Technology
Guinea Takes Over WATRA Leadership from Nigeria
By Adedapo Adesanya
After one year of piloting its affairs, Nigeria has handed over the mantle of leadership of the West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA) to the Republic of Guinea.
Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr Umar Danbatta, who headed the group, handed over to the newly elected Chairman, Sekou Oumar Barry.
The handover ceremony was one of the major highlights of the 19th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of WATRA which took place in Conakry, the Republic of Guinea, where WATRA’s new Strategic Management Plan (SMP) 2022-2024 was approved.
Mr Barry, the new chairman, who will preside over the affairs of the Executive Council of WATRA for the next one year, is the Director-General of the Telecommunication and Posts Regulatory Authority (ARPT) of the Republic of Guinea.
The Assembly also elected the representatives of Mali and Sierra-Leone as 1st and 2nd Vice Chairmen respectively.
In his address at the event, Mr Danbatta acknowledged the important role WATRA has been playing in creating policy, legal and regulatory frameworks for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the sub-region since the mid-1990s and commended the synergy among member states, which he noted has continued to provide an economic defence for member countries against global shocks, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Danbatta said some of his achievements as WATRA Chairman included the delivery of a four-year strategic plan draft in line with the 18th AGM resolution, partial payment of long-outstanding membership dues by some member states after long periods of inactivity, deployment of the new WATRA automated Asset Management System, successful organization of various high-quality capacity building programs for members, optimization of WATRA accounting, finance, and budgeting process, as well as the institution of procedures for improved accountability, marked by a weekly financial dashboard.
The achievements recorded under Mr Danbatta’s one-year chairmanship also included the deployment of an automatic external phone answer and routing system, completion of front-end and back-end development of the redesigned WATRA website, joint development by WATRA, the Coordination Team, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission of a new organizational framework for roaming regulation implementation, reactivation of Niger participation in ECOWAS roaming regulation implementation through WATRA-ECOWAS Commission collaboration.
While congratulating Mr Barry, he expressed the conviction that the new leadership will build on the modest achievements of the last one year.
“When members see the unique role that WATRA plays in easing the task of national regulators to adopt or fine-tune regulations through mutual learning and capacity building, they see more reason to engage and be active within WATRA. So, if we build on the modest achievements of the Assembly, the benefits will be with the region for decades,” he said.
He also stated that both at home or in the Diaspora, West Africa has the talent to study the most efficient ICT regulations in the world and adapt them for the region’s purposes so that it can attract greater investment into the region and transform the economy of member states.
“As I hand over to the incoming Chairman, please be assured of my continued support and that of the Nigerian Communications Commission and, indeed, the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to WATRA,” he said.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Barry, who thanked Mr Danbatta for making giant strides in the last 12 months, promised to work with the Executive Committee team and the Management Team to consolidate the achievements of the Assembly, and to ensure greater success of the Assembly for the future.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Thursday, July 23, 2026, provided an opportunity for financial services professionals to converge on Landmark Event Centre, Lagos, to brainstorm on ways to meet the rising customers’ expectations.
The platform used for this purpose was Core by Interswitch. It is part of the company’s broader commitment to strengthening Africa’s digital payments ecosystem by fostering collaboration, knowledge sharing and operational excellence across the financial services value chain.
At the event, participants, numbering over 400, also highlighted the growing importance of operational excellence in sustaining resilient payment infrastructure.
As digital financial services continue to expand across Africa, closer collaboration among financial institutions, fintechs and payment service providers will be essential to improving responsiveness, resolving operational challenges more effectively and delivering consistently reliable customer experiences.
The Executive Vice President for Operations and Technology at Interswitch, Mr Babafemi Ogungbamila, said the forum reflects the company’s belief that exceptional customer experiences are built not only on innovative technology but also on the expertise, collaboration and commitment of the professionals who keep payment systems running every day.
“Every successful digital transaction is powered by professionals whose work often goes unseen but is fundamental to building trust in digital payments. Core by Interswitch was created to recognise their contribution, strengthen collaboration across the industry and create opportunities for shared learning that ultimately benefit financial institutions and the customers they serve.
“As digital payments continue to evolve, investing in the people and processes that power the technology is just as important as investing in the technology itself,” Mr Ogungbamila said.
Beyond recognising the professionals whose work often goes unnoticed, the programme underscored the value of creating stronger connections across the payments ecosystem.
By creating a dedicated platform for knowledge sharing, collaboration and professional development, Core by Interswitch aims to build a more connected community of payments operations professionals equipped to respond to the evolving demands of the digital economy.
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.
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:
- Daily automated backups — at minimum; hourly for active community servers
- Full world backups — not just player data; entire world folder including all dimensions
- Pre-update snapshots — automatic backup triggered before any mod or server update
- Offsite storage — backups stored separately from the server to survive hardware failure
- Easy restoration — one-click restore to a specific backup without technical support
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.
