Technology

8, March 2022

Iran says puts new military satellite in orbit ⁰

Iran announced Tuesday it had successfully placed a military satellite in orbit, as talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers reach a critical stage.

“Iran’s second military satellite — named Nour-2 — has been launched into space by the Qassed rocket of the aerospace wing of the Revolutionary Guards and successfully placed in orbit 500 kilometres (310 miles) above the Earth,” the official IRNA news agency reported.

The Revolutionary Guards described the Nour-2 as a “reconnaissance satellite” in a statement on their Sepah News website.

Iran successfully put its first military satellite into orbit in April 2020, drawing a sharp rebuke from Washington.

Sepah News said Tuesday that the Nour-1 was “still fully operational and transmitting data”.

The United States has repeatedly voiced concern that such launches could boost Iran’s ballistic missile technology.

But Iran insists it is not seeking nuclear weapons and that its satellite and rocket launches are for civil or defensive purposes only.

At the end of December, Iran announced it had failed to put in orbit “three research cargos” carried by Simorgh (Phoenix) satellite carrier as the rocket was unable to reach the required speed.

In January, Iran tested a solid-fuel rocket for its satellite programme, state media reported.

Major powers involved in talks on bringing Washington back into the Iran nuclear deal after then president Donald Trump’s 2018 withdrawal have said that an agreement is close.

Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog said Saturday they had agreed an approach for resolving key outstanding issues but new Russian demands stemming from the Ukraine conflict may delay a deal.

Source: AFP

11, November 2021

Silicon Mountain Conference 2021 calls on young tech-savvy Cameroonians to develop talent ⁰

The Silicon Mountain Conference, which went under way on Tuesday in the Southwest regional headquarters of Buea, is urging young tech-savvy Southern Cameroonians to develop their tech knowledge by learning from their peers.

On Thursday, which is day three of the week-long event which is holding at the Higher Institute of Management Studies-HIMS in Buea, various speakers called on the young participants to leverage their talent to help develop technology product which can help transform society and create jobs.

At the various panel discussions, participants were encouraged to join tech communities which will enable them to learn from peers and get hands-on skills they may not acquire from their schools or universities.

Among the participants is Zito Financial which is also promoting the use of online payment methods for those venturing into online businesses so as to make financial transactions easier.

It should be recalled that prior to the Southern Cameroons Crisis, Silicon Mountain was a fixture in Buea, but had to relocate its activities to the Littoral region when the conflict was at its peak.

But the aspiring Buea tech sector is back as the conflict in the two English-speaking regions of the country shows signs of slowing down.

It is generally held that Buea will be a major tech hub in the years ahead as many young tech startups relocate to the city.

By Stephen Mukake in Buea

18, May 2021

Russian firm signs MOU with Cameroun on supply of educational software ⁰

The Russian developer of office software for joint work on documents and communications, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Primary Education of the Republic of Cameroon for the supply of one million licenses of MyOffice software to all schools around the country.

The event took place in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, with the direct support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, represented by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Cameroon, Mr. Anatoliy Gennadyevich Bashkin.

The memorandum was signed by, Minister of Primary Education of the Republic of Cameroon, Mr. Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa and founder and managing partner of Carousel Finance SA, Mr. Jafar Hilali, a master partner for distribution of MyOffice in African countries.

The signed memorandum provides for collaboration in the form of a public-private partnership, under which Carousel Finance SA is to supply one million MyOffice licences to primary and secondary schools in the Republic of Cameroon over a period of 10 years, and the educational institutions will receive MyOffice software free of charge.

The memorandum was signed during a business mission held in the country, which entailed a series of meetings at the highest state level. For example, at a meeting with Prime Minister of the Republic of Cameroon, Mr. Joseph Dion Ngute, the parties discussed the current challenges in the sphere of information security faced by leaders of the republic, and discussed proposals for developing a digitization program in the country using Russian software.

“Signing the memorandum became a logical continuation of the collaboration with MyOffice. Last year, we initiated pilot projects for implementation in 10 schools around Cameroon, which demonstrated their effectiveness as part of the school program.

“Our approach to teaching children involves not only the transfer of fundamental scientific knowledge, including natural sciences, but also the development of digital literacy skills among the younger generations.

“We are interested in using the safe Russian software MyOffice in our teaching practices, and starting from today, it will be delivered to all schools around the country,” declared Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa, Minister of Primary Education of the Republic of Cameroon.

“MyOffice arouses genuine interest among African countries that are taking their first steps on the road to civilization and facing new challenges in the field of IT. The Republic of Cameroon was one of the first to prioritize the development of its digital sovereignty; it recognized the need to upgrade its own proprietary infrastructure, and has already seen the first positive results of pilot projects to implement Russian software. The official agreement was a confirmation of the Government of the Republic of Cameroon’s serious interest in switching to modern and safe MyOffice products,” stated Jafar Hilali, founder and managing partner of Carousel Finance SA, a master partner for distribution of MyOffice in African countries.

“The Republic of Cameroon aims to become a leader on the African continent by providing its citizens with modern digital services and support. Today, 14per cent of the population have Internet connection, and the total length of high-speed communication lines exceeds 8,000 km. It is clear that implementing digitization in the country would be impossible without first providing training and developing digital literacy. Switching to the modern Russian software MyOffice in Cameroonian schools will make it possible to achieve this goal more quickly and easily,” said the managing partner of Carousel Finance SA, Gleb Cheglakov.

Source: The Guardian

13, May 2021

Italy fines Google €100 million for shutting out rival’s smartphone app ⁰

Italy’s anti-trust authority said Thursday it had fined Google more than 100 million euros ($120mn) for shutting out a rival’s smartphone app offering recharging of electric vehicles.

The authority said Google, whose Android operating system and Google Play app store dominate the Italian market, had abused its market position by blocking an Enel X app for users of electric vehicles.

The regulator added it would require Google to make Enel X’s app available on Android Auto, which mirrors features of an Android device, such as a smartphone, on a car dashboard screen.

The fine of 102,084,433.91 euros is for a violation of article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union which regulates monopolies and issues involving restriction of competition.

Italy found Google did not allow Enel X Italia to develop an Android Auto-compatible version of its JuicePass app. JuicePass offers services relating to recharging electric vehicles, such as finding the nearest charging station and reserving a space there.

“By refusing Enel X Italia interoperability with Android Auto, Google has unfairly limited the possibilities for end users to avail themselves of the Enel X Italia app when driving and recharging an electric vehicle,” the authority stated.

“Google has consequently favored its own Google Maps app,” added the authority.

“The exclusion of the Enel X Italia app from Android Auto has been going on for more than two years, and if it were to continue, could permanently jeopardise Enel X Italia’s chances of building a solid user base at a time of significant growth in sales of electric vehicles.”

This, the body concluded, amounted to “an impoverishment of consumer choice and an obstacle to technological progress” which could influence the development of electric mobility.

The authority as a result said it had ordered Google to make available to Enel X Italia and other app developers app programming tools which are interoperable with Android Auto while adding it would monitor compliance of its ruling via an independent expert with whom Google would be obliged to cooperate.

Source: AFP

6, December 2020

US: Dr. Eyong Eyong Ebot announces ground-breaking new book on COVID-19 ⁰

MED-CHAINS & COVID – 19: Innovative Solutions for Pandemics is the groundbreaking new book by Dr. Eyong, offering the medical community new insight into COVID-19 and previous pandemics. Rather than quarreling over the inadequacies and inconsistencies of current pandemic practices, Dr. Eyong’s new book offers his tangible and innovative solutions on how to approach, analyze and handle a pandemic crisis.

His thoroughly researched approach to pandemics employs the expertise of respected medical researchers, acclaimed scientists, and innovative medical device developers across the industry.

By employing their combined medical wisdom, Dr. Eyong provides feasible solutions for preparing, managing, and the ultimate goal of preventing a pandemic, such as COVID-19, from occurring in the future.

The book is published in ten languages – English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Latin, Japanese.

We want it to be accessible so that everyone can read it. All proceeds from the book will go to charities that help kids who lost a parent during this pandemic.

16, December 2019

Google coding champion whose Southern Cameroons hometown is lower off from the web ⁰

The first African winner in Google‘s annual coding competition is 370km (230 miles) from home, sitting outside his cousins‘ house in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, because the government has cut off his hometown from the internet.

As cocks crow in the background, 17-year-old Nji Collins Gbah tells the about the series of complex technical tasks he completed for Google between November and mid-January.

Nji had thrown himself into the contest, using knowledge gained from two years of learning how to code, mainly from online sources and books, as well as other skills he was picking up on the fly.

The prestigious Google Code-in is open to pre-university students worldwide between the ages of 13 and 17. This year more than 1,300 young people from 62 countries took part.

By the time entries closed, Nji had completed 20 tasks, covering all five categories set by Google. One task alone took a whole week to finish.

And then just a day after the deadline for final submissions, the internet went dead.

Nji lives in Bamenda in Cameroon‘s North-West, a journey of about seven hours by road from the capital (according to Google).

It is an English-speaking region where there are long-held grievances about discrimination and what people see as the Francophone establishment‘s failure to respect the status of English as an official language of Cameroon.

In recent months, disgruntlement has escalated into street protests and strikes by lawyers and teachers.

The authorities have responded with scores of arrests and a text-message campaign warning people of long jail terms for “spreading false news” or “malicious use of social media”.

Cutting off the internet, an act still unacknowledged by the government, is seen by rights activists as both punishment and a blunt tool for holding back dissent.

For an ambitious, tech-savvy though outwardly unpolitical teenager like Nji, whose school was already closed because of the protests, living without the internet was unthinkable.

As it was becoming clear that the outage was more than temporary, Nji received some unexpected news – he had been .

“I was really, really amazed,” he says. “It meant my hard work writing a lot of code had really paid off.”

But a champion coder without the internet will not stay on top of his game for long. Hence the trip to Yaounde.

“I wanted to get a connection so I could continue studying and keep in touch with Google,” says Nji.

In due course, he hopes to finish school back in Bamenda, and then study computer science at a good university.

As part of his prize from Google, Nji will spend four days in June at the tech giant‘s Silicon Valley headquarters, meeting its top engineers and gaining insight into one of the world‘s most successful enterprises.

“Hopefully I would like to work there one day, if that is possible,” he says.

At the moment, Nji says he is hard at work building his knowledge of artificial intelligence, neural networks and deep learning.

“I‘m trying to develop my own model for data compression, using deep learning and machine learning,” he says.

His eventual goal is a “huge step” forward in capabilities for data transfer and storage.

In a few days, Nji will turn 18, having already won international recognition for his achievements.

He admits to having gone back through previous years‘ Code-in prize announcements to double-check he was the first African winner.

When I ask, he says he has received congratulations from “a lot of friends and family and some people I don‘t really know”.

Has anyone from the government been in touch?

“No, no-one,” he says.

Back in Bamenda, a city of 500,000 and home to one of the continent‘s brightest young technologists, they wonder when the government will plug the internet back in.

Source: Wellston Journal

14, April 2019

France: Could Macron and Brexit make Paris the capital of European tech? ⁰

Shortly after his election in May 2017, President Macron said he wanted France itself “to think and move like a start-up” – a vision of the country’s digital future that is gaining traction as Britain wrestles with Brexit.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s vow to make France a ‘start-up nation’ amid the uncertainty over Brexit is raising the question of whether Paris could supplant London as the capital of European tech.

Since his election, Macron has wooed tech entrepreneurs with a string of initiatives in the form of lavish tax breaks, subsides, and credits for research. In March 2018, he promised to invest €1.5 billion into artificial intelligence research through 2022.

Some of these initiatives, in addition to Macron’s dynamism, have lured British tech companies who are looking to gain a foothold in Europe.

“It made sense to have a European base,” said Cedric Jones*, a Briton who recently launched a start-up at Station F, the cavernous old train station that is now home to the world’s largest start-up campus. “If I’m going to make waves in continental Europe… I wanted to get here before Brexit happened.”

Jones is among dozens of foreign entrepreneurs who have recently launched their start-up at Station F, whose 3,000 desk hub has seen spiralling applications from English-speaking nationals in the last two years.

Some cite political woes back home, the burgeoning French tech sector, or are inspired by Macron’s bid to make Paris the innovation heart of Europe.

“There’s an air of optimism and a can-do spirit in France that I feel we’ve lost somewhat in the US,” said Mark Heath, a New Yorker, who stayed on in France to launch a start-up after studying at INSEAD in 2017.

The Macron effect

Much of the investment in French tech predates Macron’s reforms. The state investment bank Bpifrance, launched by former French president François Hollande in 2013, has been widely credited with developing the sector. Hollande also set up new foreign visas for start-up entrepreneurs.

But Zahir Bouchaary, a Briton who works out of Station F, credits Macron with injecting dynamism into the sector.

“Macron has installed a [start-up] mentality within the French ecosystem itself,” said Bouchaary, adding that it has become much easier to do business in France in the last few years.

“French customers are a lot more willing to work with start-ups than they were before,” said Bouchaary. “France was a very conservative country and our clients were used to working with big old-fashioned companies that have been around for a while. For the past few years they’ve opened up a lot more to working with younger companies and seem to take more risks than they did before.”

Jones agreed that Macron was “the single variable”. “When he [Macron] goes, the dynamism will go too. I absolutely would not expect that to remain the case if he’s not president.”

However, although Macron has moved to ease labour laws, Jones said that navigating the country’s labyrinthine bureaucracy in French remained “very burdensome”, and that it was far easier to build a business in the UK. “Whether it’s from a tax perspective or from a legal perspective it’s just so much more complicated.”

UK tech ‘resilient’

The tech scene in London appears to be just as vibrant as ever, explained Albin Serviant, president of Frenchtech in London, who said many UK-based tech entrepreneurs are adopting a “wait and see” approach to Brexit.

“The UK ecosystem is quite resilient,” said Serviant.

“In the first quarter of 2019, there were about €2 billion invested in tech in London. That’s compared to 1.5 billion last year, which is plus 30 percent. And that’s twice as much as France – which invested 1 billion. France is catching up very fast but the investment money is still flowing in the UK,” he added.

Serviant cited London’s business-friendly ecosystem and international talent pool as reasons for why London remains the capital of the European tech sector.

Nonetheless Serviant cautioned against the effects that a hard Brexit would have on the tech sector in the UK.

“‘If Brexit happens in a bad way and if people like me and other entrepreneurs have to leave, obviously that’s very bad for the UK because what makes it very different is the international DNA of London.”

Hard Brexit would not just damage the UK tech sector but would also pose challenges for British developers, who post-Brexit may need a carte de séjour to work in the country, looking to find work in France.

Sarah Pedroza, co managing director of Hello Tomorrow technologies, a Paris-based startup NGO, said that if she had to choose between hiring a British national and an EU citizen with the same skillset, she would opt for an EU citizen because there would be less paperwork involved.

Brexit aside, others suggest that France is snapping at the UK’s technological heels.

“I do think France has the potential under Macron to close the gap with the UK,” said Jones.

“The single biggest factor in what’s going on for France is that France is developing a sense of confidence in itself, in its start-up scene, as a tech hub, that’s being helped by France and that’s also being helped by Brexit.”

Source: France 24

9, April 2019

Yaounde moves towards its national cyber risk assessment ⁰

A 3-day Cyber Risk Assessment workshop was organised to train IT experts in strategic state institutions in Cameroon to establish an inventory of critical cyber risks.

The workshop from 2 to 4 April addressed issues on cybersecurity and cybercrime in Cameroon, national critical assets identification and the protection of critical cyberspace. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the workshop, the General Manager of the [National Agency for Information and Communication Technologies (ANTIC) Prof. Ebot Ebot Enaw highlighted the severity of cybercrimes in Cameroon amongst which scamming, phishing, identity theft through the creation of fake social media accounts, web defacement and skimming. Furthermore, with the exponential growth of internet usage in Cameroon Prof. Ebot said there have been more than 1400 cases of scams, over 2000 cases of phishing especially with mobile money transfers, 32 government agencies and ministries web defacements and several local banks have suffered considerable financial losses estimated at over £4.8 million.

Citing the pros and cons of technology, British High Commissioner to Cameroon, Rowan James Laxton said:

Advances in technology are transforming businesses, and transforming lives, around the world. The way we do business, use information and communicate with each other has changed beyond recognition in our lifetimes. In the wrong hands, these powerful capabilities can be used to disrupt our everyday lives, instead of improving them. They can be harnessed by malign actors to disrupt our democratic elections, undermine our financial systems and cripple our critical infrastructure.

Cybercrime has become a scourge that spares no state and the protection of critical assets has become a global challenge for both the developed and developing countries.

Mr Laxton added:

The UK is developing its own capability through a system called Active Cyber Defence which is blocking fake emails, taking down phishing attacks and preventing public sector systems from switching to malicious servers. In the past year, this system has stopped over four and a half million malicious emails from reaching users and has weeded out over half a million scam emails that pretended to come from government accounts. The UK is also committed to working with our partners to build cyber security capacity across the Commonwealth. The British Prime Minister announced during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting last year that the UK would be making £15 million available to support this work through to 2020. We are already funding capacity reviews for 11 Commonwealth countries in Africa and Asia under this Programme. The remaining £10 million will be delivered through our Digital Access Programme and the international strand of the National Cyber Security Programme.

The National Cyber Risks Assessment workshop is part of the Commonwealth’s Cyber Security Programme to support low and middle-income countries to tackle cyber threats.

Source: British High Commission Yaounde

30, January 2019

Electricity-hungry Cameroon boosts solar energy in push for rural power ⁰

Adrienne Ngonou’s 25-seat restaurant used to open from 8 am to 5 pm, shutting it doors as the sun began to go down. But these days it’s open until 11 pm – and her profits have tripled. “We now sell both during the day and late in the night because of the constant electricity supply,” she said. “Two years ago, this was not possible.”

Ngonou’s new power source is a government-provided solar array that supplies power to about 300 homes, businesses and other institutions in Mfou, a town of about 10,000 people east of Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital.

Earlier the area relied in part on grid power, which has been unreliable as more erratic rainfall and droughts linked to climate change hit the county’s hydropower dams, which supply the majority of its energy.

But the $13,000 battery-backed solar grid, installed in 2017, has given the area it serves 24-hour reliable power – and is now being replicated in other power-hungry parts of Cameroon, as the government tries to plug a stubborn energy gap and shore up its energy system against climate change, officials say.

Mfou’s solar system was part of a deal between Cameroon’s government and China’s Huawei telecommunications company, which also installs solar installations, to supply solar energy to more than 160 villages, largely in rural areas, they say.

So far solar power – much of it small-scale and often installed by non-governmental organizations – provides only about 1 percent of Cameroon’s energy needs, according to 2017 government figures. Energy expansion plans for Cameroon have focused largely on fossil fuel plants and hydropower expansion, mostly funded by China.

But now Cameroon’s President Paul Biya “has thrown his hefty political weight in support of renewable energy and this has brought a new stimulating perspective,” Martine Akame Mesumbe, director of gas exploitation at the Ministry of Water and Energy, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The government hopes to boost Cameroon’s electricity access in rural areas as part of its “Vision 2035” development plan, aimed at expanding the economy and slashing poverty to 10 percent.

So far that expansion has been hampered by a lack of power, experts say. According to a 2018 World Bank report, just half of Cameroon’s people have access to electricity, with 80 percent of the supply concentrated in urban areas. Rural electrification is just 17 percent, it said.

As part of its push to change that, the government now aims to reach 1,000 communities – about 250,000 people in total – with solar power by the end of 2020, according to Mesumbe. Altogether it hopes to get electricity, from a variety of sources, to 40 percent of rural Cameroonians by 2020.

“This could drive significant economic change in rural Cameroon,” Mesumbe said. More than $120 million in funding for the push is coming from a Bank of China loan for renewable energy projects, he said.

MAINTENANCE?

Communities now hooked up to solar panels – like those in Mfou – say they are happy to have a cleaner and less costly source of energy. “It is a cheaper alternative to diesel generators and wood energy … used in the past to power small businesses,” said Roger Belinga, the mayor of Mfou.

Jarome Angwi, a beer vendor in the town, said solar energy to power his refrigerator and premises costs just a fifth of what he used to pay for diesel.

Local officials say they hope access to electricity will help keep young people from deserting rural areas for jobs in Cameroon’s cities.

In Mfou, “even some of those who left are already coming back” since the solar panels were installed, Belinga said.

Whether the new solar systems will be maintained, however, remains a question. Local authorities in some towns said they lack the funds to train local solar technicians.

“Many local councils do not have the financial resources to sustain these projects. They need financial support from government,” Rose Ngassa, the mayor of Tombel, in southwest Cameroon, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview in Yaounde.

But national government officials say an ongoing political decentralization push in Cameroon – including an expected 70 percent boost in cash transferred to local authorities in 2019 – should give local councils more money to invest in and maintain solar energy systems.

Greater use of solar power could also help cut worrying deforestation rates in Cameroon, home to part of Africa’s Congo Basin forests, environmentalist say.

“The cutting of trees for wood and charcoal used for cooking and heating will now reduce in many villages with the coming of solar energy,” said Augustine Njamnshi, the Cameroon-based coordinator of the African Coalition for Sustainable Energy.

Reuters

24, January 2019

La Republique’s plan for a Francophone-led tech hub isn’t being welcomed in Ambazonia ⁰

The Cameroon government is backing a new technology hub to be called “Cameroon Silicon River” in its capital city Yaoundé, in a move that is likely to move attention from its small, but already thriving ecosystem in the country’s southwest region.

The new tech hub is modeled after Buea’s Silicon Mountain and will take a sizable portion of the 11.92 billion CFA francs ($ 20.6 million) 2019 budget of Cameroon’s ministry of scientific research and innovation. The government says Cameroon Silicon River will be a platform for research and innovation where young, creative, and enterprising Cameroonian software developers and other technologists will have the infrastructure and support they need.

But the news has not gone down well with tech leaders and entrepreneurs in Silicon Mountain; the already burgeoning tech ecosystem in Buea, in the English-speaking region of Cameroon. It is seen as the latest part of a wider national effort to marginalize the minority English-speaking regions of the country in the southwest and northwest.

For the last two years activists in the English-speaking regions of the country have protested against marginalization by the French-speaking dominated government. Modern Cameroon was formed from part of a former British colony and a much larger French colony, which makes up about 80% of the country’s population. But over the last year, those initially peaceful protests by Anglophone professionals, including lawyers and teachers, have turned into violent clashes with government security forces.

There has also been an information battle conducted mainly online. The government has taken to shutting down the internet for months in the English-speaking regions, ostensibly to prevent anti-government activists organizing.

Tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Mountain have often complained of systematic neglect by the government, citing specifically the lack of tax incentives for their tech start-ups and want of financial support.

Despite the difficulties, some Cameroonian start-ups in Silicon Mountain have received global acclamation and are being scaled up to spread across the world. These include Zuo Bruno (Zuoix)’s Zoomed car-tracking application using SMS and Churchill Mambe Nanje’s Njorku.com – a fast-growing job search engine and aggregator that helps thousands of African job-seekers find employment opportunities in locations nearest to them.

Bruno, an ethical hacker from Silicon Mountain, described the Yaoundé hub plan as a waste of resources. “I think it is a decision that assumes creativity and innovation can be taught and politicized.”

Many techies in Silicon Mountain say government officials often speak with them on how to improve the local ecosystem but their suggestions or proposals often end up being implemented in other parts of the country.

“We had proposed to officials that there was need to put in place an institution in Buea that will help startups in registering their ventures and scaling them up. Now we hear it is Yaounde,” said Otto Akama, co-founder of Makonjo Media. He indicated that same had been done with the creation of a technopole in Kribi, in the country’s French-speaking region.

Internet rights activist, Gwain Colbert Fulai predicted Cameroon Silicon River will die off in a relatively short timeframe.

“When you copy an initiative, you miss out the essential details. Even Silicon Valley in the US was not a government creation,” Colbert said. He argued government should only create an enabling environment for technology to strive.

Despite being Cameroon’s capital city, Yaoundé has few little-known tech entrepreneurs compared with Silicon Mountain. The entrepreneurs believe government should use the striving Silicon Mountain tech ecosystem as a springboard to build and expand other ecosystems in the country.

Source: Quartz