Etisalat Celebrates Winners Of 2014 Innovation Prize

*CEO Etisalat Nigeria, Matthew Willsher; one of the winners, 

Anthony Oniwon and Member, Board of Innovators, Etisalat 

Pan-African Prize for Innovation, Funke Opeke, at the event

Winners of the 2014 edition of the Etisalat Pan-African Prize for Innovation, Anthony Oniwon, developer of Exammate Application, and Abdulganiyu Onabanjo, the developer of Interactive Media Interface Design, were presented with their prizes at a media reception held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Lagos, recently.

Matthew Willsher, Chief Executive Officer at Etisalat Nigeria who explained the rationale behind the innovation prize as well as the company’s continuous support for innovative platforms and initiatives stated that Etisalat was presenting its proof to the promise it made at the launch of the prize over two years ago and further reinforcing the telecom company’s uniqueness as the organisation that makes a difference in the society.

According to Willsher, “We are pleased to formally present these two gentlemen

From Airtel, lifeline for young Nigerians

By Erhumu Bayagbon

*Ogunsanya, Airtel Nigeria CEO

Erhumu Bayagbon writes that Airtel Nigeria has significantly increased its investment in youth development, providing a major lifeline for young Nigerians through a number of robust and credible platforms, including Catapult-a-Start-up, Adopt-a- School programme, Airtel Rising Stars and the One-Mic music initiative.

Whether it is a product, service, enterprise programme or Corporate Social Responsibility intervention, Airtel Nigeria has been consistent in its quest to establish solid platforms to empower young Nigerians and enable them secure a bright future. Indeed, the records speak glowingly of the leading telco that became famous for revolutionizing the GSM tariff one month after launching a new brand name in 2010. Even many cynics are becoming converts after a cursory look at the organization’s recent strides at providing a hope, a future and a lifeline for young Nigerians.

Just this week, Airtel announced a unique programme for young Nigerian entrepreneurs christened Catapult-a-Start-up. At the press conference, which held at the Wheatbaker Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Airtel Nigeria, Segun Ogunsanya, described the initiative as yet another major step to empowering Nigerian youths and creating a solid platform for them to leverage on to success, saying the initiative is in line with the company’s overriding ambition of becoming the most loved brand in the daily lives of Nigerians.

The Airtel Catapult-a-Startup programme is an entrepreneurial initiative designed to assist start-up application (app) developers to actualize their dreams of becoming

BlackBerry Launches Passport

BlackBerry Ltd's launch of its square-screened Passport device may have grabbed headlines this week, but it was the tech company's lower-profile roll out of the new Blend feature that appears to be garnering the plaudits.

Reuters reports that even as reviewers and analysts were torn on the prospects of the unconventionally shaped Passport, they were brimming with praise for Blend, which lets users seamlessly bridge messaging and content between a host of devices irrespective of operating systems.

"While the new Passport device attracted the most attention, to us the announcement of BlackBerry Blend is more important," said RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue in a note on Thursday.

He noted that Blend is one of the key elements of a strategy aimed at adapting to the needs of large companies, where workers are pushing for flexibility to use devices of their own choice.

BlackBerry, under the leadership of new Chief Executive John Chen, has been

Nigeria Wins Country Hosting Right (Chr) For World Electronics Forum 2014

By Rommy Imah

The Board of Directors of the World Electronics Forum (WEF), through Consumer Electronics and Technologies Industry Association (CETIA) of Africa, has granted the Country Hosting Right (CHR) for the 19th World Electronics Forum 2014 to Nigeria.

WEF has also nominated Digital Africa Global Consult Limited, headed by Dr. Evans E. Woherem, as the event organizer. The 19th World Electronics Forum is therefore to be held alongside Digital Africa 2014 in Lagos, from May 20-22, 2014.

Digital Africa Global Consult is the promoter of the annual Digital Africa Conference & Exhibition, aimed at helping Africa to transit from being merely a consumer to become a major producer of ICT products, services and innovations.

The Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, led a high-powered delegation of ICT regulatory agencies to represent the federal Government of Nigeria at the inaugural Digital Africa held April 23-25, 2013 in Abuja.

The event was chaired by Mr. Oba Otudeko, the Chairman of Honeywell Group, First Bank Holdings Plc and Airtel Nigeria Limited, and a champion of inter-African trade. The conference attracted a list

From Las Vegas to Lagos, Nigeria

By Dr. Evans Woherem

The 2014 edition of the world flagship Consumer Electronics Show had ended in Las Vegas, the United States of America about two months ago. It was Africa’s biggest and most visible participation in the age-long event.

Digital Africa Global Consult, publishers of Digital Africa Magazine had in July 2013 entered into partnership with Consumer Electronics Association, CEA of the USA. The partnership allows Digital Africa Global Consult to organize a delegation of qualified business professionals from Africa to CEA’s annual trade show- the international CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA from the 7^th-10^th of January, 2014.

CES 2014 conference presented an opportunity for Africa to unveil the best of her innovations, exchange ideas with major players in the industry and witness the trends in end user expectations. This was the first time Africa will actively participate at the CES as exhibitors.  It is the premier CES destination where retailers, venture capitalists, manufacturers and other key attendee groups will find budding entrepreneurs, fledgling start-ups and home grown innovation. All Exhibitors also had the opportunity of attending the super-conferences and listening to the key-note addresses.

On the other hand, Digital Africa Global Consult is a new and innovative company that seeks to

African Development: ICT Adoption Must Be Prioritized

Photo: ajmedwards.deviantart.com

By Rommy Imah

In spite of obvious successes recorded in the adoption of ICTs in the continent, Africa has continued to be labelled a consumer continent. Indicators such as ICT access, use, skills, mobile cellular subscriptions and basic literacy rates, households with a computer, Internet users, fixed and mobile broadband Internet subscriptions and basic literacy rates show that African countries are far from adopting ICTs.

It is a global truism that ICTs are capable of acting as catalysts for effective and efficient management and administration of both public and private sector organisations in developing regions like Africa. ICTs are capable of remarkably improving the living standards of inhabitants of developing regions like Africa. In addition, it is capable of improving agricultural productivity, education, healthcare and research programmes.

To buttress Africa’s deplorable state of ICT penetration, Information Economy Report of 2012 identified low access to venture capital, piracy, poor ICT infrastructure and inadequate protection of intellectual property rights as the major setbacks to ICT development and service expansion in developing

Why Investors Must Come To Africa Now

By Rommy Imah

In what was then known as the ‘New Imperialism’ period, the scramble for or partition of Africa took the centre stage. It was a period the continent of Africa, against her will, was forcefully invaded, occupied, colonized and annexed by European powers. That was between 1881 and 1914.

Perhaps, as a panacea for the political and economic rivalries among the European empires, in the last quarter of the 19^th century, the partitioning of Africa forestalled the Europeans warring amongst themselves over Africa.

No doubt Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most-populous continent. At about 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers six percent of the Earth’s total surface area and 20.4 percent of the total land area. With 1billion people (as of 2009), Africa accounts for about 15% of the world's human population.

During the colonial era, almost the entire African continent was at the mercy of European colonialists who saw in Africa, a profitable continent to explore. So as the century moved on, it was obvious that the objective of the European explorers changed, and rather than travelling out of pure curiosity, they started recording details of markets, goods, and resources for the wealthy philanthropists who