By Ebele Uzokwe
Momentum 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. Forum’s registration formally commenced online last week in line with the tradition started in 2007 by organize

Ndukwe

rs of the convergence Forum, Knowledge Media International (KMI) Limited, publishers of IT Edge magazine published in English and French languages.

With the theme, Content & Policy Dynamics in the Converged Market, the 3rd IT Edge West Africa Convergence Forum is designed to get stakeholders in the industry 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.

“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,” said Nigeria’s telecom regulator and Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigeria Communications Commission Engr Ernest Ndukwe.

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 fianancial 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.”

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.

“Convergence is the present and the future of the industry. It is already raising questions on the fundamental structures of the industry as we have traditionally or always known it. Technology has converged; regulators are converging and the policy thrust by many jurisdictions is tended towards convergence because to advance the best interests of consumers as made possible by technologies that were once separated entities,” said Sunday Folayan, CEO of Ibadan based Skannet technology solutions providers. Folayan is one of the Forum’s panelists.
The forum enjoys the support of global telecom giant Ericsson.

“As the leading promoter of innovations in the industry, Ericsson is glad to associate with the IT Edge Convergence Forum believing that the Forum will help foster a gathering of experts and stakeholders to discuss and promote one of the industry’s defining issues: convergence. Ericsson believes that now more than ever, the industry needs the collaboration of all stakeholders to move the sector forward,” said Olabode Sowunmi of Ericsson West Africa in Lagos.

The Forum is divided into two sessions and a Regulatory Roundtable to explore the challenges of regulation, competition, and cooperation towards adopting a sustainable roadmap to addressing the rising issues in the converged marketplace.

Session I is titled ‘Content(s) in the Converged Environment – where are the managers and the offerings?’ and Session II focuses on ‘Policy/ Regulatory Dynamics in the Converged Market. Forum panelists are drawn from across the entire of the industry including the postal services, financial and educational sectors, computer and software industries among others.