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In a bid to make the DStv installation process seamless for customers, MultiChoice Nigeria, the country’s leading pay TV provider, has launched an app for DStv installers as a part of its installation ecosystem.

The DStv Installer App is a management tool for assigning, monitoring, reviewing, troubleshooting and managing customer installations to ensure quality installation and better accountability.

Speaking on the launch of the app, the Managing Director, MultiChoice Nigeria, John Ugbe, explains the relevance of the App: “The DStv Installer app is the latest feature in MultiChoice Nigeria’s line of innovative services and products which benefit our partners and customers. The DStv installer app enables dealers to assign jobs to accredited installers within a specific area, whilst ensuring that our customers benefit from reduced waiting times and the pre-knowledge of their installer’s identity.”

The benefits of the DStv installer app also include an improved business process which reduces the manual operation of assigning an installer, tracking the installation and managing the installer. This in turn ensures reduced operational costs for the dealer, whilst also giving them the power to review and ensure all installations are done properly, and simultaneously guaranteeing a better customer experience.

The installer app joins other innovative means and platforms through which customers are aided with the DStv installation process. These include the DStv website www.dstv.com, and the DStv easy self-service platform, www.eazy.dstv.com which gives the subscriber ability to clear error codes, pay for subscription, find a DStv installer and upgrade or change packages, all from the comfort of their homes.

Speaking further, Ugbe noted that MultiChoice Nigeria takes pride in constantly evolving and advancing its systems and processes thus ensuring that its customers get the best experience from the point of purchase to installation and user experience. “We are thrilled to launch the installer app, and guarantee our customers of improved installation service delivery,” he further assured.

Also speaking at the launch of the App, Acting Head of Corporate Communications, MultiChoice Nigeria, Caroline Oghuma, noted that the interactive App will make installation and service more seamless and more efficient.

Project and Field Service Manager, MultiChoice Nigeria, EkomEsang assured customers that the one-year Decoder Warranty and the six-month Installation Warranty will still cover the new App for old and new subscribers.

Journalism practice in Nigeria will get a boost with a proposed training and workshop initiated by Daria Media to further revolutionise the profession in the country.

Piqued by the increasing trend in fake news and unwholesome public relation gimmicks in the system, Daria Media, promoted by Kadaria Ahmed, former BBC journalist, editor of 234next and host of the Channels TV talk show, Straight Talk and The Core, will be holding a 3-city journalism training for aspiring journalists.

According to a statement from the media group, the training will also underscore the urgent need to rejuvenate the mass media towards practicing independent, competent, ethical and socially responsible journalism more than ever before especially for those reporting in/on Nigeria. It will also provide participants with a handle on how to build commercially viable and sustainable media outfits as a means of circumventing issues of ethics, professionalism and partisanship.

Entries for the training opened on Monday November 6 and will close on Monday November 20, 2017.

This first phase of the initiative is seen to also serve as a Community service as the 3 cities to host the training are Kano, where she went to school; Uyo, where she served out her National Youth Service and Lagos where she works and calls home

According to the media statement: “The Daria Workshop Series is a training platform for budding journalists; helping them to connect to the reality of journalism practice, clear out illusions and identify their unique niche and place in the continued existence of their field of endeavour. The program will be delivered by trainers from Beyond Broadcasting, Premium Times and Daria Media.”

Facilitators will include former BBC journalist, now with Beyond Broadcasting, a company that trains staff at Aljazeera, the BBC and many other media houses around the globe, Ben Williams; Founder of Premium Times, Dapo Olorunyomi, and Kadaria Ahmed.

At the end of the training, 3 lucky female participants will become the recipients of the inaugural Mamman Marshall Scholarship for Women in Journalism. The scholarship is named after Kadaria Ahmed’s father who is described as a forward-thinking man well ahead of his times.

The statement from Daria Media further stated that the ‘Mamman Marshal Scholarship for Women in Journalism’ is instituted to celebrate a man, who, against the grain of his time, educated his daughters; giving them an advantage that sets them apart from their peers. “This scholarship award, set up by one of his daughters who has risen to become a reference point, a positive image and an example against a backdrop of impossibilities and impediments in the field of Journalism; is to honour her father and his extraordinary legacy.”

To participate in the training and become eligible to earn a full undergraduate scholarship at the three participating schools; Bayero University Kano, Lagos State Univeristy and the University of Uyo,  interested students can apply by visiting http://daria.media/training-programs/application-form/.

 L-R: Malcolm Johnson, Her Excellency, the Governor of Maputo, Honourable Minister of Transport and  Telecommunications, His Excellency, the Prime Minister of Mozambique, Dr Ema Chicoco, Shola Taylor.

Secretary-General, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), Mr. Shola Taylor, has warned of the risk of many countries missing out on the benefits of IoT, Big Data, AI and augmented reality innovation if they do not invest sufficiently in broadband and ICT services.

Taylor, who gave his warning while speaking at the opening of CTO ICT Forum’17 held in Maputo, Mozambique, recently, said “With the Internet of Things, we have a new environment conducive of opportunities for new forms of digital entrepreneurship or public service delivery. But he reminded that there are still far too many without access to the Internet, who are unable to take advantage of the opportunities and benefits digital technologies have to offer.

 “We need to investigate new options to provide broadband, including low-orbit space solutions. To achieve this, more investment is essential. Of course, universal service funds must continue to invest and deliver on increasing access. Countries must invest in services for their citizens, and in the infrastructure to support the delivery of these services, or they will miss out on the benefits of IoT, Big Data and augmented reality technologies.”

Speaking in his opening remarks, Mozambique’s Prime Minister, His Excellency Carlos Agostinho do Rosário, said: “It’s important for us to continue developing infrastructures as well as information and communication technology services in order to ensure greater availability and coverage of online services.” 

“Access is front and center; it is the first step towards a digital nation,” said Mr Johnson. “Big Data, Cloud computing, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and 5G will all shape our digital future. They are important steps on the journey towards a digital nation” and “we need to bring together technologists, regulators and policy makers, not only from the ICT sector, but all the sectors that will increasing depend on the technology, in order to address these challenges,” he added.

The theme of this year’s Forum was Digital Nations, Digital Wealth, with discussions focused on the prospects for socio-economic growth in a digital future comprising virtual environments, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, machine-to-machine communications and augmented reality applications. The event include participation form other organisations such as ICANN, Facebook and Huawei who actively contributed to various sessions on universal broadband, regulation of virtual environments, the digital economy, security and privacy.

Consensus that emerged from the discussions throughout the event, included:

• The journey to the digital future is both individual and collective.
• Public investment is a necessity to connect the unconnected, as although 3G covers 85% of the world, only half of the world population is connected to the Internet.
• Countries must develop coordinated multisectoral strategies for ICTs, to include broadband infrastructure, health, education, agriculture and other areas.
• IoT and augmented reality may require less and but more flexible regulation.
• The need to balance open data with privacy.
• Government to lead by deploying e-government services.
• Competitive digital economies require government to create the enabling conditions, laws and frameworks, including for machine-to-machine communications.
• Governments must make cybersecurity a priority.

CTO ICT Forum is the annual ICT conference of the Commonwealth. Hosted this year by INCM Mozambique, it was attended by ICT ministers and regulators, national information technology agencies, universal service agencies, civil society leaders, technology solution providers, telecoms companies, consulting firms, social media companies and financial and investment institutions from 21 countries.

Preparations are in top gear for the establishment of a National Cyber Security Research Center by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) which will serve the purpose of building capacity and coordinating incident management and contributing to knowledge generation in cyber security.

Speaking at a forum in Lagos, Director, Cyber Security at NITDA, Christopher Okeke noted that cyber warfare is a global scourge that needs to be addressed with global collaboration, which will be initiated by the proposed research center.

“It is imperative to note that this war cannot be fought in isolation. Nations collaborate, share strategies and highly classified information and skills.”

He pointed to NITDA is already working with the Cyber Security Malaysia and the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Center (CCIRC), among other in this regard.

Okeke, who was represented by the Deputy Director/Ag. National Coordinator, Office of National Content (ONC), Lazarus Ikoti however challenged private sector stakeholders to develop cyber security tools and Apps to educate and enlighten Nigerians. He assured that NITDA have special interest in collaborating the private sector in such developmental feats.

He however noted that as a regulatory agency, standardisation is uppermost in the NITDA’s function because it is only through effective compliance with extant standards and guidelines that the Agency can steer the direction of IT activities in the country.

He explained that NITDA is currently reviewing the standards and guidelines on development of government websites and minimum network security, to limit it to areas of that affect cyber security.

“There is no doubt in my mind that when these standards, when fully reviewed, publicized and operationalized; with mechanisms for compliance, would improve on our national cyber resilience.”

Okeke further highlighted the role of NITDA in national cyber security development as international capacity building and enlightenment; policy formulation and standardization; and internal and external collaborations.

He acknowledged that Nigeria’s current rating with ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI), which rates countries on legal measures, technical, organizational, capacity building and collaborations, needs be to improve from the current global 14^th position.

Currently NITDA’s Cyber Security Department (CSD), which is saddled with the responsibility of instituting incident handling and mitigation strategies for MDAs and private sector organisations, already has component units that address Business Continuity; Digital Security Professional Development; Computer Emergency Readiness and Response Team (CERRT) and Public Key Infrastructure development.

Both Apple and Samsung continued to occupy the top positions in the global smartphone market in the second quarter of 2017. The other four positions are occupied by local Chinese OEMs Huawei, Oppo, and Xiaomi. The latest numbers are coming from market research company Canalys.

The South Korean has emerged as the winner, with shipments of over 79 million units in the quarter. Although its year over year growth has been relatively flat something that tells us a lot about the company’s performance in the coming quarters. Earlier this year, in March, Samsung launched the Galaxy S8 and S8+ in the market. The Android-powered flagship smartphones were seen as the biggest threat to Apple iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

“Shipments of the S8 have been strong in some regions, but there are signs that demand has been overestimated,” said Canalys Senior Analyst Tim Coulling. “Canalys’ channels research has revealed inventory buildup in Europe, which when combined with discounting in the US, indicates Samsung may be testing the limits of Android smartphone pricing.”

Apple recently reported its fiscal third quarter 2017 earnings, nothing that it sold 40.7 million iPhones. Canalys’ latest data confirms that Apple held the second position by shipping 41 million iPhones, with an annual growth of 2 per cent. That was despite the fact that Apple iPhone sales always tend to slow down during this timeframe as consumers start looking forward to the next-generation model. iPhone 8, the company’s upcoming smartphone, will be launched later this year. The smartphone is said to feature an all-new design, dual cameras, wireless charging, and 3D face recognition features. Apple is also expected to launch the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus, alongside the iPhone 8.

“As Apple looks to refresh the iPhone, even with its unique user experience, it too must justify any significant price increases with tangible improvements to both feature set and design”, he said.

Huawei, in comparison, shipped 38 million smartphones in the quarter, accounting for a 20 per cent growth year over year. Oppo and Xiaomi were the biggest gainers occupying fourth and fifth positions, and growing shipments of 44 per cent and 52 per cent respectively. Last month, the market research firm reported that Xiaomi was the second most popular smartphone vendor in India, next to Samsung. Meanwhile, Oppo held the fourth position, thanks to the popularity of the brand among tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

Over 340 million smartphones shipped in Q2 2017, an increase of almost 4 per cent year on year. Although the report noted that both Indian and Chinese smartphone markets were down in the second quarter of 2017.

However, Gartner data for Q1 showed that both Apple and Samsung lost market share in the first quarter of the year as Chinese brands continued to increase their sales.

iPhone sales actually grew very marginally year-on-year, but the market as a whole grew 9% in the same period, resulting in the decrease in market share. Apple saw its global share fall from 14.8% to 13.7%, but market leader Samsung was hit harder.

Oppo saw the largest percentage gain, growing from 4.6% to 8.1%. Other winners were Vivo (4% to 6.8%) and Huawei (8.3% to 9%).

Sales of iPhones were flat, which led to a drop in market share year over year. Similar to Samsung, Apple is increasingly facing fierce competition from Chinese brands Oppo and Vivo, among others, and its performance in China is under attack.

While Chinese brands sell most phones in their home market, they are also starting to do well in other emerging markets, says Gartner.

The top three Chinese smartphone manufacturers are driving sales with their competitively priced, high quality smartphones equipped with innovative features. Furthermore, aggressive marketing and sales promotion have further helped these brands to take share from other brands in markets such as India, Indonesia and Thailand.

Apple is fighting back with a new ad campaign aimed squarely at Android users. The campaign partly tries to persuade Android users that iPhone is a more capable device, but is mostly geared to showing how easy it is to make the switch.

The Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA) has promised that its quarterly forum that covers broad issues that relate to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Financial Technology (FinTech) will address and give insight into present challenges and solutions in the industry.

As the Q3 edition of the Forum draws near, Founder/Vice Chairman of Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) Plc, Mr. Austin Okere has accepted to Chair the event that will focus on the prospects and challenges of FinTech in Nigeria.

Mr. Okere, who expressed his pleasure at the honour of chairing the event thanked NITRA for bringing the sector into focus.

In a release by NITRA, the media association noted that digital disruption is changing how traditional banking services, payments, and remittances are now offered in the digital economy. “Almost all sectors of financial services including payments, money transfers, banking and more are being re-imagined by non-traditional providers and FinTechs, while the traditional incumbent providers are reinventing themselves very quickly to understand better, the puzzle presented by FinTech and how they can leverage on the digital movement.” This has given rise to the need to bring it to the front burner.

The event also offers the Banking, ICT and FinTech industries an excellent opportunity to showcase some of their achievements before the largest gathering of industry-wide stakeholders. It affords them the opportunity to share their contributions to Digital Payments as well as efforts towards actualizing financial inclusion in the country.

NITRA, an umbrella body for journalists reporting information and communications technology in Nigeria has themed this third edition of its quarterly forum, “Digital Payment: Prospects and Challenges of a Financially Inclusive Nigeria.”

The event which holds on September 29, 2017 at Eko Hotels, Victoria Island, Lagos, will not only highlight the challenges and opportunities in the FinTech space in Nigeria, but will also provide knowledge and networking platform that will bring the Nigeria Fintech industry at par with its counterparts across the globe.

Austin Okere is Founder of CWG Plc and served as its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. He has been Vice Chairman of Computer Warehouse Group Plc since June 2015 and also its Director.

He serves as a member of the World Economic Forum Business Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He also serves on the Board of the National Competiveness Council of Nigeria and Initiative for Global Development, a Washington based nonprofit organization that drives poverty reduction by catalyzing business growth and investment in the developing world.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors of Nigeria (IoD) and serves as a member of the National Telecoms Advisory Council of the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON). He is also a Fellow of the Nigerian Computer Society (NCS).

Okere is Entrepreneur in Residence at the Columbia Business School, New York.

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has hinted that lack of funding due the ongoing recession has been a major challenge delaying the issuance of the new National e-Identity Cards to Nigerians.

Speaking at his debut interactive media session in Lagos, recently, The Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Engr. Aliyu Aziz, said since commencement of the exercise in 2012 a total of 18.5 million enrolments and registrations have been done but the Commission has only been able to issue 1.2 million cards because of the current economic recession in the nation.

Engr. Aziz, also used the opportunity to clarify the misconception held in some sections of the society that NIMC’s primary role was merely the production and issuance of National Identity Cards to citizens.

Engr. Aziz spoke against the backdrop of the Federal Government’s renewed efforts, spearheaded by NIMC, to enlighten Nigerians on the importance of enrolling to obtain the NIN, which fully confers on any citizen so enrolled Nigerian citizenship.

“It is the duty of every citizen to enrol and obtain his or her National Identification Number, which entitles one to be fully regarded as a Nigerian citizen,” he stated, adding “without the NIN anyone’s claims of being a Nigerian citizen are doubtful; that is what the NIMC Act stipulates.”

NIN is a unique 11-digit number assigned to an individual upon successful enrollment into the national identity database (NIDB).

While emphasizing the fact that getting the NIN was more important than the e-ID Cards, the NIMC boss hinted that Lack of funds tied to recession is currently slowing the production and issuance of the cards to those already registered.

He noted that any Nigerian without the National Identification Number (NIN) issued by the commission runs the risk of being regarded as a non-Nigerian citizen.

Reeling out the many benefits of the NIN, Engr. Aziz said these include “one person one identity, enhances participation in the political process, important tool for fight against corruption and terrorism, enables citizens to exercise their rights and facilitates management of subsidies and safety net payments such as apply to Internal Displaced Persons.”

Other benefits of the NIN are that it facilitates service delivery in Ministries, Departments and Agencies; enhances the work of Law Enforcement Agencies thereby providing public safety, policing, national security and border protection, helps launder Nigeria’s image, elimination of ghost and multiple identities and enhances ability of citizens to assert their identity.

The “NIN also enhances access to credit from financial institutions, protects citizens from identity theft thereby being an antidote to identity theft driven frauds, it expands access to other financial services including insurance, it enhances e-commerce by providing a means of payment, it is a tool for non-repudiation and security for financial transactions and it facilitates financial inclusion and hence cashless economy,” he stated.

Engr. Aziz went on to list some of the key achievements of the Commission to include the populating of the National Identity Database, which currently boasts of about 18.5 million records, the establishment of up to 809 NIN enrolment centres nationwide, launch of the new electronic National ID Card with multiple functions, achievement of GVCP Certification and recertification of the NIMC Card Personalisation Bureau in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, Backend Infrastructures like the ABIS, NIDB Storage, Security Network, Datacentre, DR Sites and the ISO 27001: 2013 Certification and Re-certification as well as the commencement of the enrolment of minors (children of ages 0 – 16).

NIMC was established by the NIMC Act No. 23 of 2007, as an offshoot of the Department of National Civic Registration (DNCR), to create, establish and maintain a Unique National Identity Database, register persons covered by the Act, assign a Unique National Identification Number (NIN), provide authentication platform for identity verification, issue General Multi-Purpose Cards (GMPC) and harmonize and integrate existing identification databases in Nigeria

The federal government has said it will utilize the opportunities provided by global organizations like Google to train the increasing technology savvy youths in various ICT capacity development fields of endeavours into entrepreneurs.

Speaking at a forum in Lagos, Minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu promised that the ministry will continue to support the establishment of companies or organizations in the areas of hardware and software development by ensuring that they are protected through requisite regulations.

He said that Nigeria as a nation has so much more to learn and gain from the digital revolution being championed by Google.

The Minister added that Google, being one of the tech giants in computing and the web, has been at the centre of this digital penetration, with the popularity of its open platforms, powering lots of smartphones with android and other digital tools.

“A lot has changed in Nigeria since the huge wave of Internet and mobile adoption globally. Today, access to smart phones and the web is growing.  Indeed, there are about 149 million mobile subscribers and 97 million internet users, 76 percent of them can access the internet on their phones.

“The growth in adoption of these trends amongst Nigerians presents huge opportunities for businesses which is important for Government’s ambition on economic diversification. However, only a small number of Individuals and enterprises are currently taking full advantage of new digital opportunities available.

While commending the plan to train more Africans in digital skills in the coming year, the Minister disclosed that through critical partnerships and collaborations, support of Government and leveraging on Google’s strong community relationships, the goal to train one million people in Nigeria and Africa at large has reached its target.

Barrister Shittu pointed out that the web is a driver of economic growth, and is transforming society as a whole. Therefore People must be equipped through training and re-skilling to make use of the tools and take advantage of it for entrepreneurship, employment and e-inclusion.

He said there is no better time to collaborate with Google Nigeria and to harness the benefits of ICT than now when the Nigerian economy is in dire need of diversification, adding that ICT is strategic in driving productivity and efficiency in all sectors of the economy and that virtually all sectors leverage ICT for optimal performance.

The Minister acknowledged that it is only logical that Government is determined not only to create policies and incentives but also collaborate with global tech leaders like Google to ensure smart digital Nigeria initiative and to make technology more accessible and useful to drive more businesses and in turn, contribute to a richer and diversified economy.

He charged Google to go beyond the One million mark it set for Africa.

“Having over one million digitally skilled young people in Africa is not good enough, you can do more than that. If many young people have the right skills, they will build businesses, create jobs and boost economic growth across the continent.”

He expounds: “As government’s preparation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is predicted to happen globally in the very near future, the Federal Government had conceived a national ICT Park and Exhibition Centre in the Federal Capital Territory. The establishment of the Centre will encourage investments in the ICT sector and complement the ICT University which will also produce the required skilled manpower for the industry.  “

The Minister further noted that taking into consideration the present administration’s stance on job creation, revenue generation and security, the government is determined to leverage ICT and open up the economy to foreign investors just as it did in the Telecom sector. “Despite coming up with the Economic Growth and Recovery Plan, we are determined to actualize the content of our very comprehensive ICT roadmap. This is imperative for the country’s highly import-dependent and consumption-driven economy. This administration has hinged the Economic Recovery Plans on ICTs as well as with fiscal and strategies policies,” he said.

ITU, the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technology (ICT), has published the Global Cybersecurity Index 2017 (GCI-2017), which measures the commitment of ITU’s 193 Member States to cybersecurity and is the second in this index series.

According to the Report, Nigeria ranked 4^th in the African Region and 46^th globally with 0.569 marks. The first three positions in Africa, where occupied by Mauritius (0.830), Rwanda (0.602) and Kenya (0.574), respectively.

Member States were classified into three categories by their GCI score viz.

• Initiating stage which refers to the 96 countries (i.e., GCI score less than the 50th percentile) that have started to make commitments in cybersecurity.
• Maturing stage, which refers to the 77 countries (i.e., GCI score between the 50th and 89th percentile) that have developed complex commitments, and engage in cybersecurity programmes and initiatives.
• Leading stage, which refers to the 21 countries (i.e., GCI score in the 90th percentile) that demonstrate high commitment in all five pillars of the index.

Nigeria was classified under the maturing stage, that is, those countries that have developed complex commitments and engage in cybersecurity programmes and initiatives.

The GCI-2017 measures countries’ commitment to cybersecurity and helps them to identify areas for improvement. Through the information collected, it aims to illustrate the practices in use so that ITU Member States can identify gaps and implement selected activities suitable to their national environment – with the added benefits of helping to harmonize practices and fostering a global culture of cybersecurity.

The 2017 publication of the GCI continues to show the commitment to cybersecurity of countries around the world. The overall picture shows improvement and strengthening of all five elements of the cybersecurity agenda in various countries in all regions. However, there is space for further improvement in cooperation at all levels, capacity building and organizational measures. As well, the gap in the level of cybersecurity engagement between different regions is still present and visible. The level of development of the different pillars varies from country to country in the regions, and while commitment in Europe remains very high in the legal and technical fields in particular, the challenging situation in the Africa and Americas regions shows the need for continued engagement and support.

“At ITU, we are committed to making the Internet more secure, safer and trustworthy, for the benefit of all,” said Houlin Zhao, ITU Secretary General. “While the impact generated by cyber-attacks, such as those carried out as recently as 27 June 2017, may not be eliminated completely, prevention and mitigation measures to reduce the risks posed by cyber-related threats can and should always be put in place. The GCI reaffirms ITU’s commitment to build confidence and security in the use of ICTs.”

In addition to showing the overall cybersecurity commitment of ITU’s 193 Member States, the index also shows the improvement and strengthening of all GCI indicators, which are defined by the five pillars of the ITU Global Cybersecurity Agenda as: legal, technical, organizational, capacity building and international cooperation.

All of the six ITU regions are represented in the top ten commitment level in the GCI. There are three from Asia and the Pacific, two each from Europe and the Americas, and one from Africa, the Arab States, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. This suggests that being highly committed is not strictly tied to geographic location.

The GCI-2017 also shows that there is space for further improvement in cooperation at all levels, capacity building and organizational measures.

“As the global community rapidly embraces ICTs as key enabler for social and economic development, it is vital that cybersecurity is made an integral and indivisible part of the digital transformation,” said Brahima Sanou, Director of the ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau. “We continue to encourage governments to consider national policies that take into account cybersecurity so that everyone can reap the benefits of the online world.”

The first edition of the Global Cybersecurity Index was launched in 2014.

Following interventions by telecom regulatory body, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Apex Bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) the rift between telecom operator, Etisalat Nigeria and a Consortium of banks is coming to a favourable end.

Etisalat has announced the appointment of a reconstituted Board of Directors and change in management of the company, a request the bank had earlier made as pre-requisite to further extending the timeline for the loan facility afforded the telecom company.

In a statement by the company, Etisalat Nigeria confirmed Dr. Joseph Nnanna as the Chairman of the new Board, while Mr. Oluseyi Bickersteth, Mr. Ken Igbokwe, Mr. Boye Olusanya and Mrs. Funke Ighodaro are also on the Board.

Mr. Boye Olusanya has also been confirmed as Chief Executive Officer. He replaces Mr. Matthew Willsher, while Mrs. Funke Ighodaro takes over from Mr. Olawole Obasunloye as Chief Finance Officer.

The New Board will midwife the company through the restructured repayment of the loan facility which had put the company in negative public eye and further ensure that the company comes back to profitability.

The statement from the company further assured that Etisalat Nigeria will remain committed to continuously serving its subscribers, through the provision of innovative products and services with its committed staff, partners and vendors to empower the needs of customers and improve their experience on the network.

It also read in part: “The Consortium of Lenders, working with the regulators NCC and the Central Bank of Nigeria are committed to the on-going efforts to restructure the company towards a path of long term success of the business and the appointment of a seasoned board of directors and top management is a testament to this. The decisions reached so far reflect the high confidence all the stakeholders have in the continued viability and sustainability of the business. The smooth transition is also proof of management’s commitment to ensure that the operations of the company run seamlessly, and customers continue to enjoy superior network quality and positive customer experience.”

It will be recalled that the media was recently awash with news of the purported takeover of telecommunications company, Etisalat, following the expiration of the deadline for repayment of the $1.2 billion (N541 billion) loan from a consortium of banks. This was however debunked by both Etisalat and the banks, which stated that both parties were working it out and had begun phased restructuring of the company’s management.

The debacle led to the withdrawal of parent body, Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat Group, a position that will probably lead to infusion of new investors and subsequent status of a wholly Nigerian company on the telecom firm.