TECHDIGEST –  Galaxy Backbone (GBB), the digital and network communication services provider set up by the Federal Government, on Tuesday, met with stakeholders in Kano State where it enumerated its plans to deploy digital services for boosting economic activities of the state through Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

The Managing Director/CEO of the company, Professor Muhammad Bello Abubakar disclosed this in Kano during a stakeholders and customer awareness forum with the theme: Digital Infrastructure Services for Economic and Sustainable Development.

The MD in his remark, stated that, the world is going through the 4th Industrial Revolution, which is knowledge-based and ICT-driven.

READ ALSO: NITDA Determines To Build Capacity Of Nigerians On Creative Technology

‘’It is on that strength that the Tier IV Data Centre in Kano was built to bring the digital infrastructure closer to the citizens so as to enhance their businesses and promote effectiveness and productivity in the public sector organisations,’’ Abubakar said.

‘’In addition to the cloud solutions, collocation and numerous other digital services, GBB is deploying metro fiber optic cable within the Kano city which is aimed at providing connectivity and broadband services to home, small and medium enterprises, academia, hospitality, and market places as way of enabling Nigerians with the requisite capabilities to latch into the fourth revolution by owning and growing more businesses through the evolution of digital entrepreneurs that will foster growth of the Nigerian economy.

The Management of GBB was in Kano specifically to enlighten the community on the digital platform that will transform the hitherto business hub into a digital business hub by making their businesses and commercial activities easier and simpler.’’

According to him, globally, technology is changing the way business and commercial activities are run using digital solutions that link customers to the market place or service providers thereby eliminating the need for middle men and hence lowering the total cost of products and services with increased turn-over. This kind of digital technology is what GBB has brought to the door step of the good people of Kano and environs.

On the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) new policy on cash transaction, the CEO of Galaxy Backbone reiterated their committment in upscaling the infrastructure already built and expanding connectivity to the underserved and unserved communities with a view to permeate the whole country. He concluded by saying that “by the end of December 2022, GBB would have extended its footprint to almost 23 states with a target of taking connectivity to all the major cities from the 36 states and FCT by the second quarter of 2023”.

The post GBB Engages Kano Business Community, To Boost Digital Economy appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECHDIGEST – Nigerian government agencies, under the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, have unveiled tech-based innovations they recorded in recent times, as part of accelerating Nigeria’s digital economy vision.

The successes recorded by the agencies were showcased at the ongoing Gulf Information Technology Exhibition, GITEX 2022. They were exhibited alongside some creative ICT inventions of Nigerian tech wizards and young start-ups at the Dubai World Trade Centre, venue of this year’s GITEX.

The Nigerian delegation at GITEX is led by Minister of Digital Economy, Prof Ali Isa Pantami with a clear objective to network and showcase indigenous tech solutions to the world and attract Foreign Direct Investment towards enhancing technology transfer, in line with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for a Digital Nigeria.

The delegation includes the Executive Vice-Chairman of of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof.Umaru Danbatta; Managing Director/CEO of Galaxy Backbone ltd, Professor Muhammad Bello Abubakar Bello; the Director General/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi; Director General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), alongside some Nigerian private sector ICT entrepreneurs.

Other exhibitors include National Automobile Design Development Council (NADDC), Nigerian Petroleum Exchange (NIPEX) and Bank of Industry (BOI).

A NIMC female exhibitor, Mrs Jamila Muhammad told foreign visitors at the Nigerian stand that the National Identification Number (NIN) enrollment in the diaspora is ongoing in over 40 countries,

“The innovations we launched in order to modernize the NIN in Nigeria is world-class, especially using ICT technologies,” she said

Head of Marketing at Galaxy Backbone, Chidi Okpala, who is in Dubai for the GITEX, lauded the enabling digital environment in the country which is responsible for the robust tech innovations introduced at GBB Nigeria.

He told PRNigeria, on the sideline of the GITEX event, that their agency, in particular, has tremendously boosted CLOUD and DATACENTRE Services for ICT firms in the country.

“Some tech-oriented services we have launched recently include GBB web, GGB Colo + , GxCP Backup and GBB Cloud Platform – GxCP.

READ ALSO: GITEX 2022: AWS Hosts NITDA Boss, Nigerian Startups on Partnership Drive

“Our Tier IV Cloud and Business Continuity Data Centre provides colocation and cloud services as well as provide the back-up for the GBB Tier III Data Centre. It is a Prefabricated modular Data Centre with unique abilities to support Artificial Intelligence and provide high reliability and availability, as well as green and low level energy consumption,” he said.

The NCC, on its part, has earned a reputation as a foremost Telecom regulatory agency in Africa.

“The Commission is hoping to catalyze the use of ICT for different aspects of national development.

“The Commission has initiated several programs such as State Accelerated Broadband Initiative (SAB) and Wire Nigeria Project (WIN) to help stimulate demand and accelerate the uptake of ICT tools and services necessary for the enthronement of a knowledge society in Nigeria,” a leading member of the NCC’s delegation to GITEX said.

By PRNigeria

The post NCC, NIMC, Galaxy Backbone Unveil Tech Innovations at GITEX appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECHDIGEST – The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, over the weekend, inspected the completed Galaxy Backbone (GBB) Tier 4 Data Centre in Kano, Kano state to set the tone for its formal commissioning in what will alter the business of data centre services in Nigeria for good. The new facility will serve as Galaxy Backbone’s North West Regional Office and Network Operating Centre.

The GBB Tier 4 Data Centre in Kano is designed to improve the total customer experience of GBB’s growing list of clients from the public and private sectors. The new digital infrastructure in Kano will serve as a backup to the Tier III data centre in Abuja.

New facility raises the bar in data centre services 

All Tier 4 data centres add fault tolerance mechanisms to the tier 3 list of requirements. They have multiple physically isolated systems that act as redundant components and distribution paths. Besides all the Tier 3 conditions, a Tier 4 facility must ensure:

All components have the support of two generators, two UPS systems, and two cooling systems.

Each distribution path is independent so that a single failure in one does not cause a domino effect with other components.

Operations continue to run for a minimum of 96 hours following a local or regional power outage.

The power source does not connect to any external source.

The separation between redundant components is vital for a tier 4 data center. 

Physical separation prevents a local event from compromising both systems.

Tier 4 data centers either have 2N or 2N+1 redundancy: 2N redundancy (or N+N) means the facility has a wholly mirrored, independent system on stand-by. If anything happens to a primary component, an identical backup replica starts operating to ensure continued operations.

The 2N+1 model provides twice the operational capacity (2N) and an additional backup component (+1) in case a failure happens while a secondary system is active.

The GBB’s Tier 4 facility can ensure clients do not experience more than 26.3 minutes of downtime annually. In addition,

customers are guaranteed a Tier 4 service level agreement (SLAs) that is near 100% uptime even in the face of required maintenance of redundant counterparts.

According to Managing Director/CEO, Muhammed Bello Abubakar, Galaxy will continuously invest in enhancing digital infrastructure and human capacity to meet the rising and sophisticated demands across agencies including security and other arms of governments.

The vendor neutral facility is benchmarked on performance-based standards in terms availability, redundancy, and fault tolerance.

The GBB officially opened shop in 2007 initially focusing on improving connectivity infrastructure challenges in federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). With more than 800 MDAs in existence, the GBB has routinely faced the challenge of helping MDAs improve their too achieve their statutory mandate.

The new Kano facility is part of the overall plan to provide functional data centres in all the six geopolitical zones of the country.

The post Pantami Inspects Galaxy Backbone Data Centre In Kano appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECHDIGEST – Nigeria’s owned last-mile connectivity infrastructure service provider, Galaxy Backbone Limited is on the verge of sealing a partnership deal with Metamap, a foremost Software -As-A – Service provider enabling trust-based platforms to operate seamlessly across borders.

Meeting with the leadership team from Metamap at the Galaxy Backbone Limited’s corporate office in Abuja, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Galaxy Backbone, Prof. Muhammad Bello Abubakar said partnering is at the heart of the company’s future.

READ ALSO: Galaxy Backbone gets African Brands Leadership Merit Award 2022

“Partnering is at the heart of our future and we remain committed to collaborating with organisations that help support customer excellence in digital services,” he said.

Recall that in an attempt to extend services across Nigeria, Galaxy Backbone built and operates the National Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure Backbone (NICTIB), a cross-country optical fibre backbone. In its first phase, which has been completed, commissioned and covers a distance of 1484 km, the backbone spans 13 states across the South East, South-South, North Central and South West of Nigeria with base stations installed in 17 cities.

The post Galaxy Backbone mulls partnership with Metamap to spread services across borders appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECH DIGEST – The four-day retreat was driven by stakeholder (both internal and external) and Industry perspectives meant to ensure that Galaxy Backbone prepares itself adequately for the challenges and opportunities of not just the COVID era but also the digital transformational changes going on in Nigeria and across the world.

The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, has encourage all the Management Team of Galaxy Backbone Limited to support the Managing Director, Prof. Muhammad Bello Abubakar, to ensure that GBB continues to innovate such that the perceived and yet to be perceived needs of the customer come first.

He made the remark as the Chairman of the 2021 Management Retreat of GBB which took place in Nigeria’s Jewel of the Savannah, Gombe State,

This event had as its Special Guest, the Executive Governor of Gombe State, Alhaji Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya who was represented by the Deputy Governor of the State, Manassah Daniel Jatau (PhD).

The four-day retreat was driven by stakeholder (both internal and external) and Industry perspectives meant to ensure that Galaxy Backbone prepares itself adequately for the challenges and opportunities of not just the COVID era but also the digital transformational changes going on in Nigeria and across the world.

Galaxy Backbone is an organization under the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy which plays a fundamental role in providing the Infrastructure and shared services platform for the Digital Economy Strategy and Policy on one hand and the Nigerian National Broadband Plan on another; both projects are being championed by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.

Dr. Pantami’s presence at the commencement of this 2021 retreat showed his greater commitment to the digitalization of Nigeria and the Federal Government believe on the Galaxy Backbone’s capability to provide digital services to Government institutions across the country and deliver on the implementation of the Digital transformation drive of the nation.

In his welcome address, the Managing Director/Chief Executive of Galaxy Backbone, Prof. Muhammad Bello Abubakar, highlighted the great achievements of GBB in the past one year and recognized that the successes made were greatly because of the support of the Minister, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami.

In his words; “Galaxy Backbone has in the last one year, with the support of the Honourable Minister, risen to the challenges of the global COVID-19 pandemic by providing digital and network communication services to Federal Government offices and homes of top Government functionaries which has allowed effective Government business continuity while obeying COVID-19 protocols of social distancing and remote working. This also made possible the continuous virtual meetings of the Federal Executive Council.”

Prof. Abubakar further stated that Dr. Pantami has set the policy direction for Galaxy Backbone through the Digital Economy Policy and Strategy document, hence the need for the management retreat to strategize on how to execute it.

This 2021 Management retreat of the Galaxy Backbone deliberated on a five-year business plan anchored on six strategic pillars of:

Government Policies,
Data Sovereignty,
Financial Sustainability,
Customer Satisfaction,
Operational Excellence, and
Improved Capacity and Capability.

“Adequate initiatives and strategies have been developed around these pillars to ensure GBB provides effective, efficient and reliable high speed connectivity services across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of Government and the entire nation, which will help in deepening broadband penetration and adding greater value for a digital Nigeria and beyond. The vision of the GBB remains “to become a leading enabler of digital inclusion for Africa.”

In the next years (2021-2025), the services of the Galaxy Backbone will be driven by excellence and a customer centric mindset.

According to Dr. Pantami, “I would like to encourage all the Management Team of Galaxy Backbone to support the Managing Director to ensure that GBB continues to innovate such that the perceived and yet to be perceived needs of the customer come first. It is my hope that after this retreat, GBB will adopt the exploration rather than exploitation approach in its long-term critical thinking such that the nation will have a new branded Galaxy Backbone.”

The retreat ended with Prof. M.B. Abubakar thanking the GBB Staff, whom he described as the organization’s assets, for their efforts and promised that he will continue to do all it takes within his capacity to ensure that GBB’s internal and external stakeholders and customers receive improved and committed digital services such that GBB becomes ICT service provider of choice.

The post Pantami Sets Policy For Galaxy Backbone At 2021 Management Retreat appeared first on Tech Digest News.