At a time when global players in the e-commerce sector have seen the peculiarities of their operations come to the fore in helping governments and people in other climes observe social distancing and stay in the supply of essential items without leaving their homes, the Nigerian e-Commerce sector is instead buckling under the weight of heavy restrictions by state actors and law enforcement officials; leading to no end of frustrations for players in the sector. E-commerce giants in other climes such as Amazon and Alibaba, for instance, have played important roles in the fight against COVID-19 in other parts of…
Author: DigitalTimesNG
Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has promised that the Agency is willing to offer full support to the tech community in Nigeria. This is to enable her to innovate on ways of crafting an exit and recovery strategy from this COVID-19 pandemic and to make sure Nigeria comes out stronger as a nation. Mallam Inuwa made this known yesterday during his speech via Skype at the opening ceremony of a Hackathon event put together by ‘100 women in ICT’ with the theme: ‘Hack the Crisis in Nigeria.’ “Hack the crisis project is…
WhatsApp Friday announced that it was expanding its group calling limit from four people to eight people. This would make it easier for users to stay in touch with their friends and family during the lockdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement was part of a bunch of new product updates announced by Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Earlier this week, the company started to roll out this feature to users of the app’s beta versions on iOS and Android. Now, this functionality will start rolling out to everyone starting next week. For comparison, Houseparty allows eight participants and Google…
As a part of its effort to address the social paradigms emerging from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Facebook Friday announced new features heading to Messenger, Portal, Facebook Live, Instagram, and Facebook Dating that aim to make it easier to connect with close friends, followers, and significant others. A report by VentureBeat showed that perhaps the most notable is Messenger Rooms, which creates joinable group video calls on Facebook and Facebook Messenger. Hosts can invite anyone to join even if they don’t have a Facebook account and rooms will soon hold up to 50 users without a time limit. The account-free…
Apps using Apple and Google’s contact tracing solution, due out soon, will be able to encrypt metadata associated with smartphones and randomly generate keys for identifying phones to make it harder to identify an individual or track people. A seed version of the app will be released Tuesday for iOS users, supporting Apple devices released within the last 4 years, in order for public health authorities to begin testing it, according to a report at VentureBeat. Apple and Google spokespeople, as well as privacy advocates, insist that high levels of user trust are needed for a voluntary app approach to…
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is once again joining the global community to mark the Girls in ICT Day. The day is marked annually on the fourth Thursday in April and this year’s celebration falls on the 23rd April 2020. NITDA is, therefore, highlighting the need to promote technology career opportunities for girls and women in ICT, the world’s fastest-growing sector. During this year’s celebration, NITDA is drawing attention to the critical need for more girls and women to participate actively in the ICT sector of our economy. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) had estimated skills shortfall of…
As the COVID-19 pandemic bites harder, and movements are restricted in some major parts of the world, Nigeria inclusive, Firstmonie Agents, an agent banking initiative from First Bank of Nigeria Limited is bridging the gaps and helping people to meet their needs of accessing the funds to buy food items and groceries as well as to send money to their loved ones. With many Banks and business reengineering efforts to improve the adaptability of their customers to electronic ways of carrying out business, this is one of the many measures by the premier financial institution in Nigeria to support the…
Access Bank, Nigeria’s leading retail financial institution, says it will reward 10 customers with N10 million in its May edition of DiamondXtra monthly draw. Group Head, Retail Products and Segments at Access Bank Adaeze Ume, who disclosed this in a statement in Lagos on Monday, said the bank would continue to deliver on its promise by continually rewarding its customers for their loyalty and savings culture. She said that 10 lucky customers would be rewarded with one million naira each in the May monthly draw slated for May 13. “We have been encouraging our customers to stay safe and stay…
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…
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…