Issue no 570 2nd September 2011

Ethiopian Electric Power Cooperation (EEPCo) and ethio-telecom, which reported losses of US$4.2 million and US$3.6 million, respectively, due to theft and intentional damages on their infrastructure this year, appealed to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) for stringent legal measures on those accused of committing these acts.

The two institutions presented the reported loss they had incurred during the second Joint National Justice Forum held at Haile Resort in Hawassa, 273km from the capital in Southern Regional State, last weekend. They appealed to judges of the Supreme Court as well as Tegene Getaneh, president of the Supreme Court, for a speedy and severe sentencing on those proclaimed guilty of the act of committing these offences.

Out of this loss, 28 million Br was due to cutting and theft of fibre optic cables. Another 53 million Br was spent on maintaining and repairing these damages.

"Since the damage that occurs doesn't affect just one institution, the punishment should also be severe," Abdurahim said. "So far, none of the punishments levied on offenders has been enough of a deterrent."

The state owned ethio-telecom alone lost 10.6 million Br which it would have gained had data traffic not been interrupted due to cuttings of fibre optic cables. In the past two months, 23 telecom lines were damaged and service disruption had occurred 46 times of which 15 were due to intentional cutting of the optic cables.

It used to be that this frequency of theft would happen in a year, which shows the increase in these intentional acts, according to Abdurahim. Both institutions appealed to the prosecutors and relevant officials in the MoJ to charge offenders using the more stringent proclamation.

Pieter Uys, Vodacom CEO, has announced that Vodacom will be providing a mobile app store to consumers in September 2011. The announcement came after an extensive inquiry into the local mobile app ecosystem through a multi-phased market research project conducted by Columinate. Vodacom shared the results of the Columinate research with industry stakeholders at a special event held at the Melrose Arch Hotel in Johannesburg on Friday, 26 August.

On Friday, 26 August, Columinate and Vodacom hosted a special breakfast event to share the findings from a multi-phased research inquiry into the local mobile app ecosystem.

Pieter Uys, Vodacom CEO, announced that he was so excited about Columinate's research that he wanted to share it with the world. Before sharing the results, Uys spoke briefly about Vodacom's intentions for the mobile app ecosystem in South Africa, and went on to announce the launch of Vodacom's app store in September 2011.

Thereafter, Henk Pretorius, Columinate director, presented the findings from the market research. This represented a collation of the multi-phased project conducted by Columinate which looked at how industry experts and stakeholders, as well as developers and consumers of apps, felt about the local ecosystem and its possibilities.

Overall, 11 industry professionals, 407 smartphone owners who have downloaded apps in the past 6 months, and 35 developers took part in the research. The research was also preceded and continuously checked against an in-depth desk research phase that looked at international nuances compared to those evident in the local ecosystem.

One finding in the report suggests that networks are considered to be in a favourable position to act as enablers, as they have the ability to drive app demand, interact with consumers and provide a gateway for developers to get their apps to the market. This finding can be linked to Uys's statement that, "The launch of this app store is just the beginning. We're building an entire community that will supply home-grown apps relevant to the South African environment. With all the talent available in this country, there's no reason why we can't create our own application industry."

According to Elna Smit, Columinate director, "The research presented a challenge for Columinate as it was the first of its kind in South Africa. There are no formal or public sources that have looked at the apps ecosystem locally, and we had to take an innovative and fresh perspective to provide Vodacom with the insight needed”.

“The approach was a 360 degree view of the ecosystem and, from a researcher's point of view, the opportunity to do this depth of research was very rewarding." She also added, "Vodacom's willingness to openly share the market research findings, something that is rarely done, represents a move that challenges all players in the industry to work together in order to nurture, enable and develop the local app ecosystem. "

Vodacom’s announcement about launching an apps store follows a similar announcement in July by Zantel about the rollout of  Blackberry powered apps store. Mobile operators Orange and Tunisiana have already launched apps stores in Tunisia. The pace of launching apps store in Africa is picking up and if you need to know more to what extent mobile applications will play a role in the development of mobile content on the continent, you need to read the recently published report by Balancing Act: “Mobile apps for Africa: Strategies to make sense of free and paid apps”. The report analyses the nascent apps ecosystem in Africa while providing an analytical framework that will allow African mobile operators, content providers, apps developers and handset manufacturers to decide on what strategy to adopt regarding mobile apps. To find out more about the report please click here:

The government has developed an automated system to verify the authenticity of transport vehicle licences, putting the brakes on cartels that have thrived from the sale of counterfeits.

Supported by mobile phone technology, the system is already on trial among vehicles registered by the Transport Licensing Board (TLB). The registrar of motor vehicles, Francis Meja, said Tuesday that those seeking to confirm the authenticity of their documents can send their licence serial numbers to a short text message (SMS) number 5456.

The automated system would then provide a feedback on the status of the licence, based on the official records at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). "Response from TLB registered vehicles is fabulous and we hope to launch the system soon and extend it to all categories of vehicles and driving licences," Meja told a meeting in Nairobi between the Transport ministry and members of the Parliamentary Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing.

Transport Minister Amos Kimunya said the new system has triggered a rush among transport vehicle owners seeking authentic documents."In the past one month alone we have received applications for about 200,000 vehicles, which points to the effectiveness of the system," he told the forum.

Cartels have been reaping from the sale of counterfeit documents such as road and drivers' licences, with motorists acquiring fake driving licences for as little as Sh1,000 without formal training.

Corruption has been blamed for the high number of accidents on major roads and highways across the country. Meja said all applications would be uploaded into a centralised database to assist in the transition towards the smart-card technology based second generation driving licences. The database already has 2.9 million registered drivers and 1.4 million vehicles. "It will be easier to transfer the information we already have into the digital cards," he said.

By 2017, Rwanda intends to distribute half a million laptops to primary school students across the country through the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program. However, as Nkubito Bakuramutsa, Rwanda's OLPC coordinator explains to The Independent's Matthew Stein, the program is expected to revolutionise a lot more than the country's education system.

Q: What progress has the OLPC program made to date?

A: In 2008-09 our pilot project started with the distribution of 10,000 laptops. We followed that up with a contact of 100,000 laptops. In 2010 we distributed 65,000 of these to P4, P5 and P6 students in 128 schools. And since this past June, we have been in the midst of distributing the remaining 35,000 laptops in an additional 70 schools.

Q: What is your ultimate goal?

We want to reach all one million students between P4 and P6. We have now placed an order for another 60,000 laptops and with the distribution of these we will have reached about 17 percent of the P4-P6 population by June 2012. However, we are currently doing a lot of research on how we can increase these numbers drastically to reach our goal by 2017.

Q: What's the process of importing OLPC into the schools?

The first step is to wire all these schools to ensure that they have power plugs in the classroom, and we also add light in the classroom at the same time. So this program is also about improving the infrastructure of the schools. If they're too far from the electricity grid we are using solar panels. The second phase is connecting them to our servers and local area networks, which they can connect to through a wireless local area network that we install as well. Once students access the server, they can download the Rwandan curriculum in its digital form as well as books and other learning material to improve their skills

Q: How do the students learn to use the computers and its programs?

A: The teachers have to be at the centre of this transformation. First we selected 150 schools and asked that the headmaster and a teacher of their choice come to Kigali for one week of training. The first two days is spent on how to use the laptops and the other three days on the methodology of teaching the material with a computer. Then they go back and teach other teachers in the school. We then visit each school individually. We spend five days working with the teachers and students and we spare one day of training for the community so that it can understand why we're putting these laptops in the school, the impact it should have on the students and why it's important for Rwanda. We're trying to deploy ICT in such a way that it participate not only in the enhancement of learning but it also contributes to the development of the country.

Q: Have you encountered any challenges?

A: There have been some natural consequences: for the student it's a new approach to learn, to access knowledge; for a teacher, teaching with the laptops and digital software becomes more challenging because they are no longer providing the students with content to memorise. Instead, they are trying to enhance the understanding of concepts, so more than memorizing the children focus on innovation and creativity. Inserting technology in school is a fundamental change to classic education. It's not just enabling books to be in a digital format--it's a really new way of learning. We don't want them to repeat just what's on the board. We want them to demonstrate that they've really understood the concept. It's called constructionism--learning by doing.

Q: Do the laptops belong to the students?

A: No, it's school property. The students can take the laptops home with them but before we distribute them we add a security feature that allows our server to do a roll call every three weeks to check if the computers are inside the school. If they are not there, the laptops are disabled. Once the students graduate from P6, they leave the laptops behind for the next batch of students.

Q: The government is now spending more than $200 on each computer. Is this expense really justified given the amount of challenges Rwanda, as a developing country, face?

A: In Rwanda we are using more and more ICT in our hospitals, airports, for all kinds of infrastructure projects to develop every part of our country. Who are the people that are going to man this infrastructure? Who are the people that are going to integrate or customise this infrastructure to our environment?

These are the people we are training today. We need them to help us reduce the level of ICT consultancy we require with the outside world. Rwanda can invest in other sectors too, but through OLPC we are increasing our independence from all these external dependencies, which are extremely expensive. We are investing in the future, not in the present. We need all these skills to be brought into Rwanda and primary school is really the foundation. If you are well-trained in primary school then it will be easier to succeed. We want all children in Rwanda to have the same level of understanding and knowledge as a kid from Singapore, Finland or California.

Telkom is still keen to expand its operations elsewhere on the African continent despite the sensational failure of Multi-Links, its Nigerian business, says chairman Lazarus Zim.
He was speaking at the group’s 2011 annual general meeting of shareholders on Tuesday in Midrand.

“We need to remain the wholesaler of choice and build a sustainable African business,” Zim says. Just because the group has had “challenges” in Nigeria, doesn’t mean it’s lost interest in seeking opportunities elsewhere on the continent outside its home market of SA. Zim doesn’t say if the group is already considering specific investments.

“There were expensive and important lessons that we learnt [from Multi-Links],” Zim says. “We are fully committed to building a sustainable, good and profitable African business.”

Telkom lost more than R7bn through its decision to buy and invest in Multi-Links, which operates a CDMA (code division multiple access) wireless network in Nigeria. Multi-Links was brought to its knees through a combination of bad management decisions and investment in the wrong technology — the West African nation is dominated by operators that use the competing GSM technology.

Telkom reached an agreement recently to sell Multi-Links to an affiliate company of Helios Towers Nigeria for US$10m, “which may increase depending on the achievement of certain conditions”. 

TDR Deputy PM / Database Manager – Rwanda
Pact is a non-profit international development organization with a purpose to enable poor and marginalized people in the developing world to earn a dignified living, be healthy, and take part in the benefits that nature provides. We do this by developing people’s capacity to make informed choices about their life and future, improving governance systems, and transforming markets into a force for development.

Roles and Responsibilities:
Description: Under the supervision of the Pact Project Manager, the Deputy Project Manager / Database Manager is responsible for leading the management of project data for iTSCi Rwanda, and in the absence of Project Manager, he will manage the administrative, financial and programmatic aspects of the project. As such, the Database Manager will assist the Project Manager by providing technical assistance to any project team and ensure their ability to fulfill their role. She/he will help in checking the accuracy of reporting sites, including the monitoring of all the dynamics relating to mining in the country, as well as issues working with various stakeholders.
He will be based in Kigali and will work throughout the country
Role and Responsibilities:
Database Manager:
• Ensure quick and accurate recording of data in the database.
• Keeping pace with data collection through the "log books" of mines, traders and trading posts, and immediately address all questions to the Project Manager
• The manager of the database will work closely with other team members (including staff ITRI) to ensure that appropriate and effective system of data collection is being and maintained.
• Identify and report all data missing or fraudulent
• Produce regular reports by using the tools of data analysis in the existing database.
• Recommend changes or improvements to the design or operation of the database if necessary.
• Attend and participate in the training of staffs of OGMR if necessary, to ensure that the data are clearly and properly recorded in the log books. The manager of the database must comment on and recommend improvements to the system if necessary.
Deputy Project Manager:
In the absence or at the request of Project Manager
• To be the focal point for contact with the authorities, counters, offices and other stakeholders involved in the project
• Ensure compliance with work plans and timing for submission of internal and external reports
• Work with all stakeholders in the supply chain (artisanal miners, merchants, counters, OGMR, government) to ensure proper understanding of their roles in the success of the project.
• Identify opportunities for ITRI to improve contacts and engagement with stakeholders
• Participate in key meetings related to the project,
Of Administrative and Financial Management
• Manage the daily administration office in Kigali
• Strengthen the programmatic needs, administrative and financial project
• Enforce policies and procedures of decision making related to management;
• Supervise direct field geologists, the accounting and ensure that other staffs perform their role properly,
• Be responsible for all office supplies, maintenance and equipment inventory
• Standardize the management and use of vehicles and motorbikes of the project, checking planning needs fuel and maintenance, while giving priority to field teams
• Allow office expenses on the basis of approved Work Plan
• Coordinated withdrawals of funds and payments of taxes
• To manage the safety, health and emergencies on land urgently informing the Program Manager for major cases.

Reports
Monthly reports on or before the 25th of each month to send to the Program Manager, report included:
• Narrative Report of project progress based on the work plan,
• Financial Reports
• Problems, needs, success stories, and next steps,
• Report of circumstances (in any event not ordinary)

Qualifications:
qualification in computer science

Education and Experience Requirements:
previous experience required
For further information or to apply click here