Author: ITPulse

By Epiphanus Obia After 17 years at the helm of day-to-day operations, Paga founder Tayo Oviosu has transitioned to the role of Group Chief Executive Officer. This leadership shuffle marks a strategic pivot for the fintech pioneer as it decouples its Nigerian domestic business from its broader continental ambitions. To fill the operational vacancy, Paga has appointed Ope Oyinloye as Group Chief Operating Officer and Acting CEO of Paga Nigeria, pending regulatory approval. Oyinloye is a company veteran with over seven years of experience, having previously led the firm’s business operations. This transition marks the first time in Paga’s history…

By Epiphanus Obia The Federal Government has announced plans to host a series of Virtual Open Days for universities and research institutions ahead of the rollout of its ₦12 billion National Digital Economy Research Clusters (NDERC) programme. The initiative, organised by the Project BRIDGE Implementation Unit under the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education, is aimed at guiding academic institutions on how to access the research fund. According to a statement from the Ministry, the sessions will be held over three days and are targeted at Vice-Chancellors, Rectors and Directors…

By Martin Ekpeke For years, the relationship between Nigerian telecom subscribers and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) has been defined by a one-way street of frustration. A dropped call here, a failed data session there, and the silent hours of a total network blackout have often felt like money down the drain. While users paid for the service, they rarely saw a refund when that service failed to deliver. That is about to change. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has issued a landmark directive that moves consumer protection from theoretical rights to tangible airtime. Starting April 2026, network outages and poor…

By Epiphanus Obia Emmanuel Taiwo spent six days and over ₦20,000 building 9jaCheckr, a free NAFDAC verification API and Telegram bot. It reached 1,500 users and 115 developers before a silent government intervention shut it down. To date, NAFDAC has said nothing. Typing an emoji, a space, or even a series of incoherent characters into a government food and drug verification portal should return an error or a prompt stating the input is invalid. What it should not do is reach into a national database of pharmaceutical products and return data for a random product. But that is precisely what…

By Epiphanus Obia The Federal Government, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has commenced the rollout of University Innovation Pods (UniPods), a nationwide initiative aimed at equipping young Nigerians with digital and artificial intelligence skills while turning universities into centres for innovation and enterprise. Vice President Kashim Shettima is scheduled to officially flag off the programme today, April 7th, at the University of Lagos, where the first artificial intelligence-focused hub will be launched. The UniPods initiative is expected to train over 500,000 students in advanced digital skills and support between 1,500 and 2,000 startups led by young…

​The Federal Government of Nigeria is pivoting toward a more collaborative defense strategy against digital threats. In a dual-pronged approach, the government has announced the formation of a Cybersecurity Coordination Council while simultaneously launching a high-profile investigation into alleged data breaches within the financial sector.​ ​Going by this, Dr. Bosun Tijani, the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, outlined a new policy direction focused on shared responsibility. The proposed Cybersecurity Coordination Council will serve as a bridge between the public and private sectors. ​The Council focuses on three key objectives to enhance national security. First, it aims to build…

By Dr. Krishnan Ranganath For decades, Africa has engineered its digital ecosystem, specifically its data centers, with a primary focus on high availability. The continent prioritized redundancy, resiliency, and fault tolerance to ensure that critical services remained online. However, as 2026 unfolds, a brutal reality has emerged from the smoke of global conflicts: the threat is no longer limited to internal system failures or localized power outages. In an era of geopolitical volatility, the new threat is warfare. The disruptions arising from ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and parts of Europe have changed data center design forever. Drone strikes…

Flutterwave has officially obtained a banking licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria in a landmark move for the African fintech landscape. This development marks a strategic evolution for the company, transitioning it from a payments-focused gateway into a comprehensive financial services provider capable of competing directly with traditional commercial banks. Founder and CEO Olugbenga Agboola announced the milestone via a post on X, describing the move as a fundamental shift in the company’s operational philosophy. By securing this licence, Flutterwave is moving away from simply building on top of existing banking rails and is instead stepping into the core…

MTN FibreX has officially crossed the 100,000-subscriber threshold, cementing its position as the undisputed leader in the Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) market. As of February 2026, the service boasts 110,564 subscribers, commanding a staggering 88.7% market share of the nation’s fixed-wired connections. The journey to the top has been characterized by a meteoric rise. Following a strategic rebranding from Fibre Broadband to FibreX in April 2025, the service saw a 639% increase in users. To put this in perspective, the service had previously fluctuated between 2,000 and 9,000 users for years; in the ten months following the rebrand alone, it added over…

Africa’s tech ecosystem is raising billions, chasing efficiency, and backing the future of innovation. Yet one of its most consistent sources of capital-efficient growth remains almost entirely overlooked. In 2025, venture capital rebounded to about $3.2 billion, signalling renewed investor confidence after a slower cycle. Yet buried in that recovery is a statistic that raises uncomfortable questions about the ecosystem’s maturity. Imagine you built something real. Paying customers. A product your market actually needs. You walk into a funding room, and the answer is still no. The common response is: Well, most founders are men, so of course, most funding…