Cisco is breaking new grounds – Emelife

General Manager, Cisco Systems Nigeria Limited, Mr. Maduka Emelife, has said that the company is breaking new grounds with its networking academies all over the world, especially in the last decade.

Mr. Emelife who made this assertion at the recently concluded International Telecommunications Union (ITU) organized regional development forum in collaboration with the African Telecommunication Union (ATU) held in Accra, Ghana.

He said that his firm is committed to bridging the skills gap in developing countries via Information and Communications Technology (ICT) training within the platform of Cisco Network Academies.

He also said Cisco “will remain at the forefront of empowering developing countries not only with leading edge IT solutions but also with the skilled manpower with which to optimize economic value.”

Mr. Emelife further said there are presently over 50 Cisco Networking Academies with six regional academies at the University of Jos, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA); the University of Benin, Edo State; the Nigerian Development Academy, Lagos and the Southwest Resource Centre in Abeokuta, Ogun State.”

Also speaking at the forum with the theme “Bridging the standardization gap in developing countries,” the Vice President, Emerging Markets, Cisco, Mr. Massimo Migliuolo, said emerging markets are gearing up to bridge the digital divide and possibly overtake mature markets, in the nearest future.

Migliuolo who dwelt on “New business models and partnerships for productivity, competitiveness and innovation gains,” said the basis for this optimism is founded on a number of factors.

He underscored the factor in this area to include funding, stressing that it is no longer a problem as international banks and donor organizations are demonstrating growing appreciation of the significantly increasing role of ICT in social and economic development.

The World Bank, he said, for instance, has increased ICT funding available to emerging markets to $35 billion, adding that emerging markets are more willing to adopt more innovative business models than the ones presently in use in Europe or even North America.

Mr. Migliuolo said there is a willingness to go faster, to do more and to grow, hence these factors combined have the potential to launch emerging markets far beyond their present capacity.

The Africa region preparatory meeting which was organized in this region by the ATU and ITU, sought to enhance a greater understanding of and participation in the work of ITU-T by Information Technology (IT) stakeholders across Africa.

In addition, it was organized to sensitize the African region with topics that will be addressed later this year at the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTA-08), in Johannesburg, South Africa.


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