Telecom
Cloudflex, Digital Encode, Rack Center, Others Back NITRA ICT Growth Conference/Awards 2021
More companies have continued to indicate interest in the forthcoming ICT Growth Conference being organized by the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA), a ICT media advocacy group.
In the latest partnership buildup, Cloudflex Computing Services Limited, a leading indigenous Enterprise Cloud service provider that offers Information Technology as a service, along with Digital Encode, a cyber security consulting and integration firm; and Rack Center, Africa’s first carrier neutral state-of-the-art Tier III Constructed Facility Certified data centre operator, have opted to partner with NITRA as the industry advocacy group gears up for its ICT Growth Conference/Awards 2021 event, which comes up on November 11, 2021 in Lagos.
Other organisations that have committed to partnering with NITRA on the forum are Phase 3 Telecom, the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) and the Women in Technology In Nigeria (WITIN).
Making the partnership announcement in Lagos, Chairman of NITRA, Mr. Chike Onwuegbuchi explained that the Conference is germane to the present realities in Nigeria as both the industry regulators and the supervisory Ministry are working assiduously to set Nigeria on the apex list of digitally empowered countries, and make it a forerunner in global technology index.
Mr Onwuegbuchi noted that the partnership with these organisations will add pep to the event as they will bring their wealth of knowledge in Cloud Computing, Cyber security, Social engineering, Data Center, telecommunication, and other relevant fields to the conference, and join the dialogue on the growth ingredients needed to drive the country towards a digitized society.
“Specifically, the Forum will offer stakeholders the opportunity of reassessing and reinvigorating some policies to make maximum impact in the growth of ICT in Nigeria.
“This is a growth conference, and stakeholders will be allowed to speak out on what the growth indices should be,” Mr Onwuegbuchi highlighted.
He further noted that goings-on in the world today affirm the fact that every other sector of the economy may not survive without connecting to ICT.
“ICT is going to be the live wire of every sector in the nearest future, so the earlier the public knew this and start latching onto it, the better it will be for our country.”
The event targets to bring stakeholders in the ICT industry, both from the public and private sectors, to discuss and find ways of accelerating growth in the industry as a means of achieving laudable federal government set targets and policies, including those recorded in policy documents by the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, the NCC and NITDA.
Expected to be at the event are the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami; the EVC of the NCC, Prof Umar Garba Danbatta; the DG of NITDA, Mallam Inuwa Kashifu Abdullahi, CEOs of other government and private ICT companies, the Media including the full membership of NITRA and other stakeholders in the industry, including COOs, CIOs, CFOs, CROs and CCOs.
As part of the event, special recognition awards will be given to some industry players that have played strong roles in the growth of ICT in Nigeria, and still contributing to the development of the industry.
The Awards will also be for those companies and individuals, who through their innovativeness have revolutionised the ecosystem they play in.
The event which has as its theme, “Harmonising ICT Sub-Sectors Towards A Digitalised Nigeria”, will also feature panel sessions that will x-ray issues and progress in sub-sectors, including fintech, cybersecurity, service industry, among others.
Telecom
IHS Nigeria Partners Jaza Energy to Deploy Solar Hubs @ Tower Sites
IHS Nigeria, a subsidiary of IHS Towers, has formed a strategic partnership with Canadian-based energy company Jaza Energy, that will see Jaza install solar hubs at 250 towers in underserved areas of Nigeria.
Tower infrastructure company, said that the partnership will enable it to reduce the environmental footprint of its operations.
According to IHS, the hubs will provide clean energy to the towers, while the excess power generated by the solar panels at these hubs will be used to charge battery packs for local households and businesses, which it notes will reduce reliance on diesel generators.
Jaza Energy specializes in providing energy equipment and solutions, aimed at supporting homes and communities.
IHS has sought to reduce carbon emissions as part of its Project Green initiative.
The project aims to reduce kWh emissions intensity by approximately 50 percent by 2030.
The tower company has invested more than $200 million into the initiative over the past two years.
“This partnership with Jaza Energy complements this initiative, as we seek to integrate more solar solutions on our sites, and simultaneously help support local communities,” said Mohamad Darwish, CEO of IHS Nigeria.
“In this case, by helping Jaza Energy provide more local households with access to battery packs for domestic use, as substitutes for diesel-powered generators.”
Jaza Energy claims to have delivered more than three million solar battery swaps and reached more than 100,000 people in Tanzania and Nigeria with its clean energy solutions.
IHS said it expects the 250 hubs to help it achieve an emissions reduction of approximately 32,600 – 33,000 tonnes of CO2e over the seven-year agreement.
Last month, IHS Towers struck an agreement to renew and extend its Nigeria tower master lease agreements with MTN Nigeria until December 2032. The contract renewal covers approximately 13,500 tenancy contracts.
Telecom
GSMA Launches Industry-wide Responsible AI Maturity Roadmap
The GSMA has launched the first industry-wide Responsible AI (RAI) Maturity Roadmap to provide telecoms operators with the tools and guidance to test and assess their responsible use of the technology.
Recognising that the overall opportunity derived from the expanded use of AI within the telecoms sector is estimated by McKinsey to be as high as $680 billion over the next 15-20 years, the GSMA is uniting the industry in using the technology ethically and responsibly – the first time a whole sector has committed to a common approach to AI.
The roadmap, developed based on insights by McKinsey and a group of operators, will allow telecoms organisations to assess where they currently stand in terms of their existing maturity in using AI responsibly against where they want to go, i.e. their ambitions and needs. It then provides clear guidance and measurement tools to help fulfil those ambitions, while ensuring industry-wide best practice in the responsible use of the technology.
Its development follows the well-established commitments of many mobile network operators (MNOs) to ensure the exploration and integration of AI within their work has been and is done in ethical and responsible ways.
Following extensive industry consultation, the GSMA has taken these approaches and combined them with existing global regulations, recommendations and standards from international organisations including the OECD, and the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI to create a roadmap for the whole industry to align on the use of RAI.
This initiative has been championed by Axiata, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Telstra. Nineteen MNOs have already committed to using the roadmap as a way of tracking, maintaining and improving their responsible use of AI. Full details of all the MNOs already using it are available in the notes to editors.
Best-practice principles
The RAI Maturity Roadmap is underpinned by five core underlying dimensions: the vision, values and strategic goals of an organisation; its operating model and how to maintain AI governance across all operations; technical controls aligned with regulatory requirements; collaboration with third-party ecosystems; as well as corporate change management and communication strategies.
For each of these dimensions, the roadmap will guide organisations to take the appropriate steps to use AI responsibly relative to their level of maturity.
It also builds on well-established best-practice principles, including: fairness; human agency and oversight; privacy and security; safety and robustness; transparency; accountability; and environmental impact.
By providing greater clarity and a common approach to the responsible use of AI, the GSMA’s industry roadmap will give MNOs the confidence to commit to its adoption in the knowledge they are doing so in established, agreed and ethical ways, and therefore unlock the technology’s full value more quickly.
Mats Granryd, Director General of the GSMA, said: “The transformative potential of AI has long been apparent but its integration in our work and our lives must be done in a responsible and transparent way for it to be truly effective and sustainable. This roadmap will now empower more MNOs to embrace AI in the knowledge they, in line with the whole sector, are doing so responsibly and ethically.
“Responsible AI is the right way to explore and unlock the many opportunities the technology presents, and the telecoms industry is proud to lead the way as the first sector to commit to this approach – we hope others will follow our example.”
José María Álvarez-Pallete López, GSMA Board Chair and Chairman & CEO of Telefónica, said: “The speed with which AI has now become a central part of tech and telecoms operations demonstrates its power and undoubted value, but also the risks we must consider as an industry and the need to include ethics at the heart of AI to prevent its uncontrolled development.
“It is crucial for us all to ensure responsible guidelines for the use of AI are implemented now, and it is great to see the telecoms industry leading the way on this with the GSMA’s new roadmap.”
Telecom
Instagram Unveils Teen Accounts with Built-in Parental Control & Privacy
Instagram is overhauling the way it works for teenagers, promising more “built-in protections” for young people and added controls and reassurance for parents.
The new “teen accounts” are being introduced from Tuesday in the UK, US, Canada and Australia.
They will turn many privacy settings on by default for all under 18s, including making their content unviewable to people who don’t follow them, and making them actively approve all new followers.
But children aged 13 to 15 will only be able to adjust the settings by adding a parent or guardian to their account.
Social media companies are under pressure worldwide to make their platforms safer, with concerns that not enough is being done to shield young people from harmful content.
UK children’s charity the NSPCC said Instagram’s announcement was a “step in the right direction”.
But it added that account settings can “put the emphasis on children and parents needing to keep themselves safe.”
Rani Govender, the NSPCC’s online child safety policy manager, said they “must be backed up by proactive measures that prevent harmful content and sexual abuse from proliferating Instagram in the first place”.
Meta describes the changes as a “new experience for teens, guided by parents”.
It says they will “better support parents and give them peace of mind that their teens are safe with the right protections in place.”
Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly viewed content about self-harm and suicide on Instagram before taking her life aged 14, told the BBC it was important to wait and see how the new policy was implemented.
“Whether it works or not we’ll only find out when the measures come into place,” he said.
“Meta is very good at drumming up PR and making these big announcements, but what they also have to be good at is being transparent and sharing how well their measures are working.”
Teen accounts will mostly change the way Instagram works for users between the ages of 13 and 15, with a number of settings turned on by default.
These include strict controls on sensitive content to prevent recommendations of potentially harmful material, and muted notifications overnight.
Accounts will also be set to private rather than public – meaning teenagers will have to actively accept new followers and their content cannot be viewed by people who don’t follow them.
- Telecom3 days ago
Over 65m GSM Lines Risk Disconnection over SIM-NIN Linkage
- News2 days ago
Tinubu Did Not Ask Cardoso, CBN Governor to Resign – Presidency
- E-Financial23 hours ago
CBN Reintroduces Controversial Cybersecurity Levy @ 0.005 Percent in New Guidelines
- E-Business3 days ago
Konga Health To Appoint Resellers for L’Oreal Dermatological Beauty Products and others Nationwide
- Telecom3 days ago
Nnamani calls for Deliberate Moves Towards AI Regulation, Data Center Growth
- Telecom3 days ago
Stakeholders Harp on Importance of Unified Infrastructure to Africa Digital Leap
- E-Financial3 days ago
Banks, NDPC Partner to Enhance Data Security
- News24 hours ago
Airtel Nigeria CEO Advocates Digital Public Infrastructure for Enhanced Service Access