Chairman, Zinox Group, Leo Stan Ekeh, has in a recent virtual chat with technology correspondents called on the Federal Government to declare October 1st 2020, Nigeria’s technology independence day. The serial digital entrepreneur, who has remained one of the foremost personalities in Nigeria’s technology ecosystem, based his recommendation on the giant strides recorded by the country in the area of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). ‘‘October 1st 2020 is traditionally Nigeria’s Independence Day. It is a day that commemorates Nigeria’s emergence as a sovereign state. Considering the massive strides recorded so far in our journey to technological emancipation, the Federal…
Author: DigitalTimesNG
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said it has concluded plans to award research grants to the tune of N9 million to three deserving Nigerian startups with proposals for adaptable digital solutions for containing the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in the country. The Commission said in a statement signed by Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, Director, Public Affairs at the NCC that the selection of the three companies followed a careful and painstaking evaluation of 282 entries in the NCC COVID-19 Virtual Hackathon from digital innovation Startups and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) by an evaluation committee set up by the Commission. The…
By Fadi PHARAON As a continent with very high potential for growing economies, how can African countries accelerate their digital adoption and leapfrog into a new era of socio-economic prosperity? This could be achieved by leveraging new technologies that make it easier to conduct business, raise productivity and efficiency while encouraging an inclusive society. Embracing new ways of enabling positive change will boost livelihoods, promote financial inclusion and improve access to health, education, government services and more. With the ambition of supporting the acceleration of Africa’s digitization journey, we are working jointly with our customers – the service providers -…
Ericsson and UNICEF have announced a global partnership to help map school connectivity in 35 countries by the end of 2023. Mapping the internet connectivity landscape for schools and their surrounding communities is a critical first step towards providing every child with access to digital learning opportunities. This joint effort is part of the Giga initiative. Launched last year and led by UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Giga aims to connect every school to the internet. Ericsson is the first private sector partner to make a multimillion-dollar commitment to the initiative and does so as a Global UNICEF…
Unacast, an award-winning location platform and analytics firm, and MTN Nigeria, a leading mobile telecommunications provider, have announced a partnership in which the two will use privacy-friendly, aggregated and anonymized, human mobility insights derived from MTN’s network data, to make available a version of Unacast’s recognized and widely used COVID-19 Social Distancing Scoreboard for Nigerian citizens and officials. The companies will together provide this easy-to-use dataset on a pro-bono basis to enable public officials, public health leaders and other organizations, and the public itself to understand and convey the importance of social distancing in fighting the spread of COVID-19. “Social distancing has proven…
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and its Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta have continued to receive more awards in recognition of the critical role the Commission has been playing in keeping Nigerians and businesses connected since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in the country. The latest of such awards is that of ‘Human Rights Telecoms Defender’ Award for the EVC and the ‘Human Rights Guard’ Award for the Commission, as a corporate entity, presented by Wheel of Hope Human Rights Foundation (WHHRF), a frontline Nigerian Non-Governmental Organisation. The third award, ‘Icon of a Greater Nigeria’ was presented to the EVC by…
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed how a total of 9,077 cases of service outages on the networks of major mobile network operators (MNO) were recorded in the second quarter of the year, resulting in unexpected disruptions to operators’ network quality of service (QoS) delivery and intermittent quality of experience (QoE) by the consumers. This disclosure was made by the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management (ECSM) at the NCC, Mr Adeleke Adewolu, in a presentation delivered during the first Virtual Telecoms Consumer Parliament (VTCP) hosted by the Commission recently in Abuja. Adewolu said that of the 9,077 service outages recorded…
Minister of Communications & Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Pantami has said that the growing contribution of the ICT sector to the GDP is a direct result of the focused and committed effort of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. An elated Pantami said the strategic policy directions of the Federal Government include the inclusion of Digital Economy in the mandate of the Ministry, the unveiling and implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy and the National Broadband Plan, amongst others. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday released ‘Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product Report’ for Q2 2020,…
Minister for Communications and Digital Economy Dr Isa Ali Pantami has declared that Nigeria needs to reboot the entire ecosystem with digital technology in order to survive the present regressive economic outlook as a result of Covid-19 disruption. The Minister stated this recently at the 2nd edition of the Re-Ignite Public Affairs National Dialogue Series held in partnership with Businessday Media. “Since the global lockdown earlier in the year, digital commerce has become the most efficient growth area providing the world new ways of doing things as encapsulated in the ‘New Normal’ pseudo phrase”, Dr Pantami disclosed. With the theme, “Nigeria…
The various projects being executed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and other agencies under the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy (FMoCDE) have been adding significant value to the digital transformation journey of Nigeria. This was the view of the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (EVC/CEO) of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta during the 4th phase of the virtual commissioning of additional 12 digital economy projects implemented by agencies under the Ministry by the Minister, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, which also coincided with the Minister’s one year anniversary in office. Danbatta who commended the…