The Industry Consumer Advisory Forum (ICAF) has advocated the need for stakeholders at the federal, state and local levels, both in public and private sectors, to work with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to collectively contribute towards improving the Quality of Service (QoS) delivery by MNOs in the country.

The advocacy group stated this during a presentation made at its first quarter 2020 neeting held in Abuja on Thursday (05/03/2020).

At every meeting of ICAF, a corporate member is required to make a presentation about a topical issue in the sector. At this meeting, the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) made the presentation focused on challenges of quality of service delivery in telecoms sector.

In the presentation, ICAF noted that the challenge of poor QoS in the telecom industry is an issue that requires collaborative efforts of the National Assembly as well as state and local governments, to tackle.

Explaining further, ICAF stated that the collaboration is both urgent and necessary because telecoms has long migrated from being a mere enabler of communication, to an industry that has become widely acknowledged as being the most important enabler of socio-economic activities in contemporary society.

The advocacy body said as with every other sector of the economy, the telecommunications sector has its own peculiar challenges that impact on the ability of telecoms operators to deliver seamless services to customers.

ICAF listed the challenges to include infrastructure damage, bombed sites due to insurgent activities, illegal site lock-outs, unstable power supply and prolonged power outage, denial of statutory permits for infrastructure roll-out, high cost of Right of Way (RoW), and use of substandard devices by the consumers, among others.

Elaborating further, ICAF presentation indexed a situation where telecommunications operators continue to suffer various forms of infrastructure damage across the country, and noted that such a challenge usually leads to sudden outages or poor QoS.

ICAF recalled that at the onset of the insurgency in the North-East region, operators were also at the receiving end of the destruction that was visited on the infrastructure in the region. He cited Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states as areas where hundreds of BTS sites were either bombed or affected due to dependence on a bombed site. Such vandalism resulted in loss of coverage in so many places including Dikwa, Gamboru, Monguno, Bama, Konduga and Damaturu.

“Operators have been able to restore a lot of these sites, while restoration at other facilities are still pending due to security concerns. In some cases those that were restored have been bombed again, but efforts are currently ongoing in collaboration with agencies in the security services and state governments, to secure sites," ICAF noted in the presentation. It also assured participants that “with these efforts it is hoped that there will be noticeable improvement in coverage, leading to reduced dropped calls in the affected areas.”

The presentation further explained that the failure of some governmental authorities and their subsidiary agencies to grant the statutory approvals required by operators to build more sites is another problem. ICAF affirmed that "as the existing infrastructure get to full capacity, operators need to build more facilities to accommodate excess call, SMS, data and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) traffic. Unfortunately, in the past seven years, the FCT Administration, in particular, has not granted approvals for telecommunications sites to be built in the Territory.”

On vandalism and theft, the ICAF presentation observed that this has been a recurring experience of the operators as unknown hoodlums increasingly break into sites, kill or injure the guard on duty and cart away valuable equipment such as the power generating sets, base transceiver station (BTS) equipment and air conditioners among other facilities. It said these criminal activities immediately lead to network outages in the area covered by facilities that suffered vandalism.

ICAF, however, noted that no operator desires to have poor service delivery because of the increased competition that has been engendered by the telecoms regulator.

According to ICAF, “we are in a highly competitive market, where we have multiple players and we should understand that there is no operator that wants to have downtime on its network as that can lead to loss of subscribers to rival operators. The NCC has heightened this with the introduction of the Mobile Number Portability, which makes it easier for a subscriber that is not satisfied with his or current network in terms of service delivery to migrate to other preferred network.”

The presentation further said: “This means if there is any challenge that is affecting any operator’s ability to deliver better experience to its numerous customers, the logical thing is for that operator to take steps to address the challenge so that it will be able to retain its customers. But most of these challenges are far beyond what operators can control. The NCC has been doing a lot to get the buy-in of all relevant stakeholders to address some these challenges, but not much inroad has been recorded because not all stakeholders in the ecosystem are fully supporting the regulator’s efforts at addressing these issues in order to ensure that telecom consumers get top-notched services.”

Proffering solutions to the challenges, ICAF said while the regulator has been taking QoS measurements and sanctioning the erring operators, it must also be acknowledged that it has been making efforts toward addressing all the identified challenges faced by the operators in order to improve service delivery on the networks to telecoms consumers.

“However, if we all agree that telecoms is central to our socio-economic development, then the NCC’s efforts need to be supported by all stakeholders, especially the National Assembly through the passage of the Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) Bill and; we at ICAF also urge the state governors to be considerate about policy measures in order to encourage massive deployment of telecoms infrastructure in their states, as being championed by the NCC,” the advocacy group recommended in the presentation.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Gombe Zonal Office on March 10, 2020 secured the conviction of one Osman Idris Gaya before Justice Abubakar Jauro of the Gombe State High Court on a one-count charge bordering on fraudulent conversion.

Gaya was arraigned today following a petition by Sanduff Oil and Gas Ltd dated August 29, 2017 alleging that sometimes in July 2015, in Gombe, Gombe State in his capacity as Depot Representative of the Company in Lagos he was entrusted with N5,313,200.00 (Five Million, Three Hundred and Thirteen Thousand, Two Hundred Naira Only) to deliver 40,000 litres of petroleum product, but he never delivered. He instead, dishonestly converted same to his personal use, an offence contrary to Section 311 of the Penal Code Law of Northern Nigeria and Punishable under Section 312 of the same Law.

He did not waste the time of the Court as he pleaded “guilty” to the charge.

Counsel for the EFCC, M.D. Aliyu, therefore, urged the court to pronounce him guilty as charged.

Defence counsel, however, pleaded with the Court to temper justice with mercy, pleading that the defendant was a first-time offender.

Delivering judgement, Justice Jauro convicted him, accordingly, and sentenced him to three years in prison. He was however, given an option of N100,000 as fine.

The Judge also considered the submission of the defence counsel which was confirmed by the prosecution that part of the money had already been recovered from him in the course of investigation and that an agreement had been reached between the nominal complainant and the convict that the balance will be recovered from the salary of the convict who at the time of trial was a serving staff of the company.

A newborn baby girl was on Wednesday found hanging on a barbed wire fence in Oko in the Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra State.

The baby was said to have been thrown from the first floor of a female hostel of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko.

The mother of the baby receiving treatment at a specialist hospital in the area could not be identified as of press time.

Our correspondent learnt that the mother was delivered of the baby with the help of a boyfriend.

A medical officer at the hospital, Chinonso Nwosu, where the baby was rushed to by neighbours confirmed the incident said the baby sustained a wound to his leg, adding that she was responding to treatment.

Nwosu said, “The mother ran away after the incident, but was later arrested. She is currently breastfeeding the baby after she was brought to the hospital in handcuffs.”

The Public Relations Officer of the polytechnic, Mr Obini Onuchukwu, said it was not clear if the suspect and her accomplices were students of the school.

He said, “The authorities heard about the incident like every other person. Besides, the incident happened in a private hostel, outside the school where the authorities are not in control of students’ actions.”

Spokesman for the police in the state, Haruna Mohammed, said, “We are aware of the incident and we’re investigating.”

Source: Punch

The House of Representatives has indefinitely suspended the consideration of the $22.79bn external loan request by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

The House had listed the report by its Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management on the 2016–2018 Federal Government External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan as the last item for consideration on the order paper for Wednesday’s proceeding.

The Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, however, asked that the consideration be stood down without giving a new date.

“We will step that down for today,” Gbajabiamila said, asking the Chairman, Rules and Business, Abubakar Fulata, to move for the standing down.

When asked to respond to the indefinite suspension of the loan request by the House, the Media Adviser to the Finance Minister, Mr Yunusa Abdullahi, said, “No comments please.”

The Speaker on Tuesday had announced that the loan would be considered on Wednesday.

He had made this known in reaction to a member of the House, Mr Henry Nwawuba, who presented a petition by a group of South-East elite, against the consideration and approval of the external loan.

The Senate last week approved the loan but not without protests from the opposition senators led by the Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe.

The funding agencies for the loan, according to the Senate panel, are the World Bank ($2,854,000,000), African Development Bank ($1,888,950,000), Islamic Development Bank ($110,000,000), Japan International Cooperation Agency ($200,000,000 ), German Development Bank ($200,000,000), China-Exim Bank ( $17,065,496,773), and the French Development Agency ($480,000,000).

Some of the projects to be funded with the loans are the Nigeria Electricity Transmission and Access Project ($364,000,000); Social Inclusion and Welfare Advancement project, renamed National Social Safety Net Project, ($500,000) and the Economic Reforms and Governance Project, renamed Fiscal Governance Project ($200,000,000).

Source: Punch NG

American actor and filmmaker, Tom Hanks, and his wife, Rita Wilson, have tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus.

This was confirmed by the actor on his Instagram Wednesday, sharing a photo of a rubber glove inside a hazardous waste disposal bin.

“Hello, folks. Rita and I are down here in Australia. We felt a bit tired like we had colds, and some body aches. Rita had some chills that came and went. Slight fevers too. To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the Coronavirus, and were found to be positive,” the 63-year-old actor wrote.

“Well, now. What to do next? The Medical Officials have protocols that must be followed. We Hanks’ will be tested, observed, and isolated for as long as public health and safety requires. Not much more to it than a one-day-at-a-time approach, no?”

“We’ll keep the world posted and updated. Take care of yourselves!” the actor known for his comedic and dramatic roles added.

There are now 121,545 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 4,373 deaths all over the world.

It was a big drama on Wednesday when the blogger who published fake pictures alleging “EFCC Torture Cell” ,Chukwuebuka Washington Dikeocha, at the hearing of the suit against him pleaded with the court to remand him in custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) instead of the Port Harcourt Prison.

Following his arraignment by the EFCC Port Harcourt zonal office before Justice M. L. Abubakar of the Federal High Court in Rivers State on a two-count charge bordering on causing annoyance, hatred or ill will contrary to Section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc ) Act, 2015, the defendant pleaded “not guilty”, to the charges.

In view of his plea, Prosecution Counsel, N.C. Ferdinand, urged the court to fix a date for the commencement of trial.

At this stage, the defence counsel, C.C. Achunelo informed the court of the defendant’s pending bail application, while counsel to the EFCC requested for a short adjournment to enable her respond to the application.

She said “I was served yesterday, my Lord, I need time to respond”.

However, Achunelo’s surprising prayer that the court remanded the defendant in EFCC custody pending consideration of his bail application was opposed by the prosecuting counsel.

Justice Abubakar adjourned the matter till March 12, 2020, for hearing and ordered that the defendant be remanded in Port Harcourt Correctional Centre.

Dikeocha was arrested on February 26, weeks after he published the alleged fake report through his Twitter handle, @TheRealDayne, which attracted unwarranted attacks on the EFCC by angry citizens.

The tweet misled the public to believe that an open cell existed in EFCC Port Harcourt, branch.

The Federal Government has declared the current two-week warning strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities illegal.

It accused ASUU of not following laid down procedures before embarking on the industrial action.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, gave the government’s position in Abuja after the Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday.

He said ASUU did not give the government the “mandatory notice” required before a union could proceed on strike.

Ngige noted that having failed to follow the laid down procedures, it amounted to corruption for the university teachers to go on strike.

The minister said, “I am in shock. The strike is illegal because they did not give us the mandatory notice.

“If you withdraw services and you still want to be paid, it is corruption. Is that not corruption?”

Ngige, however, added that he had contacted the leadership of ASUU and invited it to a meeting on Thursday (today) to discuss the issues raised by the union.

But he warned that the government would not succumb to threats by ASUU, arguing that “no employee should dictate to an employer.”

ASUU, while declaring the warning strike, had stated that the government had yet to address issues raised in agreements it reached with the union from 2009 to 2019, including poor funding of the university system.

An immediate issue is the union’s opposition to the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System of the government, which is designed to capture all Federal Government workers under one payment system.

The government’s target is to eliminate ‘ghost workers.’

But, ASUU has consistently kicked against it on the grounds that it would not suit the university system.

In place of the IPPIS, the union proposed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, which it said would address the peculiar case of the universities.

When asked for the government’s final stance on the IPPIS, Ngige replied that after the union visited the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), earlier in the year, the government stood its ground on the IPPIS.

Image Credits: Getty Images

Holders Liverpool are out of the Champions League after a dramatic last-16 second leg against Atletico Madrid went into extra time - and a finely balanced game turned on a catastrophic blunder by goalkeeper Adrian.

Jurgen Klopp's side - seeking to win the trophy for a seventh time - thought they had overturned Atletico's 1-0 advantage from the first leg when Roberto Firmino's first goal at Anfield this season at the start of the added 30 minutes gave them the lead in the tie.

Georginio Wijnaldum's first-half header was full reward for Liverpool laying siege to the Atletico goal for much of the first 90 minutes.

And yet, as the Kop sensed another memorable Champions League victory, Adrian - deputising for the injured Alisson - paid the price for a dreadful clearance as substitute Marcos Llorente pounced with a low finish to secure Atletico's crucial away goal.

Llorente struck again with another composed finish in the 105th minute and with the spirit draining out of Liverpool and their supporters, former Chelsea striker Alvaro Morata adding insult to injury with a third in the dying seconds to send Atletico through to the last eight.

This game was, in many respects, a tale of two goalkeepers.

The magnificent Jan Oblak formed a formidable barrier for Atletico Madrid, his yellow shirt a colossal presence in his penalty area as he made nine saves and claimed countless crosses.

In contrast, Liverpool's mammoth effort was fatally undermined by the hapless Adrian, who also made an error that contributed to their FA Cup fifth-round defeat by Chelsea.

The Reds had finally established a measure of control through Firmino's goal, but once Adrian had hacked out a hopeless clearance and Llorente's shot beyond him into the net at the Kop end, Atletico were ruthless.

Klopp looked and sounded suitably downcast last week when he announced his world-class Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson had suffered a hip injury, knowing he could make the difference to a Champions League tie that was always going to be decided on the finest of margins.

And so it proved, Liverpool's morale and fighting spirit disappearing visibly after Adrian's mistake.

Liverpool will still complete the formalities of their first Premier League title but they pride themselves on their status as European champions and this was a painful night.

The Lagos State government has quarantined six persons in its Infectious Disease Centre in Yaba over suspected case of Coronavirus disease, officially known as COVID-19.

It has also found the two missing Nigerians who sat close to the Italian index case during his flight from Istanbul to Lagos on February 27.

Stating these during a press briefing in Lagos Wednesday, the Commissioner for Health, Lagos State, Prof. Abayomi Ajayi said the six cases comprise of a family of four children and their teacher who came into Nigeria from the United States, and were believed to have been in close proximity with someone suspected to be infected with the disease prior to their trip, and a traveller from the United Kingdom who showed certain symptoms associated with the disease.

He said: “We have kept the family in our centre now for two days. Their first test came out negative. We will repeat it within the next 48 hours. The one from the UK will be tested this evening.

“The three persons who were in isolation earlier this week have been released because they tested negative to the virus.”

Abayomi said the two names released Monday to the media by the Lagos State were persons who had contact with the index case, but that they have now been identified, adding that necessary protocol has been instituted to ascertain their status.

“The media really did well. It was very quick to have them identified. I was surprised at the speed at which they reached us.”

He also stated that the Italian index case was recovering fast even though he was still secreting the virus.
He said: “The other confirmed case is in a stable condition. He had little symptoms which have now been taken care of. We will repeat his test tomorrow to be sure he is no longer secreting the virus.”

Abayomi also cautioned Nigerians against buying face masks, noting that the commodity should be left for sick persons and healthcare workers.

“What Nigerians need to do is wash their hands under running water. We have now moved to address issues of shortage of hand sanitisers in Lagos State. The Ministry of Health has started producing its own sanitisers. In a matter of days, we will release it into the market.

“We embarked on this because it is not good for people to start profiteering from hand sanitisers because of coronavirus. This product is very easy to make. It is a simple combination of alcohol, gel, glycerine, water and other materials in the correct proportion. It is not rocket science. Everyone can actually make it.”

He said in situations where sanitisers are not available, Nigerians can actually use alcohol.

Entertainment mogul and CEO of Saint Justin World, SJW Entertainment, Sir Obiajunwa Justine Chinonso has revealed that he is determined to make a difference in the entertainment scene and rewrite the rap game in the Nigerian music industry with the signing of the prolific rapper and songwriter, Okoronkwo Ikechukwu.

Ikechukwu, who goes by the stage name Ace Berg, recently put pen to paper with the entertainment company and has promised to change the rap game with his distinct rap style.

Ace Berg who was born and bred in Lagos but hails from Abia State is a graduate of Federal Polytechnic, Nekede with a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Computer Science.

The artiste, whose rap style is unique, has revealed that he’s ready to show the world his talent and redefine creativity with his craft.

“I am ready to show the world my talent and redefine the rap game, I have all it takes to be the next big thing in the Nigerian music industry,” he said.

Ace Berg is not new to winning on the big stage, his skills and distinct rap style has seen him win the MTN Rap Battle at Federal University of Technology, Owerri, FUTO, in 2014.

He revealed that he’s ready to show the world his talent and redefine creativity with his craft.

On his part, Sir Justine is more effusive about the prospect of his new signee and opined that despite the rise of the Nigerian music industry in recent times, he does not want to rest on his oars but poised to contribute its quota to the entertainment scene in Nigeria.

SJW is also the home label to ‘Wetin We Gain’ crooner, Victor AD, and the newly signed Blaq Jerzzy, a songwriter, performer and music producer known to have produced hits for Wizkid, Tiwa Savage and many others.

“We are not done yet, in fact, we are just getting started. We are poised to positively impact the Nigerian music industry. I established SJW not just because I want to make a difference in the entertainment scene but because I want to be that difference,” the Imo State-born label executive said.

He added, “The industry is great but I’m here to make it greater. SJW is undoubtedly the fastest growing music company in the continent of Africa and we exist to shape culture through the power of artistry innovation.”

Speaking further, Sir Justine said his company is committed to developing creativity and innovation.

His words; “We are a community of entrepreneurs committed to creativity and innovation. We own and operate a broad array of businesses engaged in recorded music, music publishing, merchandising, and audiovisual content in Africa.

“We identify and develop recording artists and songwriters, we produce, distribute and promote the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful music to delight and entertain fans around the world.

“We are the home for music’s greatest artists, innovators, and entrepreneurs. Because music has a powerful force for good in the world and unique in its ability to inspire, bring people together, we at SWJ Entertainment are determined to serve our communities. Together we dream, create and live it”, he said.

Before venturing into the music business, Sir Justine was a real estate tycoon and fashion aficionado. His love for classic cars made him venture into that line of business too.

Speaking on the arduous task of nation-building, Sir J, as he is fondly called by close friends and associates revealed that the burden of nation-building rests on all of us.

“We must play our part in assisting the government in playing theirs. My wish is to build an institution/academy for young talented music artistes,” he concluded.