Connect with us

E-Business

Oracle, CWG, Others Reveal Ways to End IT Skill Shortages

Published

on

(L-r): Austin Okere, group chief executive officer, Computer Warehouse Group, Adebayo Sanni, country managing director, Oracle Nigeria, Abdulahmed Mustapha, director general, Lagos State Financial Systems Management Bureau and Toju Onaiwu, director, Software at Edo State ICT Agency, during a roundtable with the press in Lagos.
Kindly share this post

Panelists at Oracle Corporation roundtable in Lagos said, unanimously, that although technology is first-rate resource and available in Nigeria, but will become useless without adequate skill sets to harness the potentials.

At the World Economic Forum 2014, it was revealed that technology added six billion jobs, even as world economy increased by $193billion.

Thus, the panelists comprising Adebayo Sanni, country managing director of Oracle Nigeria and other partners- Mr. Austin Okere, group chief executive officer, Computer Warehouse Group, Abdulahmed Mustapha, director general, Lagos State Financial Systems Management Bureau and Toju Onaiwu, director, Software at Edo State ICT Agency, agreed that the in-coming administrations, both at the Federal And State Government levels, must not shy away from the efficacies of using information communication technologies (ICTs) to salvaging the economy from excess dependent on oil and gas.

Leading the discussion, Sanni said that while many may watch the tumbling oil price with dismay, in some ways it can be viewed in a positive light, adding that the loss of oil revenues has compelled the country to give more attention to other areas of the economy, including technology.

According to him, the Country will perform better in the IT space with requisite skill sets, especially with the private and public sector working cordially to ensure the teeming youths in the society are equipped. 

A recent survey by the CBI revealed that 39% of firms are already struggling to recruit workers with the advanced technical science, technology, engineering and Maths (STEM) skills they need, and 4% of firms believe that the shortage will persist over the next three years.

In the software and applications development space there is a shortage of developers, especially in Nigeria where the digital economy is expected to grow exponentially.

To tackle this, Sanni said that Oracle and Lagos State have just completed phase 2 of the Lagos State Workforce Development Program, to assist in training graduates on Oracle Database or Oracle E-Business Suite.

The program provides graduates with opportunities to acquire industry-relevant skills and internships within the private sector and in some of the State’s ministries.

Oracle Nigeria also offers hands-on internships at its office situated in Lagos, Abuja, and other African countries, to grow a pipeline of fresh business and ICT talent for Oracle and its West African ecosystem. Currently, 12 interns are engaged at Oracle Nigeria.

He said, “These are just 2 examples of initiatives that Oracle, as a local employer, is driving to support the creation of a technical savvy workforce – other programs include supporting universities and women in leadership activities.

“Technology is no doubt changing the way we live and work around the world and specifically in Nigeria.

“Public and private organizations have a responsibility to work together to help young people acquire key business and IT skills that can help them in turn to cultivate long-term success”.

He said that individuals, companies and governments are already using technology to innovate, bringing a fresh approach to creating new businesses or boosting growth in industries that make up the Nigerian economy.

On his part, Mr. Austin Okere, group chief executive officer, Computer Warehouse Group, said that the Company, now a Group, discovered at the early stage of the business that skill sets are prerequisite to delivering quality products and services to the customers.

He said, the idea gave birth to CWG Academy for training and retraining of CWG staff and those from the partners’ circles.

“This singular idea is now helping OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) galvanize the skills aspects of their business. Even the Lagos Business School has been receiving support from us in the form of tools; we engage the best graduates and release others to help partners and Governments to get their IT practices right.

“We worked with the World Bank to connect students in research institutions and universities. Today, there are 27 universities connected via NgREN and others on the verge of joining,” Okere said.

He identified Oracle Systems as ‘no-brainers’; requiring just interests from the youths to excel.

To, Abdulahmed Mustapha, director general, Lagos State Financial Systems Management Bureau, army of unemployed youths portends a nation seated on a keg of gunpowder; hence the State Government has continued to work with Oracle to find better ways to serve the citizens.

He recalled that, then government of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in 2001, made moves for the computerization of the accounting processes; results are the increase in the internally generated revenue (IGR) from N600miilion to presently N25billion monthly.

Mustapha said, “Oracle Systems have helped us keep our money well in terms of record keeping, which springs over to infrastructural development. In Lagos with about 20 million populations, every Lagosian needs one service or the other. So, technology is the only apparatus that will help less than 200,000 government workers to deliver services to the people and promptly.

“Today, Lagos State Public Service Staff Development Centre (LSPSSDC) has Oracle tools to train workers and develop youths for skills that will benefit the government and other OEMs. Banks are retrenching, telecoms are looking for ways to balance their books, so, when they are not employing, how do we keep the people’s hopes high, as a government? Currently, we are working with UniLag, LASU, LASPOTECH and other tertiary institutions in the State to even get the lecturers ready, because skills transfer is important”.

He expressed confidence that IT developmental agenda of Governor Babatunde Fashola will be sustained by the in-coming administration, adding that, “We have a 25-year developmental plan from where every government in the State draws its aspiration and ICT takes centre stage in the document”.

Also, Toju Onaiwu, director, Software at Edo State ICT Agency said that the Agency was established to booster the knowledge economy of the State.

He said, “”About six years ago when we came in, the Governor Adams Oshomole felt the need to identify key developmental areas, which led to the four-years short term and eight-years long term agenda on using ICT to drive business and governance.

“Right from 2009, we identified Oracle solutions have helped us in the areas of auditing and scrutinizing the workforce for ghost workers, saving N2billion in the first year. Procurement and payment systems are done using Oracle system”.

He said the Government also identified skill sets shortage as setback to actualizing the targets but has succeeded in recruiting youths to aid the Government in that regard.


Kindly share this post

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek believes that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. So since 2007, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and how they affect lives.

E-Business

Kaspersky Transforms Threat Intelligence Reporting into an Interactive Content Hub

Published

on

Kindly share this post

Easy interaction with exclusive Kaspersky reports, geo-filtering and actionable intelligence in a single click: expert insights on Advanced Persistent Threats (APT), Crimeware and Industrial Control Systems (ICS) threats are now available directly in Kaspersky Threat Intelligence Portal — with charts and visuals rendered inline.

In an era of increasingly sophisticated and frequent attacks, threat intelligence inevitably evolves into a business enabler that equips security teams with strategic advantage in their mission to back their company’s stability and growth.

Kaspersky, a recognised leader in threat intelligence, facilitates informed decision-making and proactive risk mitigation by introducing simplified access to actionable and relevant threat insights.

Kaspersky Threat Intelligence Reporting is a subscription-based service delivering over 200 in-depth analysis reports annually. These insights are compiled by Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team, Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team and Threat Research experts through the continuous tracking of more than 900 threat actors and campaigns.

Following the update, all reports previously representing a library of static PDF files (that is more than 2000 exclusive Kaspersky reports published to date) are now structured and can be examined directly in the Kaspersky Threat Intelligence Portal. For offline use, the standard PDF download format remains available as well.

The update also introduces deeper integration within each report, featuring direct links to indicators of compromise (IoCs), detection rules (including YARA), and MITRE ATT&CK® techniques. Users can now perform a single-click drill-down into specific threat actors, malware families and Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) across diverse geographies and industries.

Smart geo-filtering streamlines investigations by prioritising content explicitly mentioning a selected country, followed by broader regional intelligence, giving analysts a complete geographic view in a single query.

Enhanced Kaspersky Threat Intelligence Reporting supports the following use cases:

  • Customised content discovery: apply geo, industry and software filters to instantly retrieve a list of relevant reports.
  • Exclusive intelligence: access the most recent incident investigation reports, including those without public disclosure, to understand the nature of an attack and identify the actions required for mitigation.
  • Actionable intelligence extraction: extract and apply threat data from the reports and apply it across specific infrastructure to detect traces of compromise.
  • In-depth Threat Lookup and contextual analysis: investigate suspicious indicators identified within the network and quickly determine if a specific IoC is linked to a related threat report.

“Empowering cybersecurity teams in their mission-critical daily work to ensure business resilience in a complex threat landscape. This is the main driver behind our ongoing visual and functional improvement initiative.

While updating Kaspersky Threat Intelligence Portal, we focused on refining the customer experience by optimising processes of active investigation, proactive incident monitoring and detailed mitigation techniques,” comments Alexander Mazikin, Head of Threat Intelligence Product Line at Kaspersky.


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

E-Business

Weebly Websites to Shut Down for Nigeria, 66 Other Countries from September

Published

on

Kindly share this post

Weebly, US-based free, beginner-friendly, drag-and-drop website builder and eCommerce service, will no longer be available for customers in 67 countries, including Nigeria, after September 2026, according to an email seen by Nigeria CommunicationsWeek.

Weebly Websites to Shut Down for Nigeria, 66 Other Countries from September

Weebly said it is “winding down” services in different nations “due to changes in regulation and to simplify our global operations”.

The firm released a timeline of gradual changes, to help existing users access their data before the site shuts down.

Starting June 29, customers of 67 countries were no longer able to publish any new pages.

September 27, 2026: Weebly websites will be unpublished.

Before this date, users should download site content and data. Follow these steps:

Go to Account Settings, click on My Data, and select Download My Data.

This will help you migrate your content to another website provider, or retain it.

Concerned about privacy? Ask Weebly to delete your data, through the Erase Data and Forget Me option under the My Data tab on your account page.

December 26, 2026: Last date of accessing Weebly account.

Until this date, you will have access to the account, although sites will be unpublished.

This period helps users move their site, domains, and data to another service.

Domain names can be moved to another registrar only after 60 days from the registration date.

According to the Weebly website, users must make sure that they do not make changes to your registrant contact information (email, phone number, first/last name), as this will lead to a 60-day registrar lock and prevent you from transferring your domain name.

Note that domain name transfers work differently for country-specific domains; users must contact Weebly’s support team for assistance.

How to unlock, transfer domain name

From your Weebly Dashboard, go to websites, and click on Domains, then select Manage Domain.

Disable registrar lock, get EPP authorisation code, and copy the full code.

Disabling registrar lock will also disable privacy protection. It is important to set privacy protection once again with the new registrar.

Follow the instructions for the newly chosen registrar as the rest of the transfer process will be managed by them

Why is Weebly winding down?

While the firm attributed it to “a change in regulation,” online users have argued that Square, which acquired Weebly in 2018, is pushing its platform ‘Square Online’.

Square is originally a US-based payment processor, and the firm says it has since evolved into the “largest business tech platform”.

It calls Square Online a “free online store” but clarifies that those who do not sell online can also use it to build their websites.

In an earlier support update for the Weebly Website Builder, Square Online was consistently referred to as a better alternative, although at the time, it was said that Square “has no plans to discontinue the Weebly website builder”.

Which countries will Weebly no longer be available in?  Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbadoa, Belarus, Benin and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Others are: Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, and Côte d’Ivoire.

Also affected are: Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, French Polynesia,    Gabon, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Iceland, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Laos, Malaysia, Mauritius, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal and New Caledonia.

The rest are: Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Paraguay, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Korea, Suriname, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

 

 


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

E-Business

NOTAP to Commercialise University Research, Expands Patent Drive

Published

on

Kindly share this post

National Office for Technology Acquisition and Transfer (NOTAP), has commenced the process of patenting and commercialisation of research works by universities and other research institutions in the country.

NOTAP to Commercialise University Research, Expands Patent Drive

Dr. Obiageli Amadiobi, director general of NOTAP

Dr. Obiageli Amadiobi, director general of NOTAP, stated this in Abuja, during an interaction with journalists on her achievements since assuming office.

Speaking on the theme, “Strengthening Indigenous Capacity: NOTAP’s Drive for Technology Transfer, Local Content Development, and Innovative activities,” Amadiobi said the agency had involved both the academia and industry so that researchers can work on topics brought forward for commercialisation purpose.

“My minister is very intentional about this– very intentional about commercialisation of research results, which we have already submitted to him. They are meaningful researches, which we need to commercialise.

“We have established 69 intellectual property technology transfer offices in 69 universities that we are still counting. We have informed the vice chancellors of Nigerian universities to set up such offices and we will come and educate them on intellectual property and technology transfers.

“As we are doing this, we are also taking record of all the researchers of these universities and research centres and documenting them in a compendium.

“So, we have compendiums from the universities to us and we put them in a database. If you will recall, recently, the ministry, our supervising ministry, which is the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology, launched a programme titled Energise Commercialisation. This entirely was for commercialisation of all R&Ds,” she said.

On research Institutions carrying out research on areas of industry needs, she said, “NOTAP is bridging the gap between research and development with industry needs, “it is on our programme called the NITDF, NOTAP Industry Technology Transfer Fellowship. By this programme, we engage the universities and the industries, in what we call the triple helix. We liaise with the universities and the industries to sponsor, the industries will sponsor a Ph.D candidate in a Nigerian university to conduct relevant researches.

“They will provide the topics that they want researches for and such students will research on that with the assistance of the industries, because they wear the shoes, so they know where it pinches them. But usually, there are Ph.D candidates already established. This year alone, we certified about 15 of them to enter into this programme and they have gone into the various universities.

“And we are still looking for people to update some of the projects; the research topics we already have. But we are not getting enough persons to do the researches. So, we are going to do further advertisement to see if other candidates will come up.


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

Trending