The Executive Director, Digital Sense Africa (DSA) Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, disclosed this at the weekend, saying that the inaugural edition of the group’s based industry issues would be hosted in Nigeria in November this year.
She told ITRealms Online in Lagos that plans are up for the event scheduled to hold at the Golden Gate Paradise, Ikoyi-Lagos on Thursday, November 5, 2009.
This year’s theme, she disclosed, would focus on ‘Internet Governance – Creating Opportunities for All Nigerians’.
She also said that plans have been advanced to host similar themes in the sub-region, which is intended to co-locate with an industry-focused expo, which this year, she said, would attract notables in the nation’s Internet Service Providers (ISP) community, who would use the platform to showcase their brands and services by engaging end users.
Exhibiting ISPs, she said, would be handy to explain to Nigerians at the event how their products would facilitate penetration and improved competition for the benefit of ordinary internet users in the country.
She therefore called on members of the Internet Service Providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN), Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) who have commenced mobile internet services to take full advantage of the forum and expo to expose their various products to the Nigerian populace have become increasingly hungry for seamless internet service, among others.
Additionally, she said, the forum and expo would attract co-location companies, thereby availing subscribers and potential cyber café operators an avenue to interact and discussion subjects that could move the country forward, especially on Internet governance in line with the global internet forum otherwise refer to as IGF, which would be holding later in the year in Egypt.
She further said that the forum would enable Nigerian internet community to articulate their views so as to ensure that Nigeria voice is heard at the global session, also slated to hold later in November.
Mrs. Nweke recalled that IGF is considered an important development of the two-phased World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) which held in Geneva in 2003 and Tunisia in 2005.
This important outcome, she said, was reaffirmed by paragraphs 37 and 38 of the Tunis 2005 Commitment, which states in part, “… goals can be accomplished through the involvement, cooperation and partnership of governments and other stakeholders, that is. the private sector, civil society and international organizations, and that international cooperation and solidarity at all levels are indispensable if the fruits of the Information Society are to benefit all.”
In addition, the paragraph 38, she pointed as stating that aforementioned efforts “should not stop with the conclusion of the Summit … emergence of the global Information Society to which we all contribute provides increasing opportunities for all our peoples and for an inclusive global community … we must harness these opportunities today and support their further development and progress.”
The Tunis Summit of 2005 paved the way for the IGF mandate of which paragraph 72 of the Tunis agenda, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General was charged to convene a meeting with regards to the new multi-stakeholder forum, known as the IGF.
“In this mandate encourages different stakeholders to strengthen engagement, particularly those from developing countries,” she declared, emphasizing that Nigeria cannot afford to be left behind in the scheme of things, especially with the fourth edition of IGF, which has been brought to African continent.
“We must take advantage of this to mobilize African nations and Nigeria in particular given her population which is over five out of the 53 countries on the continent,” she pointed.
Digital Sense Africa is a public engagement and enlightenment initiative of Remnek Kommunications Ventures, a group of ICT analysts and professionals with continental media affiliates.
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