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19/01/2008 ICT: A Tool for Nation Building
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After the 3-week orientation camp, each corper is assigned a PPA (place of primary assignment) to work at for the duration of the service year.
Additionally, you retain your youth corper obligations by participating in group sessions of community development every week. What CD group you
join is at your own discretion provided you choose early, else you could be assigned to any group with a quota to fill. I joined the InfoTech (information
technology) CD group and we meet up once a week to advance our knowledge in IT as well as educate the neighboring schools and communities on
the benefits and practical use of IT.
We annually host a public access seminar to discuss the many benefits and uses of IT. In this instance the venue was the University of Lagos Center for
ICT, Akoka, Yaba. The date and time was Saturday 9th February at 10:00am.
Chapter I: Finding the ICT Center
Chapter II: Getting Ready for the Gig
Chapter III: The Seminar Begins
Chapter IV: The President Talks
Chapter V: Magnus Consulting
Chapter VI: Debo Williams Talks
Chapter VII: Nnena's Interlude - UN Millenium Development Goals
Chapter VIII: Tayo Olosunde on Interpreneurship
Chapter IX: Femi Banigbe Asks a Question
Chapter X: Abhishek Srivastava Talks GSM Evolution
Chapter XI: Closing Remarks by Gbenga Sesan
Chapter XII: Passing the Torch
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Chapter I: Finding the ICT Center
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I had heard beforehand that the seminar would start by 10:00am so I kept a vigilant eye on my phone’s clock in a bid to extend my sleeping time as
much as possible into a red zone where the time taken to getup, get ready and get there would land me at the site of the seminar by 10:00am sharp.
After a while I just decided to get off my lazy ass and try to get there early. I didn’t have the required InfoTech CD group shirt; a shirt they execs
insisted we wear to the seminar, so I just donned the closest alternative; a white polo.
My Dad’s driver was available so I hitched a ride to the University. We spent a while traversing the maze that is the campus and after asking a couple
of bystanders as to the location of the Center we finally arrived at it’s deserted gates at about 9:15am. It finally dawned on me that I wasn’t abroad
anymore, I was in Nigeria, we don’t keep to time down here, we have our own time; the Nigerian time. People don’t come eagerly early for an event,
they come fashionably late. I was greeted by a few of my fellow corpers. There was a little controversy over my clothing but the lateness of the other
corp members overshadowed it. Time was running out, most of our group members hadn’t arrived, the venue was still in disarray, some of our guests
and speakers had already arrived on the scene and were getting impatient.
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Chapter II: Getting Ready for the Gig
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The venue was a mess, the cleaners hadn't tidied the place up as expected so I joined the cleanup crew and we started cleaning up the place and
arranging all the furniture. At about 10:00am when the seminar was scheduled to start we still weren’t ready and two of the guest speakers had
already arrived. Luckily the Audio Team just hit the scene and after setting up their equiptment, proceeded to fill the hall with nice prelude music.
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Chapter III: The Seminar Begins
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The hosts of the event; Ugochukwu Nwosu and Alero Ikomi took to the floor as the seminar officially started. We started off with an opening Christian
prayer by a senior member of the audience, followed by the Nigerian National Anthem and finally the NYSC Anthem.
Selected kids from the group of school children invited from schools with established InfoTech clubs each delivered a short message. Edokan Itoyan
from Agbaja Girls High School expressed how much she liked the InfoTech initiative for the opportunity it had given her and her classmates. Serian
Imiaran talked about how he had a fabulous experience with the InfoTech initiative and how he was especially thankful to the group for getting them
from computer illiteracy to computer literacy. Nosa Asemota from Eric Moore Secondary School thanked the InfoTech group for instilling upon him
and his classmates the knowledge to surf the internet, make use of e-mail, and keep in touch online with friends and family via the World Wide Web.
Finally, Igbaya from Surulere Secondary School gave a vote of thanks to the InfoTech group for helping them to improve themselves in general.
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Chapter IV: The President Talks
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After greeting all the guests, the President started with an apology for the fact that things had started as late as they did. He then went on to list the
many achievements of InfoTech. He pointed out that InfoTech was formed in 2002/2003 by the likes of Joe, Olugbenga (InfoTech alumni), Kelechi,
Debo Williams etc. He went on to state the fact that the current set of children are in the very first generation of InfoTech clubs in the entire country.
He started talking about how we as a group bring ICT to the ICT’less, giving examples of how InfoTech has made it's mark, like how it helped a
a particularly gifted little school kid fromEric Moore with a keen interest in IT achieve his dreams. The President then went on to introduce the many
speakers of the event.
1) Magnus Ekwunifo & Nkiruka Oko of Magnus Consulting, a consulting firm
2) Debo Williams, a Lawyer and InfoTech Zamfara State alumni
3) Tayo Olosunde, a public speaker
4) Femi Banigbe, the Managing Director of Compass Alliance
5) Abishek Shivastava of Motorola
6) Gbenga Sesan, the UN Ambassador for IT in Nigeria
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Chapter V: Magnus Consulting
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First up was Magnus Ekwunifo of Magnus Consulting, a nicely crafted presentation that border-lined on self-advertising, free publicity and cheap resale,
but all-in-all, a pretty informative talk.
Magnus started out by commending the group on organizing the seminar, emphasizing on how it was no easy task to organize such a gathering, going
into how all the guests are privileged to be there to grab all this knowledge and insisting that they stay till the conclusion of the seminar.
About Magnus Consulting
Magnus Consulting is a Management and Technology consulting company run by the following key individuals:
Professor Patrick Utomi (Chairman)
Magnus Ekwunifo (CEO, computer science graduate)
Ekpeyong Duke (Executive Director, strategic marketing & business admin graduate)
Chief Mrs. Christy Okoye (Director, finance & accounting graduate)
Segun Oloketuyi (Director, accounting graduate)
Sylvanus Eneche (Director, pharmacy graduate)
Magnus went on to talk about some of their projects in different sectors like the oil & gas industry, the telecoms industry, etc. He reflected on the ICT
industries past, changes from generation to generation (computers, software, etc) and dwelled on the life of Bill Gates as an example; talking about
how he changed the American economy by a factor of 40.
He introduced the term SME (small & medium scale enterprises) and talked about how they found a gap/niche in the market for SME’s and
created/targeted their flagship product; Sweet Corn, to fill it.
Levels of National Development
He started describing how nations develop from one level to another. The Service Level, being the
biggest industry, highest level of ICT, for example the entertainment industry, retail market, consultancy, etc all comprising of non-tangible resources.
The Industrial Level, being all about developing products from raw materials into their final state, e.g.
refining petrol from crude oil. And finally the Extractive Level, being the smallest industry, all about
extracting the raw materials from the soil, focussing on on-site, drilling for oil, farming, etc and made the point about how Nigeria as a country is
primarily still on this level.
The point he was driving at was that Nigeria is still on the extraction level, we still export most of our raw materials out of the country to be used by
the more advanced (industrial and service-level) countries instead of using them ourselves and developing our country in the process.
Key Growth Challenges
The speaker stressed the importance of drive and vigor, citing an example of how 5 boys working out of a small room wrote the POS software used by
most of Nigeria but stating the fact that most Nigerians lack this kind of will power. He talked about the knowledge gap in development skills,
competance of commercial applications (e.g. generic software like the Microsoft office suite), general skills, institutional support, lack of venture
capitalists for financial support and lack of support of anykind in general.
The Asian Tigers
The Asian Tigers refer to specific countries with economies and markets that were initially worse off than Nigeria but have grown over time to
become the dominant figures in the present day global economy. Such countries include Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea. The key to
their growth lay in how they found Niche’s in SME’s and exploited it. Business men would recruit the brightest out of university, using them to form
companies to aid the community. SME’s create employment in several industries like ICT empowerment, manufacturing, adverts, and telecoms
(economic automation, web design/applications/development, e-everything like e-banking, e-mail, e-health, e-government, e-NYSC, etc). The speaker
gave some examples like foreigners manufacturing products in Nigeria and exporting abroad as opposed to the vice versa, banks getting richer, how
the simple processes like generating the MTN recharge card code number is done in South Africa before being imported into Nigeria when the whole
process could easily (and cheaply) as well have been done in Nigeria.
Small & Medium Scale Enterprises
Magnus brought our attention to the fact that there are over 1 million registered SME’s in Nigeria and over 5 million unregistered SME’s in Nigeria.
That we should imagine making a product/software or providing a service for all of these SME’s that they depend on for their day-to-day functioning
and you have yourself a profitable business. He then asked the audience for their opinion on how to structure the engine of growth in an economy?
His solution...
The Sweet Corn Solution
Magnus Consulting's Sweet Corn Software is a mass market full financial business solution for SME’s. It has been in development for 3 years and
spent a further year undergroing rigorous testing. Features of the software package include process documentation, optimization, automation,
business incubation & planning (feasibility studies and the business plan), training etc. More information on the software can be found on their site.
Questions & Answers
Why the name Sweet Corn?
It’s an interesting solution, it’s like the food, once you chew you can’t stop and your compelled to keep chewing, just as you are compelled to keep
using the software.
What is the policy on after-sale support?
The company will keep on supporting the software after it is launched into the market; the implementers are on standby to help all customers.
What are the standout features of Sweet Corn when compared to other similar produces?
Sweet corn has all the features of similar market products like Peach tree and more. For example, for product entry it has a barcode scanner and a
sequential data entry procedure for products with no barcodes.
What does it take to be a SME? How did you get to where you are today?
The speaker (Magnus) answered both question together. He explained how he was an IT consultant, started out learning and teaching Microsoft
office, during this period he dabbled in a little Borland C++, later became a techie for an oil & gas company and then finally, after learning all that he
felt he could from the industry, he decided to enter into the finance sector and apply all his knowledge there (felt ICT is related to finance).
He rounded up the Q&A session by insisting that in order to make it in the industry you must be prepared to learn, must be highly flexible and
accommodating, teachable, and must have the drive, passion and dedication to succeed.
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Chapter VI: Debo Williams Talks
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Debo started of by enlightening us on the birth of InfoTech, then went on to the current state of affairs and finally dwelled on the future of the
initiative. He cited an example of how a colleague of his, Joe Ayo-Olutuashe in his time had trained 400 students for free, single-handedly transforming
them from IT illiterate to IT literate. He proceeded to show how InfoTech has been growing and spreading over the years, that the InfoTech group
started off from humble beginings in Lagos, and after some IT-like-minded individuals witnessed it's birth, they took a piece of the seed with them to
different states across Nigeria. Now, the InfoTech initiative can boast 5 states; Lagos, Zamfara, Katsina, Gobbe and Kano. He rounded up by talking
about the importance of taking ICT to the rural regions of the nation to be used as a building block for national development.
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Chapter VII: Nnena's Interlude - UN Millenium Development Goals
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Offering a refreshing break from the ICT focussed seminar, Nnena, one of the CD group members gave a short presentation on the UN Millennium
Development Goals. The point was that all nations around the world would come together and cooperate in meeting these goals by a specified date,
in this case by the year 2015. There are 8 goals in total (18 targets):
1. Eradicate extreme poverty
2. Primary education free for all
3. Gender equality
4. Reduction in child mortality
5. Improvements in maternal health
6. Cure HIV Aids and similar diseases
7. Help environmental sustainability
8. Formation of a global development partnership
The message was clear and heart-felt but you couldn’t help but laugh at the end when the message “please forward this email” showed up on
the presentation slide!
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Chapter VIII: Tayo Olosunde on Interpreneurship
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Tayo began his talk by addressing Nigerian national problems, stating that "followership" is the main culprit and that the leaders should not take
all the blame. He explained his point with the statement that if the "followership" stepped up then the leaders would have no choice but to
behave.
Tayo asked the audience for the definition of Entrepreneurship and Alero Ikomi defined it as:
"People in the community owning and running businesses with the main purpose of making money (turning a profit)."
. He then proceeded to talk about how people apply for jobs that they don’t really want to do, jobs that they don’t really understand,
jobs they know they don’t have the right motivation for etc, they just apply for any job that comes their way instead of focusing on just those that are
right for them. Tayo urged the audience to stand out from the crowd, not just via technical skills and knowledge but also in personality & culture,
boldness etc which he felt was much more important than any degree or qualification.
What is Interpreneurship?
Tayo introduced the term "Interpreneur" as a set of problem solvers, using their skills to satisfy a need or
solve a present day proble. He went on to discuss 3 main points relative to the modern dat Nigerian Interprenuer:
1. You must come up with a concise, compelling, personal mission statement, a statement that defines you.
2. If you're not contributing anything to the current generation then you have absolutely no right to use anything created from previous generations.
3. You must work hard and possess the necessary will and drive, we Nigerians are inherently lazy so we're already at a disadvantage!
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Chapter IX: Femi Banigbe Asks a Question
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“Everything you will ever acquire in life will be gotten for something you possess and are prepared to give.”
This was the famous quote that started off Femi's talk, and lay the foundation for the message he was trying to pass unto us.
Femi Banigbe is the Managing Director of Compass Alliance. He started with a little background information on old school ICT, how back in the days
they used to use Windows DOS and moved on to Windows 95 which was the in-thing then. He talked about how they would use 20 disks just to load
software and God-forbid that one of the last disks had a corrupt segment because it usually involved starting all over again and looking for a
replacement disk. The main theme of his talk was:
Will Africa Participate in the Next Wave of Innovations?
Femi stressed on how Africa was always on the receiving end of IT, how Africa has become the dumping ground for obsolete technology and how
other economies sell outdated devices and products to the Nigerian economy flooding our markets with outdated devices unwanted and discarded by
the rest of the world.
Just some food for thought, i was watching a very interesting news report recently on BBC news. Reporters were trying to track the distribution of
expired technology (for example, old TV sets, radios, etc) from 1st world countries where the rate of technological advancement is so rapid that new
tech can become old tech virtually over night. The reporters planted a GPS tracking device on a TV set which was amongst a group of similarly old TV
sets that were to be disposed of. Now instead of disposing of these TV sets, the contractor felt that they could make a quick buck from them instead.
Before you knew it, the TV's had been packaged in a container and shipped half way around the world, arriving in... you guessed it... Lagos! The news
crew, following the GPS beacon tracked the TV set to Lagos where it, among others were being sold from the back of a truck to very eager buyers.
Femi quoted the mobile phone revolution as an example, how at first the Nigerian market was flooded with the huge, bulky (Siemens?) phones that
they had discarded from overseas but now, we share the same current consumer market with the rest of the world. He continued by talking about
how back in the days, big businessmen would just leave these gigantic phones on their tables, charging indefinitely just to make them look up-to-date
and important.
“Anyone who knows what may always have a job, the ones that know how may always keep a job, but it's
the ones who know why that will always be the boss”
A famous quote by John Maxwell that Femi used to explain his next point. He stressed that it’s not just enough to learn how to use a finished product;
you need to learn to create a (similar) product. He continued about how it’s not healthy to always play the catch-up role; something new is released
and you have to learn how to use it and by the time your done learning a new version has already been released and vice versa, that you should instead
be the person releasing the new product/software because it’s yours. He linked his point to the Nigerian School Curriculum and how it’s getting
outdated (but the audience insisted that it was already long-outdated), that by the time a youth is through with his education, he/she is so far behind
the current state of the industry that they inherently become a menace to society.
The Operator Paradigm
Femi went on to introduce the philosophy of the Operator Paradigm. He talked about how Operators & Consumers are always trapped in the middle
of the loop (playing catch-up) while the Designers & Inventors will always remain on top and dictate the pace of things in the now and things to come.
He suggested a problem solving mentality; how we should be problem solvers and seek to solve a problem in the current society, after identifying the
problem we should go and get the necessary information, decipher it and use it to solve the problem, etc. He advised us to adopt this problem solving
mentality, that it would be required to go against the status quo and help innovation overcome the boundaries of tradition; tradition in this sense
refers to those with their mentalities locked up in past methods, processes and ways of doing things.
Femi was kind enough to leave his email address (Obafemi.Banigbe(at)gmail.com) behind should anyone
have any questions that require his attention, he promised to reply within a week due to his busy schedule and if it exceeded a week, he would make
arrangements to call personally.
Q & A for Femi and Tayo
Both Femi and Tayo agreed that in order to make it you must take on more responsibilities, giving others the impression that you can be trusted. They
also stressed the importance of networking (you cannot work alone) and that as you enter the professional life you must have several colleagues,
friends, associates around you so you can help one another in any area of specialisation and in any way you can.
For us, the NYSC outgoing, he predicted 1 out of 5 plans for our individual future:
1. Work, you would be retained by your company (PPA) or seek work elsewhere.
2. School, you would return to school to acquire a PHD.
3. Abroad, you would travel abroad to acquire a Masters Degree or MBA.
4. Business, you would start your own business.
5. Intern, you would register to become an intern in a company program.
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Chapter X: Abhishek Srivastava Talks GSM Evolution
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Abhishek works for Motorola and was invited to talk to us on the evolution of WIMAX. He kicked-off by congratulating the Batch A InfoTech members
on a successful year-run and in advance for passing out. He then proceeded with his presentation.
WIMAX stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access and it's a Long Term Evolution (LTE)
solution for GSM networks. Abhishek started off by stating the kind of features the consumers wanted out of their GSM networks:
• Greater bandwidth to enhance user experience (e.g. streaming video).
• Simpler network infrastructures for ease of use and development.
• Seamless mobility inbetween networks (e.g. broadband but on your phone).
He discussed how the current generation of consumers have an on-demand culture and that a solution would have to provided that can keep up with
activities such as music downloads, voice over IP (VOIP), instant messaging (IM), video streaming (e.g. YouTube), online & multiplayer gaming, web
browsing, file sharing and social networking (all you FaceBook addicts, you know yourselves!). He noted that the aim was not just to keep up with this
on-demand culture, but to offer these services quickly and affordably on portable devices like a mobile phone.
He commented on how the current generation tech had download/upload speeds of about 16KB/s while the proposed next generation tech would
have download/upload speeds of over 100MB/s (exactly 144MB/s according to Ijeoma!). He proceeded to describe the communication protocols that
would take place between the mobile phones and the transceivers; that the key is to make efficient use of bandwidth.
Abhishek rounded up by revealing to us all the major players that are already jumping on the WIMAX bandwagon. The list excluded Ericsson however
(Ijeoma gave a good reason for Ericsson's hesitance to get involved). Finally he displayed a diagram of the earth indicating all the countries where the
WIMAX technology would be pioneered but ironically Nigeria wasn't listed as one of them. He gave the excuse that the Nigeria phone industry still
relies on Microwaves; which from his experience is the least reliable method of transmission, and that when Nigeria adopts copper & fiber then it can
evolve into this new age system.
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Chapter XI: Closing Remarks by Gbenga Sesan
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Gbenga’s talk was inspiration and dealt with the state of IT in Nigeria in general. It was befitting for wrapping up the entire seminar. He started off by
brining everyone’s attention to the changing world, that by the time you understand the basics of whatever it is you're doing, the world has already
moved on. He stated that things change so quick that by the time you emerge from university all you would have learnt would have been made
obsolete and you would inherently become a misfit to the society. He went on to say that what matters most is what you do with the opportunities
given to you and dropped 5 guidelines for the youths as they embarked into the world of IT:
1. Knowledge is limited but only to the point where you put the invisible wall.
2. Knowledge is useless if not shared/applied.
3. Knowledge will forever be unlimited.
4. Leave those that want to complain alone, carve out an enviable career.
5. You loose nothing when you share your stories with others.
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Chapter XII: Passing the Torch
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At this point of the seminar, the hosts resumed and introduced the outgoing InfoTech Public Relations Officer (PRO); Collins to give a vote of thanks.
Collins thanked the audience members for attending the seminar and thanked the speakers for taking out time from their busy schedules to be with
us this day and sharing with us the wisdom of their experience. The outgoing InfoTech INEC Boss; Obitayo announced the results of the incoming
EXEC election, and finally said a short closing Muslim prayer to wrap up the Seminar. At this point the guests start leaving while the InfoTech group
gathers outside to take pictures and discuss the success of the seminar.
All in all the seminar was a huge success and everyone that attended should be glad they did. It was highly entertaining and informative, a nice
standard-setter for the next batch of InfoTech corps
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