NIGERIA: BUHARI SEEKS INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR NIGERIA’S TECHNOLOGICAL GROWTH

President Muhammadu Buhari has called on the international community and friends of Nigeria to lend their support in his administration’s efforts at making the country a leader in technology in Africa.

The President made the statement on Monday in Abuja, in a speech read on his behalf at the opening of the Tech Expo. The exhibition is being organised by the Ministry of Science and Technology. The minister, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, read the President’s address.

The President also used the occasion to call on the citizenry to buy made in Nigeria products, while inviting investors and entrepreneurs to partner with researchers in order to encourage indigenous products.

“Investors who are willing to do technology transfer will be encouraged”, the President said.He described the exposition as a platform for interaction among researchers, inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs in order to convert research works into viable products.

Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology, Beni Lar, noted that the low ranking of Nigeria in the area of science and technology has prevented it from using fully its natural resources.

“Even the petro-chemical industry we bask in the euphoria of Nigeria’s greatness, because of low science and technological development, we are yet to maximise our potentials in it,” she said.

She urged increased investment in the sector so that Nigeria is not left behind as the rest of the world grows rapidly in science and technology.She assured that both chambers of the National Assembly are making efforts to enhance funding to the ministry as well as ensure improved budget releases. This she said is to combat the ministry’s funding challenges as they affect infrastructure decay among others.

Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Odigie Oyegun, commended the ministry for organising the exposition. He said no nation can be truly great without science and technology, and that Nigeria had the potential to attain greatness in the sector.

Source: The Guardian

AFRICA: KENYA’S INTERNET SPEED RANKED FASTEST IN AFRICA

Kenya’s internet is faster, and cheaper as compared to many countries around the world a report by Akamai, a leading Content Delivery Network revealed. Out of the 108 countries sampled globally, Kenya ranked number 23, and the country is the top ranked African country, with the fastest internet connectivity speed. The fast and reliable internet in Kenya has significantly influenced the improvement of e-commerce, generating enormous social, and economic benefits for the country.

Kenya’s internet speed and connectivity is faster, and cheaper as compared to many countries around the world a report by Akamai, a leading Content Delivery Network (CDN) has revealed.

Out of the 108 countries that were sampled globally, Kenya ranked number 23, and the country is the top ranked African country, with the fastest internet connectivity speed. South Korea has the highest average connection speed globally at 26.1 megabytes per second (Mbps).

Akamai aims to make the internet fast, reliable, and secure for its customers.

In most African countries internet is expensive, and speeds are generally slow. In Kenya several internet providers such as Safaricom, Airtel and Orange have upgraded their speeds to the benefit of their customers, and such upgrades have had a positive impact on the economy.

The reliable internet in Kenya has significantly influenced the improvement of electronic-commerce. Many Kenyans are now able to bank and transact online, download music and videos while the uptake of e-learning resources and usage of social media platforms has also greatly improved over the past few years.

According to the report, Kenya overtook third-quarter leader Israel to gain the top spot for average connection speeds among the surveyed Middle East and Africa countries in the fourth quarter. The country has had a tremendous growth in high-speed connectivity in the past years.

The report further said, Kenya has an impressive average of 15mbps followed by Israel at 14.4mbps, South Africa recorded 6.6 mbps, Morocco 5.2 mbps, and Nigeria 4.1 mbps.

Kenya’s National broadband strategy

The improvement to Kenya’s connection speeds and broadband adoption rates is attributed to the successful implementation of the National Broadband Strategy (NBS). The vision of this broadband strategy has been to see the transformation of the country to a knowledge-based society driven by a high capacity nationwide broadband network.

The overall objective of this strategy is to provide quality broadband services to all citizens.

“The strategy has enabled the government to roll out the National Optic Fibre Broadband Infrastructure that has linked all the counties to the Internet by fibre cable. Fibre cable ground installation and provision of 4G network coverage has contributed to the high speeds and efficiency in connectivity,” Joseph Mucheru, the Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Information said.

Access to fast and reliable internet has the potential to generate enormous social economic benefits for the country. The benefits include economic growth, job creation, growth of investment opportunities, access to online government services, improved education and training services, improved national safety and security services among others.

Top ranked countries with high speed internet connectivity:

South Korea: 26.1Mbps

Norway: 23.6Mbps

Sweden: 22.817.3Mbps

Hong Kong: 21.9Mbps

Switzerland: 21.23Mbps

Denmark: 20.7Mbps

Finland 20.6Mbps

Singapore: 20.2Mbps

Japan: 19.6Mbps

Netherlands: 17.6Mbps

Source: This is Africa

SOUTH AFRICA: VOX TO INVEST R550M, MAINLY IN FIBRE

Privately held ICT company Vox (formerly Vox Telecom) said on Wednesday that its shareholders have approved a R550m investment to invest in, among other things, broadband fibre-optic infrastructure.

The investment will be used to extend Vox’s fibre roll-out through its wholly owned subsidiary Frogfoot Networks, said Vox CEO Jacques du Toit in a statement. In addition, the money will be used to “bolster job creation and improve efficiencies through enhanced automation”, Du Toit said.

“The capital injection into our operations endorses our conversion strategy. We are moving away from being just an Internet service provider into a telco that provides connectivity and integrated services. We are laying the foundation to secure market share and growth in key geographic precincts around South Africa,” he said.

The bulk of the R550m investment will be used to “fast-track” Vox’s fibre-to-the-home and fibre-to-the-business networks. In the past 18 months, the company has secured 86 000 FTTH and 10 000 FTTB “opportunities”, Du Toit said. “We now have more than 300 coverage areas where we are able to provide fibre related services.”

Some of the money will be used to grow Vox’s salesforce from 280 people now, to 450 within the next 18 months. It said that over the past 24 months, it has invested R50m into the first phase of a sales expansion programme. Du Toit claimed that the investment will give Vox the largest direct salesforce in South African telecoms. The expanded salesforce will be complemented by new channel partners, including agents, resellers and wholesale partners.

In addition, Vox will train 24 “previously disadvantaged individuals” in its 14-month executive management development programme.

Lastly, Vox will continue to focus on the automation of its internal processes, Du Toit said. This includes the migration to a new operations and business support system that has been developed over the past two years.

Source: NewsCentral Media (Tech Central)

SOUTH AFRICA: VOX TO INVEST R550M, MAINLY IN FIBRE

Privately held ICT company Vox (formerly Vox Telecom) said on Wednesday that its shareholders have approved a R550m investment to invest in, among other things, broadband fibre-optic infrastructure.

The investment will be used to extend Vox’s fibre roll-out through its wholly owned subsidiary Frogfoot Networks, said Vox CEO Jacques du Toit in a statement. In addition, the money will be used to “bolster job creation and improve efficiencies through enhanced automation”, Du Toit said.

“The capital injection into our operations endorses our conversion strategy. We are moving away from being just an Internet service provider into a telco that provides connectivity and integrated services. We are laying the foundation to secure market share and growth in key geographic precincts around South Africa,” he said.

The bulk of the R550m investment will be used to “fast-track” Vox’s fibre-to-the-home and fibre-to-the-business networks. In the past 18 months, the company has secured 86 000 FTTH and 10 000 FTTB “opportunities”, Du Toit said. “We now have more than 300 coverage areas where we are able to provide fibre related services.”

Some of the money will be used to grow Vox’s salesforce from 280 people now, to 450 within the next 18 months. It said that over the past 24 months, it has invested R50m into the first phase of a sales expansion programme. Du Toit claimed that the investment will give Vox the largest direct salesforce in South African telecoms. The expanded salesforce will be complemented by new channel partners, including agents, resellers and wholesale partners.

In addition, Vox will train 24 “previously disadvantaged individuals” in its 14-month executive management development programme.

Lastly, Vox will continue to focus on the automation of its internal processes, Du Toit said. This includes the migration to a new operations and business support system that has been developed over the past two years.

Source: News Central Media (Tech Central)