November 2004

30th November 2004 Microsoft Speaks on Socio-Corporate Responsibilities: Microsoft (Nigeria) has rebuffed claims of negligence of its social-corporate responsibilities in Nigeria and blamed the regrettable misconception on the company’s policy not to blow its own trumpet with superfluous media and publicity hype.

30th November 2004 Africa's mobile takes 52% leap: Africa's great leap in mobile telephony penetration is not about to go down.

25th November 2004 Globacom winds up on national rollout: Globacom is winding up works on its buildout of fibre optic ring to service the massive unmet demand in Africa’s most populous country of 130 (less conservative figure is 150) million people. Nigeria geographic size is about 957,000 square kilometres.

18th November 2004 ICANN releases draft on strategic plan: Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)  has released for public comment a draft of the three year ICANN Strategic Plan.

15th November 2004 Wherever there's a phone, there's Mweb: Mweb Nigeria has pulled off the wraps on its pre-paid scratch card-based Internet service to flag off a major campaign for the mass market.

9th November 2004 Computer Warehouse Group is one in Ghana: Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) Limited is one year in Ghana and is clicking Champagne glasses to count its blessings.

7th November 2004 21st Century set to launch data warehousing centre: 21st Century Technologies Limited is soon to launch its data recovery centre.

7th November 2004 Niger privatises in 2005: Niger’s monopoly telco Sonitel has only 13 months to the end of its solo reign.

4th November 2004 Omatek opens fresh vista for banks: With N25 billion hanging over their heads to recapitalise before December 2005 or get their license revoked, banks may save on their yearly huge operational costs if they considered deploying locally manufactured computer hardware.
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October 2004

26th October 2004 Nigerian cafes are not licensed, says operator: Only 5% of cybercafes in Nigeria are registered by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) strengthening public perception that the regulatory authority has little control in the largely dicey last mile sub-sector for Internet access.

14th October 2004 Software and Drum: What the drum says is as loaded in meaning as what the software does among the ‘cult of code writers.’

14th October 2004 Between the Mast ands the Art: IT operators hardly see any real value to drive their services beyond using artists to sell their brands, but there is more to Art which is life and IT, also life, than using art forms to rubberstamp their brands.

13th October 2004 Nigeria's strike takes toll on telecom exhibition: “This is an act of God,” said ATCON’s President Charles Joseph after his exco held a brief meeting that morning before the association formally informed the media of its decision.

12th October 2004 BusyInternet invests $2million in Ghana: Over two million dollars have been invested so far in the Ghanaian economy by BusyInternet indicating its confidence in the local economy despite skepticism of global investors in Africa.

11th October 2004 Nigerian government may review duty on telecom import: The raging debate over tax-exempt for telecom equipment import is not about to end even as a flicker of hope rises for operators.

2nd October 2004 Local computer manufacturers eye Linux: Business appears set to explode in Nigeria’s fast growing IT market for 10 years old Linux with indigenous manufacturers of branded computers tinkering with plans to implement the operating system (OS) to make their PCs more affordable.

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September 2004

30th September 2004 CWG counts blessings, rewards staff: Computer Warehouse Group, one of Nigeria’s leading IT company, is counting its blessings 12 years after it opened shop in Black’s Africa’s biggest market.

18th September 2004 Software piracy boom continues despite clampdown: Software pirates are not about to give up on their trade and in Lagos, pirates would rather die than give up on the trade.

18th September 2004 Omatek Counsels on Microsoft OS Activation: Omatek Computers Limited has advised buyers of locally assembled systems to activate their original Microsoft Operating System (OS) within the expiry date to prevent the systems from crashing.

12th September 2004 RelTel eyes funding from private offer: RELTEL is to embark on a private placement programme (PPP) soon to increase its financial chest to ensure speedy expansion Nigeria's increasingly competitive telecom sector.

5th October 2004 Nigeria in software mood: Africa’s most populous country of 150 million is ‘software tripping.’

2nd October 2004 Nigerian government grants 14 companies recharge cards production licenses: The Nigerian government has approved fourteen companies to locally produce recharge cards starting January 2005 for the country’s burgeoning telecom industry.
 

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August 2004

24th August 2004 Ecobank here with MasterCard: MasterCard is finally here with plans by Ecobank Nigeria Plc to issue the globally acceptable credit card for its customers in Africa’s most populous country of over 130 million people.

22nd August 2004 Linux On The Run: Linux is only a decade old but it has won great market favour, perhaps, more than any other Operating Systems (OSs).

22nd August 2004 ACT 2004: The world goes to Mauritius: Mauritius, the beautiful Island off the coast of South Africa in the India Ocean, will for three days in September, play host to a knowledge-sharing forum on how to get Africa keyed into global trends in ICT.

16th August 2004 ATCON Offers Recipe for Universal Access: To make phones cheaper and more accessible, network owners in Nigeria want government to eliminate import tariff and multiple taxations.

16th August 2004 Omatek Gets Presidential Stamp: The Federal Government has made commitment to ensure the continuous success of Omatek Computer factory.

15th August 2004 Globacom Goes WAPping: Nigeria’s second national operator (SNO) Globacom has announced plans to get its landline services on in weeks.

10th August 2004 Industry players unveil IT Edge: IT Edge was formally unveiled last weekend for public reading at a brief ceremony.

10th August 2004 Broadband, Wifi, and race into new IT frontiers: Supercomm 2004 defines new direction for the communications industry with VoIP becoming the unstoppable hurricane.

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July 2004

24th July 2004 High Risk, Keep Off: Eight years ago, officials of HP inside the Silicon Valley office of the computer giant mooted the idea of opening a Nigeria office. It sounded good. But the idea was killed before they left the boardroom...

24th July 2004 Govt Reconstitute National ICT Strategic Plan Committee: The National ICT Strategic Action Plan Committee has been reconstituted and restructured under a new chairman.

24th August 2004 IT Edge Magazine Debuts: The print edition of IT Edge, multi-channels technology business news media debuts this week in Lagos and Accra.

24th August 2004 Revealed! How $16m Killed Vodacom/Vee Networks Deal: Racism, financial impropriety and not corporate governance or abuse of trust may have killed the Vodacom/Vee Networks deal.

21st August 2004 MTS Courts Market With New Logo: Reincarnated MTS First Wireless yesterday pulled the wraps off its new logo and payoff.

11th July 2004 Nigeria's health sector ties reform agenda to IT: The health sector, which had suffered neglect for decades, has been undergoing a lot of reforms since Nigeria’s civilian government took over power in 1999. But the blueprint for access and uses of IT would radically impact on it more than any other plans that have been drawn up by the government.

8th July 2004 CBN opens new deal for local software: Indigenous software practitioners in Nigeria may soon have their much-awaited big deal.

7th July 2004 Siemens closes in on Globacom’s 10 million target: Globacom has its eyes set on a five million capacity network in the next few weeks to grow to 10 million in months even as Siemens rounds up on the first phase of its multi-million naira contract.

6th July 2004 Govt admits funding as bane of software development: Over two weeks after a nationwide labour strike aborted its National Conference and AGM, the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) today, held its programme in Abuja asking that government paid more attention to software development.

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June 2004

24th June 2004 NNPC to stake N1.36 billion on satellite watch: Faced by endless attacks on its pipelines, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) is about concluding discussions on a new contract to facilitate satellite monitoring of its critical installation.

24 June 2004 NITDA Seeks to Sell .ng: Nigeria appears to have finally ended its domain name crisis five months after government waded into a protracted war among the local Internet communities over control of the Top Level Domain name country code (TLD cc).

24th June 2004 21st Century, Telenor in pact: One of Nigeria's leading telecommunication operators 21^st Century Technologies limited is fine-tuning its partnership deal with Telenor, Norwegian telecom giant.

24th June 2004 IOD EXTOLS OMATEK, CALLS FOR GOVERNMENT SUPPORT: With the labour market swelling and importation of IT consumables climbing over 9% of the country’s s yearly earnings, the Institute of Directors (IOD) has advised the Federal Government to initiate policies that would help in the rapid development of local IT industries.

19th June 2004 Who is banking online?: Banks are investing heavily on IT but only a small fraction of their customers have caught the drift in a cash-centred economy.

19th June 2004 STARCOMMS HERE WITH DATA: Voice now shares space with data on Starcomms network.

19th June 2004 MICROSOFT GEARS UP FOR HAUSA, YORUBA WINDOWS: Computer giant Microsoft is soon to enter the lab to work on Windows version for Yoruba and Hausa, two of Nigeria’s three major languages.

19th June 2004 New Suitors Eye Vee Network: Vee Network may have lost Vodacom but certainly not its charm. British Telecom and Orason of Egypt are among new prospective suitors courting the Nigerian mobile network for a deal.

16th June 2004 VGCC EYES NEW MARKET: Nigerian Telecom operator, VICTORIA GARDEN CITY COMMUNICATIONS (VGCC) Limited has its eyes on Abuja, Ibadan and Calabar as it expands its Port-Harcourt network in South-East Nigeria.

11th June 2004 Starcomms hits 100,000: Reborn private telecom operator (PTO) Starcomms has recorded 100,000 subscribers on its network.

11th June 2004 Pentascope Seeks Miracle for Nitel: The Dutch contract-managers of Nitel, Pentascope, officially clocked a year in May managing one of Africa’s oldest public telcos.

11th June 2004 Omatek gets a place in ITU: Omatek is in Geneva, inside the office of Mr. Yoshio Utsumi, secretary general of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

11th June 2004 Lagos Gets Digital Village: In an event that had all the colour of a political rally, Lagos State Governor formally launched its first Digital Village.

11th June 2004 Lagos earns more with IT: From its huge investment in IT in the last five years, Lagos State has increased its annual internally generated revenue from N600 million to N3 billion.

11th June 2004 eNigeria mobilises W/Africa for WSIS targets: By several measures, West Africa is not the favourite destination of the world and neither is it an investor’ delight.

11th June 2004 CWG Ghana launches new solutions at AITEC: Leading solutions provider CWG (Ghana) Ltd is to unwrap five new solutions into the market today in Ghana at the AITEC Ghana event that kicks off today.

11th June 2004 NCS Unfolds Conference Agenda: The Nigerian Computer Society (NCS) is reaching out to other stakeholders to actualise its IT plans.

11th June 2004 Sun Down on Vodacom, Econet Deal: The sun’s down on one of Nigeria’s promising telecom deals effectively killing a $150 (about N20.4 billion) equity and $1 (about N136 billion) investment in Econet Wireless Nigeria (EWN) by Vodacom South Africa. It is the pact with the shortest life span ever signed in corporate Nigeria.

11th June 2004 MTN grows stronger with $182 million profit: Nigeria’s mobile sector lives up to global forecast as MTN’s half year profit shores up previous posting by 80 per cent.

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