E-Business
Sidmach e-Registration System Boosts 2012 UTME Examinations
Sidmach Technologies Nigeria Limited, a Microsoft Gold Partner, played a major role in the success recorded at this year’s UTME Examinations organised by the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB).
The company designed the e-Registration System which enabled candidates to register for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) online.
In addition to ensuring seamless registration, the process also guaranteed more efficient record keeping, eradication of the trauma associated with manual registration and widespread exam malpractices resulting from poor monitoring.
The e-Registration system was developed on the Microsoft Visual Studio.Net and the SQL Server 2008 platforms.
This engine captured candidates’ bio-data, UTME Subjects, First and Second choices of Institution and Course, O/Level subjects and grades, Examination Town, passport photograph and biometric (fingerprint) data.
According to Mike Olajide, managing director, Sidmach Technologies, “About 1,503,931 candidates sat for this year’s UTME and what our system did was capture and validate all the applicants’ information which was stored in a Microsoft SQL Server database. An outstanding advantage of this solution is that it ensured trusted, productive, and intelligent data platform that provided excellent encryption which guarded against tampering.”
Underscoring the eradication of the trauma associated with manual registration which included the strain of having to queue endlessly to snap passport photographs for attachment to examination forms, making tons of photocopies to balance out form filling etc, Olajide explained that the process is now flawless and has encouraged more candidates to apply. Overall, there was a marginal increase of 10,338 candidates over the 2011 figure.
The modality of the project included the provision of Fingerprint Scanners and laptops running Microsoft Windows 7 for the verification and attendance marking of candidates for the UTME.
The Verification system was also developed using Microsoft tools.
Executed under the Public-Private-Project Implementation model, it means that JAMB did not have to lay out the huge investment to implement the UTME e-Registration immediately. In addition to the value provided by this project, Jamb did not have to increase the examination fees.
Commending Sidmach Technologies on the successful implementation of the project, Abiola Ajayi, Partner Account Manager, Microsoft Nigeria said, “We are thrilled with the performance of Sidmach Technologies, especially the advancement the company is making in public sector capacity building using Microsoft platform”.
Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, Registrar/CEO of JAMB, disclosed that the introduction of the Bio-Metric Thumb printing capturing, which was introduced in the 2011 UTME has been a subject of wide discourse; some positive, while others negative, adding however that to the body, it has recorded more successes than draw backs as the system in many centres ensured candidates were orderly and peaceful.
Reiterating the board’s determination to conduct a better exam than what obtained in the past, The JAMB boss explained that the biometric fingerprint machine had been improved upon to deliver quality service.
“In this year’s examination, the Biometric machines that were deployed were technically superior and faster. It took only about a second to get the machine to validate using candidate’s details.”
Ojerinde further pointed out that JAMB has achieved a drastic reduction in the incidence of incomplete results to 28,069.
According to him, “This figure although is a remarkable reduction in the previous one, it still remains high.” He noted that it is the hope of the Board to wish away totally, all incidences of incomplete results in our future examinations.
Overall, there has been a significant turnaround time with examination results released in less than one week.
Visa, global payment services giant, has announced plans to establish a data centre infrastructure in Nigeria.
Andrew Torre, Visa’s regional president for central and eastern Europe and Vice-President Kashim Shettima
According to a statement by Stanley Nkwocha, senior special assistant to the president on media and communications (office of the vice-president) on Friday, Andrew Torre, Visa’s regional president for central and eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, spoke during a courtesy visit to Vice-President Kashim Shettima at the presidential villa in Abuja.
“This is in addition to its investments of over $1 billion in the country, including a substantial technological partnership with @moniepoint to foster digital payment solutions, a $200 million investment in Interswitch, and a partnership with @thriveagric to empower smallholder farmers and enhance food security in Nigeria,” the statement reads.
During the meeting, Torre said the plan to establish the data centre infrastructure aims to bring new technologies into the Nigerian market that would bolster the nation’s growing digital economy.
“Visa has been making investments and will continue to make these investments in Nigeria,” he said.
Responding, Shettima welcomed Visa’s expansion efforts, assuring the delegation that the partnership between Visa and the Nigerian government would continue to flourish.
The vice-president commended the company for investing in ThriveAgric, noting that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is deeply committed to repositioning the agriculture sector, which remains a top priority in its 8-point agenda.
“Nigeria is where the action is. Of the 10 fintechs in Africa, about eight are in Nigeria, with moniepoint as the newest addition,” Shettima said.
“Agriculture is key to the 8-point agenda of the present administration. President @officialABAT is really keen on repositioning the agriculture industry here, and we have to invest in technology, we have to invest in modernisation.”
On January 23, Moniepoint, a Nigerian fintech company, announced it secured investment from Visa to support the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Andrew Torre, Visa’s regional president for central and eastern Europe and Vice-President Kashim Shettima
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.
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