West Africa
Former Nigerian Bank CEO Reveals Finance and Business Focused Digital Ecosystem
Nigerian entrepreneur and former Diamond Bank CEO, Uzoma Dozie has launched a digital ecosystem – called Sparkle – that provides financial, lifestyle and business support services to Nigerians across the globe. Sparkle, which has been granted a banking license from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has been built to help Nigerians fulfil their potential. It offers comprehensive support for individuals including flexible payments, savings and analytics to provide greater freedom, flexibility and control over finances and lifestyle once and for all. Powered by data and technology, Sparkle is available for iOS and Android – giving customers full and free access to one account that offers multiple services and different wallets. According to the company, Sparkle users will be provided wi...
ATCON Tasks Nigerian Government to Begin Digitizing the Economy
Sourced from the Guardian Nigeria. The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has charged the Federal Government to begin the digitization of the nation’s economy. The association stressed the importance and crucial need for the government to map out fresh plans that would assist the country cope with economic challenges post-COVID-19 pandemic. Olusola Teniola, president of ATCON, told The Guardian Nigeria that every sector of the Nigerian economy should brace for the challenges ahead, stressing that information and communication technology (ICT) would be strategic in diversifying and digitising the economy going forward. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_dff.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_dff.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Teniola makes clear that the assoc...
Nigeria’s president urges farmers to increase food production
President Muhammadu Buhari has advised Nigerian farmers to increase their food production as Nigeria has ‘no money’ for food importation. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, Nigeria has restricted food importation as the country strived to produce a lot of the food it consumes. The country also shut its borders with neighbouring countries, largely to prevent the importation and smuggling of items such as rice, poultry and petrol. The borders are still shut but were also closed to human traffic following the coronavirus pandemic, although smuggling and other illegal activities still go on with the connivance of corrupt security officials. Buhari gave his advice to the farmers while addressing journalists after observing this year’s ‘Eid’ prayer at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, on Sunda...
How Telecoms Can Rebuild Nigeria in the Wake of COVID-19
Sourced from the Guardian Nigeria. The COVID-19 worldwide pandemic has had and could continue to have long-lasting devastating effects on all social and economic sectors. For Nigeria, the pandemic can be seen as an eye-opener and a rude awakening to a new normal-knowledge economy. Apart from certain ingenious initiatives in Lagos and a few other states, Nigeria’s overall response to the pandemic has been less than satisfactory, writes The Guardian Nigeria. New, upcoming phases of recovery and thriving will be defining for the country. Now, in this crisis, it has become clear that telecommunications are playing a large role in retaining any semblance of normalcy in the country. In the recovery stage, telecoms could continue to help manage the transition out of COVID-19 related stagnation as...
Over 1 Billion SMSs Sent since the Beginning of Lockdown in Nigeria
Sourced from allAfrica. Nigeria’s lockdown triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the usage of SMSs – the quintessential short message service used all across the world – as subscribers were discovered to have sent over 1-billion messages within the last month. Though this mass of messages was largely free, checks on some operators revealed the rate of how customers made use of the SMS platform to send messages to one another. For instance, a check on MTN showed that within the first five weeks of lockdown, where people all across the country began to work remotely. Over one billion text messages were sent by customers within the first four weeks of the pan-African telecom introducing a new free SMS package – the package allows MTN Nigeria subscribers across the country to send 1...
How Technology Can Help Youth Unemployment in Nigeria
Sourced from Entrepreneur Platform. In the second quarter of 2018, youth unemployment peaked at 38% in Nigeria. Although there are no recent statistics, experts in the labour sector say the figure has surged year-on-year. Now with the worldwide reaching effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the situation has become direr as various sectors of the economy and industries stand greatly threatened including the financial and technology industry in Nigeria. Recently, companies like Andela, a software engineering talent company, laid off 135 of its staff across four locations in Africa including Nigeria. The Vanguard Nigeria reports that some financial institutions and commercial banks have had to also take measures like salary cuts to thwart mass layoffs. Another financial institution, Ren Money, r...
Andela Partners with Microsoft to Launch Azure Training Program
Sourced from Tech Gist Africa. Microsoft 4Afrika and Andela have partnered to implement the ALCwithMicrosoft Azure Training 2020 to up-skill developers in Kenya and Nigeria through an immersive program where selected developers will work to learn basic skills in Azure, via the LinkedIn Learning platform. The program is focused on training software engineers in learning the basics of Azure, a public cloud computing platform created by Microsoft for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services through Microsoft-managed data centres. The ALCwithMicrosoft Azure Training is open to anyone looking to grow their Azure software development skills and excited to learn with a community of technologists. At the end of the program, developers are expected to: Have a proficiency...
Platform Simplifies Access to COVID-19 Interventions in Nigeria
Sourced from Mail & Guardian. Beating Corona Nigeria, the country’s leading virtual intervention database has restructured its model to help disadvantaged Nigerians in need of interventions connect with the relevant non-profits. The platform itself kicked off last month, 9 April, and has recorded a massive amount of data. It continues to actively connect interveners to the people who need access to interventions. After recommendations to resolve the platform’s challenges with making interventions accessible, the database was pivoted towards a new model. With this pivot, the intervention database properly complements the core of the platform’s mission. Some of the major updates on the platform now allows for a search bar that can enable interventions to be easily found, a breakdown of a...
Nigeria overtakes Ghana as confirmed coronavirus cases hit 84,000 in Africa
The World Health Organization, WHO, regional office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, says the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Africa has risen to over 84,000 in the past 24 hours. The UN health agency gave the update on its official Twitter account on Monday morning. According to the tweet, COVID-19 has killed 2,700 people on the continent, while 32,000 people have recovered from the virus. “Over 84,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent – with more than 32,000 recoveries & 2,700 deaths,” it said. Nigeria is now the highest country in West Africa, with 5,959 cases and 182 deaths, followed by Ghana with 5,735 cases and 29 deaths. The Africa CDC COVID-19 dashboard showed that South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco have continued to top the list of countries w...
Sunday Oliseh: I started funding Nigeria national team in 1996
Nigeria legend Sunday Oliseh has opened up on his experience with the Super Eagles which spanned nine years. The former Borussia Dortmund midfielder made 63 appearances for the West Africans before he was forced to retire from international duty in 2002. Oliseh was a key member of the Super Eagles team that won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia under Dutch tactician Clemens Westerhof. He explained the tournament opened doors of opportunities for him as he secured a move to Italy to play for Reggiana, becoming the first Nigerian to feature in the Serie A. “The 1994 Afcon was very special for me. In fact, it was my first major tournament for Nigeria in Tunisia and we had some great talents in the squad at that time,” Oliseh told the Punch. “We were favourites heading into the tournam...
COVID-19 Exposes Lack of ICT Policy in Nigeria’s Education System
Sourced from the Chronicle of Education The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragile state of Nigeria’s education system. A system which the Guardian Nigeria describes as “messy,” one that “lacks information and communications technology (ICT) ingredients, leaving the system to churn out half-baked graduates.” They write that with the continued closure of schools in an attempt to contain the spread of the pandemic – children are now going to be severely disadvantaged, and their families will suffer because of the interrupted learning, compromised nutrition, childcare problems, and consequent economic cost to families who could not work. Today, the distinctive rise of e-learning had made education change drastically – teaching can be undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. But in Nig...
