Cisco names Siyabonga Madyibi GAD for Africa

Worldwide leader in Information Technology (IT), Cisco Africa, has named Mr Siyabonga Madyibi as its first-ever Government Affairs Director (GAD) for Africa, reports ITRealms.

In his new role, ITRealms reports that Siyabonga, who has over 14 years’ experience in telecom policy, will lead Cisco's government affairs and public policy strategy in Africa, engaging with top government officials and key policy makers in Africa. 

ITRealms also reports that he would be focusing initially on South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria by working in close partnership and alignment with Cisco’s Africa Leadership team, led by David Meads, the Vice President for Africa at Cisco, on policies and relationships that will advance Cisco’s businesses on the continent. 

Reacting to his appointment, Mr. Madyibi said, he looks forward to leading Cisco’s Government Affairs programme in Africa given its important and integral role in Cisco’s strategy for growth in Africa.

“With the technology market currently growing at an exponential rate and governments playing an important role helping to develop the opportunities that are being created, Cisco aims to actively partner with government departments to help drive this growth and build on these opportunities,” he said.

Cisco, ITRealms gathered noted that as the home to nine of the world’s fifteen fastest growing economies, Africa is ripe for transformation making it an increasingly attractive environment for global business investments.

Technology, Cisco officials asserted to ITRealms, is at an inflection point, in which it can transform African economies and create many new opportunities, with the increased digitization of countries.  Subsequently, governments throughout the continent are now increasingly becoming aware of the importance of growth in ICT and the benefits it can offer. 

Cisco projects that 50 billion devices - or “things” - will be connected to the internet by 2020, offering a platform for African countries to use this to achieve greater broadband penetration across the continent leading to improvements that will better social and economic prosperity for its citizens.

For the past decade Siyabonga has led the government and regulatory strategy for Dimension Data in Africa. Before that, he worked with the South African Regulator, ICASA, and for MTN, one of the leading mobile operators in the telecoms sector in Africa. Siyabonga holds a BA Law degree from the University of Cape Town and an LLB degree from the University of Natal.

Equally speaking, Pastora Valero, Senior Director, Government Affairs, Cisco Europe, Middle East & Africa and Russia CIS (EMEAR) said they are delighted to have Siyabonga on board especially at a time when they are witnessing considerable growth and investment in ICT throughout Africa which makes proactive engagement with governments a vital strategic imperative for us at Cisco.

“I look forward to working with him as a key contributor to our global Government Affairs team as we actively support African governments in the drive to increase access to affordable, reliable technology,” Valero said.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) +Cisco  @CiscoNigeria
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Most Admired Brands: Glo made Africa's top six

ITRealms:

The national telecoms carrier, Globacom has been listed as one of the six most admired brands on the continent of Africa, reports ITRealms.

This, ITRealms also reports was the outcome of a continental survey conducted by African Business, one of the world's most authoritative magazines on African business.

The report, ITRealms gathered, was published in the latest edition of the London-based magazine. 

“It said Globacom polled a total Admiration Score of 345, pushing it up on the scale as one of the six most valued brands on the continent ahead of many multinationals.  Indeed, it is the only company in the topmost ladder that has its root in Nigeria,” a press statement made available to ITRealms read in part.

The survey organizers further showed of the annual brand rankings that the results were arrived at after a rigorous, comprehensive exercise. 

The statement signed by Rupert Kemp, Valuation Director, Brand Finance Africa, and Karin Du Chenne of TNS, the magazine’s partners on the project, said the process integrated consumer research and financial valuation.

“In the research phase, Brand Africa’s partner, TNS Global, the world’s largest information research firm, in partnership with Geopoll, the leading mobile survey platform with a database of nearly 200 million users in emerging markets, set out to identify the most admired local and global brands in Africa,” the statement read.

They further explained that a representative sample of eight countries, covering the major Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) regions were selected for the survey. These included Ghana, and Nigeria for West Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for East Africa, DR Congo for Central Africa, and Mozambique and South Africa for Southern Africa.“Collectively, these countries represent 51 percent (477 million) of Sub-Saharan Africa population and 67 percent ($1.065 trillion) of Africa’s GDP…Using Geopoll’s sophisticated mobile SMS technology for data collection, individuals aged 18 and older in these countries  were asked to rank their top three ‘most admired global or local brands’ in order of first to third,” the organizers said.

According to the Magazine, the process yielded 8,600 brand mentions, representing over 2,800 brands as each responder provided a list of three brands each.

Subsequent analysis of the coded data and calculation of the scores of each brand by TNS provided the list of the top 100 most admired brands in Africa.

A closer look at the table indicated that Globacom outperformed hundreds of older brands across many sectors of the economy in the continent.

Globacom ITRealms recalled has bagged several awards from various local and international bodies in 2014 on account of its revolutionary products and services. These include being one of the 10 Most Admired brands in Nigeria at the BusinessDay Nigeria’s Top 100 Most Respected Companies Awards event.

Earlier last year, Glo was similarly ranked amongst the Top Five Most Valuable Brands in Africa by the continent’s high profile publication, Brand Africa.  

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) @Globacom 

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Jobberman opens new office @Elephant House

ITRealms:

Acclaimed Nigeria’s number 1 jobs website, Jobberman has open new office at the Elephant House, reports ITRealms.

Also, ITRealms reports that Jobberman is planning a cocktail party to declare the new office formally open, which has been scheduled for January 30, 2015 at 15^th Floor, Elephant House Building, 214 Broad Street.

ITRealms equally gathered that Jobberman has fixed the cocktail time between 3pm and 6pm, even as invitees were asked to confirm attendance via a link.

Jobberman, ITRealms notes, prouds itself as medium that keeps jobseeker in the loop on the latest jobs in Nigeria, recent vacancies and 2015 Nigerian job recruitment opportunities.

 
+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) +Jobberman.com +Jobbermann
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Exclusive: APC.com.ng still under maintenance

Exclusive@ITRealms:

Days after the All Progressive Congress (APC) under the aegis of Buhari-Osibanjo Presidential Campaign Organisation led by Gov. Babatunde Fashola accused the Federal Government (FG) of shutting down its website, www.APC.com.ng own by the party remained under maintenance, as ITRealms can authoritatively reports.

Although the managers of .NG registry in the country, the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) had earlier cleared the air on the accusation, as gathered by ITRealms, maintained that there was no directive to the effect of the allegation by APC; the party is yet to launch any known investigation in-house to determine why it choose to host its website on www.apc.org, which translates to capital flight as far as Nigeria is concerned.

This according to an industry observer who spoke to ITRealms on anonymity shows how unreliable the party leadership is and their determination to create more capital flight-induced economy.

Officials of NIRA had in the response to the allegation of shutting down the website explained to ITRealms that they as registry of .NG operates 3R model, which entails Registry, Registrar, 

Registrant, therefore registrants on .NG go through their registrars who are usually accredited to get NIRA services as registry.

ITRealms, further reports that capital flight entails taking the jobs or economic values available to Nigerians to foreigners or simply out of the country.

According to the Wikipedia, “Capital flight, in economics, occurs when assets or money rapidly flow out of a country, due to an event of economic consequence.”

While Investopedia, described capital flight as “A large-scale exodus of financial assets and capital from a nation due to events such as political or economic instability, currency devaluation or the imposition of capital controls.”

 

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Twitter goes into 40 languages, partners Bing on translation

ITRealms:

Twitter is set to partner with Bing translator to provide translations platform for Tweets on over 40 languages, reports ITRealms.

This partnership, ITRealms also reports, is to ensure the introduction of Tweet translation package so that users would not miss any of the actions on Twitter

In addition, ITRealms reports that with this translation, users could choose when they want to see a translation for a Tweet, and they could equally adjust their settings so the option to view Tweet translations is disabled. 

Although Bing Translator relies on advanced translation software to provide Tweet translations, ITRealms reports that the results still vary and often fall below the accuracy and fluency of translations provided by a professional translator. 

Twitter told ITRealms that its for this reason, the original text would always displayed above its translation.

In order, to adjust the Tweet Translation, ITRealms noted that all a user needs to do is to log in to his/her account on a desktop or laptop computer, go to his or her Account settings and locate the Tweet translation section, before changing his or her Tweet translation setting by checking the box next to Show Tweet translations.

To view a Tweet translation, ITRealms gathered the user needs to look for a globe icon located in the Tweet if he/she sees a Tweet in a different language, click or tap the Tweet to expand it, then a translation of the text in the Tweet will appear below the original Tweet.

Equally, ITRealms reports that tweet translation is available on twitter.com, Twitter for iOS, Twitter for Android, and TweetDeck.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms)   @Twitter.com @DigitalSENSEng @NaijaAgroNet @Nkem.nweke #Twitter.com


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