Verraki, a leading business and technology solutions firm, has urged business leaders in Nigeria to embrace disruptive innovation as a means to thrive and generate future income even as the world struggles with the COVID-19 global pandemic; which has now been reported in about 192 countries around the world. In a newly published report: ‘COVID-19 and Nigerian Businesses: From Survival to Thriving in a Changing World,’ Verraki expounded the ripple effects the coronavirus may likely have on the Nigerian economy, its expected impact on Nigerian businesses and people, as well as the course of action for businesses, focused on staying…
Author: DigitalTimesNG
By Brad ANDERSON Success doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Never has that been clearer than during COVID-19, the pandemic currently roiling the world economy. Small- and medium-sized businesses compete with larger companies, but they also depend on them. Here’s how some of the biggest players in tech are making life easier for SMBs: Microsoft Microsoft was a big tech before big tech existed. While most of the companies on this list got their start during the dot-com boom or after, Microsoft marked the new millennium by celebrating its 25th birthday. In the wake of COVID, Microsoft is leveraging its perspective…
Facebook has unveiled a raft of measures to help tackle the coronavirus crisis in recent weeks. Its latest is a new interactive map that displays reported county-by-county COVID-19 symptoms from users across the US. The data, obtained via Facebook surveys in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, will be updated throughout the outbreak. The company also says it plans to roll out symptom surveys globally in the coming days, in order to create similar symptom maps for other countries where Facebook operates, according to a report in engadget.com. In a post on Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the platform is…
As the Coronavirus pandemic and its attendant lockdown bites harder, Direct-To-Home services provider, DStv and its sister company, GOtv are lightening the load with some great news. From Monday 20 April, DStv and GOtv customers who are fully paid up on their subscriptions will automatically get upgraded to the next higher package at no extra cost! Martin Mabutho, Chief Customer Officer MultiChoice Nigeria says this offer is a way of thanking their valued customers for their loyalty “It is our priority to put customers at the heart of everything we do, and in line with our mission to make great…
Way back in 2014, when Google Pay was known as Google Wallet, the company offered a debit card you could use with your Wallet balance. The company killed it off in 2016, but it now appears the company is revisiting the concept. According to TechCrunch, the company is working on a debit card powered by Google Pay, which sounds a whole lot like the old concept. Still, now that Apple has had some success with its credit card and people are generally more acclimated to software companies offering payment services, the big G might have better chances at success. Google…
Australia will force Facebook and Alphabet’s Google to share advertising revenue with local media firms, the country’s treasurer said on Monday, becoming one of the first countries to require digital platforms to pay for content they use. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the move comes after talks with Facebook and Alphabet failed to yield a voluntary code to address complaints by domestic media players that the tech giants have too tight a grip on advertising, their main source of income, according to a report by Reuters. “We understand the challenge that we face, this is a big mountain to climb,” Frydenberg told…
Nigeria’s major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should immediately open an arrangement with commercial banks for the suspension of charges for use of ATM cards and low amount mobile fund transfers as part of the panacea to ease the burden of poor Nigerians during the COVID-19 lockdown. The party expressed worry that the lockdown has subjected the majority of Nigerians to extensive use of ATM and mobile transfers for survival, making the suspension of charges on minimal transactions within this period of restriction highly imperative. In a statement by…
As part of its contribution to curbing the spread of coronavirus in Nigeria, the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) has designed and produced 2 types of ventilators, hand wash and sanitiser that could be quickly reproduced to stem the shortage of the equipment in the country. The design and production of the ventilators are coming a week after the Commandant NDA, Major General Jamil Sarham, convened a team of engineers, technologists and technicians from the Mechatronics Department under Major Dr Abubakar Suraj Imam to “rapidly develop affordable ventilator within the shortest possible time, using readily available components.” A release by Major…
FirstBank, Nigeria’s leading financial inclusion services provider, has unveiled enhanced palliative measures to help its customers and Nigerians through this period of the extended COVID 19 lockdown in some states. The bank said that amongst these measures are; the introduction of special waivers on repayment fees on the Bank’s credit cards as well as up to 90-days moratorium on SME loans. The aim of these is to cushion the impact of the toll on employment and livelihoods. Recall that it was announced in the week that the Lagos State Government & Roducate e-learning initiative sponsored by FirstBank had kicked off.…
Atedo Peterside, the founder of Stanbic Bank, has urged rich and influential Nigerians as well as state and local governments and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) to borrow a leaf from the strategy deployed by the Zinox Group and Konga to reach and deliver the much-needed succour to poor and needy families across Nigeria as the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic bites harder. Peterside, who doubles as the Chairman, Anap Foundation COVID-19 Think-Tank, made this suggestion when he spoke as a guest on a televised interview on Africa Independent Television (AIT) on Wednesday. The Rivers-born entrepreneur, who submitted that the country…