Connect with us

Technology

Growing Nigerian Economy Via Mobile & Telecom Sector

Published

on

By Adeniyi Ogunfowoke

Undoubtedly the giant of Africa, with an estimated population of 194 million people, Nigeria remains the largest mobile market in the continent and still has more potential for growth and for competing on a level-playing ground with the developed nations.

Although the economic growth of the country might not be as fast-paced as its counterparts’, it is full of hopes and promises.

The mobile trends published in the 2017 Nigerian Mobile Report, by Jumia Nigeria, Africa’s biggest e-commerce platform, provided some convictions for this belief.

In summary, the report examined how the market has democratized mobile internet use, the consumer behaviours driving increased smartphone adoption and the role of the different stakeholders within the sector.

Jumia is set to release the 2018 edition of the Mobile Report, which will focus on various mobile trends in the country and in Africa at large. And Juliet Anammah, CEO, Jumia Nigeria is as excited as everyone else about the report.

But, while we patiently wait for the report pending its release, let’s examine some facts and figures from the 2017 report.

There were about 150 million mobile subscribers equivalent to 81 percent penetration (as a percentage of the population) in 2016.

Internet penetration was at 18 percent with 216 million internet users while Nigeria’s internet penetration was much higher at 53 percent; its mobile subscription was similar to Africa’s at 81% penetration (960 million mobile subscribers).

To benchmark this data, a similar report by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) put the number of subscribers, by the end of December 2016 – at 154 million. This subscriber base is a sum total of all the active subscribers for telephony services on each of the licensed service providers utilizing different technologies. The difference in the number of subscribers presented by both reports can be attributed to the lack of accurate census in the country.

Meanwhile, the percentage of internet penetration widened increasingly; number of internet subscribers peaked at 97.2 million (more than half the number of mobile subscriptions) by end of 2016, which represented a much higher penetration rate than the rest of Africa combined.

The subscriber base of internet users in the country was predicted to increase by at least 30 percent by end of 2017.

With the number of Nigerians having access to the internet, mostly through smartphones, growing in leaps and bounds, it’s a clear indication that there is a huge potential for e-commerce in the country.

For instance, Jumia recorded 394 percent growth on the sales of smartphones between 2014 and 2016, mostly driven by an increasing range of lower smartphones price points. And 71 percent of website visitors on Jumia Nigeria in 2016 used their mobile phones to shop, whereas only 53 percent of Jumia African customers did so.

Although, the contribution of the telecom & mobile sector to the country’s GDP was indeed a small fraction, according to a report by the NCC, only 9.13 percent was directly or indirectly accrued from the sector.

Yet, it is worthy of note to mention that it was a great leap from the previous year. E-commerce companies like Jumia, present in 15 African markets, are facilitating the promotion and distribution of both high-end and low-end price points mobile phones in Nigeria.

The NCC is not also relenting in exercising its power to regulate the operations of the licensed telecom operators especially in the area of voice & data tariff.

So, what is the future of the telecom and mobile sector in Nigeria? To witness an improvement over the previous years will require a collective, yet individual effort from both the private and public sectors. Primarily, the growth of the sector, among other things, depends on the availability of affordable mobile phones & data tariff.  To the former, Jumia is committed – with its partners – to facilitating and leading the charge in this regard.

The week of March 15th-25th, 2018 will be interesting and exciting for the entire country for two reasons: the 2018 edition (4th report) of the Nigerian Mobile Report will be released at a press conference; and secondly, although still related to the first event is the commencement of Jumia Mobile Week (an entire week dedicated to the sales of mobile phones at the best prices in Nigeria).

Nothing beats the excitement of getting your dream mobile phone at nearly half the price and such was the frenzy all over the Nigerian cyberspace in 2017.

From the moment you spot the juicy deals, the swift race for the fastest fingers, the sigh of relief when you have successfully placed your order and the short wait for your order to be delivered.

Last year, Jumia Mobile Week featured 3 mouth-watering flash sales every day at nearly 50 percent off; both night crawlers and day troopers had a piece of the pie.

MTN also gave out free MTN 4G SIM and 20 percent data bonus on their data plan every time you recharged for the first 3 months. There were also juicy discounts on mobile brands like: Infinix at 40 percent off; Tecno at 20 percent off; Motorola at 50 percent off, and Innjoo at 20 percent off.

So, this year, which brands will top the list of Jumia top selling mobile phones? How much discounts will be available to customers and on what mobile brands? How much money are you hoping to save during this year’s Mobile Week? Which mobile phones will have the best deals this year? How much discount will Jumia offer on purchases done on its mobile App? How do you get to participate in the Treasure Hunt so as to win a coveted prize? How do you participate in the fashion accessory giveaways on social media by your favourite fashion celebrity/icon?

Your guess is as good as mine. But, you will find answers to all of these questions during the week of March 15th through 25th, 2018! Add it to your calendar. Join the conversation on social media using the #JumiaMobileWeek2018, and follow @JumiaNigeria across all social media platforms.

Adeniyi Ogunfowoke is a PR Associate at Jumia Travel.

Dipo Olowookere is a journalist based in Nigeria that has passion for reporting business news stories. At his leisure time, he watches football and supports 3SC of Ibadan. Mr Olowookere can be reached via [email protected]

1 Comment

1 Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

WhatsApp Introduces Web Calling, Call Transfer, QuickHD Features

Published

on

WhatsApp Web Calling feature

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

WhatsApp has been updated with a web calling feature, allowing users to now make and receive audio and video calls, both one-on-one and group, directly from WhatsApp Web.

A notice from the Meta-owned messaging platform disclosed that this feature works without the need to download any app.

It was disclosed that this update was made to WhatsApp to make it easier for users to make calls wherever they are and on whatever device, phone or laptop.

Users will have access to features available on their other devices, including screen sharing, reactions, and a dedicated Calls tab with full call history and favourites, all from their browsers.

WhatsApp noted that calls from this feature are end-to-end encrypted, with no time limits and at no cost, as it is the same private experience they expect from the platform.

WhatsApp has also been embedded with easy call transfer, enabling the movement of an active group call from one device to another without hanging up. Users can seamlessly transfer calls to WhatsApp Web or Desktop when they arrive home to collaborate on a larger screen – or vice versa.

The platform further said it now has QuickHD, which allows for an improved video experience at the beginning of a call. With QuickHD, users can now enjoy high-definition video immediately in the very first few seconds of the call.

In addition, it has launched noise suppression to remove the background noise around callers so their voices come through clearly to the person on the other end, even in loud or busy environments. This can be managed at any time in in-call settings.

WhatsApp said these features are rolling out gradually and will be available to everyone soon, expressing its desire to make WhatsApp calling simpler to use.

Continue Reading

Technology

Modded Hosting With Reliable Backups: Biome Types Guide

Published

on

Modded Hosting

Modded Minecraft worlds take weeks to build. Custom biomes, terraformed landscapes, established bases — losing any of it to a corrupted chunk or a failed update is devastating. Backups aren’t optional for modded servers. They’re essential.

Modded hosting with reliable backups protects everything players have built across every minecraft biome types the pack introduces — without requiring manual backup routines that nobody remembers to run.

Why Modded Worlds Are More Vulnerable to Data Loss

Vanilla Minecraft worlds are relatively stable. Modded worlds have more ways to break. Mod updates can corrupt chunk data if block IDs change. Crashes during chunk generation leave partial files. Automated farms that run while no players are online can cause chunk-level issues over time.

Biomes added by mods require extra care. Changing biome mods later can cause unexpected problems. If the old biome data no longer exists, Minecraft may not know how to read parts of the world anymore. The Minecraft Wiki explains that every generated chunk keeps its own biome information in the save. Modded biomes require their mod to be present to load correctly — removing the mod without migrating chunks first causes permanent data loss in those areas.

Minecraft Biome Types: What Mods Add

People often focus on giant mountains or rare structures, but smaller biome changes matter too. A carefully designed minecraft grass biome can completely change the appearance of an entire region. Once that combines with improved forests, rivers, and mountain generation, exploration naturally takes longer because there’s almost always another interesting place nearby. There’s a massive difference once biome mods are installed. Biomes O’ Plenty alone adds over 80 biomes. Terralith adds another 95 plus, although it still builds worlds using Minecraft’s regular generation system rather than a custom one. Oh The Biomes You’ll Go adds tropical and fantasy biomes not found in either.

Each of these creates a richer world to explore — and more unique terrain to protect. A player who spends two sessions exploring and settling in a modded cherry blossom grove loses something irreplaceable if that chunk gets corrupted without a backup.

Content creator and modpack player Noxite has described modded biome exploration as one of the most memorable experiences in the game — “every new biome feels like discovering a location that exists only in your world.” Backups protect that discovery.

Many players only start thinking about backups after something goes wrong. It’s surprisingly easy for a modded world to develop problems. Maybe the server restarts halfway through chunk generation, or a mod update changes world data in a way the old save no longer understands. Even experienced server owners don’t get through every update without issues. Sometimes everything looks fine until someone explores a new biome and discovers broken chunks. At that point, having a recent backup is usually the simplest solution instead of trying to repair damaged terrain piece by piece.

What a Reliable Backup System Looks Like for Modded Servers

For modded worlds, backup requirements go beyond vanilla minimums:

  1. Daily automated backups — at minimum; hourly for active community servers
  2. Full world backups — not just player data; entire world folder including all dimensions
  3. Pre-update snapshots — automatic backup triggered before any mod or server update
  4. Offsite storage — backups stored separately from the server to survive hardware failure
  5. Easy restoration — one-click restore to a specific backup without technical support

Biome backup

Protecting Every Biome You’ve Explored

Minecraft biomes wiki entries for modded biomes often include notes about save compatibility across versions. The community’s experience is consistent: mod updates break worlds more often than player actions do. Regular backups are the only reliable protection.

Choose modded hosting with reliable backups that runs automatically, stores multiple restore points, and makes restoration simple. The time investment in setting up proper backups is always less than the time lost rebuilding after a preventable data loss event.

Continue Reading

Technology

5 Ways AI is Transforming Consumer Intelligence and Analytics

Published

on

AI consumer analytics

The rules have changed. How companies actually know their customers — really know them — looks almost nothing like it did ten years ago. Old-school research methods are drowning. Too slow, too narrow, too dependent on humans manually stitching together datasets that have already gone cold. Markets shift in days now, not quarters. And the cost of a slow read on consumer behavior keeps climbing. This isn’t just a tooling upgrade. The underlying logic of how businesses decide what to build, what to charge, and who to reach has been gutted and rebuilt from scratch. Staying reactive isn’t a strategy anymore. It’s a liability.

1. Real-Time Data Processing and Pattern Recognition

Consumer intelligence used to run on stale numbers. Analysts dug into data weeks — sometimes months — after whatever actually happened. Modern AI kills that lag. Entirely. These systems chew through enormous volumes of behavioral data on the fly, surfacing patterns that human teams couldn’t find in the same timeframe with ten times the headcount. Machine learning algorithms can process millions of customer interactions, transactions, and behavioral signals simultaneously — pulling clean signal out of what would otherwise be undifferentiated noise. A retailer can track sentiment across social media, reviews, and support tickets right now, catching a brewing problem or an emerging trend in hours rather than weeks. Inventory shifts, pricing moves, message pivots — all of it happens before a trend fully crystallizes. That’s a different game entirely.

2. Predictive Analytics and Consumer Behavior Forecasting

Here’s what actually changed: AI stops consumer intelligence from being a backward-looking exercise. Instead of cataloguing what customers already did, companies can now forecast what they’re likely to do next — and with striking accuracy. Advanced ML models thread together historical patterns and live behavioral signals to predict churn, flag high-value prospects, and project demand across entire product lines. A telecom company can spot which customers are quietly drifting toward a competitor before they ever make the switch — and intervene first. That’s not a marginal improvement. It’s a fundamentally different posture. Resources flow toward the segments that actually matter, rather than spreading thin across the whole base and hoping something sticks.

3. Personalization at Scale

Consumers expect personalized experiences. Full stop. Meeting that expectation at scale — for millions of people at once — is simply beyond what human analysts and traditional segmentation can deliver. Machine learning models read individual purchase histories, browsing patterns, preferences, and demographic signals to build dynamic profiles that drive product recommendations, custom messaging, and tailored interfaces. When building and refining these individualized profiles, marketers who need to enrich their first-party data with verified behavioral signals rely on audience data providers to ensure their models are trained on accurate, high-quality consumer information. An e-commerce platform can serve each visitor a genuinely different experience — different layouts, different offers, different content — all built around that visitor’s unique fingerprint. Conversion lifts. Lifetime value climbs. People respond when recommendations actually fit their lives, not just the average of everyone else’s.

4. Sentiment Analysis and Brand Perception Monitoring

Knowing how consumers feel about a brand means wading through unstructured mess. Reviews, comment threads, support tickets, social posts, video captions — none of it parses cleanly by hand at any useful speed. Natural language processing handles it. NLP systems automatically scan text-based content across digital channels, classifying sentiment as positive, negative, or neutral while bucketing feedback by topic, product feature, or customer segment. An automaker can track online conversations about a specific reliability concern and catch it before it snowballs into a full-blown reputation crisis. No waiting for quarterly surveys. No lag. Brand perception monitoring becomes continuous — and decisions about product fixes, messaging shifts, or service interventions get grounded in real signal rather than gut instinct.

5. Competitive Intelligence and Market Positioning Analysis

Competitive intelligence used to mean manual tracking, sprawling spreadsheets, and perpetually incomplete pictures. AI automates the entire collection-and-analysis loop. ML models watch competitor pricing moves, product launches, promotions, and messaging shifts across digital channels — then stack that data against a company’s own position. Gaps surface. Threats register earlier. A financial services firm can monitor exactly which themes competitors are pushing on social media and which ones are actually generating engagement — then sharpen their own positioning accordingly. Real-time visibility into competitive dynamics means strategic calls about where to invest, which markets to enter, and how to stand apart in crowded categories aren’t made blind anymore.

Conclusion

What AI has done to consumer intelligence isn’t incremental. It’s structural. Real-time processing of massive datasets. Forecasting future behavior instead of autopsying the past. Personalization that reaches millions, not hundreds. Continuous sentiment monitoring. Automated competitive tracking. None of these were realistic options a decade ago. They are now. Companies that wire these capabilities into their core operations make faster, sharper decisions — ones that show up directly in revenue, satisfaction scores, and market share. Those that don’t will keep falling further behind. And the gap between organizations that wield these tools well and those still grinding through traditional approaches? It’s not closing. It’s widening every quarter.

Continue Reading