As the newly appointed Ministers settle to their jobs, journalists in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry, under the aegis of the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA), has felicitated with the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani over his appointment.

In a letter to the Minister, the Chairman of the Association, Mr. Chike Onwuegbuchi noted that the news of his appointment was a cheery one knowing his antecedent to deliver viable results in past endeavours.

“We have followed your steps in the ICT industry and are assured that without doubt, this is another position that you will make a great deal of impact in.

You are not new in creative, developmental and managerial affairs, but have been an active participant in decision-making and growth plans for the nation, hence our repose of trust in what you can do as the Minister of this expanded Ministry,” he enthused.

In the Association’s letter to the Minister, Mr. Onwuegbuchi further assured the Minister that NITRA is willing to work with the Ministry to ensure the achievement of set goals. He said NITRA is on standby for any collaboration that will guarantee the success of Dr. Tijani’s endeavours as the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy .

“We hope to work together to develop the industry and make the Ministry a reference point in the minds of Nigerians both at home and abroad,” he concluded.

The expectation is that the Minister will maintain the upward trajectory of ICTs contributions to the GDP.   His focus should be on leveraging ICT to transform Nigeria into a full digital economy.

Nigeria’s ICT sector contributed a significant 17.47% to Nigeria’s GDP (Real Gross Domestic Product) in the first quarter of 2023. This is according to the latest statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

According to the NBS report, this amounts to about N3.1 trillion of the total N17.75 trillion of the country’s real GDP in the quarter. This is a notable increase in the ICT sector’s GDP contribution, surpassing the figures for the first quarter of 2022 which stood at N2.86 trillion.

The sector contributed 13.23% to the total nominal GDP in Q1 2023, surpassing the rates recorded in both the same quarter of the previous year (10.55%) and the preceding quarter (10.42%). This nominal growth represents a substantial increase of 41.84% during the quarter, marking a 21.30% point rise compared to the corresponding period of 2022.

The Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA) is the umbrella body for ICT reporters and editors. Its membership is drawn across Print, Broadcast and Online media organisations, and spreads across the country. With its Quarterly and Annual events, which include ‘Breakfast With CEOs’; ‘NITRA Innovative Forum’; ‘NITRA Technology Forum’, among others, the Association has been able to drive conversations on the development of the ICT subsectors and the industry as a whole.

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has adjourned to January 12, 2022 the suit filed by the Nigerian Bottling Company Limited (NBC) seeking to nullify the registration of the bottle design of Rite Foods’ Fearless Energy drink on the ground of busy dockets.

In the suit, NBC contends that the registration of the Fearless Energy’s bottle design was obtained by misrepresentation of facts to the Registrar of Patents and Designs. 

At the resumed hearing of the case before Justice A.O Faji on Tuesday, the court registrar informed the counsel to NBC that owing to the busy dockets of the court, the Judge had directed that the matter be adjourned to January 12, 2022 for hearing. 

According to the court processes filed by NBC, the Statement of Novelty filed by Rite Foods before the registrar contained significant misrepresentations as Rite Foods had claimed that prior to its application for registration of the bottle design, energy drinks were not packaged in PET bottles in Nigeria. Rite Foods had also claimed before the registrar that its bottle design had not been disclosed in any platform before the application for registration. 

These claims, according to NBC, are false, given that PET packaging for some energy drinks such as Lucozade Sport and Lucozade Energy drink manufactured in Nigeria by Suntory Beverage and Food Nigeria Limited dates as far back as 2011 long before Rite Foods applied to register the bottle design of its Fearless Energy drink.

NBC further contended that, contrary to the Statement of Novelty claims by Rite Foods to the Registrar of Patents and Designs, Rite Foods had long before the application for registration, advertised the bottle design on its website which was accessible to the viewing public. 

NBC submitted that the bottle design of Rite Foods’ Fearless Energy drink lacked novelty and had been disclosed to the public prior to Rite Foods’ application for its registration and therefore the registration of the bottle design was in violation of the Patents and Designs Act.

NBC therefore prays the Court for an order declaring certificate number 004183 with Registration number NG/DS/NT2020/1099 null and void ab initio for failure to comply with the provisions of section 13(1) (a) of the Patents and Design Act.  

NBC is also praying the Court to direct the Registrar of Patents and Designs to nullify and expunge all entries in the Register of Patents and Design relating to the registration of Rite Foods’ Fearless energy drink bottle design. 

In the latest episode of Connecting Africa, CNN International’s Eleni Giokos looks at business leadership in Africa, meeting leaders from across the continent.

Giokos presents the show from the site of Expo 2020 in Dubai, where Africa will be very much in the spotlight. From October, every African nation will showcase their innovations and culture in designated country pavilions, for the first time in 170 years of World Expos. While the site is still under construction, Giokos visits the Ghanaian, Egyptian, and Nigerian pavilions, using them as a backdrop as she profiles some of the continent’s most innovative leaders.

In South Africa, Giokos meets Fleetwood Grobler, the CEO of Sasol. Formed in 1950, Sasol describes itself as an integrated energy and chemical company and Grobler talks about their market reach, “We have quite a market presence in Africa, which we are growing. I’m remiss not to mention all the neighbouring countries in South Africa. So Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Mozambique, the SADC countries, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, they are all within reach by road, and we supply many, many products through that logistics systems into those countries as well, going broader than only the industrial solvents and polymers.”

Sasol has constantly transformed and innovated to keep up with market trends. Grobler speaks about how the company is adapting to be more sustainable, “We’ve sharpened our focus on sustainability, and climate change is a cornerstone of our strategy because we know it is an item that we can’t wish away. We have to address it head on. And that is the crux of the matter. And so, we are preparing ourselves to travel a pathway where we can have significant steps in our decarbonisation of our processes in terms of using different feedstocks and eventually through renewables.”

Grobler has been the CEO of Sasol since 2019. He describes his plan for the future of the company, “If we can use technologies and renewables and sources of carbon that’s sustainable, those would be the long-term areas that we should focus on to unlock value in Africa.”

Next, Giokos takes a look at the oil industry in Ghana. One of the key companies in the country’s burgeoning energy sector is the Springfield Group, the first Ghanaian owned company to produce oil in the country. CEO Kevin Okyere speaks about the importance of the company’s Ghanaian roots, “The most important thing about Springfield is us being Ghanaian and one would ask why? And I said because it gives hope. It gives hope that a Ghanaian, a black African, can dream big, and achieve that dream. It gives hope that we too can do it and do it better.”

Okyere is passionate about his company and his country, “Ghana is actually the gateway to Africa. Ghana is open for business and Ghana is welcoming Africans and foreign companies to come in and invest in Ghana. So, Ghana has so much potential, so much potential on tap, which gives room for Ghanaians and Africans and multinationals.”

The programme then visits a farm owned by the Egyptian Growers Organisation. Created in 2015, the company says it is the country’s first cooperative venture for farming and exporting produce. Managing partner Hussein Marei explains the idea, “The idea behind the cooperative venture is that, for the longest time now, exporting fresh fruits and vegetables from Egypt has largely been an individual effort. Individual farms, individual companies. But lately, given the world that we live in and the various obstacles that we face, we found that the road forward requires cooperation. Cooperation between farmers, cooperation between companies, cooperation between people are involved in the whole supply chain from farm to table.”

Exports have been increasing consistently and, according to Marei, Africa could become the next big market. He details why Egypt has good farming trade links with countries in southern Africa, “South Africa is in the southern hemisphere and Egypt is in the northern hemisphere, so we have opposite seasons, and we benefit each other with these opposite seasons so when we have grapes, they don’t have grapes, when we have oranges, they don’t have oranges and vice versa. So, we’re able to export to each other, and exchange the expertise between us, as we do now with other African countries.”

Finally, Giokos meets Nigerian banker Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede. A former group managing director of Access Bank, Aig-Imoukhuede is the founder and chairman of Coronation Capital Limited. He tells Giokos about the importance of leadership, “I believe that if we can show the Nigerian, what Nigeria truly could be and that actually it doesn’t take that much, okay for us to change the narrative and get there is simply a function of good leaders.”

Aig-Imoukhuede is positive about the future for African businesses. He outlines his vision, “There’s no continent that’s actually growing at the population growth rate that Africa is growing, from a population demographic standpoint. Now, that’s our greatest advantage, right, if we make it one market. it could be in essence actually the world’s greatest market. That’s what we have to focus on. We have to build, break down, all those barriers to this operating world as the world’s largest market.”