E-Business
Building a New Nigeria on ICT
The ongoing national conference as currently structured cannot give Nigeria the required new architecture to resolve the country’s challenges.
Even with the extension for another six weeks, the conference is not likely to fix what has been broken because the majority of the delegates are past their prime.
With all due respect, the generality of the delegates do not fit into the new Knowledge Age which is progressively disruptive and contrasts from their Industrial Age which they allowed pass them by.
The Knowledge Age is hinged on information and communication technology (ICT) with its advanced form of capitalism in which knowledge and ideas are the main source of economic growth.
It is now more important than land, labour, money, or other ‘tangible resources.
Today, no modern economy can exist without fundamental ICT infrastructure because these are the tool for national and economic development.
Examples are India, Malaysia and Singapore, where the governments deliberately orchestrated chains of events that culminated in making countries pillars of ICT in the world.
These governments recognize that embracing ICT will result in improved transparency, speedy information dissemination, higher administrative efficiency and improved public service sectors including: transportation, education, health, water, peace and security.
A new Nigeria must have a responsible government which should be like a catalyst that speed up reaction without seen to be taking part in the reaction.
Currently, the huge disconnect between Nigerian government and ICT is puzzling.
Either by sheer ignorance or refusal to do the right thing at the right time; successive governments in Nigeria have continued to chase shadows.
Political will is not something Nigerian leaders would have to go extra mile to provide. It is so intangible; it takes an individual, generally situated somewhere within the state apparatus (best if the person is at a very high level) to stir ICT revolution.
Nigeria with its wealth of human capital and natural resources has even better potentials but the attention of the ruling class is elsewhere.
There are many compelling reasons why government must embrace ICT for development but importantly because it is the only sector that has shown signs of life despite the general meltdown of the economy.
Having tried every known economic trick to steady the economy without any success; ICT remains the only key to redirecting the economy.
The only way forward is for the ruling class to begin to listen actively and show strong commitment to ICT related issues.
Importantly, the President must assume the role of chief technology officer of the country or appoint one he must listen to.
Agreed that some countries have made some successes using ICT as springboards; Nigeria must not copy and paste their models.
She must grow and deliberately too an indigenous architecture if it must survive in this knowledge era.
In this indigenous architecture, Nigeria can incorporate a special purpose ICT vehicle complete with ICT parks as well as research and development parks.
Also, there is need for ICT practitioners in the country to build a strong and united front to press home their demand for incentives that spur development.
The curricula of the country’s educational system need to be changed to accommodate information communications technology and to reflect the reality of today’s working environment.
It is also important to solve the power supply problem to enable ICT provide the impetus for the growth of the economy.
There should be massive improvement in improvement in infrastructure and need to imbue of the culture of maintenance on Nigerians.
Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has approved N242.8m for the procurement of a Microsoft 365 licence for its Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS) as part of efforts to digitise the service’s operations.
Mr Michael Ango, acting executive chairman of FCT-IRS, disclosed this after the FCT Executive Committee meeting chaired by Mr Nyesom Wike, the minister of FCTA, in Abuja on Wednesday.
Ango said that the FCTA was making significant investments in technology to enhance revenue generation and collection.
“So, this is also one of those investments in technology that the FCT is undertaking.
“The licence, if procured, will enhance our ability to move most of our manual processes into automated processes.
“It will enhance our ability to communicate within our offices,” he said.
The executive chairman added that the move would also reduce the use of paper and ensure better record-keeping through the storage of information and documents in the cloud.
According to him, “The licence will essentially enhance our operations and assist us in generating revenue for the development of the FCT under Wike’s leadership.”
Rack Centre, West Africa’s Tier III Carrier and Cloud neutral data centre, has welcomed Olla Cloud Service, a new private cloud service by Olla Systems Limited, a leading provider of innovative technology solutions, to its facility.
Hosting at Rack Centre, Olla Cloud Service runs on a state-of-the-art, cloud-enabled infrastructure for enterprise applications across diverse platforms, including mission critical application, web applications as well as containerised applications using Kubernetes.
Lars Johannisson, CEO, Rack Centre, welcoming Olla Systems, noted that the partnership with Olla Systems Limited would reflect the company’s commitment to providing African businesses with high- quality cloud computing services.
He noted that Olla Systems would enjoy Rack Centre’s 13.5MW data centre campus facility, designed to meet the highest international standards and offering scalable solutions to Hyperscalers, Enterprises, and Cloud service providers.
As part of its commitment to sustainability, the facility is equipped with energy-efficient systems, advanced cooling technologies to mitigate environmental impact and an optimally-designed feature to handle high-density workloads with precision.
According to Johannisson, “With Olla Cloud Service hosting at Rack Centre, clients will experience fast performance and low latency, enabling businesses in Africa to access world-class cloud computing services within a secure and compliant local infrastructure.”
Also speaking, Olusola Adenuga, chief executive officer, Olla Systems Limited, expressed enthusiasm about hosting at Rack Centre, noting that Olla Cloud remains a groundbreaking private cloud solution for businesses.
While highlighting the benefits of the partnership between Rack Centre and Olla Systems, Adenuga disclosed that “subscribing to Olla Cloud Service is cost-effective to customers because of its local currency payment advantage.”
She also noted that the partnership between the duo, provides businesses the opportunity to meet regulatory requirements of data residency, while enjoying world-class infrastructure as a service (IaaS) locally.
“Other benefits of hosting with Olla Cloud include: 24/7 support, unparalleled performance, scalability and agility.” she added.
A user’s messaging app account might be of interest not only to jealous spouses and nosy coworkers, but also to cybercriminals.
Stolen WhatsApp accounts are used for various types of criminal activity, ranging from spam distribution to sophisticated scam schemes.
Cybercriminals constantly look for WhatsApp accounts and use various methods to gain access to them.
There are two ways cybercriminals can gain control of a WhatsApp account: they can add another device to an existing account using the “Linked devices” feature, or they can re-register the account on their own device as if the user had bought a new phone.
“In the first case, the user continues to use WhatsApp as usual, but the criminals also have access to all recent conversations. In the second case, the user loses access to their personal account.
“When trying to log in, WhatsApp notifies him that the account is already in use on another device, and the attackers can then control the account but not the past conversations.
“Messengers are a private space, as they often contain personal information about our lives and relationships with family and friends. They can also contain information about work and, in some cases, confidential information.
“If you notice any unusual activity, such as receiving replies to messages that you didn’t send, or if your friends complain about strange messages coming from your account, it’s important to take steps to protect your privacy immediately,” comments Seifallah Jedidi, Head of Consumer Channel, META, at Kaspersky.
While you can check instruction on what to do in case a WhatsApp account was already compromised, here are the key steps on how to avoid a WhatsApp account to be hacked:
- Enable two-step verification in WhatsApp and memorise your PIN — it’s not a one-time code. To do this, go to Settings → Account → Two-step verification.
- Never, ever share your PIN or one-time registration codes with anyone. Only scammers ask for these details.
- WhatsApp recently introduced support for passkeys. If you enable this option (Settings → Account → Passkeys), logging in to your account will require biometric authentication, and instead of PIN codes, your smartphone will store a long cryptographic key. This is a very secure option, but it may not be convenient if you frequently change devices and switch between Android and iOS.
- Set up a backup email address for account recovery: Settings → Account → Email address.
- If you’ve already added an email address, log in to your email account and change your password to a strong, unique one. To store it securely, use a password manager, such as Kaspersky Password Manager.
- Enable two-factor authentication for your email account.
- Make sure you haven’t fallen victim to a SIM swap scam. Contact your mobile carrier — preferably in person — and verify that no duplicate SIM cards have recently been issued for your number. Also, make sure there’s no unauthorised call-forwarding set up on your number. Cancel any suspicious changes and ask the staff about additional security measures for your SIM card. These may include prohibiting SIM-related actions without your being present, an extra password required for authentication, or other protections. Available security measures vary significantly by country and mobile carrier.
Any security measures in WhatsApp will be of little use if your smartphone or computer is infected with malware. Therefore, be sure to install comprehensive protection like Kaspersky Premium on all your devices.
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