The Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA) has announced more partnerships for its upcoming event, tagged NITRA TECHNOLOGY FORUM 2021.

The event, which will hold on Thursday, May 27, 2021, at CitiHeight Hotel and Virtually on Zoom now has web-based cryptocurrency trading platform, Vintage Confluence LLC, Nigeria’s CWG Plc, Medallion, Layer3Limited and ATCON joining other leading stakeholders to set issues around the growth of data hosting, preservation and utilisation in the country.

Vintage Confluence LLC is a leading global organization that offers solutions to Cryptocurrency Investors who need to sell their bulk Bitcoins in exchange for cash in Nigeria & South Africa.

The company’s mission is to provide traders with the most comprehensive Web-based trading platform available with no hassle or verification.

Vintage Confluence LLC is the most reliable, fastest and cheap e-currency exchanger with collective experience dating back to the origin of Bitcoin, providing thousands of satisfied customers with the right rates, at the right place, and at the right time.

As an active leader and certified vendor in the cryptocurrency industry since 2019, Vintage Confluence has been able to provide amazing exchange rates and quick execution of payment from small orders to large orders. This platform provides a seamless interface between the trader and Vintage Confluence as its Vendor.

CWG Plc, is a leading provider of Information, and Communication Technology solutions services across West, Central, and Eastern Africa. CWG is also a leading cloud services provider, enabling Africa’s SMEs to exploit cloud services for commerce and management.

Medallion Communications has entrenched its services in the establishment of interconnect exchange clearinghouses; carrier hotels and data hosting facilities; Telecommunications infrastructure development and Value added services – Mobile Banking, Number Portability, Emergency Communications Services, among others.

Layer3’s core solution, Layer3Cloud is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution that allows businesses and organizations of all types to remotely and virtually build, manage, store and instantly deploy servers and data in our secure data centre based in Nigeria.

The company’s solutions cut across all sectors and include the innovation of the data center, software, server & storage systems, mobile device management, security & network infrastructure solutions and access solutions including broadband and VPN services.

The Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) is a professional, non-profit, non-political umbrella organization of telecommunications companies of Nigeria, which channels its resources to the growth and development of telecom services in the country, especially through mediations between operators, government and the cinsumers.

With the theme: Achieving 30% Growth In Local Cloud Hosting By 2024, NITRA TECHNOLOGY FORUM 2021 will seek to bring stakeholders together in a panel session to discuss current challenges affecting Cloud businesses, policies that should facilitate growth and solutions to the challenges identified.

The forum will also dwell extensively on challenges and proffer solutions to factors mitigating against effective domiciliation of our locally-generated data.

Speaking on the relevance of the forum, Mr. ChikeOnwuegbuchi, chairman of NITRA, noted that over the years, Nigeria has been contending with the need to secure the country’s data and further boost local content in all sectors of the economy.

He acknowledged that the Covid-19 pandemic presented an eye-opener to many companies on the need to secure their data and cloud architecture. “Specifically, the Forum will offer Cloud service companies, data infrastructure companies and other stakeholders, opportunities to reach out to their target market with solutions that addresses their challenges and needs.”

The event, which will be steered under the chairmanship of the Chief Executive Officer, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), Muhammed Rudman, now have NITDA, Cloudflex, Rackcenter, Vintage Confluence LLC, CWG and Layer3 as sponsorship partners.

Also speaking on the event, the Association’s National Secretary, Mr. Chidiebere Nwankwo assured that the array of speakers at the event will not only chart a way for data and cloud growth in Nigeria, but will also present options in data/cloud services that will offer micro, small, medium organisations opportunities to digitise at very minimal cost.

He further stated that the event will be streamed live online via social media and Zoom platform.

It would  be recalled that the federal government has set things in place towards achieving local content development in the industry.

This quest was captured when the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) was instituted. The 8th pillar of NDEPS highlights the mission towards Indigenous Content Development & Adoption.

Other Pillars are: Developmental Regulation; Digital Literacy & Skills; Solid Infrastructure; Service Infrastructure; Digital Services Development & Promotion; Soft Infrastructure; Digital Society & Emerging Technologies; and Indigenous Content Development & Adoption.