Technology
High Business Costs, Others Will Further Mount Pressure on Nigeria’s Telecom Industry—Report
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The telecommunications industry in Nigeria will continue to face different challenges like high business costs occasioned by the devaluation of Naira and others.
This was the view of Agusto & Co in its recently released 2021 Telecommunications Industry Report, which provides a comprehensive view of the industry including the impact of the macroeconomic environment and COVID-19 on the Industry’s performance.
The agency said though the sector will witness prevailing inflationary pressures and the adverse impact of regulatory changes, its outlook for the year remains stable as it will provide recovery support to key economic sectors post-pandemic.
Agusto said Nigeria’s telecom industry has continued to thrive on the back of the liberalisation in the early 2000s as between 2015 and 2020, foreign investments (portfolio and direct) attributable to the sector amounted to $3.9 billion, an average of 7 per cent of Nigeria’s total capital importation during the same period.
The industry has consistently remained one of the top five ranking economic sectors for foreign investments during the period and it believes the imminent deployment of 5G technology and the Federal Government of Nigeria’s target broadband penetration rate of 70 per cent by 2025 will support substantial additional foreign investments in the near to medium term.
Due to the key connectivity support the industry provides, telecommunications was one of the economy’s few bright spots in 2020 (along with sectors such as financial institutions, agriculture and health services).
Except during the 2016/2017 economic recession, the telecommunications industry’s real growth has consistently exceeded the country’s GDP growth.
But it said despite the positives, the unstable macroeconomic environment in Nigeria poses a huge threat to successfully harnessing the vast potential of the telecommunications industry.
In the span of five years (2016-2020), Nigeria has gone through two economic recessions while the naira has continuously lost value against the world’s major currencies, negatively impacting purchasing power and the ability to maintain quality network equipment and services.
In addition to the fragile macroeconomy, the telecommunications industry has also had its fair share of unfavourable regulatory changes through onerous tax regimes, delayed approvals and heavy regulatory penalties.
Regulatory changes, with the initiation of the NIN-SIM verification exercise, drove a considerable decline in the industry’s growth rate to 6.3 per cent in Q1 2021 from 17.7 per cent in Q4 2020.
In order to complete the NIN-SIM exercise, the NCC mandated the suspension of SIM card activations and registrations, thereby slowing the sector’s growth pace.
In only four months of the NIN-SIM verification exercise, the industry’s active telephony subscriptions reduced by 7.7 per cent from 204.5 million as at the end of December 2020 to 188.7 million at the end of April 2021.
“On the back of anticipated SIM deactivations for subscribers without valid NINs, we estimate that the subscriber base will shrink by 3 per cent (year-on-year) by the end of 2021 to 198 million subscribers.
“However, due to the sustained uptake in mobile internet services and increasing diversification of value-added services by telcos, we believe revenue will grow, albeit by a lower rate of 5 per cent in 2021 (2020: 14 per cent).
“We anticipate that logistics around the NIN-SIM verification exercise will be resolved by the end of 2021 and thus, double-digit top-line growth should be restored by 2022,” the report said.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Cloudflare Incorporated, a business providing cloud-based services to various enterprises, said in a note on Friday it is investigating issues with its Dashboard and related Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
Numerous companies and services, including payments platform like OPay as well as Canva, Coinbase Global Incorporated, Investing.com , Shopify Incorporated, and Zoom Video Communications Incorporated, all appeared to crash, with some seeing “500 internal server error” and “Please check your internet connection and try again”.
The global outage has left many users unable to access these key services as this disruption has not only affected individuals but also businesses relying on these platforms for their operations.
Customers using the Dashboard or Cloudflare APIs are impacted as requests might fail and errors may be displayed, the company said on its status page.
In its latest update, Cloudflare added that “a fix has been implemented,” with the firm monitoring the results.
Users from all over the world have taken to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to voice their frustrations over the issue.
This is Cloudflare’s second major disruption in nearly a month, following another incident in November that affected services like Spotify and ChatGPT.
At the last outage, Cloudflare’s services were largely restored within three hours, and fully restored after approximately five hours.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
As part of broader Africa-focused Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiatives, Google has launched the AI Skilling Blueprint for Africa, designed to help governments build a future-proof workforce.
The programme provides governments with a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to formulate national skilling strategies. It focuses on developing three critical cohorts: AI Learners, who will gain foundational AI literacy; AI Implementers, professionals upskilled to integrate AI tools into their work; and AI Innovators, deep technical experts dedicated to building the next generation of AI solutions.
Africa is home to the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. The continent shows immense potential for AI-driven economic growth.
However, new research highlights a significant challenge: while optimism for AI is exceptionally high, reaching 95 per cent in Nigeria and 76 per cent in South Africa, 55 per cent of firms across the continent report needing AI talent more than financing. Closing this skills gap is key to unlocking Africa’s opportunity.
Google’s Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy, Doron Avni, explained that, “The AI Skilling Blueprint provides a clear roadmap for governments to build the workforce of the future.
“By also investing in AI-ready data and expert local organisations and partners, we are helping build the interconnected ecosystem needed for a prosperous, AI-driven future for the continent.”
As part of its broader initiatives, Google also announced $2.25 million to support projects building trustworthy public data sets for AI by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and PARIS21.
This contribution will help national statistical offices modernize their infrastructure and empower decision-makers with the reliable data they need to address challenges from food security to economic growth.
“For Africa to drive sustainable development, evidence-based policymaking is indispensable. This requires accessible, reliable, and AI-ready data.
“This effort is a crucial step forward. By building a Regional Data Commons, we can empower African institutions with the data and tools they need to make strategic choices that will drive growth and prosperity,” the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Claver Gatete, said.
Finally, building on its $7.5 million Google.org Skilling Fund commitment, Google announced the first set of expert social impact organizations who will receive funding to execute on projects consistent with its skilling mission, including FATE Foundation and the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), which will embed advanced AI curricula into universities; and JA Africa and CyberSafe Foundation, which will advance crucial work in online safety and digital literacy.
“We are incredibly proud to partner with the African Institute of Management Sciences on the Advanced AI UpSkilling Project, with support from Google.org. This groundbreaking initiative is a direct response to the urgent need for deep AI competencies in Africa, empowering tertiary institutions, lecturers, and students in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa.
“This strategic support aligns perfectly with FATE Foundation’s mission to foster innovation and sustainable economic growth across the continent, ensuring Africa is fully equipped to lead in the global technological future,” the Executive Director for FATE Foundation, Adenike Adeyemi, stated.
“We live in an age defined by rapid technological change and our mission at JA Africa is to ensure that African youth are not left behind. However, even as we engage our youth in more digital programs and encourage AI literacy, we are fully aware of the harmful effects of unchecked online exposure and, therefore, invest equally in protecting their data, physical safety and mental wellbeing.
“Through this support from Google.org, we will give young people the tools, knowledge, and confidence they need to navigate the digital world safely and responsibly,” the chief executive of Junior Achievement Africa, Simi Nwogugu, remarked.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Global technology firm, Zoho, has enhanced its all-in-one business software platform known as Zoho One with improve security, and deeper intelligence across all over 50 applications.
The company improved the user interface, placing context at the centre of the user journey and removes traditional boundaries between applications.
Spaces now organise tools by purpose—such as Personal, Organisation, and Department-specific groups—enabling employees to access what they need without switching between apps. A centralised search bar spans the entire ecosystem, allowing users to find information or trigger workflows instantly.
An enhanced Action Panel provides a full view of upcoming meetings, unread messages, pending tasks, and other key updates, helping employees remain informed regardless of which app they are using.
The updated Dashboard consolidates data from Zoho and third-party apps into one central hub that can be customised using pre-existing or bespoke widgets.
The platform also introduced Vani, a new visual-first collaboration space that supports brainstorming, planning, and creation through diagrams, whiteboards, mind maps, and integrated video calling.
A central integrations panel enables administrators to monitor and configure all connections. Foundational integrations bring application-specific portals—Zoho or third-party—into a single unified portal. Practical tasks such as domain verification and authentication can now be configured more easily.
The new Smart Offboarding feature introduces outcome-based integrations, allowing organisations to transfer department ownership, manage employee device data, and determine data access rights within a single workflow, ensuring smooth transitions.
Also, Zia, Zoho’s AI assistant, is now accessible throughout Zoho One, providing unified intelligence that supports decision-making and improves productivity. Zia can aggregate and contextualise information from various platforms, including third-party systems such as Google Workspace, and present it as clear, actionable insight.
Zia Hubs, the platform’s intelligent content management system, now has a dedicated space where contracts, meeting recordings, and other important assets are automatically organised. Through Zia Search, employees can quickly surface relevant information without navigating multiple locations.
In addition, Ask Zia, available from the bottom toolbar, enables prompt-based searches across Zoho One, providing quick visibility into schedules, tasks, recent interactions, and other key details.
Commenting on the changes, the Country Head for Zoho Nigeria, Mr Kehinde Ogundare, said, “The Zoho One update reflects how work has evolved from using individual applications to operating within a unified platform.
“Zoho One customers are not simply licensing apps; they are choosing a solution that allows Zoho to handle the technology while they focus on productivity. The enhancements announced today deliver a cohesive experience built on unified integrations, context, and data.”
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