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Olufuye Seeks Enhanced Cooperation on Internet Governance

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Dr. Jimson Olufuye, chairman, Africa ICT Alliance, (AfICTA), has said that enhanced cooperation on internet governance would encourage digital inclusion of Nigeria and rest of the African sub-region.

He stated this at the just concluded United Nation Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) open consultation on enhanced cooperation on public policy pertaining to the Internet held in Geneva, Switzerland

According to the former President of Information Technology Association of Nigeria, (ITAN), enhanced cooperation (EC) was about encouraging, deepening and enriching cooperation and collaboration through dialogue on diverse public policy issues pertaining to the Internet.

He added that with enhanced cooperation,  developing economies like Nigeria, will be able to  climb up the ladder of development through a stable, predictable, secure and sustainable Internet governance made possible by increased North–South, South-South and North-North cooperation in  many areas including  removal of bottlenecks to access through increased dialogues with all stakeholders on for example IPv6 adoption.

More so, encouragement of innovation by promoting reward system, plugging gaps in the security of the Internet through increased Research and Development, enthroning the rule of law on the Internet thereby mitigating increasing crime waves on the Internet through collaborative enforcement and administration of justice, creation of Internet based jobs to tackle massive  unemployment in the developing world through increased adoption of eApplications, eGovernment, eHealth, eBusiness, among others .

According to him, EC should have ramifications not only at the regional and international level but most importantly at the national level where law and policy issues emanate in tandem with the bottom up, multi-stakeholder approach to Internet Governance.

He told the gathering that his submissions above were premised on the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Tunis agenda paragraph 34, 35 and 70.

“The WSIS Tunis agenda directs that the enhanced cooperation process should include participation by relevant international organizations, including inter-governmental, multi-stakeholder and private-sector led organizations. It is the position of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) – the voice of the global ICT industry, that dialogue among all stakeholders takes place continuously to sustain the momentous impact of the Internet on the global economy” he added.

He said that, so far at least 10 international organizations handling Internet policy issues have been playing leading roles in demonstrating enhanced cooperation in their operations and policy making as facilitated by the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and the Department of Economic and Social Affairs through its Division for Public Administration and Development Management.

The ten organizations he said are not limited to Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Council of Europe, Internet Society (ISOC), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Number Resource Organization (NRO) and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Of the ten organizations listed above,  he informed that  five are private sector led, adding that they   have all enhanced their collaborative mechanism among their stakeholders with ramifications at the international, regional and national level of decision making.

“Enhanced cooperation therefore infers that existing organisations in their unique roles in the Internet ecosystem enhance their cooperation within their respective organisation and among other stakeholders with a view of building trust, stability and confidence on the Internet” he explained.

On the way forward, he quoted paragraph 71 of the Tunis agenda which clearly states that “all stakeholders” and “all relevant organizations” should be involved in the enhanced cooperation process, and provides that enhanced cooperation should be a multistakeholder process, not a governments-only process, he noted that this  principle of inclusiveness is critically important to success in achieving enhanced cooperation.

As a way forward, he said that greater cooperation among existing organizations does not require the creation of new entities or processes, and that such actions could impede progress and our businesses.

According to him, the  objectives of information sharing, creating more awareness, and, where appropriate, coherence in work programmes, and collaboration must guide the relevant organizations that address Internet related issues in order to facilitate enhanced cooperation.

He said that all  relevant organizations, including those that are private sector-led, those that are intergovernmental (IGOs), those that represent civil society, the Internet technical and academic communities through several organizational structures and those that are multi-stakeholder are engaged in facilitating enhanced cooperation.

He said that  a measuring system/ indicators be developed to measure the degree of compliance of stakeholders to Enhanced Cooperation on Public Policy issues pertaining to the Internet.

Such a measuring system, according to him,  may have a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest maturity level for Enhanced Cooperation on Public Policies (ECPP), adding that a  multi-stakeholder group of experts can determine the parameters for the rating.

As a follow up to the above, he recommended that  a yearly meeting can take place to among other things review the ratings which can be assessed by a group similar to the current IGF MAG.


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E-Business

StarNews, Global Black Economic Forum Launch Business Competition In Partnership with MTN & USAID

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Africa’s leading video streaming platform, StarNews Mobile and the Global Black Economic Forum (GBEF), have announced a call for applications for the launch of their Business Competition in Lagos, Nigeria.

Held in partnership with MTN and United Nations Agency for International Development (USAID), the initiative will empower Nigeria’s most promising businesses that are classified as Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with invaluable investment and partnership opportunities from the USA.

Held over 10 weeks between April 8th to June 14th, hosted exclusively on the StarNews Biz Channel on the StarNews platform, this competition offers a platform for emerging entrepreneurs to showcase their ventures and gain national visibility.

With subscribers voting for their favourite candidates, the top 20 contestants will seize the spotlight and make their mark on the business landscape.

The StarNews Business Competition in partnership with GBEF delivers a unique opportunity for thriving Nigerian SMEs to access mentoring, funding, partnerships and socio-economic development tools through the Global Black Economic Forum.

With the prospect of securing cash prizes through StarNews worth up to NGN5,000,000, getting access to StarNews’s network of investors and the opportunity to gain national visibility by having their business on the StarNews web platform.

The top three winners will also receive coaching from GBEF’s Academy for Advancing Excellence and become part of GBEF’s ecosystem of global leaders committed to social and economic justice across the Black Diaspora.

Previous speakers at GBEF convenings from the entertainment sector include Wyclef Jean (Haitian Musician & Activist), Debra Lee (Former CEO of Black Entertainment Television – BET) and Ceci Kurzman (Founder of Nexus Management Group). Applications will close on April 5th 2024.

Speaking on the competition’s launch, Guy Kamgaing, Founder and CEO at StarNews Mobile, says “The StarNews Business Competition is a passion project close to our hearts at StarNews Mobile.

It’s about discovering the most promising business entrepreneurs and creators in Nigeria, opening up global opportunities for them and providing them with the resources and tools to achieve their goals.

By partnering with MTN, USAID and GBEF, we want to be a platform of empowerment for these SMEs by helping them give back to the communities that are supporting them.”

According to the US Embassy and Consulate for Nigeria, over 80% of Nigerian startups are incorporated in the United States and more than 60% of venture capital funding in Nigerian startups accounted for by the US.

In 2023 alone, Nigerian startups raised a total of $398mn however, this signalled a 66% funding decline compared to 2022 due to the global economic downturn, reinforcing the massive need for a fresh injection of capital and business support for Nigeria’s emerging SMEs.

Alphonso David, President and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum notes that, “Our partnership with StarNews Mobile is a critical resource as we continue to build the collective strength of entrepreneurship across the Diaspora.

“Building a sustainable ecosystem of Black entrepreneurs in the United States and across the African continent is essential to create a future that makes economic opportunity and economic freedom a reality for all.”

A sister company to ESSENCE, GBEF advances its work by convening global summits and conferences, bringing together world leaders, business leaders, entrepreneurs, celebrities and civic leaders to address the most challenging problems facing our communities.

GBEF’s Academy for Advancing Excellence facilitates workforce and leadership development strategy, addressing the talent pipeline & employee lifecycle, providing leadership development & coaching, and conducting institutional assessments & research.

GBEF also develops and implements economic and social justice policy recommendations with partners ranging from civil and human rights organisations to government entities and corporations that advocate for economic opportunity, social justice, and health equity through thought leadership, advocacy and litigation.

Launched in 2017, StarNews Mobile empowers African content creators with the unique opportunity to monetize their work through a subscription model, boasting over 4 million subscribers and a thriving community of more than 120 content creators.

With a strong presence across six countries including Cameroon, Nigeria, Côte D’Ivoire, Congo, Benin and Ghana, the platform has also established key partnerships with major telecom operators such as MTN and Orange.

To-date, StarNews Mobile has secured over $8mn in funding with its most recent raise – a $3mn pre-Series A funding round in October 2023 – led by Janngo Capital with participation from French football players Aurélien Tchouaméni, Jules Koundé and Mike Maignan.

 


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Companies Invest More than $100,000 Yearly to Upskill their Cybersecurity Teams – Study Reveals

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Over 70% of businesses pay more than USD $100,000 for additional training annually to keep skills of their cybersecurity employees up to date, a recent global Kaspersky study has revealed.

However, the surveyed companies also highlighted that there was a lack of relevant courses covering new challenging spheres in the educational market and stated that training does not always bring them the expected result.

In its recent study ‘The portrait of the modern Information Security professional’, Kaspersky examined the topic of the global cybersecurity staff shortage, analysing the exact reasons businesses lack cybersecurity experts, and identifying the ways they evaluate and upskill their cybersecurity workforce¹.

According to the research, companies are investing significant amounts in upskilling their cybersecurity teams: 43% of organisations globally say they usually spend between $100,000 and $200,000 per year on information security courses, while 31% even invest over $200,000 for training programs. The remaining 26% state they usually pay less than $100,000 for educational initiatives².

However, cybersecurity practitioners also note that the educational market is struggling to keep up with the rapidly changing industry and fail to deliver the necessary training programs on time.

Survey results for the Middle East, Turkiye, Africa (META) region shows that the scarcity of courses covering new challenging spheres (48%) was the main problem for those searching for cybersecurity training.

50% of respondents from the META region also stated that trainees tend to forget what they learned because they had no opportunity to apply newly acquired knowledge, therefore the courses were useless to them.

The need for special training pre-requisites such as coding and advanced mathematics, which were not specified at the pre-registration stage were also problematic for 37% of practitioners from the META region.

“With a constantly evolving threat landscape, businesses should continually improve the skills of their cybersecurity personnel in order to be well prepared for sophisticated cyberattacks.

“Developing high-profile specialists within the company and building internal expertise can be an effective strategy for organisations that aim to retain existing employees and allow them to grow professionally, instead of constantly hunting for new candidates and checking their professional backgrounds and practical skills.

“For organisations served by Managed Service Providers it is also important to maintain a pretty high level of expertise internally and use the same language when discussing the scope of services and Service Level Agreement with them,” comments Veniamin Levtsov, VP, Center of Corporate Business Expertise at Kaspersky.


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Heirs Insurance Launches User-friendly Website for Stakeholders

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Heirs Insurance Group, Nigeria’s fastest growing insurance group, has launched a new website that delivers the most user-friendly insurance experience in the industry.

Heirs Insurance Launches User-friendly Website for Stakeholders

In addition to its features that aid simple navigation, the website also personalizes the insurance experience taking customers through a short journey that enables them to make decisions quickly on the best insurance plan to support their personal and business success, or access competent insurance advisors to speak with.

According to Ifesinachi Okpagu, chief marketing officer, Heirs Insurance Group, the website, www.heirs insurance group.com, embodies the ethos of the brand: the delivery of simple, quick, and accessible insurance service that delights customers and brings the uninsured much closer to taking up insurance plans.

She said: “Today’s customers want simplicity and this new website delivers on that request, ensuring that people find the right insurance solutionsfor their needs in a few minutes. We are empowering customers to take control of their lives, their businesses, assets, and their most cherished people.” Heirs Insurance Group has been at the forefront of pioneering a new era of insurance solutions since its launch with the roll-out of various initiatives including a seamless mobile app, USSD; Prince, its intuitive chatbot; InConnect, its partnership portal Digital Experience Centre; and more. With the launch of this website, Heirs Insurance Group solidifies its position as the leading digital insurance company in Nigeria, democratising access to insurance for all.


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