W/Africa convergence forum gathers momentum

EXCITEMENT is gathering for the IT Edge West Africa Convergence Forum 2009 holding in Abuja in November with more than 450 registrations recorded online at the official website of the event: www.itedgeconvergenceforum.com.

A press statement from the organizers said, the forum’s registration formally commenced online last week in line with the tradition started in 2007.

The forum being put together by Knowledge Media International (KMI) Limited, publishers of IT Edge magazine published in English and French languages, has as its theme, Content & Policy Dynamics in the Converged Market.

The 3rd IT Edge West Africa Convergence Forum, the organizers said, has been designed to get stakeholders in the industry to address some of the increasing challenges that convergence has brought about.

“The challenges of convergence for the telecom regulator are multidimensional and touches in various that include content regulation, interconnection, access, spectrum management, collocation, quality of service among others. In considering the paradigm shift from local to global arena we are also confronted by the issue of service content,” part of the press statement read.

Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigeria Communications Commission, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, was quoted as saying, “Different countries have deployed different approaches to addressing the regulatory challenges as it uniquely expresses their market and national aspirations. The options include Convergence Regulation centering on the dynamics of the unification of IT, Telecommunications and broadcasting; essentially, the trend has been to merge infrastructure and content regulation.”

Ndukwe who chaired one of the sessions at the Forum 2008 and is regarded as the continent’s leading regulator said convergence has redefined the country’s broadcast and financial sector.

“The Nigerian financial market is becoming a major beneficiary of the convergence being witnessed in the ICT sector. The increasing application of such customer desired financials transactions that eliminates the movement of cash is driven by convergence. Mobile banking, as we are now experiencing in Nigeria are driven by possibilities offered by the convergence of telecom and ICT.

"SMS banking services ranging from debit, credit transaction alerts and salary alerts to buying prepaid units from the customers’ bank account are all made possible on convergence platforms,” he said

A large number of registration is at the Forum’s website is coming from the financial and educational sector. The high number of online registration in less than a week indicates the rising interest in convergence as it affects the industry, said KMI officials in Lagos.

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