General News
Panacea to Improved Engineering Services In Nigeria
The desire to formulate standard is an intent by a profession to work within a defined and agreed rules and guidelines for improved safety, product quality and service delivery.
Here in Nigeria, we believe we can thrive and profit more where there is no standard and this may not be far from the truth for those that undermines standards. Lack of standard undermines product and service quality and also clients’ safety and satisfaction.
There are several Institutions and bodies from different countries of the world bandying different standards.
However, in all there is a convergent point. The European community has been able to harmonize its standards in practically all fields of endeavor and USA will naturally key in while independently setting a parallel and higher standards for herself.
The most important and generally accepted electrical engineering standard is that of International Electro -Technical Commission, IEC.
Every country of the world is expected to domicile these standards. In doing so, the underline and basic element remains unchanged with only minor variation to meet the country’s environmental condition, cultural and social needs.
Countries subscribe to the Commission with offices of the president and secretary to administer the operations. In Nigeria, the National Electro-Technical Committee, NEC contact office is at Standard Organization of Nigeria, SON, Lagos. Their operation is ad hoc.
Apart from IEC, The International Bureau of Weights and Measures, BIPM is subscribed by nations of the world as well.
Nigeria lost it lower cadet membership due to her inability to sustain her commitment. Member countries are expected to establish the National Metrology Institute in their countries.
NMI in every country handles basic elements of Time and Frequency, Mass, Electricity, Chemistry, Thermometry, Ionizing Radiation, Length and Photometry and Radiometry which are referenced to BIPM in France.
The establishment of the lab is under construction at Ogba, Ikeja, Lagos. The project is counter funded by UNIDO.
It was abandoned for many years but work has resumed and is in progress. The ground breaking ceremony was done recently by Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, secretary to the Federal Government.
SON currently uses a mini or makeshift Metrology Lab pending when the one at Ikeja is commissioned.
The lab will aid in instrument certifications mismanaged by local firms and also save billions of naira in such services rendered by overseas companies. This will greatly enhance service delivery in the country.
However, standard formulation is not the responsibility of SON; they only coordinate or facilitate such process for stakeholders because stakeholders have failed to take up this responsibility in fashioning out standards.
Persons who are concerned about safety, quality of product and services in a particular field and have found the need to address and uphold it are usually the initiators.
They will craft the draft and send it to SON. SON will forward it to all stakeholders for input. The document is worked on till final document agreeable to all is produced and adopted. The document is reviewed from time to time. SON is doing good job filling this gap for all.
The challenges of formulating standards are enormous leaving us as a profession without engineering standards.
Standards formulation requires concerted efforts from stakeholders. The following amount to some of the reasons why standard formulation is a challenge;
Attitudinal: Anything that will regulate our life, change our thinking and the way we do things are usually resisted whether it is for good or bad.
Standard is resisted by politicians, engineering personnel, quacks and everyone benefitting from the status quo.
Documentation: Formulation of standard is a product of research and documented experience. Because field experiences are not documented, experts most time do not logically buttress their positions and draw conclusion on issue of standard.
It is always, even more so, difficult to identify these experts who may sometime not affiliate with professional bodies. They carve a niche for themselves and do their works unnoticed thus, ending up with the years of undocumented industrial experience. When issues on standard are discussed, they seem to be left out for comments and inputs. Documented field experience is the basis for standard formulation.
Academic: There is usually an erroneous belief that the university professor is best suited to develop standard. The truth is the end user; the craftsman, technician, technologist and allied professionals make more inputs than any other. When they are not trained to document their job process the result remain what we have now.
However, we cannot ignore the work of subjecting these field experiences to scientific analysis to produce result which can stand up to close inspection as done by the academic. The academic must also have a tinge of field experience to enhance his work. There must be empirical evidence to support his results. This is grossly lacking.
Funding: Research requires funding but many in this part of world believe it should be sacrificial and selfless. Funding can come from government, corporate organizations, NGOs, Institution itself etc. It is very important to note that every Institution or professional body is supposed to be self- sustaining. Professional bodies build capacity through due, levy and donation.
When we join foreign professional bodies (there is nothing wrong about that if we are equally committed to the local body here) we fund their research with our annual dues, levies and donations. They develop and continue to improve those standards we have to subscribe to. IEC has over 2000 electrical standards which are not cheap to subscribe.
If we have to domicile just 10 of such standards the cost could be enormous for an Institution that has no sustainable income to bear. The cost of working the document by all stakeholders to become an acceptable standard to domicile will have to be included to determine the total and real cost for such an exercise.
Indigenous Technology: We must develop our technology, apply the standards so formulated to it and gradually enlarge and expand it. When we import engineering equipment from different countries, they come with different technical standards of country of origin.
This has made Nigeria a pool of technical standards without any standard. Engineering practice in Nigeria is in disarray, completely comatose by lack of standards and the many Original Equipment Manufacturers, OEM, from Asia, Europe and America will continue to dump their products here with their standards.
Since standard is a global issue we can align ourselves to IEC’s standard to produce our standard and that is expected of every nation like us.
Intellectual laxity: There seem to be intellectual laxity and lack of focus concerning this issue. Companies where draft copy of the documents are forwarded to as stakeholders for comment and input, sometimes keep it for use and make no input.
You can rightly say they have nothing to contribute because there is no documented experience or better still are not interested about developing another standard that will not be in tangent to their products standards.
Haven highlighted this, wide spread and coordinated approach is needed to address this problem. While the Nigerian Society of Engineers through its Codes and Standards Committee is playing its part, the Divisions or Institutions under it have greater roles to play.
Standards formulations require the involvement of all cadets of engineering personnel and the present engineering structures or Institutions should evolve with capacity to accommodate all so as to enable professionals at all level to be identified to address the problem of engineering standards in the country.
Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN whose responsibilities include regulating, monitoring and control of engineering practice will have to continue to wait till these standards are ready for it to function effectively.
Engineer Akan Michael is the chairman, Nigerian Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (NIEEE) Lagos Chapter. He can be reached via akanmichael@yahoo.com
Kaspersky has released its annual report on children’s digital interests, with the analysis covering the period from May 2024 to April 2025. It reveals a growing fascination with artificial intelligence (AI) powered chatbots, the viral rise of Italian brainrot memes like “tralalero tralala”, and growing attention to Sprunki — a rhythm-based game combining music and motion. YouTube remains the most popular app among children globally, while WhatsApp overtook TikTok for second place.
In today’s interconnected world, children are engaging with digital technology more than ever before. Recent studies indicate that 8-10-year-old children spend an average of six hours daily on screens, while preteens (ages 11–14) average about nine hours per day.
With such a significant portion of their lives unfolding online, it becomes especially important for parents to understand what captures their children’s attention in the digital space — what they search for, what platforms they use, and which trends influence their interests and behaviour.
Every year, new digital trends shape the way children explore the world. In this year’s report, Kaspersky found a surge of interest in AI tools. While no AI apps appeared in the Top 20 most-used applications in 2023-2024 time period, “Character.AI” has now entered the list, showing that children are not only curious about AI but are actively integrating it into their digital lives.
More than 7.5% of all search queries were about AI chatbots, led by well-known names like ChatGPT, Gemini, and especially Character.AI — a platform that lets users create or interact with bots mimicking fictional or real characters. This marks a sharp rise from last year: in the 2023–2024 report, AI-related queries made up just 3.19% of all searches, increasing more than twice this year.
However, not all chatbot interactions are risk-free. Some bots may expose children to emotionally intense content, misinformation or age-inappropriate themes, especially when created or customised by other users.
Since these platforms often rely on user-generated content and may lack strict moderation, it’s crucial to talk openly with children about how they use AI tools — and to set up apps for digital parenting, such as Kaspersky Safe Kids, that help families stay aware, involved and protected.
In Nigeria, the top 5 of the most popular Android apps were WhatsApp (28,42% – the amount of time spent on the platform), YouTube (17,41%), Chrome (11,29%), Snapchat (10,33%) and Free Fire (5,16%).
While memes made up a small portion of searches this year, they still reveal another layer of children’s digital culture. Many of the most popular memes fell into what’s called “brainrot” — a kind of absurd, deliberately chaotic humour that spreads through short videos.
Among the most searched were the Italian phrase “tralalero tralala” and a meme track called “tung tung tung sahur”. These phrases may sound random to adults, but for many children, they represent shared jokes that move quickly from platform to platform.
Among the newcomers that caught analysts’ attention was Sprunki — a rhythm-based browser game that blends music and visual interaction. Players must hit beats in sync with fast-paced audio, making the experience both immersive and physically engaging.
Its bright, cartoonish design and addictive gameplay have made it increasingly popular with younger audiences. This is reflected not only in Google searches but also on YouTube, where Sprunki entered the top five most searched gaming topics, standing alongside long-time favourites like Brawl Stars and Roblox.
At the same time, more familiar habits remain strong. The most common online activity among children was searching on Google for streaming platforms — almost 18% of all queries were related to watching videos. Unsurprisingly, YouTube remains the clear favourite Android app, growing from 28.13% to 29.77% over the past year.
WhatsApp rose to second place with 14.72%, overtaking TikTok (12.76%), while Snapchat and Facebook continued to decline. This shift may reflect evolving communication habits — children are using chat apps more frequently to share links, memes and short videos with friends.
Video content and games also remained popular topics in children’s search behaviour. Platforms like Netflix, Twitch and Disney+ held strong — a trend that also echoed findings from Kaspersky’s recent streaming report, which highlighted how entertainment platforms often become targets for cybercriminals. At the same time, in the gaming world, children continued to favour Roblox, Minecraft and increasingly, the browser-based portal Poki — a portal offering hundreds of free games, often simple, fast-paced and instantly accessible in a browser.
“This year’s trends show just how fast children’s digital culture is evolving — one day they’re chatting with AI bots, the next they’re all humming an Italian meme song you’ve never heard of. But behind every trend is a chance for connection.
“When parents take time to understand what their children are watching, playing or searching for, it opens the door to meaningful conversations — and helps build safer, more trusting digital habits. Apps for digital parenting can be a helpful tool in this journey — not only to protect, but to stay involved,” comments Anna Larkina, privacy expert at Kaspersky.
To keep children safe from online threats, Kaspersky recommends the following:
- Maintain open communication with children about potential online risks and establish clear guidelines to ensure their safety.
- Secure gaming experiences by installing a trusted security solution, such as Kaspersky Premium, to prevent malicious file downloads.
- Stay informed about emerging threats and actively monitor children’s online activities in order to create a safer digital environment.
- Introduce children to cybersecurity basics using educational tools like the Kaspersky Cybersecurity Alphabet — a free downloadable book that explains key concepts, cyber hygiene rules, and how to avoid fraud.
. Use digital parenting apps like Kaspersky Safe Kids to protect children both online and offline, manage screen time, block inappropriate content, and track their location for greater peace of mind.
Federal government has proposed setting up a National Examination Malpractice Court to swiftly prosecute exam cheats and curb malpractice nationwide.
Dr. Tunji Alausa, minister of Education, affirmed this recommendation of the 17-man committee headed by Professor Is-haq Oloyede, Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) as chairman, on Improvement of the Quality of Examination in Nigeria.
The committee which the Minister inaugurated in January this year submitted its interim report to him on Friday after about five months of extensive work, coming up with far-reaching recommendations aimed at improving the quality of examination and curbing examination malpractices in Nigeria.
Oloyede, in one of the recommendations, asked the Federal Ministry of Education to interface with the National Assembly to enact an Act to establish a National Examination Malpractice Court/Tribunal for prompt prosecution of examination malpractices to serve as a deterrent to others.
Alausa, in his response, assured the committee members that all the 12-point recommendations would be implemented, saying the government would deploy all its machinery to fight the menace of examination malpractice in Nigeria.
His words: “All the 12 recommendations that you reeled out, everyone will agree with me today that none of those recommendations will be impossible to implement. They are all practicable things. The one that we will implement now, we will do that right away, and once we leave here, myself and the permanent Secretary have work to do”.
Some of the recommendations of the committee include: “All documents, including certificates, registration and result slips, etc., should contain National Identification Number (NIN), photograph and date of birth to guard against identity theft and impersonation.
“All Invigilators and Supervisors must register through NIN and subscribe to the Examination body’s Short Code, using the same pattern of 55019/66019 of JAMB in order so track and have full information about the examination officials, including examiners, supervisors and invigilators.
“Swapping Invigilators and Supervisors, not candidates, should commence with effect from the 2025 private SSCE due to the strong views against student swapping expressed by the four concerned examination bodies (WAEC, NECO, NABTEB and NBAIS) pertaining to security, logistics and the fact that centre details are traditionally printed on candidates’ certificates
“Except where absolutely impossible, Invigilators and Supervisors should always be public officials/teachers on pensionable appointments.
“The standard requirements of examination halls/centres should not be waived for any school, while the recommended seating arrangement should be 1.5m by 1.2m, or 1.8 sqm per candidate.
“All examination halls and centres should be equipped with stationary CCTV cameras for surveillance and monitoring purposes. In addition, every examination centre shall have a mini control room where the CCTV camera is monitored for urgent and immediate alert.
“All four concerned examination bodies shall jointly own central control facilities for their use during their examinations to save costs. Body camcorders should be deployed in examination halls and centres for effective monitoring.
“At the point of entry into Basic School, every pupil must generate a unique code which is linked to his/her NIN, which must be identified with the pupil throughout his/her educational journey in Nigeria.
“The Federal Ministry of Education should interface with the National Assembly to enact an Act to establish a National Examination Malpractice Court/Tribunal for prompt prosecution of examination malpractices to serve as deterrent for others.
“The non-implementation of the 1999 Examination Malpractice Act suggests either a lack of political will or non-implementability. Consequently, the Committee recommends a review of the Act in such a manner that it can be immediately implemented to curb examination malpractice.
“Rather than wait till 2027 as initially suggested, the Computer-Based Examination (CBE) should be implemented for objective questions in 2025 private examinations and in full for school candidates in 2026.
“The 30 per cent Continuous Assessment component in the Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations has become a veritable source of corruption in the examination system due to the fraudulent process of inputting the scores in arrears.
“It is therefore recommended that the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) and any other FME agency, which must have recommended the policy for the approval of the National Council on Education (NCE), should immediately be requested to review the Continuous Assessment System”.’
General News
Nigeria Relaunches National Talent Export Programme to Unlock $1 Trillion Global Outsourcing Market
The Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment has announced the relaunch of the National Talent Export Programme (NATEP), a bold initiative led by the Honourable Minister, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole.
The renewed programme is designed to tap into the $1 trillion global outsourcing industry by positioning Nigeria’s youth as a world-class talent pool for digital and professional services.
“What we celebrate today is not merely the launch of a program; it represents the continuation of a vision to position Nigeria as a global leader in the future of work and services,” said Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment.
“With digital transformation firmly embedded in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic vision, Nigeria is enhancing the infrastructure, systems, and policy tools necessary for an inclusive and innovation-driven future.”
In alignment with President Tinubu’s 8-point agenda, NATEP is designed to empower Nigeria’s youth, harness global service export opportunities, and drive inclusive economic transformation. With a youthful, English-speaking population, a strategic time zone, and rapidly advancing digital infrastructure, Nigeria is uniquely positioned to become a competitive global supplier of skilled talent.
Under the leadership of Dr. Oduwole, NATEP represents a strategic move to diversify Nigeria’s economy, boost foreign exchange earnings, and create sustainable employment.
The programme will focus on aggregating global demand and connecting it with Nigeria’s skilled workforce through structured and ethical talent export pathways.
The Ministry’s goal is to create 1 million direct export-linked jobs and up to 5 million indirect jobs within five years.
In addition, NATEP aims to attract over $1 billion in foreign direct investment to Nigeria’s growing service export economy. This programme targets high-impact sectors such as technology, business process outsourcing (BPO), the creative economy, healthcare, professional services, and remote work.
As part of this relaunch, Mrs. Teju Abisoye has been appointed as the National Coordinator of NATEP. A development finance expert with over two decades of experience, she has led major national employment initiatives and played key roles in government interventions, entrepreneurship support, and private sector engagement.
Her leadership brings clarity, focus, and execution strength to the programme’s vision.
Speaking at the relaunch, Teju noted, “Our mandate at NATEP is to position Nigeria as Africa’s peerless global talent hub by building an enabling ecosystem through policy, platforms, promotion, and partnerships.
We would actualise this critical national objective by upskilling and enabling Nigeria’s teeming young human capital to take advantage of the $1 trillion global service trade, with soaring demand for digital services, outsourcing, and remote work.
This is one of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s strategic interventions to tackle youth unemployment head-on, generate vital foreign exchange, and diversify our economy through service sector expansion”.
NATEP, a Special Purpose Vehicle under the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, has evolved from a basic outsourcing facilitator into a full-scale ecosystem enabler. The programme will now drive policy reform, expand digital infrastructure, strengthen international partnerships, and create reliable talent pipelines that match global standards.
Key components of NATEP include:
- Training 10 million Nigerians in globally recognized digital and professional certifications
- Incentivizing BPO and IT-enabled service companies to expand operations in Nigeria
- Creating legal and ethical pathways for talent export in alignment with global labor needs
- Building a national talent database to map skills and track employment opportunities
- Partnering with global outsourcing platforms and employers to aggregate demand
In alignment with President Tinubu’s 8-point agenda, NATEP is designed to empower Nigeria’s youth, enhance foreign exchange earnings, and support inclusive economic transformation. With a youthful, English-speaking population, strategic time zone, and growing digital infrastructure, Nigeria is uniquely positioned to become a competitive global talent supplier.
Minister, NATEP Sign MoU with Alaro City and Itana
To mark this renewed direction, the Honourable Minister led a high-level delegation on an official visit to Alaro City, home to Itana, Nigeria’s first Digital Special Economic Zone, on Friday, May 30, 2025.
The Minister also leveraged the visit to execute a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at strengthening public-private sector collaboration and showcasing the infrastructure and innovation ecosystem that will support the programme’s success.
Dr. Oduwole stated, “I am proud to announce a significant milestone in this effort: the successful signing of a strategic agreement to create an initial 100,000 jobs across high-impact sectors — made possible through collaboration with platforms like Itana, Alaro City, and other partners to mark the beginning of a new phase of joint execution.”
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