BusinessDay 06 Feb 2018

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22 BUSINESS DAY BDTECH E-mail: jumoke.akiyode@businessdayonline.com Reliable power, not a constraint for Data Center operations – MDXI JUMOKE AKIYODE-LAWANSON Gbenga Adegbiji, General Manager of MDXI, the MainOne Data Center subsidiary has answered the most asked question about the survival of data centers in Nigeria, even with limited power supply. According to him, the data center which achieves almost 100 percent uptime does not have a problem with power generation to keep it running, even as over 90 percent of its power comes directly from the national greed. Adegbiji was prompted to speak about the data center’s power situation after reports were made that ‘power supply is a key problem for data centers across Africa and Nigeria’s power issues are on a larger scale and more constant than what is experienced in other parts of the world.’ ‘It is a myth that power hungry industries such as data centers cannot successfully operate in Nigeria. MDXI has enjoyed over 90 percent power uptime since 2015 and is poised to achieve 95 percent availability in 2018, based on a growing partnership with a local power distribution company,’ he said. During an interview at the data center recently, Adegbiji stressed the MDXI facility was purpose-built to mitigate all challenges that global businesses may have in a Nigerian data center. He mentioned that be- all ‘last-mile’ challenges encountered in electricity distribution. This has guaranteed an increase in power availability at the data center from 50 percent average commercial power availability to between 95 percent and 98 percent,’ Adegbiji said. Aside the steady state of operation and the attendant reliability of equipment and systems that the public power provides, MDXI has been able to guarantee a significant cost savings which is passed on to its numerous customers which include Banks, Government parastatals, international financial organizations and the large over-the-top operators. The data center’s performance and service delivery has earned the company an Impact Award during the Presidential Enabling Business EnvironiSON Technologies and OutSystems have announced a strategic partnership focused on helping organisations in African and Middle Eastern regions achieve digital transformation faster. iSON Technologies, an Information Technology (IT) player catering to the African and Middle Eastern markets will use the OutSystems low-code platform to accelerate digital transformation initiatives in the regions. OutSystems combines the power of low-code development with advanced mobile capabilities, enabling visual development of entire application portfolios that easily integrate with existing systems. The partnership, they say, is aimed fore constructing the data center, the company realised constant 24 hours’ everyday power supply was a critical challenge for businesses requiring high availability colocation infrastructure within Nigeria and invested in a direct private connection to the National grid through newly privatised Eko Electricity Distribution Plc. ‘We recognised the crippling impact of downtimes, the peculiarities of the Nigerian power environment as an albatross that had forced many companies to relocate outside Nigeria and ensured MDXI was established with the most robust electricity power and backup arrangements, in line with the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) ANSI/ TIA-942, the leading Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers. Though we made provision for the full complement of generators and diesel tanks with capacity of over 100,000 liters to secure the data center’s operations and guarantee 99.995 percent availability, we also partnered with Eko Disco and co-invested in a dedicated 33KV feeder and line connection to the National Grid through the Ajah sub-station,’ Adegbiji said. He further explained that, connecting directly to the grid provides access to multiple power generating plants and guarantees backup in the event that one power plant goes down. ‘This was a capital investment of hundreds of millions in substation equipment and dedicated power lines which bypass L-R: Ahmed Uba Nana, Pro-Chancellor/Chairman, Governing Council, Federal University Wakuri; Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman, NCC; Abubakar Musa Kadiri, Vice Chancellor, Federal University Wukari and Maryam Bayi, Director, Human Capital and Infrastructure Group, during a courtesy visit to the Nigerian Communication Commission in Abuja recently. at empowering enterprises to quickly create and deliver effective, innovative and compel- iSON Technologies, OutSystems partner to deliver low-code soluling enterprise-grade applications. With OutSystems, iSON Technologies now has an in-house development solution for replacing existing legacy systems and developing additional functionality with a short time to market. The joint solution will enable organisations in telecoms, BFSI, Real- Estate, Oil and Gas, Manufacturing, Retail and other sectors to rapidly capitalise on market opportunities. Speaking about the partnership, Akshay Grover, Chief Growth Officer, iSON Technologies said, ‘OutSystems is one of the most advanced low-code platform and it is consistently rated a leader by the analyst community. The partnership is a win – win with the ment Council (PEBEC) Impact Awards for its contribution to improving Nigeria’s rank in the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ index through its colocation of critical server infrastructure for the Federal Government. Adeoye Fadeyibi, Chief Executive Officer, Eko Disco, highlighted MDXI as a stellar example of how privatisation of the power sector is making a positive contribution to the Nigerian economy by guaranteeing a higher level of power availability. ‘With MDXI’s significant investment in last mile transmission and distribution infrastructure, EKEDC has been able to provide an average of 88 percent uninterrupted uptime to the data center on a monthly basis since its launch in January 2015,’ he said. sectors’ desire to come up to speed to cater to its customer’s needs. As we focus on digital transformation for organizations in the African and Middle Eastern regions, this partnership will empower us to deliver enterprise mobility solutions fast.’ Also commenting, Bob Wilson, VP of Global Channels and Alliances, OutSystems, said, ‘We are pleased to deliver these solutions in partnership with iSON, who has been at the forefront of digital transformation across Africa and the Middle East. With iSON on board, we gain a genuine partner with market-specific knowledge, allowing us to contribute to the innovative digital capacities of companies in these markets.’ Tuesday 06 February 2018 Voting opens for 2018 Beacon of ICT awards The voting channels for this year’s Beacon of Information Communication Technology (ICT) awards is now open to the general public to vote for preferred nominees. The awards series organised by Communication Week Media Limited, a certified global ICT company with over 2 million online subscribers and publishers of Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, has been regarded as the most prestigious annual event in Nigeria’s ICT industry. According to Ken Nwogbo, Chief Executive Officer and Editor in-Chief, CommunicationsWeek Media Limited, the Beacon of ICT ceremony rewards best practices and recognises outstanding contributions to the growth of the sector. The BoICT award winners emerge through a transparent voting process that involves business leaders and readers, with independent quality experts. Business leaders and readers can cast their votes via the boict.nigeriacommunicationsweek. com.ng website. Nwogbo announced the theme for this year’s lecture as: “Leveraging ICT Value for Building Institutions”. Now in its ninth year, the award is the highlight of the daylong event which starts with the distinguished lecture series. The Beacon of ICT Distinguished Lecture is designed to explore efforts to put Nigeria on the global Information and Communications Technologies map. Past Keynote lecturers include: Ernest Ndukwe, then Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC); Yomi Bolarinwa, former Director-General of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC); Jean Luc Fort, CEO at OR System France and a specialist in Counterparty Risk; and Chris Nwagboso, Chairman, Knowledge Factory International, United Kingdom. Others are: Uche Orji, managing director/chief executive officer, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA); Biodu Omoniyi, Managing Director/CEO, VDT Communications; Ayotunde Coker, Managing Director, Rack Centre Limited; and Peter Arogundade, Managing Director, Sidmach Technologies.
Tuesday 06 February 2018 Online job search platforms realign skills, opportunities STEPHEN ONYEKWELU Job search is fast becoming a popular online activity among youths searching for jobs in Nigeria with the rising trend of unemployment in Africa’s most populous nation as stakeholders call for regulation to check fraud. Online talent-hunt platforms are changing the way job seekers access offers presented by prospective employers and employers in turn are finding new ways of dealing head hunting. McKinsey Global Institute, a global management consulting firm, estimates that by 2025 online talent platforms could add $2.7 trillion (N958 trillion) to global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and revolutionise many of the persistent problems in the world’s labour markets. Nevertheless, there is growing need for a policy framework in the industry. Online talent-hunt platforms include websites like hotnigerianjobs. com, Myjobmag.com, Jobbermann. com, Ngcareers.com, Jobgurus.com. ng, Careers24.com, Jobzilla.ng, Justjobsng.com, Joblistnigeria.com and CareerExpo.ng. These websites aggregate individual resumes with job postings from traditional employers, as well as the rapidly growing digital marketplaces of the new ‘gig economy’, such as Uber and businessday EDUCATION Weekly insight on current and future trends in education Higher Primary/Secondary Human Capital ...as stakeholders call for policy framework to check fraud Upwork. A gig economy is an environment in which temporary positions are common and organisations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements. Labour markets around the world are having a hard time keeping pace with myriad rapid shifts in the global economy resulting in inefficiencies and dysfunctions. Millions of people Unilorin organises digital workshop for students SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin L-R: Rahman Akinbode, Ag. University Librarian; Ganiyu Olatunde, vice chancellor; Ibikunle Amosun, Ogun State Governor and Visitor to the University; Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo, the Alake of Egbaland; Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede; Ibukun Abiodun Awosika, Pro-Chancellor; Mosun Belo- Olusoga, Registrar; Omolara Osunsanya, Deputy Vice Chancellor and Ebun Oduwole at the 27th Convocation Ceremony of Olabisis Onabanjo University held in Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State recently, where Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) Honoris Causa was conferred on Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede. The Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences (CIS) in conjunction with Google Digital Skills for Africa, has organised a training workshop for students of the Faculty, in a bid to ensure that students acquire requisite digital skills to enable them compete effectively with their peers around the world. Sulyman Age Abdulkareem, professor of Engineering and Vice- Chancellor, who was represented by Adedayo Y. Abdulkareem, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Management Services), stressed the importance of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to the development of a nation. Abdulkareem said: “The world is now a global village in terms of information and communication technology. A lot of things can be done, a lot of knowledge can also be acquired using ICT and this explains why the Faculty has deemed it fit to advance the theoretical knowledge being impacted on our students by inviting Google Trainers to come and give training to our students to prepare them for the world of employment. “We want to seize this opportunity to appeal to our students that you can learn a lot and at the same time ensure that the negative factor does not play into your brain. We are aware that quite a number of people are now involved in ‘yahoo-yahoo’ rather than using technology to acquire knowledge to better their lot. But we trust that our own students in the University of Ilorin will not make negative use of the facilities we give them”. In his presentation, Olasupo Abideen Opeyemi, the resource person, the Google Ambassador and an alumnus of the University of Ilorin, said that students of the Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences should be at the forefront in championing the use of ICT by exposing themselves to available opportunities in the digital world, leveraging on ICT to promote entrepreneurship, while University lecturers should also maximise their ICT activities using Google platforms. cannot find work, even as sectors from technology to healthcare struggle to fill open positions. Many who do find work feel overqualified or underutilised, leading to costly human capital waste: hundreds of millions of people coping with unemployment, underemployment, stagnant wages and discouragement among others. C002D5556 BUSINESS DAY 23 Online talent-hunt platforms are changing this. Sharon Kechi in appreciation to Jobberman for the job of executive assistant to a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in Lagos, said “thank you so much Jobberman. I applied for the position of executive assistant to the CEO, which was opened some weeks ago. I scaled through Jobberman applicant’s Curriculum Vitae (CV) software. I submitted my CV for critique before I applied so that my CV could pass the test” she explained. “I went for the interview and after studying the interview tips provided by Jobberman I had a successful interview. I was given the job on the spot” Kechi averred. According to a National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report on demographics of online job search platforms, “active applicants were predominantly male (67.77 percent) and well educated, with 77.61 per cent being educated to degree level or higher. However, this figure was only 22.34 per cent for those under the age of 20”. “Lagos remained the state to account for the largest share of applications and vacancies,’’ the report said. Tope Niyi, head of marketing and products development of Nigeria’s online job portal, Careers24 recently pointed out that those applying for jobs online should be weary because some of the job listings online are Continues on page 24 ‘We want to tackle special learning disability challenge affecting Nigerian students’ KELECHI EWUZIE As part of its strategic commitment to tackle the growing unreported cases of special learning disability affecting millions of students in Nigeria, Dyslexia Nigeria has opened its first training and screening center in Lagos. The centre is out to screen children and train teachers to recognise dyslexia so they can remediate dyslexia in schools where they will have the opportunity to make the difference. Adrienne Tikolo, Director of Dyslexia Nigeria while speaking at the L-R: Adrienne Tikolo, Director of Dyslexia Nigeria, Olu Tikolo, Folashade Jaji, former Head of Service, Lagos and Awelenje Babatunde, GM, Lagos State Office for Disability Affairs during the official opening of Nigerian office in Lagos. official opening of the training centre described dyslexia as a special learning disability that affects the skills for reading, writing and spelling of 20 per cent of the population of any country. Tikolo, observe that considering the population of Nigeria which is about 180 million, there are about 36 million dyslexics in Nigeria and quite a high number of that falls between the age range of 0 to 10 years. According to her, “98 percent of teachers have never even heard of Dyslexia in Nigeria; they don’t know what dyslexia is”. She further said that the centre can train about 30 teachers and would also be embarking on an in-service training of teachers in their schools. “We have different training facilities so what we can do is that we have in-service training where we go to schools to train teachers there; we also do onsite training” “The first thing is to let the teachers identify the dyslexics in the classroom so that we can screen the child for dyslexia, and we begin to do something”, she said. Tikolo opines that the center is unique in the sense that it not only screens a child for the dyslexia, it can design a programme that will work for the child. Asked where she sees the centre in the next five years Tikolo said, “In the next five years, I expect that we will have more centres like this around the country. We will go from here to other parts of Lagos so that we can reach teachers.” Schools prep candidates for 2018 Cowbellpedia TV Maths Quiz Competition STEPHEN ONYEKWELU Public and private secondary schools across the country have been urged to register their best JSS 3 and SSS 2 candidates for the 2018 Cowbellpedia Senior Secondary Mathematics Television Quiz Show on or before the deadline of Sunday, February 11, which is barely five days away. At a press conference to flag off the 2018 edition, Promasidor Nigeria Limited, makers of Cowbell milk, announced a 100 percent increase in the star prize from N1 million to N2 million, in addition to other incentives. It was the highlight of activities to commemorate 20 years of partnership between Cowbell and Mathematics. Registration for this year’s Cowbellpedia competition is strictly online via the website: www.cowbellpedia.ng and it is absolutely free, with each school entitled to put forward five candidates who must be between 10 and 18 years old for each of the junior and senior categories. In order to encourage girl child education, mixed schools are advised to nominate at least two female students in each of the categories. Speaking about the registration process, Abiodun Ayodeji, Marketing Manager of Promasidor Nigeria Limited makers of Cowbell - Our Milk and sponsors of the competition explained: “The guidelines require the candidate/school to do the following: Go to www.cowbellpedia. ng, click on the link ‘Register your school’, fill the form and submit. Ensure that you fill all the required fields and an email will be sent to the school and primary contact email address provided when filling the form. The link in the email received would be used to verify the email address. On successful login, click on ‘Add Candidates’ under ‘Candidate Management’, fill in the candidate’s information, upload the candidate’s picture and click the ‘Save Draft’ button. Save the draft information for five (5) candidates for each category before you submit their registration.” Ayodeji further said that when all the data had been completed for all the candidates (a maximum of five per category), the “Register” button should be clicked to complete the registration process. “A confirmation slip will be generated to download and will also be mailed to the school, candidate or parent/ Continues on page 24 Stephen Onyekwelu Content producer Fifen Eyemisanre Famous Graphics For comments and contribution write to: stephen.onyekwelu@ businessdayonline.com
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