Cruz. It could put geeks on the beach. If we can save it from the suits!


Stephen Blum

Saw it at the Showstoppers event at CES in January 2009, and the TikiTag people were kind enough to send me a demo kit.

Technically, it's simple. The kit contains a USB-enabled RFID reader and 10 sticky RFID tags. Download the app from the website, set up an account, plug in the reader, swipe a tag and something happens.

"Something" is defined by a web-based app on the TikiTag server. For example, one app is a "social business card". When you swipe the tag, a browser window appears with, say, your current Twitter and Flickr feeds and links to your Facebook and Linkedin profiles. You stick a tag on the back of a business card and give it to someone while you're networking at Rosie McCann's. If she has a TikiTag reader too, when she gets home she'll swipe the card and see you in all your glory.

It can also function as an alternate user interface. Put a tag on a teddy bear, then your toddler smacks the reader with the bear and something absolutely fascinating appears. You get a few minutes of peace and quiet. Combined with a USB-enabled taser, it could be a powerful pedagogic tool.

Personality
INDUSTRIOUS
Daring, desirous, passionate, tenacious, intuitive, name it; these are some of the qualities

Hakeem Belo-Osagie

that make all the difference in the business world. And only a few men have these qualities in good dose. In the last decade, two sectors in the Nigerian economy have brought drama and global standard performance into hitherto uneventful areas of national life. The transformation and what is sometimes described as revolution in both the banking and telecommunications sectors in the last few years remain subjects of immense academic studies.

From sectors that once represented everything that is disdainful and unprogressive, indeed despicable in the case of the financial sector a system that discouraged most Nigerians from savings and having anything to do with banking. In the last 10 or so years, these two sectors have experienced a drastic turn around such that they today rank among the very best in the world.

And this has been made possible by the sheer effort and commitment to vision of a few men and women. They dared where others jittered, took risks that most of their peers could hardly give a thought to; and in the end, they won all the money, the glory and the fame.

One of such few men who took

         
 

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