The Pacesetter Frontier Magazine

Tag: Tech

  • How Devcareer’s $100,000 grant’ll raise 100 tech engineers

    Africa has a growing youth population; apparently, the rest of the world is looking at it to source talents; especially, technology talents. Unfortunately, the formal education systems are overwhelmed, resulting in a huge deficit of the requisite skilled talents.

    However, to get more youths that could compete on a global stage, African tech start-ups are taking the bull by the horn, developing a pool of African tech talents from very meagre resources.

    One of such start-ups, a Nigeria-based non-profit organisation Devcareer, which recently secured USD100, 000 in grants, has said the money will be invested in training about 100 persons who can take global tech ecosystem by storm.

    Devcareer said it raised the fund to enable upcoming African developers with lean resources graduate from beginners to intermediates within the shortest period possible.

    Devcareer will be assisted by Pledges, an NGO builder, under a campaign tagged: #LAPTOPS4DEVELOPERS.

    The grant was co-contributed by three organisations: a Pan-African technology company, Deimos; digital banking operator, Kuda, and another Nigeria-based start-up, Dojah respectively.

    Head of Engineering at Kuda, Mr. Dipo Aina who is one of the returning sponsors of the campaign, said: “African tech talent has been key to our progress at Kuda, and we are very happy to support DevCareer again as they continue to do the good work of helping young African software developers find their way in the world.

    “The #Laptops4Developers campaign over the last two cohorts focused primarily on Frontend Development, Backend Development, and Mobile Application however, cohort three will accommodate more interns including Product Designers; the application is free and each application will be judged by a three-staged test comprising an aptitude test, coding test and a physical interview.

    “The beneficiaries will gain three months long training and be assigned a mentor who will walk each person through the program. The interns are also registered with hubs fitted with stable power supply and internet access in their locality.

    A Software Engineer and Developer Advocate who is the founder of Devcareer, Mr. Sultan Akintunde said: “The #Laptops4Developers campaign runs a yearly cohort for fledgling software developers with existing knowledge of the subject to benefit from; organized curriculum, mentorship, Laptops, and a conducive learning environment equipped with internet and electricity.

    “The campaign in the last two cohorts has successfully trained 72 interns with a significant number working on-site and remotely in technology companies such as Healthtracka, Flutterwave, Bento, Plentywaka among others.

    “Devcareer in the last cohort received over 6000 applications with Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia featuring as top 4 countries. Rwanda will be joining the list of countries in cohort three. The COVID19 restriction stalled the campaign in 2021 hence in 2022; Devcareer plans to groom 100 persons into employable African tech talent who can compete on a global stage.”

    Also, CEO of Deimos, Mr. Andrew Mori said: “DevCareers and Deimos share a focus on developing and empowering engineers, we are proud to sponsor and support their mission of helping more individuals get a start in technology. At the core of technology adoption and implementation are the developers; with increased digitisation, plus a fast-growing African tech ecosystem, engineers are in high demand which in turn is leaving a gaping hole in supply. Even with this high demand, Africa is starting to cement itself as a region of enormous engineering capability and capacity. Today’s junior software engineers are tomorrow’s seniors and we are proud to play a part in that.”

    Similarly, Grant Portfolio Manager at Pledges, Mr. Enogieru Osasenaga, said: “Today, we are faced with two realities; Africa has a growing youth population and the rest of the world is looking at Africa to source talents.

    “Unfortunately, the formal education systems are overwhelmed resulting in a huge deficit of skilled talents. The silver lining – Tech has provided a solution to this; with minimum barriers to entry and a relatively short learning curve, youths can improve their economic standing as well as those around them.

    (Vanguard)

  • Tech suggestions for govt in a defining year

     

     

    Okoh Aihe

    SO early in the year, there are plans and projections, hopes and promises, and optimism so strong in the air that life can be a sustained swan song. But there are also fears.

     

    People thinking that the kind of uncertainties and bloodletting we witnessed in the previous year may have enough momentum to stain the optimism that spreads into the future.

     

    But the spirit is to count tomorrow as gain. The year 2022 is a defining one for Nigeria, a year that politics will take centre stage, when politicians will dress in their big robes crisscrossing the country to sell manifestoes, mostly lies garnished as truth to a long suffering people, nearly emasculated by the seasonal hallucination of a tiny political group.

     

    In this season of politics, everything takes back seat. Development is suspended. Pressing national or state issues are given the silhouette of politics or even opposition rantings.

     

    Budgets and plans are streamlined to achieve one purpose: successful campaigns with enough gathering to form some tiny countries in other parts of the world, gatherings peopled by the ordinary folks with empty stomachs who would value the N2,000 purchase fee from the politician as the kind of manna that comes from the devil they see once in every four years.

     

    Just less than one and half years for the ruling party at the Federal level and in some states to join the dinosaurs of history, there is the reading based on the auguries of history, that there is no time for any other thing at all other than politics; but that the people should marshal the hunger in their stomach to make better choices next time or they remain perpetual victims of feeding the wickedness of a tiny few that eat up the future of other people.

     

    Knowing that politicians will always be politicians and that the variance may be in a matter of details only, this writer would humbly suggest to this administration the need to put closure on some projects and make urgent conclusions, at least to earn some campaign points, although the truth or even verification of performance or projects hardly matters in our campaigns.

     

    There are some low hanging fruits they can hold on to but there are others receding into a distance with their nebulous features that have to be recovered urgently.

     

    NCC 3.5GHz Spectrum Auction

    December 13, 2021, the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, conducted a successful auction for two Lots of 100MHz, the band for 5G technology. The Generic Reserve Price, GR, was $197, 400, 000 only.

     

    Although there were complaints about such a steep price which tended to place emphasis on revenue generation more than service deployment for pervasive use, the auction which involved MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria and Mafab Communications, a tech greenhorn with a history that is even greener, went through eleven grueling rounds with the price peaking at $273. 6m.

     

    Both MTN and Mafab emerged epochal winners of such a defining tech moment which could mean so much for the country in its determination to align with the rest of the world, to march into a future where machines could whisper to each other, more than human to humans. Payments are expected to be concluded before the end of February 2022.

     

    Although there was a little stir about the identity of Mafab, this writer posits that this is a low hanging fruit that should be harvested immediately without procrastination. NCC should pursue payment of fees with determination and ensure that rollout obligations are simple enough for the operators to understand the import.

     

    The foregoing suggestion is informed by the underperforming status of Nitel which had a reserved Digital Mobile Licence, GSM, at the auction in 2001 but had hardly had any success ever since. The NCC should put a closure to the 3.5MHz deal.

     

    SIM/NIN Integration

    Penultimate December, government made a policy decision that mobile users in Nigeria must sink their Subscriber Identification Module, SIM, with their National Identification Number, NIN, which is issued by the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC. It was to be done in two weeks. The exercise has witnessed a lot of resistance because of the complaints of multilayer data collection processes in the country, but is fairly on the way now.

     

    Closure is indeterminate as the date has had to be moved severally. Just last week another shift in date was granted by Dr. Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, who oversees the Committee that steers the registration process. The Federal Government, according to a statement, has extended the date to March 31, 2022. The statement adds that so far, NIMC has issued 71m unique NINs with about three to four SIMs linked to a number.

     

    Observe that the statement is unclear how many SIMs have been properly linked to NIN. But here is the math. By October 2021, phone lines in the country peaked at over 191 million. Just think of how long it will take to achieve a SIM/NIN harmonisation or what they call integration.

     

    Here is my little counsel. Let there be no pretences. SIM/NIN integration is a constantly shifting target, made even more complex by officials who live in a dream world. The government should be frank enough to fix a realistic date which is within the window of its exit from power, to enable Nigerians take its activities seriously and work towards realistic results.

     

    Digital Switchover

    The Digital Switchover, DSO, started in Nigeria in 2016 after the presidential Digiteam set up by former President Goodluck Jonathan made all the preparations for the launch in Jos. Information and Culture Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made a meal of the determination of the Buhari administration to stick strictly to the switchover date as sanctioned by the International Telecommunications Union, ITU.

     

    Understandably, he was excited about the job spin-off that would come from the exercise and the rain of funds that would also come from the sales of the vacated and freed spectra released by broadcast stations. Then the crisis at the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC.

     

    From leadership crisis to some dose of scandals. Nigeria missed the switchover date twice. But lately there has been a rejuvenation in focus. However, complaints that launch is different from actual switchover and availability and activation of set top boxes, are clear pointers that this government has to properly audit the process and ensure that proper timelines are set for implementation.

     

    Rebuilding the networks

    This is an issue that people hardly talk about because of its very sensitive nature because of lives that are being lost and property being destroyed on an extensive level. Insurgency in parts of the North has laid to waste telecom infrastructure on a massive scale. In some places, base stations have been bombed out.

     

    So much ruination has been caused by these devils from the hottest part of hell that this government just has to encourage the operators to remobilise to site. It’s like starting afresh. Some operators have confided in this writer that they would like to work with the governors of the affected states. Yes. So much love for a nation by the operators but they must be encouraged to do so.

     

     

     

     

     

    Source: www.vanguardngr.com