Tag Archives: Vodacom

Kaduna partners Vodacom in use of ICT for health, education.

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The Kaduna State Government and telecoms giant, Vodacom, on Monday announced an ICT for development initiative.

The goal of this partnership is to support mass service delivery in healthcare, education and agriculture through the deployment of tailored ICT solutions to promote greater efficiency in each sector.

The new partnership was unveiled in Kaduna on Monday at a joint press briefing by Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, and Vuyani Jarana, chairman of Vodacom Business Nigeria.

Already, the first programme under the ICT for development initiative is being implemented in the public health system of Kaduna State.

Known as, ‘SMS for Life 2.0’, it is a mobile technology-based healthcare program in Kaduna State which aims to improve the delivery of healthcare for citizens who access public health services as well as increase the availability of chronic or essential medication by monitoring drug stock levels.

Vodacom is the technology partner for the initiative, which is a public-private partnership with Novartis and the Kaduna State Ministry of Health. Over 250 public health facilities are now using the platform.

Mr. El-Rufai welcomed the progressive evolution of the partnership with Vodacom.

“The Kaduna State Government is delighted to apply technology to advance governance and the delivery of public services. Working with Vodacom, we seek to further enhance service delivery, improve data collection and strengthen accountability,” he said.

The partnership will also deploy Vodacom technology for mobile school management in Kaduna State, with facilities for real-time visibility of all management activities at schools.

A school feeding programme module allows the state to monitor feeding programmes in schools to ensure that pupils on the programmes receive quality meals. The district office has access to real time reports on teacher and learner data through the application. The solution, which uses mobile phone and tablet technology, will be implemented in 4000 schools across the state.

Mr. Jarana praised the efforts of the El-Rufai government in Kaduna.

“I have just finished a very transformational session with the governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai. We discussed how we can work with the Kaduna State to transform healthcare delivery, education management and agriculture using technology.

“We have already deployed healthcare solutions in 255 primary healthcare facilities, we will be implementing school management solution in 4000 schools in Kaduna.

“The leadership of the Kaduna state has clear objectives for the agriculture sector and understands the exponential effect of deploying ICT alongside other initiatives. Soon the rest of Africa will come to Kaduna to learn how a great vision is translated into reality, how strategy is turned into action to deliver mass social progress. We will walk side by side with the leadership of Kaduna.”

Vodacom hinges Nigeria’s smart cities drive on IoT development.

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Futurists have long painted a vision of the revolutionary “smart city”; a gleaming metropolis of clean streets and punctual public transport, where issues of crime, congestion and pollution have been engineered into irrelevance.

A great deal of people believes that building the smart city will be extremely disruptive, but the Managing Director of Vodacom Business Nigeria, Lanre Kolade, has a different perspective.

Kolade explained at the recent Nigerian-South African Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting that governments do not have to tear down the towns of today to build smart cities which will improve services and the quality of life for their inhabitants.

He explained that by using the Internet of Things (IoT) technology, a host of intelligently connected services become possible.

According to Kolade, about 48 per cent of Nigerians are living in urban areas and this proportion will continue to grow as urbanisation continues. With the number of people living in urban areas around the world predicted to rise to 6.4 billion by 2050; cities like Lagos need to adopt IoT technology to meet the rising challenges of a mega city.

He maintained that governments have a central role to play in making towns and cities run effectively but that with constrained budgets and a growing population; issues such as traffic, pollution, and public safety are becoming more difficult to manage. Authorities must adopt technologies that will improve sustainability, ease congestion, help citizens and attract new businesses to their towns and cities.

“An IoT-enabled city can reroute traffic around congestion in real time, automatically schedule repairs for failed infrastructure like street lighting or bridges, and intelligently manage energy use and pollution right across the environment. It can also protect citizens and businesses from crime more effectively, and safeguard vulnerable inhabitants in their homes,” Kolade said.

Commercial Director of Vodacom Business Nigeria, Solomon Ogufere, said that Vodacom can help governments take control of their energy usage across multiple sites, and smart metres, installed in offices, factories and homes, can collect and report data on electricity, gas, and water use.

He also explained that IoT-enabled lights can cut the need for regular engineer check-ups by alerting authorities before they fail. IoT lights can also detect when there is little or no traffic and turn off or dim individual lamps automatically; saving energy and reducing electricity costs.