Nigeria Content Online

Ahead of the formal
inauguration of its N3b Wireless Infrastructure project lead-sponsored
by Google Inc, faculty and staff of the University of Nigeria Nsukka
(UNN) commenced training last week on integrating technology in course
design, teaching and research.

Google is one of
the key facilitators of the course in collaboration with the Innovation
Centre, UNN and human capital development firm OrgLearning Consult
Limited.

Chidi Onyia of
OrgLearning Consult Ltd, the lead facilitator, said the programme seeks
to prepare the first batch of staff on the use of the enhanced
technology tools that would be available to the university from
September this year. UNN plans to inaugurate its Information and
Communication Technology project that has the sponsorship and
partnership of about 10 leading players in ICT.

Google is lead
sponsor of the project under its University Assistance project. UNN is
the first recipient of the Google sponsorship of a major programme that
helps to avail African universities and young people with 21st century
productivity tools. Google is providing 150mb of international Internet
bandwidth to the University of Nigeria as well as support with
applications and training.

The institution’s Vice Chancellor, Bartholomew Okolo, said at the
opening ceremony of the programme at the Enugu campus of the university
that the programme is “in consonance with the vision of university
management to provide an enabling environment for realisation of the
new vision of making UNN a global centre of learning”.

In the spirit of
celebrating the holy month of Ramadan, Starcomms Plc is offering its
Muslim customers the opportunity of purchasing and owning a unique
handset, the Qiblah, exclusively equipped with integrated features that
are tailor-made to meet the needs of fasting and praying Muslims.

The new phone has
an indicator setting which points to Mecca and comes complete with a
compass and prayer time alarm functions. The Qiblah indicator uses an
inbuilt longitude and latitude orientation or city references that,
when used in comparison to the magnetic north, indicates the direction
of the Qiblah so that the Muslim can, from any place he is, know in
what direction to face and pray. The Qiblah in Islam is the compass
that shows the direction that Muslims face to pray wherever they are.

Speaking on the
functionality of the Qiblah phones, Tushar Maheshwari, Chief Commercial
Officer of Starcomms noted that very often it is difficult to determine
the four cardinal points when one is constantly on the move.

Therefore, it may
not be easy to determine the Qiblah when it is time to pray for a
Muslim whose routine requires moving around. With the aid of the
compass installed in the phone, a Muslim customer of Starcomms can
easily know which direction to face at prayer time.

The Qiblah phones are designed with colourful Islamic visual
features, such as lovely wall papers and screen savers as well as
inspiring ring-tones. The phone is also a channel for the customer to
enjoy the Listen-To-Quran service of Starcomms, which is the first of
its kind in the country.

Guinness Water of Life project was commissioned in Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State on Wednesday, August 25.

The commissioning
ceremony was attended by members of Odigbo community, neighbouring
towns, and villages as well as traditional rulers from these towns.

Governor of Ondo
State, Olusegun Mimiko, represented by the Commissioner for Adult
Education and Vocational Studies, Florence Kehinde Momoh, commended
Guinness Nigeria for the gesture. While calling on other corporate
organisations to emulate Guinness Nigeria, the commissioner, who hails
from Odigbo, described the projects as a good example of public-private
sector collaboration in the development of the rural communities of the
state.

The Lisa of Odigbo,
Godwin Akindileni, said “It is like magic. Guinness knew what was
bothering us and responded to the needs of the people in this area. The
Odigbo community is happy over this project. We hear banks declaring
billions as profits all over the whole place without touching people’s
lives in any way, Before now, you could not count up to 10 boreholes in
the town, there was serious stress for people whenever they seek to get
potable water, but with this project, Guinness has done a great thing
for this town and it is marvellous in our eyes.”

Unveiling the
project, the representative of the Managing Director, Guinness Nigeria,
Rory McMillan said “Providing potable water to communities in Nigeria
is an integral part of our corporate citizenship agenda.”

The Odigbo project
is made up of boreholes, overhead storage tank, a water treatment
machine, a distribution network and a standby power generating set.

It is possible some
people may not have heard of browser wars. This term is used to
describe the rivalries for the control of the web browsing market,
specifically between Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Netscape’s
Navigator in the 1990s (Internet Explorer won that one hands down), and
the resurgence of rivals to Internet Explorer since 2003. The major
competitors are Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari, and more recently,
Google’s Chrome.

All this is in the
desktop computing space however, and Opera, a Norwegian software maker,
has always been one of the ‘little’ boys in that battle. But in recent
times, the mobile browsing space is becoming more significant and more
important, and when it comes to that space, Opera is king. Today, we
are going to take a look at their browser for mobile phones, Opera Mini.

First things first,
Opera Mini is free. Simply go to Opera.com and download it. It is
supported through a partnership between the Opera Software company and
Google.

The browser is
designed primarily for mobile phones, smart phones, and personal
digital assistants. It uses the Java ME platform and as a result,
requires that the mobile device be capable of running Java ME
applications.

Opera Mini was
derived from the Opera browser for personal computers, which has been
publicly available since 1996. It began as a pilot project in 2005 and
after limited releases in Europe, it was officially launched worldwide
on January 24, 2006.

Easy interface

Opera Mini has an
easy interface with an address bar and a Google search bar. Mobile
users do not need more than this really, and Opera manages to put them
in a short column that requires little scrolling. A pop-up menu
available from any screen brings you directly to any of these basic
navigational components, no matter how deeply you are in a site. A
Settings tool opts in or out of image loading, forcing the screen to
jump to the first available text, font size changes, etc.

For me, the killer
feature of Opera Mini is that it requests web pages through Opera
Software’s servers. The servers are configured to process, and then
compress them before relaying the pages back to your mobile phone. This
compression process makes transfer time about two to three times
faster, and the pre-processing smoothes compatibility with web pages
not designed for mobile phones.

Some websites are
not yet compatible with mobile phones, so do not render well on your
Blackberry’s native browser, but render quite well on Opera Mini. All
this is done without taxing the phone itself, and most crucially for
me, in a way that is very friendly to the Nigerian pocket. Images on
the websites are scaled down so you can see them on your phone, but
they do not use much of the 100MB that Zain (what’s their new name
nowadays?) allocates on what I consider to be the most reasonably
priced mobile Internet plan in Nigeria.

For someone like me
who does most of my mobile browsing on a Blackberry, this browser is a
must have. The only problem I had with it was that it kept crashing
each time I opened more than four tabs at a time, but that was probably
a function of the kind of websites I visit.

However, it beats
RIM’s own Blackberry browser hands down, and neither the Android’s
native browser, nor Safari on the iPhone are nearly as good as what
Opera has put out in the Mini. This browser is a must-use for anyone
who is serious about having access to the Internet on the go.

South African
industrial conglomerate Bidvest posted higher full-year profit on
Monday as solid demand from emerging markets offset a stronger rand,
and said it was looking for potential acquisitions.

Bidvest, whose
businesses include auto retailing, shipping and food distribution, has
been helped by exposure to fast-growing markets such as Asia, which
have largely escaped the worst of the global downturn.

It also expects a
boost from decades-low interest rates at home, and as economies in
Europe and South Africa make a gradual recovery.

Bidvest, which has
a market value of around $6.2 billion, said in a statement it is
budgeting for “real growth” in earnings in the coming year.

“Our capacity to do deals is quite significant,” Chief Executive Officer Brian Joffe said in a telephone interview.

“We obviously have to put our balance sheet to work over the next short while.”

He declined to say
how much Bidvest would be looking to spend on a potential acquisition.
The company has said it is looking to expand its food service business
in Europe.

The company’s
current leverage ratio stands at around 30 percent, Joffe said, adding
that could “easily” be boosted to 40 or 50 percent.

Overseas profits

Bidvest, which
makes more of a quarter of its sales overseas, said full-year results
were boosted largely by stronger auto sales in South Africa and rising
demand for catering services in Asia.

“It’s a good
quality set of results and shows that something is happening in the
economies it operates in,” said Mark Hodgson, an analyst at Avior
Research.

But the company was also hit by the strengthening rand, which eats into the value of overseas earnings.

Earlier this month
the rand hit a 2-1/2 year high against the dollar, prompting South
Africa’s finance minister to say he was concerned about the rise of the
currency.

Bidvest’s Joffe
said the soccer World Cup, which was expected to lift earnings at home,
failed to deliver due to fewer than expected foreign visitors.

Headline earnings per share rose 15 percent to 1,070 cents in the year to end-June.

Headline EPS, the main gauge of profit in South Africa, strips out certain one-time items.

Revenue fell 2.3 percent to 109.8 billion rand, hit in part by the stronger rand.

Bidvest’s cash
generation increased 18.3 percent to 8 billion rand, debt fell 7.3
percent to 3.8 billion rand, while finance charges dropped by around a
quarter.

Shares of the
Johannesburg-based company, which are little changed so far this year,
gained 1.2 percent to 130.50 rand as of 1110 GMT, slightly
underperforming a 1.6 percent rise in the blue-chip Top-40 index.

In the last one month, Research In Motion (RIM), the Blackberry producer, had faced threats of ban in some Middle East countries as the governments asked for access to monitor communications on the Blackberry phones.

But in a piece at Boosh Articles.com, the ban mooted by Saudi Arabia on the smart phone has been resolved, and RIM has been allowed to continue its service in the country.
Away from the Middle East, the Indian government is also said to be considering giving RIM one or two month extension to find a solution giving Indian security agencies access to its corporate e-mail services, and instant messaging, among others.
Business Standard reported that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is expected to ask the
government to extend the deadline as RIM needs time to provide real time access to its corporate e-mails, etc.
However, in an email message in response to enquiries, Christa Botha, RIM corporate communications manager for Sub- Sahara Africa said, “RIM operates in over 175 countries today and provides a security architecture that is widely accepted by security conscious customers and governments around the world.

“RIM respects both the regulatory requirements of government and the security and privacy needs of corporations and consumers. RIM does not disclose confidential regulatory discussions that take place with any government .
However, RIM assures its customers that it is committed to continue delivering highly secure and innovative products that satisfy the needs of both customers and governments,” added Ms. Botha.

Not a new controversy

But the controversy is not entirely new as it borders on countries that are traditionally not known for openness. A columnist and technology watcher, Kenneth Ugbechie, said, “The Middle East is insulated; it is not an open society like the United States and some parts of Europe.
Technology development is good; they should look at the positive side as it supersedes the negative.
“Apart from that, they are also infringing on people’s fundamental rights to want to monitor their communication. I don’t think that should be.
This is not a right time for any developing country to want to control their communications services,” he said.
However, Mr Ugbechie explained that such control of communication cannot take place in Nigeria, as the country is still developing its communication services.
“Nigeria is still growing in its democracy system and I do not think the government would think about having access to communications transmitted by people .
The fuel of democracy is information. We do not even have enough access to information yet.
“I do not want the federal government to go that line because we have not even communicated well amongst ourselves ,” added Mr Ugbechie.

BHP Billiton denied
on Monday that it had plans to sell off some of Potash Corp’s assets if
it succeeded in its $38.6 billion hostile bid for the world’s largest
fertilizer producer.

The Australian
Financial Review and Reuters ran reports over the weekend quoting an
analyst note that said BHP may consider a sale of Potash Corp’s
nitrogen and phosphate assets in the event of a deal.

Potash comprises
about 70 percent of the fertilizer assets owned by the Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan-based company, with the rest made up of the other two
fertilizer types.

“At this stage, BHP
Billiton has no plans to sell any Potash Corp assets. Our offer is for
the whole company, including the phosphate and nitrogen businesses,” a
BHP spokesman said, referring to Potash Corp.

The analyst, Mark Gulley of Soleil Securities, wrote his note late last week after a BHP briefing with analysts and investors.

“BHP said that 70
percent of the value is in the potash assets and that over time it
would probably look to possibly divest the nitrogen and perhaps the
phosphates business,” Gulley wrote.

BHP officials have
been touring North America to tout the benefits of its proposal to its
own shareholders and Potash Corp’s. Many investors own shares of both
companies.

Potash Corp’s
rejection of the $130-a-share offer has raised speculation that BHP,
the world’s largest miner, will have to raise its bid significantly to
clinch a deal.

That has led
analysts and investors to speculate that BHP may quickly offload any
Potash Corp assets that it considers outside of its long-term plans.

BHP’s spokesman denied that the company would have to follow that course of action.

“Our financing is not dependent on asset sales and we do not require divestments to maintain balance sheet strength,” he said.

Shares of Potash
Corp were up 61 Canadian cents at C$155.60 in afternoon trade on the
Toronto Stock Exchange. The company’s shares have risen 33 percent
since the BHP offer was made public on August 17 and now stand 20
percent above the bid price, signaling anticipation of a higher offer
eventually.

Outside interest

If BHP opts to
eventually sell any Potash Corp assets down the line, it is likely to
generate sizable interest among strategic buyers.

Agrium Inc, a
Canadian fertilizer maker and farm products retailer, has already
indicated that it would consider buying Potash Corp’s nitrogen and
phosphate assets, which are worth an estimated $12 billion.

Agrium chief
executive, Mike Wilson, told Reuters on Monday that his company was
strong financially and would look at any assets up for grabs.

“We are a global
company that produces 8 million metric tons of nitrogen, phosphate, and
potash and markets 16 million, so any assets that came on the market
that fits with us we would certainly look at,” he said.

Agrium is in the
midst of finalizing a $1 billion takeover of Australian wheat exporter,
AWB Ltd, just months after it was forced to back-out of a hostile-bid
for CF Industries, a U.S.-based fertilizer producer.

Both Agrium and CF, along with Terra Industries and Norway’s Yara,
were involved in a year-long four-way takeover battle. It ended after
the $4.7 billion CF-Terra deal scuppered Agrium’s plan to snap up CF,
while forcing Yara to bow out of a bidding war for Terra.

Tunisia will import
around 2.0 million tonnes of grains next year to make up for the
shortfall of its domestic crop this year, a government official said on
Monday.

“We expect to buy two million of tonnes of grains early next year from abroad,” said the official from the agriculture ministry.

Bad weather has
slashed Tunisia’s grains harvest to 1.1 million tonnes this season
versus 2.5 million tonnes last year, the ministry has said early this
month.

Harvest yields in
the North African country swings sharply due to cyclical drought, with
the average crop at 1.7 million tonnes for the past decade.

Tunisia imports
mainly soft wheat and barley, as it has a policy to allocate most of
its fertile and irrigated land to grow durum wheat.

Its purchase of soft wheat varies between 600,000 tonnes and 1.7 million tonnes of soft wheat annually.

Burundi’s
year-on-year inflation rate inched up to 9.8 percent in July from 9.7
percent in June, boosted by housing, water, and energy costs, the
national statistics board said on Monday.

Prices of housing,
water, and energy increased by 19.9 percent over the past 12 months to
July, from 18.7 percent in June, the Institute of Economic Studies and
Statistics said.

The annual inflation rate in the landlocked country of 8 million
dropped to 10.5 percent in 2009, from 24.5 percent in 2008, helped by a
fall in prices of essential commodities such as fuel and food.

Royal Dutch Shell
said on Monday its Nigerian SPDC joint venture was close to completing
a new $1.1 billion pipeline to the Bonny export terminal, which will
have a capacity of 600,000 barrels per day (bpd).

“The new
97-kilometre Nembe Creek Trunkline will have a capacity to transport
600,000 barrels per day from 14 flowstations in the Niger Delta to the
Bonny export terminal in Rivers State,” the company said in a statement.

The Anglo-Dutch
firm said the pipeline was part of an ongoing programme to keep its
facilities well-maintained in the Niger Delta, one of the world’s
largest wetlands where decades of oil extraction have left land and
water polluted.

Shell’s operations in the delta are subject to frequent attack by
oil thieves and saboteurs. The company says 98 percent of the oil
spilled from its on-shore operations last year was due to vandalism and
theft.