Author: ITPulse

Stakeholders in Nigeria’s ICT ecosystem have thrown the challenge of a sustained Local Content policy at the doorstep of the Federal Government, calling on it and all MDAs to patronize local  ICT products and services. Speaking at the 3rd Edition of the Local Content RoundTable and Tech Fair, which was held in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, the stakeholders noted that the success of the local content policy rest largely on the patronage of homegrown and developed ICT products and services, especially by the government, who they believe is the biggest consumer of any product. Speaking at the event, the Executive Secretary…

Technology enthusiasts are big on the power of new and emerging technologies to disrupt existing realities. Consider how personal computers, smartphones, and the internet caused disruptions. Today, we are talking about autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, robotics, artificial intelligence, wearables, and the likes. Oh, the possibilities! History has shown however that people can also be the cause of disruptions. Eccentric, unconventional, uncommon, nonconformist and courageous people. While the jury is still out on whether, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami fits the bill, his actions so far, nonetheless, point to a deep empathy for the…

The reintroduction of the “Anti-Social Media Bill” under the guise of ‘Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulations Bill, 2019’ aka “Hate Speech Bill” has been described as an attempt by the lawmakers and government to clamp down on free speech if eventually passed into law. The Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN), who stated this in a statement in Lagos, advised that instead of the Hate Speech Bill, the sponsors and supporters of the bill should make social media companies more accountable. “It is crystal clear that the sponsors and supporters of this bill are threatened by the digital…

In reward for offering the new revolutionary Mobile Money Overdraft service, known as “Fuliza”, Safaricom and Huawei last week during the AfricaCom 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa jointly received the prestigious Most Innovative Service “the Business of Tomorrow” award. This service enables users with insufficient funds in their M-PESA accounts to borrow money to complete their M-PESA transactions. The service was officially launched in January 2019 and has been gaining popularity in Kenya, where Safaricom has over 23.6 million M-PESA users. Kenyans transacted over KES 6.2 Billion (USD 62M) in Fuliza’s first month after its launch. Michael Joseph, CEO,…

By Soromfe Uzomah The 2020 World Bank Doing Business report was recently released and shows the overall business climate in sub-Saharan Africa is steadily improving. Looking at the ease of starting and maintaining a business, the region as a whole improved one percentage point over the last year, with a few standout countries. Mauritius and Rwanda rank among the top 20 countries globally, while Nigeria and Togo are among the top global improvers. In the last year, countries across the region implemented 73 reforms, removing certain red tapes and obstacles for SMEs. While this is a positive development, sub-Saharan Africa…

The organizer of the Data Science Nigeria’s workshop on Artificial Intelligence has disclosed plans to unveil a book that simplifies Artificial Intelligence for primary and secondary school pupils. The book will be unveiled at the annual workshop, scheduled to hold on Tuesday 19 November 2019 at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. The event will run in parallel with the Artificial Intelligence Demystified Masterclass for executive and the all-expense-paid Artificial Intelligence bootcamp, where 26 international experts will be flying to Nigeria as tutors and mentors during the same week. According to Olubayo Adekanmbi, convener of the workshop, the unveiling of…

There appears to be a crisis with regards to the issuance of National Identity Cards to Nigerians as Justice R.M. Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered Mastercard and her agents to stop issuing cards. The order, according to a press release issued by Chams Plc in Lagos, follows an exparte motion filed by it and Chams Consortium Limited (CCL) on August 28, 2019, which include an Anton Pillar order was issued on November 7, 2019, where they are asking Mastercard to pay the sum of 114 billion Naira (=N=114B) for damages. The court order states, inter…

The Association of Licensed Mobile Payment Operators (ALMPO) is set to host the 2019 Mobile Money Conference with the theme for this year’s event is; Mobile Money: “Beyond Payments”.    The event is scheduled to hold on the 27th of November 2019; at Four Points by Sheraton Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos; by 9.00 am Prompt. Mobile money has continued to grow and serve as an enabler to the realization of the financial inclusion target in Nigeria. According to data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), Nigeria recorded a 50 percent increase in mobile money transactions and added over…

West Africa’s premier financial institution, FirstBank Plc has partnered with CFA Society Nigeria to host the Ethics Challenge,  which is holding today and tomorrow in Abuja and Lagos for the regional and national levels respectively. The bank says the partnership is a furtherance of its commitment to promote business ethics, professional excellence and education, which is a reflection of Firstbank’s Endowment programme. Expressing her delight on FirstBank’s support and participation in the CFA Ethics Challenge, the Group Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Folake Ani- Mumuney noted that FirstBank pride itself in being exemplary in ensuring…

HUAWEI CLOUD Has released Kunpeng ECS (Elastic Cloud Server) cloud services and Partner Program 2.0 at AfricaCom， the continent’s largest annual telecomevent. The Kunpeng-powered cloud services will be made available to African customers by the end of December, and will offer 15% faster multi-core computing powerand a 30% higher performance/price ratio than the industry average. These cloud services offer an unprecedented capability to meet the ever-shifting requirements of a diverse range of public and private institutions. Speaking at the Huawei Cloud, AI Forum, Rui Houwei, President of HUAWEI CLOUD Africa, noted the significance of recent technological breakthroughs. “The computing industry has gone through the mainframe computer, minicomputer, and x86 server stages and will move to the multi-architecture computing stage,” he said. “The computing power previously available only in the x86 architecture, is now available…