Author: ITPulse

By Kester Omu With support from the African Union Commission, the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria has attained the status of Regional Internet Exchange for West Africa. This was made possible after it yielded to a call for proposals issued by the AU Commission, where it was given a grant through the African Internet Exchange System (AXIS) project to grow to become a regional internet Internet Exchange for West Africa. Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, Mr. Moses Bayingana, Project Manager, African Internet Exchange System Project of the AU Commission, said the call for proposals was made because countries…

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said the subsidy arrangement that will allow the six licensed Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos) to put infrastructure across Nigeria and make broadband pervasive is ready and will be disbursed soon. The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, disclosed this when he received a delegation from the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja. According to Danbatta, the subsidy arrangement is part of the digital transformation agenda, which the NCC has put in place to augment the InfraCos’ capital expenditure (CAPEX). The USTDA team led by its Ag. Country…

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, yesterday said Nigeria has achieved 33 percent broadband penetration as at February this year, exceeding the 30 percent target. Danbatta stated this when the Executive Management of Bharti Airtel Group, led by Rughunath Mandava, CEO of Bharti Airtel Limited paid a courtesy visit to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Head Office in Abuja. “Nigeria already achieved 33% broadband penetration as at February 2019,” he said, recalling the efforts made by Nigeria to achieve and exceed the 2018 target of 30% broadband penetration. The former University lecturer stated…

By Martin Ekpeke In what appears like an outsourced job, Proshare has given some clarifications on the purported 20 percent increased charges on Nigerians under the federal government’s initiated Treasury Single Account. A Twitter user, Solopenja had tweeted that Nigerians are charged by Systemspecs, owner of Remita as high as 20 percent for collecting revenue for the Federal Government, claiming the charges used to be just one percent. “Who else has noticed that Remita charges Nigerians as high as 20% service charge for collecting revenue for the Federal Government? They used to charge FG just 1%, but now they burden…

One of the leading global providers of ICT infrastructure, Huawei has said it is committed to the relationship with all its channel partners in Nigeria in this age of rapid advancement in ICT innovation solutions, technologies such as 5G, AI, IoT, and cloud computing are becoming the new reality. The Chinese Original Equipment Manufacturer stated this at its Nigeria Eco-Connect 2019′ in Lagos, which was well attended by over 500 channel partners earlier this week. It noted that as ICT is increasingly becoming the foundation for digital economies and producing an intelligent world, Huawei is committed to helping enterprise organizations…

The GSMA has set up the Association Africa Fraud and Security Group (AFASG), that will deal with critical fraud and security issues for the telecommunications industry in the Africa continent. The group will be chaired by Unitel, with a mandate of two years, renewable for two more, upon evaluation of the work carried out and subject to a new election. The appointment is the result of an application process which is based on the presentation of a Strategic Leadership Plan for the Group in Africa, submitted to the consideration of its members. Unitel competed with MTN (which has 18 operations…

A recent KPMG survey has shown that consumer goods and financial services are the most  attractive investment sectors in Nigeria, adding Nigeria remains an attractive destination for investors seeking sustainable growth opportunities within the continent The report ‘Doing Deals in Nigeria 2019’, is an outcome of a survey of 50 senior business executives working in global companies which have a presence in Nigeria and have completed at least one acquisition in Nigeria in the last four years. The highlights of the report at a press briefing at its Head office in Victoria Island, Lagos show that 70 percent of the…

Sophos’ Intercept X has achieved the highest security effectiveness and the most efficient TCO (total cost of ownership) of the 19 endpoint security products tested in the 2019 AEP Group Test published by NSS Labs. Intercept X is Sophos’next- gen endpoint solution and has tested 21 products from market-leading vendors, out of which 19 comparable products were presented in the Security Value Map (SVM). “Measuring cybersecurity product effectiveness is unimaginably complex. With threats and attack techniques, increasing and evolving at an ever-accelerating rate, testing houses need to make extraordinary investments in their laboratories if they are to produce meaningful and…

As the threat landscape continues to evolve rapidly, it now includes increasingly sophisticated, zero-day malware that traditional security approaches can no longer keep pace with. As a result, security researchers estimate that the cost of cybercrime will outpace security spend by over 16X, reaching $2.1 trillion by the end of 2019. Staying ahead of today’s accelerated cybercrime trends requires adding artificial intelligence (AI) to an organisation’s network security strategy. The rise of artificial intelligence The goal of AI is to replicate the analytical processes of human intelligence but to enable decision making at machine speeds. The most effective AI uses…

Search engine giant has involves 12 startups from six African countries ofEgypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda in its Launchpad Accelerator Africa Class 3, an ongoing effort to support entrepreneurship on the continent. The 12 startups have 6 female co-founders and 9 are either AI-enabled or have AI potential. Announcing the startups via a press release, Fola Olatunji-David, Google’s head of Startup Success and Services, Launchpad Africa said: “These companies will join other startups in the Launchpad programme, present and past, that are using technology to create a positive impact on key industries in their region. We look…