Category: Education & Innovation

According to the Head, Public Relations, Thomas Odemwingie of Nigeria’s procurement oversight agency, Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), the Bureau has won a Government Innovation Award for pioneering project to ensure openness in government business transactions. The award was announced in London following the Open Contracting Innovation Challenge.

BPP won the award for its initiative to collaborate with civil society and business to use open data sources and make information about the country’s public procurement system more accessible, transparent and accountable to the public.

The competition was run by the Washington DC-based Open Contracting Partnership and the London-based Open Data Institute and was funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.

According to Mr. Odemwingie:

“The innovation challenge honours original ideas for managing, analysing, and monitoring how the government procures goods and services as well as cutting-edge approaches to publishing what is procured, when, from whom, and for how much.

As winners of the Government Innovation Award, BPP will receive mentoring and expert support to accelerate the progress and execution of its innovation, which is the first-ever unified public procurement approach, the Nigerian Open Contracting Portal (NOCOPO).

It will also improve transparency to prevent corruption, enhance active citizen participation and feedback towards achieving better service delivery and increase ease of doing business in Nigeria.”

He further said an international panel of seven experts used potential for impact, use of open data, sustainability and the team as criteria to evaluate entries.

88 teams from 40 countries and every continent responded to a series of questions on how to use data to strengthen the integrity and effectiveness of public procurement.

Mr. Odemwingie said the portal would publish open data from over 750 government agencies to the Open Contracting Data Standard.

He said finalists from the non-government sector each received 5,000 dollars in prize money to further develop their projects, while the final pitch for the grand prize of 30,000 dollars would be in September 2017.

He said winners in the various categories of competition and the grand prize winner would be honoured at Open Contracting 2017, a global meeting for open contracting innovators from around the world in Amsterdam in November 2017.

Mr. Odemwingie said as part of its commitment to e-Government Procurement, Nigeria’s involvement in the open contracting initiative began in May 2016 at the London Anti-Corruption Summit.

He said there, President Muhammadu Buhari committed the country to actions to deepen the administration’s anti-corruption reform.

He quoted the Director-General of BPP, Mamman Ahmadu, as saying that:

“The award indicates global appreciation of the country’s commitment to transparency and accountability in its anti-corruption drive.

Given that public procurement is a tool for good governance, Nigerians should expect an improved public procurement system to have a huge impact on the nation’s recovery from economic recession in quick time”.

Gavin Hayman, Executive Director, Open Contracting Partnership, said the organisation was impressed with what the innovators did to make contracting better.

Samiat Owo-Alade, has emerged the best-graduating pharmacy student with the highest score of 75.5 per cent at the Rajiv Ghandi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka, India [2016/2017].

According to her:

“I waited for two years despite having my West African Examinations Council, National Examination Council and the General Certificate of Education results. I was so ashamed of myself after some of my mates had gained admission. Sometimes, I asked myself, ‘Why me?’ I tried all I could just to pass the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination. I attended coaching classes, even when I knew I shouldn’t have been there. At a point, I had to learn a trade. It was a trying period for me as a young girl, yet I relied on God. Two years later, my prayer was answered. I gained admission to study in a university in India.

I intend to have an industry, with a standard research and development centre that will involve animals and human volunteers. I realise that Nigerians lack continuous research. Our government does not encourage research.”

Poets in Nigeria (PIN) have announced the prize-winners for the 2017 edition of Nigerian Students PIN poetry Competition, which opened since February this year, and which received about 725 poems from students drawn from over 100 tertiary institutions in Nigeria and abroad.

Winners of the 2017 Poets in Nigeria (PIN) Competition

1st Prize

Bakre Fadil Adedamola, a 400-level student of Philosophy at the University of Ibadan, clinched the first prize with his poem ‘Mixed History’.

2nd Prize

Ajah Henry Ekene, a medical student of University of Benin, won second position with his poem ‘Song of Freedom’.

3rd Prize

Bona O. Solomon, a student of Guidance and Counselling, University of Ibadan, took the third prize with her poem ‘Beach Chronicles’.

The winners get 200,000 Naira and an exclusive feature in the seventh issue of PIN Quarterly Journal and NSPP’s anthology of top 100 poems to be released later in the year.

Professor Akachi Ezeigbo, chair of the judging panel appraised the winning poems. In his  statements: “I have chosen the winning poem ‘Mixed History’ and the two runners-up ‘Song of Freedoms and ‘Beach Chronicles’ not just because of the content, but more importantly, because they are virtually error-free and make judicious use of imagery, especially as seen in the skillful use of symbols and metaphors. They are charming poems in every sense of the word and explore serious themes and interesting ideas.”

The PIN poetry competition has received over 1,000 entries since inception in 2016. It has also stimulated creativity among Nigerian undergraduates.

Warrant Officer Enem Aniemeka of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has emerged the overall best graduating doctorate student with the highest Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.67 at Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun state.

Enem Aniemeka, an MSc. graduate in Information Technology from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) obtained his PhD in Computer Science Networking telecommunication with the title of his thesis being: “Transmission Control Protocol’s Initial Congestion Window for Web Latency Reduction and Speedy Flows”.

According to the Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya:

“The research work was able to propose solution to the problem of short lived connections in Internet network in Nigeria. This would potentially enable internet users in Nigeria to have better service by improving page loading time.

Aniemeka, who is one of the beneficiaries of NAF school release programme, is currently the Supervisor of the Computer Centre at 051 Personnel Management Centre at NAF Base in Ikeja, Lagos State.”

Mohammed Mustafa Cengiz, has graduated as the best student from the Kazan Medical University Russia, with a perfect Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 5.0 distinction (Russian Red Diploma).

He received his award from the Russian Minister of Health and Rector respectively.

18-year-old Uwade Helen Akhere in a historic feat, has won 11 scholarships to study in different American Universities, after emerging tops in her academic pursuit at the Charlotte Catholic High School.

Continue reading Uwade Helen Akhere Wins 11 US Scholarships [2017]

Olukayode Mobolaji Oluwasona, has graduated with a Cummulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 5.0 in Computer Technology from the University of Computer Sciences and Skills, Lodz, Poland – the best result under a special degree exchange programme arranged by Babcock University.

Already leading in first class from his first semester examinations in Babcock University, 20-year old Olukayode Mobolaji Oluwasona, was among the 17 outstanding students of Babcock University that left Nigeria at the beginning of their 200-level programme in 2014 to continue undergraduate studies in Poland.
This was under a special degree exchange programme arranged by Babcock University with the University of Computer Sciences and Skills in Lodz, Poland, where they remained ‘international students’ until the end of their four-year course.

Under the arrangement, they had to return to Babcock for their last and final year in 2016, during which they remained under the monitoring, supervision and mentorship of their lecturers in Poland. Mobolaji and his colleagues were the pioneers in the four years old exchange programme between Babcock and the Polish institution.

Chancellor of the University of Computer Sciences and Skills, Mrs. Aniela Bednarek, presented to Mobolaji a Special Achievement Award for his superlative academic performance.

Olukayode Mobolaji Oluwasona attributes his success to vision, determination, discipline and above all, the Grace of God. He looks forward to a successful working career in any of the world’s topmost Information Technology organisations. He dedicated his award to his parents, who he said mentored him well and set his feet on the right path.