Orange Rolls Out Affordable ‘Sanza’ Smartphones

By Modupe Gbadeyanka On Wednesday, October 11, 2023, stakeholders within the telecoms and ICT ecosystem gathered at Fraser Suites in Abuja to discuss Modernization and Digitization, the theme of an event organised by Airtel Nigeria. The Director of Airtel Business at Airtel Africa Plc, Mr Luc Serviant, while addressing the participants, emphasised the company’s commitment to fostering collaboration and partnerships that drive progress and innovation. He highlighted Airtel Nigeria’s dedication to endowing the public sector through cutting-edge technologies, enabling transformative change on a national scale. “At Airtel, we are happy to discuss connectivity, innovation & technology, digital pillars, cloud security,

By Adedapo Adesanya The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani, has announced a N1 billion partnership between the ministry and IHS Towers, one of the largest independent communications infrastructure firms in the world, to establish the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) Learning Community. The ministry earlier this month released a 31-page policy document titled Accelerating our Collective Prosperity through Technical Efficiency which outlined plans to boost the country’s economy through the use of technology. It said it would collaborate with other ministries and parastatals, including private sector stakeholders to drive opportunities for startups to facilitate the

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Salesforce and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have expanded their strategic partnership, deepening product integrations across data and artificial intelligence (AI). The new and enhanced integrations will include streamlining purchasing options for customers via the AWS marketplace, enhancing customer experiences through unified data management, empowering developers with new AWS compute and development services, securely bringing AWS data and AI services to Salesforce’s Einstein 1 Platform, and ensuring seamless customer service with service cloud and Amazon connect. It was gathered these features will enable customers to seamlessly and securely manage their data across Salesforce and AWS, and safely and

By Aduragbemi Omiyale Three Nigerian startups are among the 11 small firms selected by Google for its Artificial Intelligence (AI) First Accelerator Program for Africa. The beneficiaries will undergo a 10-week accelerator journey and will get $350,000 as an allocation in Google Cloud Credits, and further enjoy mentorship sessions, technical guidance, and networking opportunities to enhance their reach and impact. The 11 startups were picked from a vast pool of innovative talent. At the end of the scheme, they would be required to use cutting-edge AI to address both the continent’s challenges and broader global issues. “At Google, we’ve been

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The sale of commercial papers worth N15 billion to investors by FSDH Merchant Bank Limited will close today, Thursday, January 19, 2023. The exercise commenced on Monday, January 16, 2023, with the sole purpose of using proceeds for the short-term working capital requirements of the organisation. The lender, which provides funds to large corporations and high-net-worth individuals (HWNIs), is selling Series 11, 12 and 13 of its N40 billion commercial paper issuance programme. Business Post learned that Series 11 has a tenor of 90 days and a discount rate of 11.62 per cent. Series 12 has a

By Adedapo Adesanya Brent crude neared $75 per barrel on Tuesday as early reports show that there was a draw in crude oil inventories in the United States, the largest oil-producing country. During the session, the price of the global crude oil benchmark hit $74.96 per barrel after it appreciated by 48 cents or 0.64 per cent, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at $72.17 per barrel when it rose by 52 cents or 0.73 per cent. The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a draw in crude oil inventories of 4.728 barrels for the week ending July 23,

By Dipo Olowookere The stock market in Nigeria recorded a week-on-week decline of 2.56 per cent as investors’ appetite waned, with traders preferring to watch if prices will further crash before taking a buying decision. This low investor confidence depleted the All-Share Index (ASI) to 37,658.26 points from 38,648.91 points and deflated the market capitalisation to N19.627 trillion from N20.143 trillion. Last week, which had a five-day trading session, only 1.0 billion shares worth N10.3 billion were traded in 17,165 deals in contrast to the 981.2 million shares valued at N10.4 billion traded in 15,001 deals in the preceding week

By Adedapo Adesanya The African Youth Survey 2020 has revealed a rising “Afro-optimism” among youths in Africa driven by a strong sense of individual responsibility, a post-colonial mindset, entrepreneurialism and confidence in a shared African identity. Conducted across 14 African countries, it was discovered that Africa’s youth believe they can solve problems collaboratively and are hopeful of fighting corruption, achieving peace and improving their personal living conditions. These new findings contradict global stereotypes and outdated narratives that see Africa as a hopeless continent. The survey was conducted by the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, a leading African foundation encouraging active citizenship across

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has renegotiated its deep offshore rig-rate from a staggering $580,000 to $164,000 per day, saving the country a 71.7 per cent cost of executing a similar operation in the past. Similarly, the corporation has achieved a 35 percent downward review of rig rates per day for both swamp and land operations in its portfolios. A rig rate is a major cost element incurred by an Exploration and Production (E&P) company in the course of drilling for oil or gas in deep offshore, shallow offshore, swamp, land areas or basins. Speaking today

By Dipo Olowookere Inflation rate in Nigeria got worse in November 2020, rising by 14.89 per cent year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). In its report released on Tuesday morning, the agency revealed that there was a sharp rise in the food by 18.30 per cent in the month under consideration in contrast to the 17.38 per cent recorded in October 2020. It was explained that the significant increase in the food index was caused by a jump in the prices of food items like bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, meat, fish, fruits, vegetables

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday announced a further hike in the monetary policy rate (MPR) by 100 basis points to 16.5 per cent from 15.5 per cent. This increment in the main interest rate was announced by the Governor of the CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele, while briefing newsmen in Abuja after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. The central bank boss said at the gathering, nine members of the team voted to raise the key rate by 100 basis points, while two members voted to increase the rate by 50 basis points. In reaching