Technology
Buhari Describes $547m from 5G Auction as Good Funding Option
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
President Muhammadu Buhari has described the $547 million generated from the sale of the 3.5Ghz spectrum to MTN Nigeria and Mafab Communications for the provision of the 5G network in Nigeria as a good source of raising funds for development.
He said this on Tuesday at the commissioning of the National Shared Services Centre in Abuja. The facility, which also houses a cybersecurity operations centre, network centre and call centre, is a one-stop-shop for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to interface with citizens.
The President said the money raised from the exercise, which was conducted two times, clears the doubts about the contributions of the digital economy in driving growth, creating employment and generating revenue for the country.
He said the Information, Communication and Technology ICT) sector had accelerated the diversification of the economy, and the Q2 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed the extent of growth, with the ICT contributing an unprecedented 18.44 per cent to the GDP, close to three times the 6.33 per cent contribution of the oil sector in the same quarter.
“As part of our efforts to expand our digital infrastructure, we increased our 4G base stations from 13,823 to 36,751 from August 2019 to date, and this has increased the percentage of 4G coverage across the country from 23 per cent to 77.52 per cent, also from August 2019 to date. We have also followed this up with the roll-out of 5G services.
“It is noteworthy that the digital economy sector has excelled in generating revenue for the government. In particular, at the Ministerial Retreat that I chaired from the 18th to 19th of October 2022, our independent analysts adjudged the digital economy sector to have generated 594 per cent of its revenue target from the 2019 baseline. This is very commendable.
“As part of these unprecedented achievements, the sector generated over $547 million dollars from the auctioning of the 5G spectrum alone,” Mr Buhari said at the event, also witnessed by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr Isa Pantami.
The President applauded his administration for creating an enabling environment to thrive, stating, “To ensure that the digital economy sector remains successful and in order to reduce the burden on citizens, I recently approved the suspension of the proposed excise duty in the telecoms sector, as any initiative that will lead to hardship for the citizens would not be pursued.”
He further said, “Our administration’s commitment to promoting data promotion and privacy is receiving praise across the world, and we have increased our digital identity enrolments from 39 million in October 2020 to about 92 million today.
“The massive increase of about 63 million in about two years is a global success story and has led to several requests for partnership from countries within and outside Africa. I also approved the establishment of the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau on the 4th of February, 2022, to provide an institutional framework for data protection in Nigeria, in line with global best practices,” the President told the gathering of ICT experts and government officials.”
President Buhari commended the giant strides made by the digital economy sector under the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy and other stakeholders, describing it as impressive.
In his remarks, Mr Pantami lauded the President for his support for the digital economy, with turnovers in broadband/Internet penetration, skills acquisition for global competitiveness and infrastructure development, like the fibre optic cable, which was about 15,000kms in 2015 and increased to more than 60,000kms.
Also, the chief executive of Galaxy Backbone, Mr Muhammed Bello Abubakar, said 400 MDAs were already connected to the National Shared Services Centre.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian government and the Republic of Finland have formalised a strategic partnership on digitalisation and innovation, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at expanding economic activities and strengthening cooperation in the digital sector.
The agreement was signed in Abuja by the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani, and Mr Jarno Syrjälä, Under‑Secretary of State (International Trade) at Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
According to a statement from the Special Assistant on Media and Communications to the communications minister, Mr Isime Esene, the MoU will establish a framework for collaboration across key areas, including digital government, emerging technologies, digital public infrastructure, cybersecurity, innovation ecosystems, and capacity building.
Mr Tijani described the signing as “an important step in strengthening the partnership between both countries as we work to build a more inclusive, innovation-driven digital economy.”
“This agreement is a significant next step following our engagements in Helsinki in February, where we met with key stakeholders, including Finnvera and Finnfund, and held productive discussions on advancing collaboration around digital infrastructure, the Data Exchange Platform, and opportunities for Finnish participation in Project Bridge.”
The Minister emphasised that the partnership would “unlock meaningful opportunities for both countries, enabling us to leverage digital transformation as a catalyst for sustainable growth and shared prosperity.”
Echoing this optimism, Mr Syrjälä said: “Finland is very pleased to deepen its partnership with Nigeria in building resilient, secure, and human‑centric digital societies. Digitalisation is at its best when it empowers people, strengthens trust, and creates new opportunities for innovation.”
“Nigeria is a key partner for Finland in Africa, and this MoU provides a strong basis for concrete cooperation between our governments, institutions, and private sectors. Together, we can advance digital solutions that are interoperable, future‑fit, and beneficial to both our nations,” he added.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
New Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools designed to provide support for users of its applications have been launched by Meta.
The AI Support Assistant will work on the Facebook and Instagram apps, the company said in a statement.
The tools will help users to receive reliable and action-oriented assistance when needed.
In December, the Meta AI support assistant, a tool designed to provide reliable, 24/7 support for nearly any support issue at any time, was previewed.
Now, Meta is rolling it out globally on the Facebook and Instagram apps for iOS and Android, and within Help Centre on Facebook and Instagram on desktop, with even more capabilities and ways to help.
The new Meta AI support assistant is designed to help resolve account problems from start to finish. It offers answers for any question, like notification settings or new features, and can also take action for users on a growing set of requests directly within Facebook and, in the future, on Instagram.
The feature can report scams, impersonation accounts, or problematic content, make it easier to see why content was taken down, provide appeal options, track what happens next, manage privacy settings, reset passwords, and update profile settings.
The Meta AI support assistant can respond to requests typically in under five seconds, dramatically reducing wait times compared to traditional help centre searches or seeking answers on external websites.
“The Meta AI support assistant is a major step in our work to deliver stronger support on our apps. In fact, among people who have provided feedback, the majority report a positive experience with the Meta AI support assistant. It’s rolling out now in all languages supported by Facebook and Instagram for support topics.
“We’re continuing to invest in AI- powered tools to make support more accessible, reliable, and effective — and we’ll keep evolving the Meta AI support assistant as more people use it and as the technology advances, so it continues to improve over time,” the organisation disclosed.
Meta has also deployed AI to improve content enforcement to help users reduce the chance that scammers trick people into giving away their login details, ultimately finding and mitigating 5,000 scam attempts per day that no existing review team had caught before.
Meta said over the next few years, it would be deploying these more advanced AI systems across its apps once they consistently perform better than its current methods of content enforcement, transforming its approach.
“As we do this, we’ll reduce our reliance on third-party vendors for content enforcement and focus on strengthening our internal systems and workforce.
“While we’ll still have people who review content, these systems will be able to take on work that’s better-suited to technology, like repetitive reviews of graphic content or areas where adversarial actors are constantly changing their tactics, such as with illicit drug sales or scams,” it stated.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
As part of its commitment to celebrating and rewarding creativity, Facebook has updated its guidance, with clear definitions of what counts as original and unoriginal content.
In a message on Monday, the social media platform said it was offering content creators new tools to report impersonation.
Launched last year, the content protection tool is expanding beyond detecting reel matches across Meta platforms to now also flag potential impersonation.
Creators can take action on content theft and easily submit impersonation reports all in one place.
Facebook, in the statement received by Business Post, said creators can check for access to content protection in their professional dashboard or apply for access here.
The platform also disclosed that in 2025, it removed over 20 million accounts impersonating large content creators, and impersonation reports related to large content creators dropped by 33 per cent.
Further, Facebook is deprioritising unoriginal content by making sure they do not perform well on its platform.
It noted that content that is duplicated from other sources or makes low-value changes to someone else’s content may see significantly reduced reach, and accounts that primarily post unoriginal content may lose eligibility for recommendations and monetisation.
It was emphasised that “these changes provide creators who post original content with greater reach and monetisation opportunities, provide stronger protections for their work, and reduce the reach of unoriginal content.”
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