Kashifu Inuwa, Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has said that the Agency will collaborate with the Small and Medium Enterprise’s Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to have joint programmes in terms of Infrastructure, digital literacy, and many more. This he said, will aid the building of a database that will give insights into happenings and where to appropriately channel interventions. This assurance is coming against the background of the country having approximately 40 million small businesses spread across Nigeria, responsible for 50 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 70 million jobs.…
Author: DigitalTimesNG
Herbert Wigwe, the Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Plc, and two other members of his family tragically died in a fatal helicopter crash near the California-Nevada border recently. Plans to honour the lives of Herbert Wigwe (1966 – 2024), his wife, and son, and span from March 4 to March 10, 2024, as detailed in a schedule obtained by BusinessDay. The somber events include various ceremonies and services to pay tribute to the departed souls. Monday, March 4, 2024, marks the Bankers Committee’s Celebration of Herbert, followed by a Service of Songs for Chizzy on Tuesday morning, March 5,…
MTN Nigeria, in alignment with its core belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern, connected life, has successfully integrated OpenAI on the MTN Zigi Chatbot. The Company said this heralds a groundbreaking standard for artificial intelligence-driven customer service in Africa. In partnership with Microsoft and Chatbot service delivery provider, Superbo, the MTN Zigi Chatbot, powered by (mirroring) ChatGPT version 3.5, is currently operational and actively serving customers. The successful integration of OpenAI onto the MTN Zigi Chatbot has ushered in an era of enhanced customer experiences where customers can now benefit from swift responses, accurate information, and a…
Recent data released from StarNews Mobile, Africa’s leading video streaming platform, has shown that content creators across Africa experienced a 300% surge in revenues during the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), reaffirming the massive surge in consumption of hyper-localized content from the continent. Based on metrics from StarNews Mobile’s platform, creators in Nigeria, Cameroon and Cote D’Ivoire saw 200%, 300% and 400% increases in viewers and revenue respectively between December 2023 and February 2024. In total, the company streamed more than 4 million pieces of content per month to football fans via its AFCON-related channels, amassing 500,000 subscribers for…
In a bold and visionary move, TECNO Mobile has announced a groundbreaking initiative to renovate 100 football fields across AFRICA over the next five years. This ambitious project, aimed at enhancing community infrastructure and promoting the beautiful game, reflects TECNO’s deep commitment to the spirit of football. Notably, TECNO’s dedication to the sport is evident with its recent sponsorship at the just-concluded AFCON 2023, where the brand left an indelible mark on the global football stage. TECNO Mobile’s association with football reached new heights as the brand proudly sponsored the recently concluded AFCON 2023. As a prominent sponsor, TECNO not…
The financial inclusion rate in Nigeria has improved. Since the country adopted an inclusion strategy in 2012, adult Nigerians with a bank account have increased, and now account for more than two-thirds of the financially included. According to the 2023 Report on Access to Financial Services in Nigeria, financial inclusion continues to expand and has been fuelled by marginal growth among the country’s banked population and major gains in non-bank formal adoption. Although approximately 40 million adult Nigerians remain formally excluded, formal financial inclusion was said to have grown from 56% in 2020 to 64% in 2023. In the last…
Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has reiterated the Agency’s commitment to support and catalyse the emergence/growth of northern Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem. This is because of the relatively low visibility of the Innovation ecosystem in Northern Nigeria, despite being a region with a hub of innovators, creatives, startups and several success stories. Inuwa reiterated this while delivering a keynote address during a ‘Stakeholders’ Engagement on the State of the Northern Innovation Ecosystem’, which was held in Abuja. Describing the event as “setting the sense of urgency for something to be done in favour of…
In the complex realm of distributed high-load systems, performance optimization is not just a matter of duty but an ever-present pursuit. AYODEJI OLOWE, a renowned software engineer with years of experience in distributed architecture, has spent many years perfecting approaches that address the inherent problems of scalability, consistency, and fault tolerance in big applications. His focus is on striking a fine balance between maintaining system performance and ensuring reliability under high workloads. At the centre of his approach is the understanding that improving performance in distributed systems requires a complete paradigm shift in how engineers find bottlenecks. Rather than taking…
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced an upward review of the Price Verification System (PVS) from 2.5 per cent to 15 per cent. According to a circular signed by Dr. Hassan Mahmud, Director, Trade and Exchange Department of the CBN, this is in a bid to check global inflation and other challenges. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the PVS was initially introduced in 2022 to curb the over-invoicing of imports. It was mandated to ensure that prices of imported items that were above 2.5 per cent above the global average were queried. The PVS is…
Healthcare consulting firm, Salient Advisory has launched its latest Intelligence Report, presenting findings on funding activity, covering grant, equity, and debt investments for African healthtech startups in 2023. Titled “2023 RoundUp: Investments in African HealthTech”, the report provides analysis of funding trends in African healthtech ecosystems. It provides insights for key stakeholders across governments, investors, donors and global health institutions, and is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. While investments in African startups plummeted last year, mirroring global trends, healthtech showed resilience, experiencing only a 2% dip compared to a staggering 39% decline in the broader ecosystem. The…