DripNote Blog

SLOWLY, the gender ceiling in Information and Communications Technology is being lifted across Nigeria. Although there is still a wide gap, more women and girls are gaining access, training and employment in the field. However, change is oozing much more slowly into the grassroots. Many girls at the lower rungs of the society have never touched a computer, let alone owning one. That was the case for Blessing Joseph, until she came in contact with the James Ogunbor Educational Foundation. Joseph, while speaking to Hitech Start-Ups, seemed quite computer savvy; she had learned the basics of coding and could build a game with supervision. Public school pupils taking coding lessons “I was never really interested in the computer, but this experience has made me realize that I can do well in computer programming,” she told this reporter at a computer programming initiative organized by JOEF in Lagos recently. At the programme, organised in partnership with E...

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State was, yesterday, involved in a car accident when a commercial car rammed into his convoy. Ortom, however, escaped unhurt! The governor was returning from Zaki Biam, where he had gone to carry out an assessment of the attack by gunmen on International Yam Market, when the accident occurred. According to the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Terver Akase, the accident occurred about 4:30p.m. between Abakwa and Adi in Buruku council. Akase said an oncoming vehicle, a Toyota Carina II, left its lane and hit the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, bus, which was on Governor Ortom’s convoy. He said no life was lost, but one occupant of the Carina car sustained head injuries and was taken to hospital on the directive of the governor, while the state’s NUJ Chairman, Kris Atsaka, also sustained minor injuries.

When Nigel Lang was wrongly arrested on suspicion of sharing indecent images of children, he says his life fell apart. It all stemmed from nothing more than a typing error by police. "When I was arrested, I feared what was going to happen to me. "What about my family, will they be targeted? Will they target my mum's house? Will they be getting sworn at and attacked in the street?" Speaking to the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme , Nigel Lang recalls the questions racing through his head one July morning in 2011. Aged 44 at the time, he had been working as a drug recovery worker, helping young people combat substance abuse. But when police came to search his home and arrest him, on suspicion of sharing indecent images of children, his life changed. His reputation has been left "in tatters", he is unemployed and suffers mental health problems, he says. Not that he knew at the time, but it was all the result of a typo. 'It ma...

A man who was forced to live in his car after a relationship breakdown has talked of continuing to work full-time. Isaac Brobbey used an Asda car park in Greater Manchester as a base for a month and a McDonald's to wash in. The father-of-two, who managed to hold down his job at a truck rental firm, said his kind of experience shows how homelessness is often misunderstood. He spoke out after the Manchester Evening News revealed a man who died in a van fire was living in the vehicle . Homelessness charity The Wellspring, in Stockport, said the man worked in the building industry and had been in the process of trying to find a home. Mr Brobbey, 50, said: "I had too much dignity to ask for help. Now I want to help others." Originally from Ancoats, Manchester, he said a break-up in 2012 left him with "no choice" but to leave his home, and financial problems made matters worse. "To cut a long story short I just didn't have anywhere to ...

TELECOMUNICATION companies across Africa are increasingly focusing on effectively maximizing their return on investment from data and on monetizing emerging opportunities such as the Internet of Things (IoT) to remain competitive and afloat, the International Data Corporation (IDC) has said. IDC said this is due to increasing competition which is forcing the telcos to seek new methods to stem the steady decline of traditional voice services. “We expect to see greater market consolidation as telcos increase their efforts to acquire smaller ISPs in response to the challenging marketing conditions,” IDC said. According to research director for telecommunications, media, and IoT at IDC, George Kalebaila. “This is being driven by heightened market saturation, declining average revenues per user (ARPUs), increasing operating expenditure, and diminishing profit margins on services, particularly in West Africa. As such, IDC said it expects some consolida...

DESPITE the recessionary economic environment Nigeria recorded about 59.5 percent increase in vessel traffic at the various sea ports in 2016. Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside, who disclosed this in Lagos, yesterday, said that 370 vessels called at the ports across the country in 2016 as against 262 in 2015. He also disclosed that the vessels in 2016 came with 420,000 Gross Registered Tonnage, GRT, a huge 80.1 per cent jump above 233,000 GRT recorded in 2015. Peterside also said that a lot of progress has been made in the area of Cabotage implementation. Cabotage regime He added, “before the cabotage regime came into being, less than 12 per cent of Nigerians were on-board vessels operating in Nigerian waters, but today the figures have changed significantly as over 60 per cent of workers on- board vessels operating under the cabotage regime are now Nigerians. “It may also interest you t...

Eddie Jones says the British and Irish Lions should name four captains for the tour of New Zealand - one from each of their four national teams. Lions head coach Warren Gatland has said "half- a-dozen players are in contention" to lead his squad. England's Dylan Hartley, Ireland's Rory Best, Wales' Alun Wyn Jones and Greig Laidlaw of Scotland are among those. "I would take those four captains and make that the leadership group," England coach Jones said. "Then after the warm-up games, whoever was the leading player I would make captain for the first Test," added the Australian, speaking at the Advertising Week Europe business event in London. "You look at the last Lions tour and Sam Warburton captained the first two and Alun Wyn Jones captained the third, so I think you can separate it. "It would be different but I would reckon you would get a great result, with those four captains running the team for you and m...