Tecno Dumps Plan to Establish Plant in Nigeria, Opts for Ethiopia

By Bankole Orimisan

RIDING on its successes in the Nigerian market, Chinese telephone brand, Tecno has concluded plans to build a factory in Ethiopia to enhance its profile in Africa, investigations have revealed.

   Management of Tecno, it was revealed chose Ethiopia ahead of Nigeria because of what sources described as the security challenges facing the country.

   According to the source, Tecno's business strategy in Nigeria in the near future and does not include setting up production plants.

Although, the Group Vice President of the mobile phone brand, Arif Chowdhury had at a media interactive session in May 2013, said the company would build its African plant in Nigeria, investigations have shown the company is favouring Ethiopia because of what the company described as unfavourable investment policy regime and the prevailing security challenges facing the country.

  Chowdhury had at the 2013 session with journalists claimed the brand was "still waiting for right policies of government on duty structure for mobile phone import to finalize their plans in building the plant."

   But reports indicate that TECNO GROUP, made significant progress in its factory construction in the country at the horn of Africa with Ethiopian government already dedicating an investment area for the establishment of an ICT Park to support the development of ICT. The foundation stone was laid for Techno group in this investment park in October 2013.

  Tecno's African business portfolio has been growing rapidly over the past few years, with Nigeria accounting for more than 80 percent of the company' sales in Africa while Kenya and Ghana comes very distant second and third in that order, a situation many believe would have influenced the company's choice of where to set up its African Assembly plant.

The Chinese phone brand has recently been embroiled in controversy over allegations that it was colluding with security agencies and regulatory bodies to entrench a regime of monopoly at the low end of the mobile phones market. The brand was recently fingered as the brain behind the raid of the Computer Village hub of mobile phone sales in Nigeria where phones valued at over N200 million were seized under the guise of their being counterfeit phones.

ICT Set to Profile Africa's Economic Landscape in 2015

By Bankole Orimisan

WITH public cloud in emerging African countries set to grow at a compound yearly growth rate to 84 per cent over the coming five years, the year 2015 heralds the beginning of a new era for ICT adoption across the continent.

   According to International Data Corporation's (IDC) newly released predictions for the year ahead, with the global advisory services firm also expecting ICT's influence on economic development and social progress throughout Africa to be particularly pronounced in the next 12 months.

   "Sub-Saharan Africa is finally realising its potential for economic growth, and now boasts six of the top ten fastest-growing economies in the world," says Mark Walker, IDC's regional director for Africa. "And ICT is playing a key role in not only supporting this economic boom, but also shaping its future direction.

  However, the latest ICT trends are set to drive strong GDP growth across the continent, modernising and optimising every sectors of the economy and facilitating closer intra-Africa trade. Against this backdrop, those governments with relevant, effective national ICT policies will begin to dominate the economic landscape."

  Indeed, governments are increasingly using ICT as an enabler of service delivery, with egovernment and mgovernment initiatives high on the agenda for addressing the challenges presented by rapid urbanisation.

  Haphazard urban expansion serves as an obstacle to economic growth, so IDC expects more governments to pursue an integrated approach to urban development, with ICT playing an important role in ensuring good urban governance through smart grids in utilities, water supply monitoring, safety and security, and video surveillance.

   The impact of integrated, relevant, and applied national ICT policies will benefit the region as a whole, with IDC expecting to see closer cooperation between nations in 2015 as a result of smart ICT initiatives.

"Effective regional integration will help breach the barriers that undermine the daily operations of ordinary producers and traders of both goods and services," continues Walker. "This includes payments systems, financial inclusion, and cross-border payments, and the increased implementation of such ICT-enabled financial transactions in 2015 will create a platform for the next stage of domestic and regional socioeconomic development across Africa."

  The commercial landscape in 2015 will be characterised by the emergence of new markets, products, and clients as large multinationals tap into the African growth story and smaller local organisations expand into new geographies through enhanced intra-Africa trade. And the growing acceptance of cloud as a credible delivery model for IT services and software will underpin much of this transformation, revolutionising the way IT is bought and used.

"Cloud, enterprise mobility, big data, and social technologies are new product sets that can offer significant advantages to African organisations looking to leapfrog to advanced technologies in order to address pertinent issues in their markets," says Walker. "And given the blurring of industry boundaries in the region's more mature markets, 2015 will offer significant opportunities for providers and end-user organisations to address the evolving requirements of markets adjacent to those they are servicing now."

School Integrates Use of iPad in Classroom

By Bankole Orimisan

IN its quest to adopt technologically advanced school in Africa, the Chairman, Board of Governors of Olashore International School, Prince Bimbo Olashore, has unfolded plans to deploy iPads in classrooms.

   Speaking at the 2015 Apple iPad Summit organized by Core Group Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa, Olashore said that Nigeria cannot also wait for technology transfer any more but needs to do something about being competitive with the rest of the world, hence his school took the path it has taken to empower teachers and students technologically.

"We have to leapfrog to catch up and get our young Nigerians prepared for the new technology driven world. We are pleased to be making substantial investment in this direction," he said.

   The iPads in Classrooms programme is expected to be achieved by setting up Local Area Network (LAN) distribution in classrooms and hostels, wireless distribution, indoor wireless device with high frequency, and firewalls to manage internet access on the iPad.

  In addition, Prince Olashore, expressed that they have plans to deploy audio and visual multimedia systems in the classrooms that will support the iPad integration, Learning Management System (LMS) that will not use the Internet and a Mac Server for Mobile Device Management to manage the iPads.

   Equally speaking, the school Principal, Derek Smith also said that Olashore International will also review its overall technology framework, through a curriculum mapping program, faster internet connection, a new mobile device management (MDM) to check unproductive online presence.

  "It will also make professional development for teachers mandatory, constant and purposeful, and finally, reinforce Students' responsibility in taking charge of their lives," he said.

   The Apple Summit was aimed at running a successful students' centered classroom, integrating technology in the class for differentiation, putting learning at the center of the class not the technology, enabling a successful flipping of classroom, maximizing the learning time rather than the teaching time, encouraging collaborative learning system as well as making learning more experiential and interactive for the students