E-Business
Govts, MDAs Shun .ng, Host Servers Abroad
Most of the federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are currently hosting their webs and emails’ servers outside of the country, thereby making a mockery of the government directive to register their websites with the country’s top level domain name .ng.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that some of the MDAs which previously hosted their web and email servers in the country, had to relocate to foreign countries, citing trust issues as reason.
Among the MDAs whose website servers are hosted abroad to include, cbn.gov.ng which is hosted in USA, Ferma.gov.ng hosted in UK; National Health Insurance Scheme nhis.gov.ng hosted in USA; efcc.gov.ng hosted in USA; nuc.ed.ng hosted in UK; pfp.gov.ng hosted in USA; federal ministry of finance fmf.gov.ng hosted in USA; and ncc.gov.ng hosted in USA, among others.
Mrs. Mary Uduma, president, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) decried this situation stating that it is inimical to capacity building and infrastructure development of the country.
According to her, “local content in information and communications technology will not grow and we must do something to arrest this situation”.
She noted that hosting servers outside of the country does not make economic sense as those MDAs pay in foreign currency there by depilating the country’s foreign exchange.
She added that minister of Communications Technology who has been in the fore-front of campaign of promoting local content frowns at this development and has been making effort to ensure that they relocate their servers to the country.
‘If they can’t patronize commercial data center operators, Galaxy backbone has cloud services that can host servers of federal MDAs. We need proactive action in this regard such as memo to federal executive council on the need for federal MDAs to relocate their website servers to Nigeria.”
Uduma also decried the lack of competitiveness in the local data centre business in Nigeria as a factor that may affect people planning to relocate their server to Nigeria.
Engr. Sam Adeleke, chief executive officer of Steineng Nigeria Ltd and immediate past president, Internet service providers association of Nigeria (ISPAN), identified some reasons why federal MDAs and others preferred hosting their servers abroad which include cost, according to him, it is cheaper to host abroad because power, security and bandwidth contribute to high cost in Nigeria.
Another factor he said is multiplicity of location of server, where most of the hosting companies abroad provider multiple location in case there is disaster in one location they will move to another location without their customers suffering downtime.
He added that continuity of business in Nigeria is not certain because of harsh business environment. ”Suggesting Galaxy backbone as alternative is risky because in as much as it is owned by government there is no guarantee that it will not collapse one day, as government is not good business man,” he said.
Mr. Timitope Osunrinde, marketing supervisor, MainOne Cable company, said that there are data centres in the country that are certified tier 111, of which MainOne MDX-i is one of them that can host website servers.
He said MainOne data centre is one of the most connected data centers in the world, because it has submarine cable connected to it.
He noted that MainOne data center was built in-line with PCI DSS and ISO 27001 standard to guarantee security and wondered why Nigerians should host their website servers abroad when there are data centers locally which are of international standard.
Gartner predicts that by 2028, 75 percent of enterprise software engineers will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) code assistants, up from less than 10 percent, currently.
According to a Gartner poll of 598 global respondents conducted in the third quarter of 2023, 63 percent of organisations are now testing, deploying, or have previously implemented AI code assistants.
AI code assistants provide for more capabilities than only code development and completion, notes the research firm.
According to Gartner, the use of AI code assistants can lead to higher work satisfaction and retention, resulting in lower turnover costs.
Philip Walsh, senior principal analyst at Gartner, comments: “Software engineering leaders must determine ROI and build a business case as they scale their rollouts of AI code assistants.
“However, traditional ROI frameworks steer engineering leaders toward metrics centred on cost reduction. This narrow perspective fails to capture the full value of AI code assistants.”
Gartner notes that software engineering leaders must “reframe the ROI conversation from cost reduction to value generations”.
Walsh adds: “Calculating time savings on code generation is a good place to begin building a more robust value story. To convey the full enterprise value story for AI code assistants, software engineering leaders should connect value enablers to impacts, and then analyse the overall return to the organisation.”
National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has said that the planned national ID card will be issued to applicants by their banks.
NIMC said it is working with the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) to deliver the cards to applicants.
“The card will be issued through the applicants’ respective banks in line with existing protocols with the issuance of the Debit/Credit cards,” the agency said at the weekend update on its official X handle.
KEY FACTS ABOUT THE PROPOSED NEW GENERAL MULTIPURPOSE NATIONAL IDENTITY CARD
- The new National ID Card is a single, convenient, and General multipurpose card (GMPC) , eliminating the need for multiple cards—not three.
- The single GMPC has multiple use cases:…
— NIMC (@nimc_ng) April 12, 2024
It said applicants need to request their cards with their NIN “through the self-service online portal, NIMC offices, or their respective banks”.
“The card will be powered by the AFRIGO card scheme, an indigenous scheme powered by NIBSS,” NIMC said.
“The card can be picked up by holders at the designated center or delivered to the applicants at the requested location at an extra cost to be borne by the applicants,” the update read.
National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has said that the new national Identity card, powered by AfriGo Card, is a single card with multiple services.
NIMC made the clarification against the confusion and criticisms that have trailed the AfriGo Card , touted as a National Domestic Card Scheme.
NIMC is launching the AfriGo Card, in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS), and has had appointed SecureID, a Lagos headquartered company to manufacture the Card Scheme
Making clarification on the card, Kayode Adegoke, head of Corporate Communications of the NIMC, said the General multipurpose card (GMPC) will eliminate the need for multiple cards.
“The new National ID Card is a single, convenient, and General multi-purpose card (GMPC), eliminating the need for multiple cards—not three.
“The single GMPC has multiple use cases: Payments/Financial, Government intervention/services, travel, etc.
“The National Identity Management Commission is working with the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System to deliver the payment and financial use cases.
“The card will be powered by the AFRIGO card scheme, an indigenous scheme powered by NIBSS. Applicants for the card will have to request with their NIN through the self-service online portal, NIMC offices, or their respective banks.
“The card will be issued through the applicants’ respective banks, in line with existing protocols with the issuance of the Debit/Credit cards.
“The card can be picked up by holders at the designated centre or delivered to the applicants at the requested location at an extra cost to be borne by the applicants,” he said.
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