Telecom
NCC Commits to Developing Digital Skills for Realization of Digital Economy
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reiterated its commitment to developing digital literacy skills required for the realization of full digital economy in Nigeria.
Mrs. Freda Bruce-Bennett, Head, Digital Skills and Services, stated this at AfricaNXT tech event under a theme: ‘The NCC Mandate Towards Realization of Full Digital Economy in Nigeria’. According to her, “when you have basic foundation for communications such as connectivity, data among others. What is next is digital innovation, entrepreneurship and digital skills.
“If we have all the Apps and solutions such as eHealth, eAgric and the populace does not know how to use them, we have achieved nothing.
“So, the next core area of the digital economy department in NCC is development of digital skills across all Nigerians, including children in primary, secondary, NYSC, mothers among others. In that way we have ubiquitous availability of digital skills across Nigeria for digital economy”.
She said the development of digital skills for Nigerians has become necessary following the creation of the Nigerian Office for Developing Indigenous Telecoms Sector (NODITS), whose mandate is to encourage indigenous participation in the telecom sector.
The creation of the NODITS, according to her has started yielding desired results as indigenous have now been engaged in the production of products and services that were hitherto imported. She noted that this move is boosting the government’s digital economy pursuit.
One of such products is the production of SIM cards, which she disclosed has helped the Nigerian government to save about $12 million owing to the ban of whole Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) importation.
“As we speak, six indigenous companies were licensed by the NCC to manufacture SIM cards, four out of these six are operational and have manufactured over 100 million SIM cards, saving Nigeria about $12 million from the importation of SIM cards, between August 2022 and now” she said.
Also speaking on what the NCC is doing to drive the digital economy, Mr. Abraham Oshadami, the Head of Spectrum Administration at the NCC, said the Commission has slashed licensing fees for Internet Service Providers to as low as N500, 000.
“This is an effort to the rollout of telecoms infrastructure across the country to achieve the National Broadband Plan of the Government”.
, Mrs. Aderonke Sola-Ogunsola, Head of Financing and Stakeholder Management Team, NODITS at the NCC expressed optimism that it is possible for the country to continue to make progress in the banning of more telecoms device such as Smartphone, phone chargers and SIM card, adding that before the ban, SIM was imported into Nigeria.
According to her, Nigeria has the capacity to manufacture SIM in Nigeria stressing that with the ban and the manufacture of SIM in the country, there will be the provision of more jobs and the saving of FOREX for the nation.
Mr. Reuben Muoka, Director, Public Affairs, NCC, who moderated the panel session in his opening remark stated that digital literacy skills is one of the pivotal focus of the Commission, stressing that without digital stills citizens will not be able to reach maximum derivation of the digital services and innovations- resulting from the efforts of the digital economy.
“There should be an effective regulator of the industry in order to achieve digital economy and digital literacy skill is one of the key focus of digital economy policy, because if you don’t have the skills to implement and exploit technologies and services that are available, you will not reach the maximum benefits,” he stated.
Techeconomy, a leading digital media startup in Nigeria, has announced it will organise a special session at the forthcoming #StartupSouth8 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria on October 5-6, 2023.
The eighth edition of #StartupSouth’s annual event has as its central theme: “Deep & Bold: 5IR, Emerging Realities, Regional Economic Imperatives & The Role of Innovation ”.
Through the Session Hosting programme, Techeconomy will delve into the sub-theme: “5IR: Media Innovation for Regional and Economic Growth”.
The panellists include Peter Oluka, editor, Techeconomy; Ebere Ogwumoyi, general manager, RedCloud Technologies Nigeria; Victor Siokwu, managing director, Shimol Services Limited and Ndume Green, founder/creative director, CapitalTV.
Diekola Omolaja, a brand strategist and Head of Business at Techeconomy, will moderate the session.
Commenting on the objectives of the media session at #StartupSouth8, Oluka said the development of any innovation relies heavily on public perception which means that people’s understanding of any technology was shaped, majorly, by the media.
“The media also keeps a check on public policy by throwing a spotlight on government action. They let people voice diverse opinions on governance and reform and help build public consensus to bring about change.
“Such media help markets work better. They can facilitate trade, transmitting ideas and innovation across boundaries hence we’re thrilled to inform you about Techeconomy’s upcoming panel session at the #StartupSouth8 Conference, taking place on the 5th & 6th of October 2023, in Port Harcourt, Nigeria under the sub-theme: Media Innovation for Regional and Economic Growth.
Techeconomy offers its readers Content-as-a-Service (CaaS) by telling you what is new in Technology, Business and Economy; reflecting on why it matters, how it works and the benefits.
The team works round-the-clock to explore and explain the changing world around us, tilting the lenses on the emerging market.
How to participate:
To participate at the #StartupSouth8 session, register through the link here: https://bit.ly/SS8-Techeconomy
StartupSouth Enterprise Development LTD/GTE (#StartupSouth), a Startup (Digital/Creative economy) ecosystem development and advocacy organization and a Community next generation Founders building high scale ventures in Nigeria – especially out of the South-South/South-East regions.
It is a Community of Communities with affiliations spanning across 11 States in the South and beyond. #StartupSouth members are building some of the most iconic venture backed projects you probably have encountered.
YouTube on Friday announced new generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) products to usher in an era of creative expression.
Neal Mohan, YouTube’s Chief Executive Officer, (CEO) said in a statement that YouTube platform unveiled a suite of AI-powered capabilities that would help both new and established creators and artists create, edit, and share content in bold new ways.
Mohan said that since launching Shorts in 2020, Shorts had now climbed to more than 70 billion daily views from more than 2 billion logged-in users every month.
The CEO said that the new updates would help creators and artists push the boundaries of creative expression making the difficult things simple and impossible dreams possible.
He said that the update was making it easier for creators anywhere to create content.
According to him, these AI-powered tools will help unlock powerful new forms of creative expression, take the friction out of the creative process, and allow YouTube creators to reach more viewers.
“The key announcements include introduction of Dream Screen, a new generative AI feature to unlock creative expression on Shorts.
“The launch of YouTube Create is to help take the work out of video production, help anyone to create and share videos right to YouTube.
“Today the platform has launched a new mobile app called YouTube Create, which was designed to empower creators to get started with a suite of production tools to edit their Shorts, longer videos, or both.”
According to him again, the app offers video editing tools including precision editing and trimming, automatic captioning, voiceover capabilities and access to a library of filters, effects, transitions and royalty.
Mohan said it also offers free music with beat matching technology so that creators could produce their next YouTube video without relying on complex editing software.
“Here are more ways that YouTube is helping take the heavy lifting off creators and giving them more efficient tools to help them come up with new ideas and reach new audiences,” he said.
Global Head of Music, YouTube, Lyor Cohen said that ‘Bold and Responsible’ is YouTube mission, and the potential of AI was incredibly exciting.
Cohen added that as with any new technology, it had to be approached responsibly.
“What Artists, Songwriters, and Producers do is something that is uniquely human and cannot be replaced by technology,” he said.
He said that YouTube sees AI as a tool that could be used by artists to amplify and accelerate their creativity.
“YouTube is committed to working alongside the creative community within our AI Music Incubator, which has now expanded globally.
“We are also leaning into our superpower, our deep partnerships with the music industry, working back-to-back with them to achieve our collective goals of fueling creativity and driving business forward,” he further said.
YouTube creator, Cleo Abram, said AI tools could help shrink the gap between what was imagined and what one could make instead of shrinking ideas.
Abram said because AI helped shrink that gap, these tools could increase access to the conversation.
Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd (NIGCOMSAT) and Thales Alenia Space (TAS) have renewed a joint venture agreement in Toulouse, France, for the development of Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) to deepen the success achieved during the joint SBAS flight demonstration carried out early this year by the two organisations.
Mr. Benoit Broudy, Vice President Navigation Domain under business line Observation, Exploration & Navigation, TAS with MD/CEO, NIGCOMSAT, Tukur Lawal and Dr. Lasisi Lawal inside TAS during the signing of the Joint Venture Agreement in Cannes, Toulouse- France.
Tukur Mohammed Lawal, managing director, NIGCOMSAT Ltd, said the renewed deal has opened another chapter of business opportunity for NIGCOMSAT Ltd and called on stakeholders in the aviation and non-aviation sectors in the country and Africa at large to optimize this opportunity for growth of the continent’s economy.
Lawal recalled that NIGCOMSAT Ltd has demonstrated a flight using King 350i aircraft by Nigerian Airspace Management Authority (NAMA), with ANGA (Augmented Navigation for Africa) Signal-in-Space (SIS), provided via NigComSat 1R which took place at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, witnessed by a contingent from Agency for Aerial Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA), EC DG-DEFIS, representatives of AON, AFON, SatNAv Africa JPO, representatives from ministries, departments and agencies including Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development and prominent aviation stakeholders from 54 African countries among others.
Also contributing, Dr. Lasisi Salami Lawal, project manager, SBAS, stated that with the real SBAS flight demonstration carried within Nigerian airspace, “we were able to witness a high level of precision on guiding the aircraft laterally in take-off, aligning on the takeoff track and also on initial climb and also on inbound track approached the airport for landing.”
The SBAS is an aviation-grade safety of life (SoL) satellite-based navigation, enabling reliability with integrity as well as high accuracy in positioning.
According to Dr. Lasisi, the technology is a “game changer for aviation in improving flight safety and efficiency while ensuring better user experience as a means of navigation decreasing CO2 emission with fuel consumption reduction.”
He said it will also contribute effectively in the non-aviation sector applications such as precision agriculture, land and maritime transport, inland waterways navigation, rail safety, oil and gas, drone navigation, mapping/ cadastral survey and mass market applications in location-based services (LBS).
Others are secured time transfer and synchronization in smart power transmission & distribution systems, telecommunications system networks especially 5G networks that requires precision in microseconds timing beyond what GNSS networks can offer.
Thales Alenia Space is a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%). Thales Alenia Space also teams up with Telespazio to form the parent companies’ Space Alliance, which offers a complete range of services.
It has a combined 40 years expenditure with unique diversity of talents and cultures.
NIGCOMSAT is a Nigerian-owned company under the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy.
The Nigerian Communication Satellite (NIGCOMSAT)
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