West Africa’s leading connectivity and data center solutions company, MainOne was the exclusive interconnectivity provider of the Tech Startup Conference hosted by FirstBank of Nigeria, Nigeria’s leading financial services institution, themed “Let’s Talk Tech”, which took place recently at the Lagos Oriental Hotel, Lagos. In a partnership targeted at delivering value to the organizers and participants, MainOne designed, installed and managed advanced Wi-Fi and Distributed Antenna System networks at the event venue, providing 155Mbps free data capacity throughout the facility and for dedicated livestreaming of the event.
Attendees at the event leveraged MainOne’s unlimited access to the Internet during the event and took advantage of the opportunity to freely browse the Internet, conduct free downloads of documents and music, and conduct Skype calls via Wi-Fi-enabled laptops. The organizers of the event also used the unlimited capacity to provide livestreaming to thousands of participants not physically present at the event. The major operating systems used were Windows 7, Windows Vista, Nokia/Symbian, Windows XP, Mac OS X and Android OS. Data was also downloaded from a multitude of devices including iPhones and iPads, Blackberry devices, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Android phones.
Speaking during the event, MainOne’s Chief Financial Officer, Babatunde Dada revealed that the company’s support for the Tech start-up community is predicated on its belief that start-ups are the engine of economic growth and the foundation for the industrialization process of any nation desiring rapid development. He noted that MainOne’s support of the forum reiterates the organization’s confidence in the start-up industry and urged for support of Nigeria’s small businesses companies. Mr. Dada congratulated FirstBank on its support for Nigeria’s small businesses, stressing their pivotal role in national development. According to him, “Over the years, FirstBank has displayed an unwavering commitment to the business success of SMEs in Nigeria with its cocktail of financial and non-financial products and bespoke solutions, specifically designed to help grow and sustain SMEs. You will recall that MainOne is a start-up itself, so it is easy for us to relate and to derive satisfaction from growing the start-up and small business ecosystems in Nigeria. We continue to provide them an enabling environment with services such as SME-in-a-Box, Cloud Services for small businesses and targeted sponsorships of the enterprise and technology ecosystems. This is the reason for our partnership with FirstBank on this SME forum”.
According to Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, MD First Bank of Nigeria Limited and subsidiaries, “as a nation builder, FirstBank is an enthusiastic follower and supporter of the new inventive energy spreading across Nigeria. We strongly believe that in the near future, these companies will employ a significantly sizeable portion of the labour force while making a healthy contribution to the Nation’s GDP. We will continue our culture of collaborating and supporting this community with the ultimate objective of creating a system that will foster strategic collaboration within the ecosystem so as to push growth rates in this sector into hyper drive”.
The Conference keynote address was delivered by Ibukun Awosika, Chairman, First Bank of Nigeria Limited. She was joined by other speakers and panelists including Kofo Akinkugbe of SecureID, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, MD First Bank of Nigeria Limited and subsidiaries; Mr. Jason Njoku of IrokoTV, Mr. Obinna Ekezie of Wakanow and Ebi Atawodi of UBER amongst a host of Tech entrepreneurs. In the first of its kind, the FirstBank Tech Startup conference is aimed at highlighting challenges and opportunities faced by small businesses and entrepreneurs.