Author: ITPulse

Ubongo, Africa’s leading edutainment production enterprise, has announced the airing of a new season of its hugely popular children’s entertainment and educational program, ‘Akili and Me’. The show which has been aired in Nigeria since 2018 targets 3–6-year-old and teaches numeracy, pre-literacy, and English as a second language as well as provides a foundation for social-emotional skills like empathy and conflict resolution. The theme of the latest season is Words and Sounds with ‘Akili and Me’ and it is currently airing on AIT. Tayo Olaniyan, Country Representative, Ubongo Nigeria, noted that the peculiar thing about this season is the focus on words and…

The MarkHack 1.0’ organized by the Eko Innovation Centre in collaboration with GDM Group has seen LiveBIc, crowned the overall winners from a list of 10 finalists involved in the pitch at the finals of the hackathon. LiveBIc, which comprised Shadrach Akao and Ernest Ogbanefe won the star prize of $10,000 for developing a new platform for content creators to market and deliver their content. Sprayme clinched the second position and $4,000 prize money for innovating a new way for social gifting and content monetization; Reelbuzz emerged the third winner with $3,000 for creating an intuitive platform that helps brands…

Nigeria’s Military Pensions Board is set to implement Infobip’s Answers chatbot solution over WhatsApp to effectively communicate with thousands of military veterans who rely on the organisation for monthly pension payouts. Announcing this in a statement, Infobip said the MPB’s new verification and biometric authentication system will streamline the process and assist beneficiaries with queries and questions. It can manage how it communicates information and be available 24-7 to assist and educate beneficiaries. “This was a very important project that resulted in a positive outcome for thousands of members who rely on monthly payments from the Military Pensions Board. It…

The research team at Delamere, a private rehab clinic has revealed in a new study the top 10 most addictive video games in the world, noting that though video games can be a fun way to relax after a long day at work or a way to socialise with friends and family, they can also be addictive. According to the study, Rocket League, an online soccer game received a huge 14.53% of reviews that stated the term ‘addictive’, thanks to its fast-paced action gameplay and replayability value characteristics. Rocket League was followed closely by Littlewood with 12.50% of reviews mentioning…

A deeper collaboration among players in the digital payment ecosystem is needed to boost the security of data and funds of Nigerians, Africa’s leading integrated payments and digital commerce company, Interswitch has posited. According to Interswitch, such collaboration will help to improve the detection and prevention of fraud in the ecosystem. Speaking at the 2022 BusinessDay ‘Future of Payments and Fraud’ Conference, Ejike Ngene, Head, Banking Technologies, Interswitch, said the payment space has grown explosively, not only in Nigeria but also globally, adding that Interswitch, as a leader in the space, has put together some preventive measures that aim to…

Emirates has embarked on a 30-cities tour, scouting for the best hands and brains to join its award-winning cabin crew team, beginning from now until the end of June. This search by the world’s most global airline involves professional recruiters whose brief is simply to seek and recruit talented people with a passion for service, preparatory to an expected post-COVID air travel boom.  Emirates’ teams will travel from Australia to the UK, and dozens of European cities in between, as well as Cairo, Algiers, Tunis and Bahrain. Abdulaziz Al Ali, Emirates Group’s Executive Vice President for Human Resources said: “There’s…

In a bid to expand its operations to North Africa, Nigeria-based Autochek has decided to acquire KIFAL Auto, Morocco’s leading automotive technology startup. This acquisition, industry watchers and analysts believe is the first major expansion of a West Africa-based startup into North Africa. Making the announcement in a press statement, Etop Ikpe, CEO and co-founder of Autochek said the acquisition will facilitate effective Pan-African collaboration to drive innovation across the continent’s growing automotive market. “From my first interaction with Nizar and his team at KIFAL Auto, I was so impressed by their passion for delivering effective solutions and their commitment…

A new GSMA report has revealed that 49 mobile telecom operators representing 62 percent of the industry by revenue have now committed to rapidly cutting emissions over the next decade. The report noted that this is despite double-digit growth in data traffic and 5g expansions. This represents an increase of 18 operators since 2020, despite the challenges of Covid-19. In addition, 50% of mobile network operators by revenue have now committed to net-zero targets by 2050 or earlier. According to the report, operators successfully limited the increase in carbon emissions to 2% on average in 2021. Investment in more energy-efficient…

Dominated by digital games spend, the value of end-user spend on digital goods via carrier billing will exceed $74 billion by 2026; up from $54 billion in 2022 According to a new study from Juniper Research, this growth of over 37% reflects the increasing relevance of carrier billing as an option for digital commerce spending. Direct carrier billing involves users charging payments for digital and physical goods to their mobile phone bills. The new research, Carrier Billing: Opportunities, Challenges & Market Forecasts 2022-2026, found that gaming spending will account for just over 50% of digital goods spend via carrier billing…

The chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) Engr. Gbenga Adebayo would be reviewing the latest book in the industry, entitled ‘Sagacity of a digital revolution’ authored by the award-winning journalist, Remmy Nweke. Adebayo, according to Remmy Nweke, would on Thursday, June 9, 2022, would share his thoughts as the reviewer at the book public presentation and formal launch slated to hold at the prestigious Welcome Centre Hotels, International Airport Road, Lagos, as a sideline event of the 2022 Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum on Internet Governance for Development with the theme: ‘5G: Enthroning Internet Governance for Digital…