e-Business Life Communication Limited and Vodacom Business Nigeria

5/24/2018

Africa, Nigeria, Lagos, Nigeria

20 participants

Every year, after the D-Day celebration of the international girls in ICT Day, eBusiness Life, in partnership with a sponsor of the event, takes some students on a technology Field Trip to the company’s operation site.

This year, the winning schools for the Coding and STEM Quiz competitions had the privilege of visiting the facility of Vodacom Business Nigeria.

19 students from the two winning schools converged at the premise of the telecommunication operator and were taken around the facility. The field trip was preceded by a classroom mentorship session that involved both male and female management team of the company.

The attending schools were Lagoon Secondary School, which won the STEM Quiz competition and Grace High School, winners of the Coding competition.

After the security drill by the company’s Head of Security, the students were introduced to the operations of Vodacom Business by the Commercial Director.

Vodacom Business Nigeria, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Vodacom Group, is a leading pan-African corporate connectivity and telecommunications provider. The company provides services to the continent's largest businesses in sectors including oil and gas, retail, banking, mining, distribution, and tourism; helping them stay connected across Africa, and to the rest of the world.

Its core infrastructure connects over 580 million people, across more than 40 African countries and includes over 50 satellite transponders, 24 dedicated teleports and access to multiple sub-sea cable landing ports. By utilizing on-the-ground support, Vodacom provides system integration and maintenance, high-speed Internet services, pan-African data networks, Cloud and Hosting Solution, wireless broadband and international VPNs, Enterprise Voice and Internet of Things (IoT).

Its core services include the provision of Connectivity Solutions; Unified Communications; Cloud and Hosting Solution; Voice Services and Total Communications Solutions.

During the mentorship segment, Vodacom Nigeria’s Senior Manager for Product Development, Funke Atanda encouraged the girls to choose ICT- related courses which will help increase the number of women in the ICT sector in the near future. She noted that Vodacom is committed to accelerating the change needed to create relevant opportunities for women through the use of ICT, and by supporting ICT skills acquisition for young girls, bringing them into its organization and opening their minds to new technologies that exist and continue to develop, Vodacom is able to contribute its quota to this growth.

Atanda applauded eBusiness Life and the ITU for birthing the International Girls in ICT Day celebration initiative, noting that it will go a long way towards encouraging change, thus strengthening the sector while continuing to improve social and economic progression in the country.

The students were later taken around the facility and were introduced to the company's Customer Service & Operations Unit which monitors and manages its calls and operations. They were also taken through the Data Center by Vodacom Nigeria’s Head of Vendor Management Unit, Eloka Igbokwe, who explained to the students, the uses, operations and management of the Data Center and its infrastructure.

Thereafter, the students were taken out into the field where a further practical explanation is given to the process of broadband connectivity via Fibre, Satellite and Microwave. They were also educated on the components and relevance of communication infrastructures such as Masts, Base Stations and Towers.

The trip was capped by the Senior Manager, Human Resources, Jumoke Mustapha, who introduced the girls to the various career opportunities in ICT and encouraged them to go with global trends that will see them excelling in their chosen ICT career.

 During the interactive session, the excited students asked questions that bordered on career, operations and future of ICT.