GRTech

Sidmach displays innovative prowess at education summit in Lagos

Published

7 years ago

July 2, 2018

grassroots

The much publicised simplified, reliable, and affordable School Management solution suitable for every school, that allows schools keep track of information as it relates to academics- SmartSchool, has been unveiled.

The solution was developed by leading indigenous software company, Sidmach Technologies Nigeria Limited.

The cloud based solution was unveiled at the Digital Transformation in Education summit organised by Microsoft Nigeria in conjunction with Sidmach Technologies.

In a presentation, the Account Manager for Sidmach Technologies, Mr. Owhofasa Imoh, said this will assist in the management of various aspects of school operations, and was designed to manage the registration processes, examination processes, record keeping and collation of schools, amongst several other things.

SmartSchool functions in a flexible manner such that it caters for the needs of both primary and secondary school to improve services to students, staff, visitors, while parents can leverage the platform to ascertain the behaviour of their kids in school.

“With SmartSchool you go online and subscribe to a service and you give access to your users; primarily the teachers to keep track of activities in School such as student’s attendance, academic records, student’s behaviour and many other features imbedded in the solution.

“With our SmartSchool, schools will be able to manage school administration; teachers and student management; access NERDC curriculum and WAEC Chief Examiner report, imagine Academy Office and Certification.

“It is open to any school for adoption. However, as a subscription service, private schools can easily sign up. For public schools, I suspect they might be going through the government.

Mr. Imoh further told TechEconomy.ng that as an indigenous country, the subscription fees are payable in Naira.

“As a Nigerian user you make payment in Naira. However, if you are using a foreign online payment service it should be able to convert the payment to Naira.

Upon signing up an administrator grants access to whoever should have access to its usage. “As a proprietor- I sign up, make payment and gain access to the solution- I will begin to add users; who are my teachers. So, they receive an email to get their login or signup to perform their functions.

While emphasising on the need for schools to adopt technological tools like SmartSchools, the Education Program Manager at Microsoft Nigeria, Jordan Belmonte, said that Educationists have to keep in mind that technology is changing rapidly where the user now controls the real life impact.

“Whether we like it or not technology is here to stay. We are only required to think on how to leverage them to solve social problems like in education, water, issues in global health, conflicts/war, climate change, energy, amongst others as captured in the Social Development Goals.

“We need to ask questions like: are we teaching students the skills to go out there in the world and solve the existing problems? Or are we just churning out graduates who can’t fit in into the present workplace.

Speaking on why digital transformation in education is crucial she said the shift in standards moving from manufacturing to information economy where artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, cloud and other tools will be the order of the day, entails that schools can’t be the laggards.

“Think about marketing and how digital solutions have transformed the job; today, digital marketing is the skill every marketer needs to learn.

“Due to flexibility of skills today, statistics show that people are no longer interested in staying in same job for 30 years, rather they have 10 different skills before 40 years”.

Belmonte thus described digital transformation in education as a way to support the demand for robust essential life skills- critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication among the pupils.

She said that Microsoft will continue to partner with Sidmach towards creating more values for teachers; flexibility and creating the solutions that enable easy teaching and learning; better learning outcomes, saves teachers time, affordable easy to manage devices.

“Sidmach is a great company and has been doing a lot in the smartschool solution; we are happy to work with them”, she said.

Earlier, the Head of Sales and Marketing at Sidmach, Mr. Olayemi Olaleyon, said that the Company has been developing solutions in the education sector for close to three decades and has assisted the industry in transforming processes through digital tools.

For instance, in 1999, Sidmach helped WAEC to introduce Computer Based Testing; chief Examiner’s Report; Biometric e-Registration/ photo embossment on WAEC certificate.

“2012 in partnership with NERDC, we introduced e-curriculum; digitization of the National Curriculum. We help teachers to work smarter. So, over the years, we have worked with Microsoft to achieve these feats; Sidmach is Microsoft’s Gold Partner in Nigeria for over 15 years.

“Come to us with any ICT related challenge and we shall find a platform to solve it. Ours is to find a smarter way to transform what you are currently doing, digitally”, Olaleyon said.

The summit also featured a demo session on Sidmach’s newest solutions such as the Simple Electronic Assessment and Marking System (SEAMS).

According to the Creative Marketing Officer, Sidmach Technologies, Akintunde Opawole, the solution will enable schools and examination bodies enhance the conduct of examinations, marking of answer scripts and scoring of their various students.

He explained that SEAMS is a comprehensive solution that provides institutions with an automatic conversion of examination answer booklets or forms filled on paper to digital format in real time.

“It also allows candidates to take exams using their familiar pen and paper while converting it real time to electronic format.

“It provides easy and safe archiving of exams scripts. It saves cost, time and provides fast results,” he added.

According to him, this solution will convert exams scripts electronically in real time without the teachers having to input records manually.

Akintunde Opawole; Oluseyi Odusanya; Jordan Belmonte (Microsoft); Owhofasa Imoh and Oladiran Olayemi. at the event

Source: TechEconomy.ng

GRTech

The Economics of Product Decisions: Applying Behavioural Economics and Game Theory in PM

Published

5 days ago

August 18, 2025

Ani Sandra

Amarachi Nnochiri

Product managers often need to make a clear-cut decision: what should we build next? But the decisions which hold real importance go beyond adding features.

It’s about getting what makes people tick.

It goes way beyond what you would expect, getting into how people behave and using game theory.

These areas give insight into how users decide and how a product’s design can improve growth and keep people interested.

This is what Amarachi Nnochiri excels at. She is a senior product manager that knows how to use economics and psychology in her job.

She goes beyond simply managing product tasks; she develops whole product systems based on how users think, feel, and use a service. Her background shows how understanding human psychology and behaviour can give you a significant advantage in the competition.

One idea Amarachi uses is “loss aversion.” In this scenario, people feel worse about losing something than they feel good about gaining something of equal value.

She uses this when designing her products, mostly when it comes to pricing and getting people to try new strategies. For example, instead of giving a free trial, she might use a freemium setup where users get some stuff for free but could lose it if they don’t buy an upgrade. This pushes them to pay.

She might also use progress bars or streak counters, since losing progress gets people to keep using the product.

Amarachi also uses ideas from “game theory” to get how users act and change their behavior. She realizes that users are doing more than operating a product, but are playing a game with other users or with the product itself. She designs things that use ideas like “Nash equilibrium,” where nobody can do better by changing what they’re doing. For a social product, this could mean creating a system where doing something good for yourself (like inviting friends) also helps everyone else. This makes the whole thing stable and positive.

Her know-how in game theory also applies to making strong “network effects.” This means making stuff that gets better as more people use it.

A good example is a social network where each new user makes the product more helpful for everyone else. Amarachi endeavours to make things go viral on purpose, not just by luck.

She might use “commitment devices,” which are things that make a user stick with a behaviour by making them depend on it socially or functionally. For example, inviting team members to a tool makes the user stick with the platform and makes the product’s network stronger.

This way of thinking is better than just following the usual steps. By using these economic and psychological tricks, Amarachi develops competitive advantages which are difficult to replicate.

She knows that a company’s best thing is not just a simple interface, but a product that’s designed to sync with how people behave.

Her product choices aren’t just about the needs of users, but equally focus on motivating them to like the product, use it, and stick with it.

In her work, choosing a subscription price isn’t just a business thing; it’s about behaviour. Designing a social feed isn’t just about the content; it’s about balancing what people want and watching how they interact. Amarachi knows extensively about the economics of product decisions. This makes her products innovative and appealing to human behaviour, which leads to more use, keeps people around, and helps the product grow. She’s a leader in product management, where identifying customer desires is backed by understanding human motivation.

GRTech

Glo reduces international call rates

By Sandra Ani

Published

6 days ago

August 17, 2025

grassroots

Technology Company, Globacom, has announced significant reductions in its International Direct Dialing (IDD) rates, making international calls more affordable for its existing and new customers across Nigeria.

Effective August 10, the new rates began applying to over 15 popular international destinations, including United States which will has moved to ₦30 per minute, down from ₦35, United Kingdom is now N350 from ₦400, while India also moved down to ₦40 from N45.

The rates for China, Saudi Arabia and Cameroon however recorded major reduction moving to N75, N300 and ₦700 respectively.

The reduction was also extended to African countries including Benin Republic which goes for ₦650 per minute, Niger Republic ₦750, Ghana ₦500, and Togo ₦650. United Arab Emirates also moved from ₦450 to ₦325, Germany to ₦550, Côte d’Ivoire ₦700, Libya ₦700, while calls to Malawi is now N1,100 from ₦1,200.

Glo aims to provide more value for its customers through these revised rates, encouraging them to make Glo their preferred network for international calls. New IDD bundles will also be introduced, offering frequent international callers even more attractive deals.

Globacom, which remained optimistic that frequent international callers will benefit immensely from the reductions in IDD bundles, enjoined customers to take advantage of the new rates to stay connected with friends and business associates across the globe.

GRTech

Oil subsidy removal freed up resources for infrastructure – Enugu Governor

By Orji Israel, South East Correspondent

Published

6 days ago

August 17, 2025

grassroots

The Executive Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, has attributed the financing of numerous infrastructure projects embarked by the state government to the oil subsidy removal policy of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.

He made this declaration at the Govermment House, Enugu, during a courtesy visit by a delegation of federal government led by Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, as part of activities lined up for the 2-day Citizens’ Engagement Series in the South East geo-political zone.

“For us in Enugu, we are able to accomplish all we promised our people during the campaign, thanks to the bold decision taken by President Bola Tinubu, which has freed up resources needed to execute humongous capital projects,” said Governor, while listing ongoing projects in the state, which include the construction of 7,000 classrooms, 3,300 hospital beds and 2,000-hectare of 260 farm estates across the 260 wards of the state.

Governor Mbah also pledged more support for the policies of the federal government, saying they are in the best interest of the people of the state.