Nigeria’s Flutterwave Partners PayPal for Global Payments

By Aduragbemi Omiyale If urgent steps are not taken, Nigeria’s telecommunications industry, believed to be worth about $75.6 billion, could be at risk because of the widening skills gap. This was the submission of a renowned telecoms policy enthusiast, Mr Omobayo Azeez, at the just-concluded second edition of the Nigerian Telecommunications Indigenous Content Expo (NTICE 2023) organised in Lagos by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). In his keynote address on Bridging Skills Gap to Accelerate the Indigenous Telecoms Development, Mr Azeez argued that the rising skills gap in the country was becoming a challenge to the sector. He posited that

By Adedapo Adesanya The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) changed the numbering format for fixed lines from January 1 next year. The agency said the fixed-lines numbering format will no longer be eight digits but would be 10 digits, with the addition of the 02 prefix before the existing fixed number. This change is totally different to the existing mobile numbering format. The decision is in keeping with its responsibilities under the enabling law, the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) 2003, to manage Nigeria’s numbering resources, according to Mr Reuben Muoka, the Director of Public Affairs at the NCC, in a statement.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka As part of efforts to meet the target of equipping one million technical talents with the requisite knowledge to excel in the industry, Moniepoint has sponsored the training of the pioneer cohort of the HatchDev programme. The HatchDev initiative is the brainchild of Nithub University of Lagos, designed to produce hundreds of market-ready software engineers every year. The scheme, which runs for nine months and started in October 2022, aspires to shape 300 junior software engineers, 100 intelligent systems developers, and 100 IoT/embedded systems engineers. The first beneficiaries have been trained to be readily absorbed into a

By Modupe Gbadeyanka In a bid to foster partnerships and address the ever-increasing demand for a comprehensive media monitoring and measurement service to brands in the African market, P+ Measurement services has entered into a strategic partnership with Reelforge Media monitoring, one of Africa’s fast growing media monitoring agency covering more than five countries across East Africa. Under the agreement, P+ Measurement services will handle Reelforge’s client media monitoring and measurement briefs in Nigeria and Ghana market while Reelforge will provide Media Monitoring services to P+ Measurement’s clients in East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Somalia). Speaking about the partnership

By Adedapo Adesanya As part of efforts to resuscitate the Cotton Textile and Garment (CTG) sector, the National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN) has disclosed that it will partner with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in line with directives of the Federal Government. According to President of NACOTAN, Mr Anibe Achimugu, on Friday in Abuja, the association was excited over the FG’s commitment in ensuring that the CTG sector was revitalised. He said that the contribution of the sector was significant to the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), hence, the association’s plan to introduce technology that would

By Dipo Olowookere The alleged illegal detention of a nursing mother, Mrs Rofiat Oladepo, and her nine-month old son by the Zone 11 of the Nigeria Police Force has been kicked against by an interest group known as Women Arise for Change Initiative. It was reliably gathered that the nursing mother was arrested alongside her son by the security operatives in lieu of her husband. On Monday, April 29, 2019 in Osogbo, Osun State, the group staged a protest to call for the immediate release of the woman and her son from police custody. The protest, which was led by

By Adedapo Adesanya The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) has increased Nigeria’s oil output to 1.829 million barrels per day after agreeing on Sunday to restore all of the production cuts earlier put in place when the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020. The group also agreed to increase output by 400,000 barrels per day each month starting from August 2021 until the phasing out of 5.8 million barrels per day production adjustment in December 2021. The new quota, which showed an increase of 30.6 per cent when compared to the 1.4 million barrels per day, excluding condensate,

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The Nigerian currency started the week yesterday on a very negative note at the parallel (black) market segment of the foreign exchange market. At the market segment on Monday, the Naira lost N6 against both the British Pound Sterling and the Euro. Business Post reports that the local currency depreciated by N5 against the Pound, trading at N510 yesterday compared with N505 it went for last Friday. Also, the Naira went down marginally by N1 yesterday as the local currency was exchanged at N446 to the Euro against N445 it traded on Friday. However, the local currency

By Dipo Olowookere One of the leading e-commerce firms in the country, Konga, has announced the re-introduction of the Pay on Delivery (POD) services, which was earlier suspended. A statement from the company, which was recently acquired by Zinox Group, disclosed that the services would be relaunched on August 1, 2018. However, this would commence with customers in Lagos before extending the service to other states from September 1, 2018. “We have taken our time to restructure, improve our technology and capacity in terms of our own staff and logistics to meet customers’ expectations. “We have invested substantially in our

By Sodeinde Temidayo David Nigerian educational and learning technology platform, uLesson, has received a wider global appeal as it featured on a programme aired on Cable News Network (CNN). This followed the $7.5 million in a Series A round led by US-based Owl Ventures it received earlier this year. The company was featured in a recent episode of Inside Africa. Founded in Jos, Nigeria, uLesson’s popularity skyrocketed after the lockdown began, with over half a million downloads between March and August of 2020. The platform provides pre-recorded educational content for secondary school students, as it leverages best-in-class teachers, media, and

Access Bank Plc through its business club initiative is building the managerial capacity of entrepreneurs to the level they can easily succeed in their respective businesses using information technology. The programme, which held recently at the Las Vencedoras Gardens in Port Harcourt, witnessed a lot of SMEs from all walks of life and covered topical areas in capacity building. Head, Retail Banking, Access bank Plc, Victor Etuokwu, reiterated the commitment of the bank to impact small and medium enterprises positively. “It is something we have to do and take as our primary role in the economy, we are providing a