THE 3rd West African Information & Communications Technology Congress (WAFICT 2011) which held in Lagos last week turned out to be a forum where key stakeholders in the nation’s telecommunications sector made case for the ubiquity of broadband, describing it as the next frontier that will power growth in the sector in the next decade.

THIS column last week focused giant strides in IT made by India, a colonial sibling of Nigeria, which launched the world’s cheapest tablet PC at $35, branded Aakash, a fortnight ago.

For the Information and Communication industry in Nigeria to move forward, stakeholders in the sector must come together to collaborate.

Nigeria’s burgeoning mobile sector attracted yet another additional investor last week as Huawei Technologies Ltd, announced the introduction of series of mobile devices into the highly competitive Nigerian mobile phone market.

JULIET Ehimuan is Country Manager for search engine giant, Google, in Nigeria. In this interview, she speaks on the future of Nigeria as a nation with potentials to develop IT and other complex software. She is also passionate about the prospects of small and medium sized businesses and is of the conviction that if they get online their businesses will prosper more, and named examples in this regard. She also speaks on the new domain recently launched by Google to help more Nigerian businesses get on line. Excerpts:

Glo 1, which was at the West African Information Communication and Technology Congress (WAFICIT) exhibition and conference held in Lagos last week drew high profile visitors, including captains of industries and government officials.

The reality today translates to the fact that it should be abundantly clear to us, that the era and long-addicted habit of physically and blindly chasing the containers and cargo packages at all our import terminals and air/land boarders and throwing away the content of the manifest documents that represent the knowledge-base and real world inside the containers, must be over by now.

The panel of judges of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria( ISPON) Software innovation cup competition for tertiary institutions in Nigeria on Monday shortlisted 20 schools for the finals kicking off in Tinapa, Calabar, Cross River State tomorrow.

As prelude to the launch of its replacement satellite, NigComSat 1R, in December, Nigeria’s premier communications satellite company, NIGCOMSAT will hold a series of roadshows and interactive sessions with stakeholders in Lagos.

The Nigerian Communications Commission, last week rolled out the drums to celebrate a successful eight years hosting of the consumer parliament and a decade of telecom revolution in Nigeria…

Former Executive Director of Multilinks Limited, Engr Ezekiel Fatoye has re-echoed the demand for the Nigerian Broadcast Commission, NBC to be merged with the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, just as he requested that…

TOP CDMA operator, Starcomms Plc, in its effort to support the poverty eradication in Nigeria, has joined Edo and Delta State Governments in their poverty eradication initiatives, making donations to give the projects some materials to the Edo State Government.

THe reality today translates to the fact that it should be abundantly clear to us, that the era and long-addicted habit of physically and blindly chasing the containers and cargo packages at all our import terminals and air/land boarders and throwing away the content of the manifest documents that represent the knowledge-base and real world inside the containers, must be over by now.

After a traumatising period of blackberry services black out, last week, users all over the world have been asking for compensation for the pains of not connecting to loved ones and business associates.

THE city of Durban South Africa, would light up December as the whole world gather for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC popularly called Conference of the Parties (COP-17).