Organiser picks new date for Offshore West Africa forum

Managing Director, PennWell International, Glenn Ensor

Pennwell Corporation, owners and producers of the yearly Offshore West Africa Conference & Exhibition, have announced a change in date for its 21st edition of this premier event.
The new 2017 date has been set for 6 to 8 June 2017, moving from the originally planned January date.Managing Director, PennWell International, Glenn Ensor, in a statement on Monday, attributed the change in date to a number of factors, most pressingly, the current economic climate facing the oil and gas industry.

According to him, this change of date will enable the company’s many loyal exhibitors, speakers, sponsors and attendees to benefit further from the event as these economic factors become more manageable.

He said that the Offshore West Africa event has over the past years become the premier event for the oil and gas industry within the West African region.
Offshore West Africa 2016, which also took place in Lagos in January, comprised a three‐day Exhibition of both prominent local and international organizations, a dual‐track conference programme and a successful Youth Empowerment Programme (in collaboration with Lonadek and the Energy Institute Nigeria), and played host to a record‐breaking attendance for the 2nd year in succession. With over 2,700 visitors and delegates from more than 40 countries around the world.
Glenn Ensor added: “We are extremely pleased that Offshore West Africa 2017 has been granted Trade Fair Certification from the U.S. Department of Commerce, and as such been enabled to organize a U.S. Pavilion for a variety of U.S. Exhibitors to showcase their industry innovations, technologies, products and services to the West African Oil & Gas marketplace.

“The event has been so wonderfully welcomed here in Lagos, and this new addition to our event is greatly received, for which we thank the U.S. Department of Commerce. We invite you all to join us at our 2017 edition in June for what we believe will be another great event for all concerned. ”

This exciting new addition to the Offshore West Africa event is one of many new initiatives from PennWell for the 2017 event, including further Corporate Social Responsibility Plans, additional exhibition pavilions and other new ventures which will enhance the experience of attending this event as either an exhibitor, speaker, delegate or visitor.

Nigeria’s OEMs form new body to champion local content growth

Bode Pedro, Chief Executive Officer of VEDA Technologies

Five leading Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in Nigeria have come together to form a body that would further strengthen local content advocacy in the country.
According to the OEMs, which included BRIAN Integrated Systems, BETA Computers, OMATEK computers, VEDA Technologies and ZINOX Technologies, formed a body known as Certified Computer Manufacturers of Nigeria (CCMON).

The coordinator of CCMON, Bode Pedro, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of VEDA Technologies, said that the coming together of the firms have been in the pipeline for quite some time but that the right time has come for it, especially now that there is renewed impetus from the government towards the support and growth of local content in ICT.

The main objectives of CCMON, according to Pedro, included working with all relevant stakeholders to grow the capacity of Nigeria computer manufacturers that will generate increased employment, strengthening the Naira and ensure the growth of local economy.

In meeting these objectives, the group pledged to work closely with the National Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Office for Nigerian Content in Information Technology (ONC), the Ministry of Communications and the office of the Vice President (VP) that heads the nation’s economic team to ensure that the laudable objectives of the government Guidelines on local content adoption in ICT is properly implemented to the benefit of the country.

It will be recalled that the drive to encourage and support local manufacturers of computers started back in 2002 when the then president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, through the office of the Secretary of the Government, issued a circular dated March 7th, 2002, to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies, that only locally manufactured computers, certified to be of acceptable quality standard should be patronized by all federal establishments.

This directive was followed up during the last government with the establishment of the ONC to drive this process deeper to ensure increased implementation monitoring, compliance and value addition to all stakeholders, especially the MDAs who are the major consumers whose satisfaction are uppermost in the whole value chain.

With the coming of CCMON, it is now expected that the manufactures will have a unified platform to drive their operations to the highest international quality standards that will lead to increased capacity to meet local demand and export to other African countries.

Nigeria’s mobile gaming market forecast to hit $147m

Going by the new insights into the mobile gaming market in Nigeria, the sector is projected to hit about $147 million by 2019.According to a report by PwC, a research based firm, the Nigerian market is dominated by social/casual gaming, eclipsing fledgling revenues on more expensive devices like consoles and Personal Computers (PCs). It disclosed that the mobile gaming market has flourished and in 2014, with social/casual gaming revenue accounting for 7.7 per cent of total video game revenue at $70 million.
According to PwC, this will increase further to $147 million in 2019, at a CAGR of 16.1 per cent. “At this time, social/casual games will comprise 8.4 per cent of total video game revenue in Nigeria, driven by greater ownership of mobile devices than of consoles and PCs. Video game advertising revenue remains non-existent in this market.”

Optimistic developers like Co-Founder, ChopUp, Zubair Abubakar, implored the Federal Government and investors to invest in the Nigerian gaming industry as the future potential revenues as Smartphone penetration grows (forecast to rise from 16 per cent to 42 per cent from 2014 to 2019) and the younger population (more than 50 per cent of whom are under 25 years old) warms to new styles gaming.
Furthermore, according to a NewZoo report, which was made available at the NITEC 2016 conference in Lagos, disclosed that globally, mobile gaming will take 37 per cent, about $36.9 billion from the global revenue, up 8.5 per cent compared to 2015 than PC in 2016. The mobile tools consist of smartphones and tablet devices.
The report showed that for the first time, mobile gaming will take a larger share than PC/MMO, which is projected to see 27 per cent penetration, about $27.1billion; TV console 29 per cent; $29 billion, Casual Web games five per cent, $5.2billion and Handheld two per cent; $1.8 billion.

The report stated that the Floating Screen (tablets and handheld consoles) remained the least important gaming screen as handheld revenues are expected to plummet another 24 per cent this year due to the rapid decline of handheld console revenue and the popularity of large screen Smartphones which cater to high-end mobile games have dented spending on tablet games, thereby making tablet revenue growth lower than originally anticipated; the Computer Screen as the most lucrative on a global scale as the vast majority of this will be from (mid)core PC/MMO games; casual webgame revenues continue to decline; the Entertainment Screen (TV/Console) will grow to $29.0 billion; the Personal Screen, or Smartphones as the fastest growing with a YoY growth rate of 23.7 per cent and by 2018 will take the lead globally.
On Virtual Reality (VR), the report expects game software revenues from VR to remain marginal for the near future and to largely substitute other game spending on console, PC and mobile as the uptake of VR hardware plays out, game software revenues will automatically be absorbed into current PC, TV/console and mobile revenues.

VR and AR will in the long-term change how consumers communicate with each other and interact with content.In the short to medium term, Newzoo expects the lion’s share of VR revenues to be generated by hardware sales, spectator content, and live viewing formats.
From the report, Asian-pacific countries (APAC) will dominate worldwide revenue accounting for $46.6 billion this year, or 47 per cent of total global game with China accounting for one quarter of all global game revenues reaching $24.4 billion this year to cement its place as the largest games market in the world, ahead of the US’s anticipated market size of $23.5 billion.

North America is the second largest region with estimated revenues of $25.4 billion in 2016, a YoY growth rate of 4.1 per cent. The mobile segment mainly drives this growth.
Console revenues remain stable as the segment moves toward digital and continuous monetization; Europe, Middle-East and Africa (EMEA) own a market share of $23.5billion, 7.3 per cent YoY as Western Europe will see a slightly higher growth rate of +4.4 per cent which can be mainly attributed to the fact that the region has seen slower adoption of mobile gaming to date and Eastern Europe, meanwhile, will even grow a bit more, from the past year’s crisis with a 7.3 per cent YoY growth rate; Latin America will see healthy growth again, reaching $4.1 billion in 2016, an impressive 20.1 per cent YoY increase. Mobile games will generate $1.4 billion.

Dorman Long renews commitment to local content development

Dorman Long Engineering

Dorman Long Engineering has acquired enough capacity to generate 40,000 direct and indirect jobs in the Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, according to the Chairman of Dorman Long Engineering, Dr Timi Austen-Peters.
Austen-Peters made this disclosure during the visit of members of the House of Representatives Committee on Local Content to the company’s head office in Lagos.

Welcoming members of the committee, he expressed the company’s commitment to development of skills, technology transfer and capacity building.Austen-Peters also said that the company gives priority to domestication of spending and reducing need for scarce forex. “Other areas, which we focus on is long term cost reduction; national self reliance – a self reliant economy exudes confidence; and national security – a self reliant economy secures the future of her people and ensures independence of a vital sector.

The courtesy visit led by the Chairman of the Committee, Honourable Emmanuel Ekon and 13 members of his team was aimed at further reinforcing their commitment to support local companies in achieving their long-term objectives.
Members of the House of Representatives were impressed with the achievements and facilities of Dorman Long and the Chairman of the Committee Honourable
Ekon commended Dorman Long team for their hospitality and strong commitment to building and sustaining local content in this country.

He stated: “We have witnessed the immense work you are currently doing on the Egina Project amongst others. We are delighted to see a local company that is significantly contributing to the socio-economic development of Nigeria. Your presentation on the industry insight and challenges has been impactful and well received. We have also noted the gaps in the industry and we will ensure we address them.

As a committee, we will discuss further to see how we can collectively build the capacity of this industry. However, I encourage your association, Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), to share a more holistic list of industry requirements that would allow your organisations meet their objectives. Our members are keen to build a good relationship with your association and of course we are here to support and to work with you.”
Austen-Peters thanked the Chairman for his words of encouragement and assured the team of Dorman Long’s commitment to Nigeria, “There’s no doubt that we are partners in progress and we would like to reassure you that we have extensive plans that will be strongly beneficial to Nigeria’s socio-economic climate. Our expansion plan will see significant job creation, skills and technology transfer, as well as capacity building.”

Google says anti-piracy effort has delivered $2bn

Georges Gobet

Google said Wednesday its efforts to fight online piracy have yielded $2 billion paid out to copyright holders whose content is shown on its YouTube platform.

The US online giant, updating its anti-piracy efforts, said its system has been generating income for copyright holders when content is posted to YouTube.

At the same time, Google is also offering “more convenient, legitimate alternatives” that allow consumers to buy music, films and other content, according to a statement.

“We take protecting creativity online seriously, and we’re doing more to help battle copyright-infringing activity than ever before,” said a blog post from senior policy counsel Katie Oyama.

Google and YouTube have been using a system called ContentID, where a copyright holder can notify the company if its music or other content is being shown on YouTube.

The copyright owners have an option to remove the content or leave it up and reap advertising revenue from it, and 95 percent of music owners choose the latter option, according to Google.

“Half of the music industry’s YouTube revenue comes from fan content claimed via Content ID,” Oyama said.
Another part of the effort to combat online piracy, Oyama said, is filtering search results..

“Thanks to the efforts of Google’s engineers, the vast majority of media-related queries that users submit every day return results that include only links to legitimate sites,” she said.
Google is also cutting out sites specializing in piracy from its advertising network.
“Rogue sites that specialize in online piracy are commercial ventures, which means that one effective way to combat them is to cut off their money supply,” Oyama said.

“As a global leader in online advertising, Google is committed to rooting out and ejecting rogue sites from our advertising services. Since 2012, Google has blacklisted more than 91,000 sites.”

She added that Google has paid out some $10 billion to creators for content purchased on Google Play and YouTube.