Theme: Towards a Cashless Nigeria: Tools and Strategies

Venue: Uyo, Nigeria |   Date: Wednesday 25th – Friday 27th, July  2012

Background:

The theme “Towards a Cashless Nigeria: Tools and Strategies” was chosen to evaluate the roles and strategies the Information Technology Industry plays in the reforms and changes in the financial, economic and social sectors in Nigeria.  The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in its efforts to drastically reduce money laundering, terrorist financing and other economic and financial crimes in Nigeria, pegged daily cash withdrawal to N150,000.00 and N1,000,000.00 by individual and corporate respectively.  The Conference is also designed for the IT Industry to re-strategize in the on-going reform and transfer from cash-based to cashless society with effect from June 1, 2012. Read the rest of this entry>>

National Executive Council: 2011-2013

Investiture of Sir ‘Demola Aladekomo FNCS as the 11th National President & Inauguration of the 17th National Executive Council (NEC) of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS)

Date: Friday December 16, 2011

Venue: Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, lagos

President’s Inaugural Address

Sir 'Demola Aladekomo FNCS - 11th President of NCS

On behalf of my colleagues on the 17^th National Executive Council (NEC), and the entire members of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), I am delighted to welcome you all to this Investiture Ceremony. Your presence is a much needed encouragement to all of us on the NEC for several reasons. You are highly appreciated.

Let me first, on behalf of all my colleagues, appreciate the services of our immediate predecessors in the NEC, for the profundity of their contributions to the continued development of our beloved Association and profession. In the same vein, I thank immensely all the Past Presidents for the many and diverseinvaluable contributions that each made during their tenures. I know that history will ultimately recompense each of you.

The Office of the President of the NCS comes with great responsibilities. This is because NCS is probably the biggest association of IT professionals on the African continent. I recall the overwhelming mandate that the generality of the members of the NCS gave us during the elections in Abuja on July29, 2001, to serve you. For this we are indeed humbled. Fewer things in life could humble a person more than to be so appreciated by his professional colleagues and peers.

We are taking over the leadership of the NCS at a critical time in the history of our nation when several of our compatriots are at a dilemma over whether the benefits of ICT truly outweighs the evils to which it was being put. We are at a time when cybercrime is on the increase without a corresponding response from either the government or the regulatory agencies. We are assuming office at a time when such vices as phone and e-mail hacking are becoming acceptable form of information gathering for some people; and when the invasion of the private lives of individuals is being regarded as smartness.

We are equally aware and conscious of the promises we made during the electioneering campaigns. God helping us we are determined not to renege on any one of the promises. Thus shortly after effectively taking over from our predecessors, we went into a Retreat Session to articulate what can be termed the ‘blue print’ of the AGENDA for our tenure. The outline is given following:

• Impact the nation through the provision of world class and professional ICT service delivery, quality / certified education and reliable and sustainable infrastructural development.
• Earn NCS a place of honour both in the corporate world and governance through good visibility, relevance and high ethical standards and codes of conduct.
• Deploy ICT systems as the vehicle for job creation (about one million jobs in 5 years)

The agenda listed earlier will be actualized through the following course of action:

1)    Professional ICT service delivery.

Despite the vast number of certified professionals in almost every aspect of Information Technology services, Nigeria is seen and is still largely a consumer nation in the IT world. We still operate a vendor mentality and the industry is controlled by businessmen and not necessarily technocrats. The result is that vast sums of money in foreign exchange are carted off to foreign countries by their representatives / vendors locally.

In most companies especially within the service sector (e.g. banking, insurance and related sectors), IT expenditure is third in the league of company expenses after salaries and infrastructure. On the average, a bank will spend between $2m and $3m annually on IT and related services. Alas, there is very little or no corresponding development of a core of national professionals or indigenous world class service companies to meet this demand locally.

1. Engage in strategic partnership with government agencies, to set up standards in software, hardware and system integration issues with a view to creating and enabling environment for a win-win situation. This will ensure high standards of products and services, job creation and user satisfaction.
2. Champion the establishment of incubation centres/knowledge parks. These are centres where young and up-coming ICT professionals can go in order to sharpen their skills.
3. Introduce ICT job fairs.This would be either an annual or bi-annual programme designed for upcoming indigenous ICT professionals to exhibit their works in the presence of international audience (both corporate and individuals).
4. Facilitate SME financing/funding plans for individual and corporate members by creating an IT VENTURE CAPITAL.
5. Embark on the automation of NCS activities, membership identity and payment.

ICT & appropriate Legal backing:

We are determinedto have appropriate and adequate legal framework for the desired standard of ICT products and service delivery in Nigeria. To this end, we intend to commission a group to study issues involved and make recommendations soonest.

Ladies and gentlemen and my beloved colleagues, we use the occasion of our investiture to make this clarion call to all and sundry to come on board and together let us embark on this noble national assignment not only to lay an enduring legacy for veritable applications of ICT but also for economic, political commercial emancipation of our people. We must rise and face up now to lay the foundation for genuine independence. We need to employ the ubiquitous tool of our profession to achieve credible foundation for our nations take off in respect of science and technology.

The sustainability and the provision of appropriate institutional frameworks for meaningful exploitation of ICT is a task must be done. I dear say the time is now.

Again and again and again, I urge one and sundry to please come on board, together we can do it.

We are here to serve you – to our very best.

Thank you and God bless you.

Demola ALADEKOMO, FNCS

President

Date: July 2012   Venue: Uyo, Nigeria

Introduction

The Research Consortium on Information Technology Innovations (ReCITI) is an international event that brings together young and experienced researchers in Computer Science and related fields to discuss research ideas in Information Technology. Done in collaboration with International Center for Information Technology and Development (ICITD) and Initiative for Technology Empowered Education (iTEE), the consortium is specially designed to provide opportunity for postgraduate Students of Computer Science to showcase their on-going research work and network with their peers and senior researchers of Information Technology from various higher institutions all over the world. Experienced Researchers are also invited to discuss their ongoing work and serve as mentor to young researchers in the process.

RECITI 2012, the third in its history, shall be held during the annual Conference of Nigeria Computer Society in July 2012. This will enable conference Participants to also take part in the Conference.

Objective of the consortium:

The Research Consortium, whose major objective is to help Participants Profile ongoing and future research work in Computer Science, shall take place in a workshop situation that creates networking environment between students and senior researchers of similar interests. The objectives of the consortium include:

1. To provide an environment for Participants to give a short presentation of their current research work and receive constructive feedback from both experienced researchers and their peers. The provided comments and perspectives will provide  feedback on their current research and guidance on future research directions
2. To prepare young researchers and would-be researchers through inputs and advice on how to embark on academic and Industrial research and careers.
3. To encourage the development of a community of Research Scholars in Computer Science and encourage the spirit of collaborative research across Higher Institutions, Research Institutes, companies and other organizations within and outside the country with a view to exposing promising researchers to the global community of Information Technology.
4. To promote contacts among young researchers in addition to providing networking, collaboration and mentoring opportunities between students and academics working in similar areas.
5. To encourage presentations from experienced researchers and open up avenues for focused interaction between the experienced and young researchers

Expected participants:

The Research consortium is open to the following participants:

1. Doctoral students in Computer Science and related fields who are either just    starting or have got to an advanced stage in their PhD dissertation and want to discuss their research ides.
2. M. Sc. Students and graduates who wish to carry on their research ideas into doctoral work and are looking for guided contributions that will fine-tune such ideas into more suitable doctoral research.
3. Experienced Researchers from Universities, research institutes, governmental/non-governmental organizations, and other companies who are currently undergoing a research study and want to discuss their ongoing research work for the purpose of obtaining constructive feedback from other researchers or for the purpose of mentoring younger researchers in related fields
4. Experienced researchers who want to serve as mentors for younger researchers and students, through discussing concerns about research, supervision, obtaining grants and sponsorship opportunities, the job market, and other issues.

Funding for Participants:

Subject to availability of funds from our sponsors, it is hoped that financial support shall be provided to some of the graduate students whose papers are accepted for presentation at the consortium. The categories of students to be supported and the level of support given will be examined in the course of preparation for this consortium.

Call for submissions:

Interested PhD students, M. Sc. Students or other researchers in Computer science or related fields must submit their papers through the EasyChair conference management system: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=reciti2012

The paper should be an extended abstract of 2 to 4 pages of single-spaced 10 points Times new Roman on A4 size paper In case of unlikely difficulty in submission through EasyChair, authors may forward their paper as an email attachment to  conferences@ncs.org.ng, stating the nature of difficulty encountered. The deadline for submission is Friday 20^th January 2011. The paper should adhere to the following headings:

• Introduction
• Related Work
• Methodology
• Current Achievements, Results and Discussions
• Conclusions and future work
• References

Accepted papers shall be published in the conference proceedings. Authors of best papers as well as some selected papers shall be requested to extend their papers into a full document for inclusion in the following journals:

• International Journal of Computer and its Applications
• International Journal of Green Computing
• African Journal of Information Systems (AJIS)

Prizes and Awards:

In addition to certificates of participation which shall be given to all participants, certificate of recognition shall be given to the best presenting authors (PhD or M. Sc. Student)s. RECITI 2012 also features the following prizes for best presenting authors:

• Professor Aderounmu’s best PhD paper award of N50,000
• Dr. Olumide Longe’s N20,000 award for first runner up
• Dr. Yetunde Folajimi’s N10,000 award for best female presenter
• I-TEE Africa best presenter award
• More awards and sponsorships shall be added as they arrive.

Important deadlines:

• Submission deadline:           Friday January 20^th 2011.
• Notifications to authors:      Tuesday February 21 2011.
• Camera ready submission:   Tuesday March 13 2011.

Organising Committee:

Confirmed speakers:

To be announced later