We have no words than to link you to the Twitter account of GTBank. Their MD/CEO died today in London.
We regret to announce the passing on of our CEO, Tayo Aderinokun, today, aged 56
May his soul rest in peace. He is one of the legends of our nation. A man that built a business that employs thousands and created many jobs. May The Good Lord Bless His Soul.
IC Insights reports that the semiconductor content per vehicle will increase by 9% between 2010 and 2014, to about $425 per vehicle. Infotainment will be the main driver followed by safety systems for example sensors for airbags like accelerometers, gyroscopes, etc. Also the green buzz will also help the OEM to sell more components.
Semiconductor content per vehicle varies based on make and model, trim level, environmental concerns, and regional government regulations. But, in 2011, the trickle-down effect of technology in automobiles is having a greater impact than originally anticipated. Sophisticated electronic systems, that were the exclusive domain of luxury-class vehicles a few years ago, have become more commonplace in mid-range and lower-priced automobiles. Consequently, in the mid-year update to its 2011 IC Market Drivers report, IC Insights has raised its forecast for average semiconductor content per automobile to $350 in 2011. This represents a 15% increase from the $305 average in 201
Tekedia has received the breakdown of the federal allocation to NigComSat for its 2011 operations. This is coming on the heels as it plans to launch NigComSat-1R late this year. NigComSat-1R is the replacement of Nigeria’s communications satellite 1 (NigComSat-1) which developed faults and was subsequently deorbited in November 2008, eighteen months after it was launched.
The breakdown is as follows in Naira:
TOTAL PERSONNEL
1,463,221,359
TOTAL OVERHEAD
100,428,265
TOTAL RECURRENT
1,563,649,624
TOTAL CAPITAL
540,100,000
TOTAL ALLOCATION
2,103,749,624
Capacity building and technology transfer must be the underlining factor in awarding this contract. We think that the excess of N1.5b allocated for personnel includes training, both local and offshore must have accounted for this.
Many of us are still feeling the cold after the nation lost the satellite. That is why China Great Wall Industry Corp must get it right this time around. The offer for replacement of the NigComSat 1 is not enough, we do not want any more failed satellite that carries Nigerian flag.
If it is possible, the nation must offer a backup and pay for it. But with the above funds, we do not think that it is possible.
This is a very good one. all Amber, the same company, that organized the successful Mobile Web West Africa just launched a new event, Mobile Entertainment Africa, which will take place on the 23rd & 24th August at the stunning One&Only Cape Town on the Victoria & Albert Waterfront.
The event is going to focus on “Maximising the Entertainment Opportunity on Handheld Devices” and it’s looking like it will match the success of the Mobile Web Africa series which got great and incredible feedback.
The agenda is evolving and some speakers have lined up for this event:
Emma Kaye, CEO, Gate7Media
Vincent Maher, Co-Founder, Motribe
Mark Kaigwa, Partner, Afrinnovator
Obi Asika, Chairman & CEO, Storm360
Tim Bishop, CTO, Prezence Digital
Wesley Lynch, Founder & MD, Realmdigital
Toby Shapshak, Editor, Stuff Magazine
Mark Rayner, GM, DStv Mobile South Africa
The combination of such a high quality speaker faculty with a great working environment and superb networking (as a result of the Interactive Roundtable Seating Format) means that the foundations are already in place for this to be a brilliant couple of days. Awesome.
A run down of the agenda of this event is as follows:
As nations try to emerge from the most devastating global recession since the Second World War, policymakers, business communities, academia, and governments will be looking at ways to accelerate growth and competitiveness. Many at the right will continue their propositions that governments should be left out of business, while those at the left will emphasize that governments must play central roles in shaping commerce and industry.
The reality is that governments do matter and a single legislation could have impacts that can redesign a nation’s economic destiny. Globalization makes it so important that nations must compete not just on technologies, but on policies upon which those technologies are developed and commercialized.
This makes it possible that two universities in two separate nations can develop similar technologies with one creating Fortune 500 companies within a decade and another having the idea locked up in a cabinet. In other words, the policies or legislations made by congress or parliament on what happens to inventions supported by government funds matter.
In 1980, a United States legislation dealing with intellectual property emanating from federal government-funded research was implemented. The legislature called Bayh-Dole Act (after two Senators Birch Bayh of Indiana and Bob Dole of Kansas that sponsored it) or University and Small Business Patent Procedures Act gave US universities, small businesses and non-profits intellectual property rights and control of their inventions, even though they were funded by government.
Through this Act, universities, small businesses or non-profit organizations could pursue ownership of inventions in preference to the government.
What this means is that instead of sending the patents or inventions to the government agencies like National Science Foundation (NSF) or National Institute of Health for them to file away in their office cabinets, this Act empowers the inventing entity to pursue commercialization of the idea. Simply, the U.S government elects to fund an idea and allows the fund recipient to profit from any invention that comes from that idea.
This Act provides clarity on many issues that could derail the process of taking ideas to market, especially when those ideas were funded by US federal government. For professors, it provides incentives to pursue research both for discovery and for profit since they also could profit from their inventions. Just as their students could discover and commercialize, the university dons can also do the same.
It has been a new era as the number of Technology Transfer offices in the US universities has increased many folds. As schools file more patents, they continually look for opportunities for venture funds to commercialize or simply license their patents to other institutions. These days, schools quote the number of start-ups they have incubated as a metric to their competitiveness. They will tell you the stories of their students who graduated and founded firms and use that as selling points in their brochures. This is business right in the four walls of the universities.