Power Bit Crunchers, Zeena Platform Win Lagos Smart Meter Hackathon

By Adedapo Adesanya Website hosting infrastructure company, WhoGoHost, has acquired SendChamp, a Nigerian cloud communications startup that powers online messaging for African businesses to deepen its value offering for its customer base. The deal sum was not announced, but the acquisition is part of WhoGoHost’s strategic plans to evolve from domain-hosting to serve businesses and institutions in the African market. According to a statement, SendChamp will continue to operate as an independent product as it transitions to new ownership. However, in the near future, its products and services will become accessible via the WhoGoHost integrated platform. The reason for this

By Adedapo Adesanya X, formerly known as Twitter, has announced plans to introduce voice and video calls to the platform. This is the latest move by the billionaire owner, Mr Elon Musk, to turn his app into what he calls an “everything app” modelled after China’s super app, WeChat. These features, when introduced, would place X in direct competition with WhatsApp, Telegram, and other social media apps offering the same services. Making its features unique, Mr Musk said users would not need phone numbers to make calls on X. According to the Twitter owner, the features would work on different

By Aduragbemi Omiyale For the fifth consecutive year, Interswitch has received the ISO 22301 recertification for Business Continuity Management (BCM) after a rigorous surveillance audit process. A leading provider of audit and certification services in the field of information security and privacy, MSECB, served in the capacity of auditors for the certification process. The certification process involved rigorous audits and evaluations of Interswitch’s business processes, contingency plans, and disaster recovery capabilities. In a statement, Interswitch enthused that maintaining the ISO 22301 certification is a testament to its comprehensive approach to risk assessment, mitigation, and recovery planning. The achievement of the

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 Dipo Olowookere Japanese auto maker, Yamaha Motor, has exhibited its Clean Water Supply System, a compact system for water purification. Because the system does not require a powerful electric supply or special coagulant chemicals, it is simple to deploy and allows for easy maintenances for local residents to operate water supply stations themselves. Motorcycles providing practical and efficient transportation for vaccines and other items helping to improve African health and hygiene were also demonstrated at the fair, which was hosted by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Japan External Trade Organization. Yamaha Motor has been expanding

Cancer is one disease that is fast spreading in Nigeria and not much has been done by government to manage the situation. The mention of cancer, like it used to be with HIV/AIDS in the past, sends a huge fear to people mainly because of the cost of managing it. Though very expensive to treat, cancer, especially colorectal cancer, which is cancer of the colon or large intestines, is spreading fast in the country and one organisation that has taken the bull by the horn is the Niola Cancer Care Foundation (NCCF), which has Eniola Salu Akintunde as its chairperson.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Minister of Oil in Kuwait, Mr Issam Almarzooq, has disclosed that Nigeria and Libya may be asked to put a limit  to their oil outputs having recorded stability in their countries lately. The two countries were exempted from the oil cut deal reached in Austria last November by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The deal became effective from January 1, 2017 and by April this year, OPEC said the oil cut agreement was at 98 percent compliance level. According to Bloomberg, Mr Almarzooq disclosed on the sidelines of an energy conference in

By Dipo Olowookere Treasury bills yields at the secondary market skyrocketed on Monday as investors embarked on a selling spree almost across the maturities tracked on the first trading session of the week. This pushed the average yields up at the market yesterday by 0.10 percent to settle at 13.35 percent as market players anticipate boost in financial system liquidity this week. Business Post reports that in the course of the week, the financial system will be expecting inflows from the N720.88 billion FAAC allocation to states as well as maturing OMO bills valued at N422.05 billion on Thursday. Back

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Investors in the capital market in Nigeria lost about N782 million this week as a turnover of 678.710 million shares worth N6.875 billion in 11,808 deals were traded on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). This was in contrast to a total of 674.721 million shares valued at N7.657 billion that exchanged hands last week in 12,290 deals. During the week, the Financial Services Industry as measured by volume led the activity chart with 529.258 million shares sold at N2.774 billion in 6,290 deals; thus contributing 77.98% and 40.35% to the total equity turnover volume

By Adedapo Adesanya WhatsApp users in Brazil can now officially pay small businesses for goods and services from within the Meta-owned messaging app. The company, in a blog post announced that the payments-to-merchant feature is available now for a “small number of businesses” but will be rolling out more widely in the coming months. This new development will allow customers to make purchases using Mastercard or Visa credit, debit, or prepaid cards “without having to go to a website, open another app or pay in person.” “In Brazil, you can search for a business, browse goods and services, add them

By Adedapo Adesanya President Muhammadu Buhari has called for global support to develop the resources in the Niger Basin area. A statement by the president’s media adviser, Mr Femi Adesina, disclosed that the call was made on Thursday in Abuja when Mr Buhari open the virtual 12th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Niger Basin Authority (NBA), calling for the necessary support in developing the region which is home to over 160 million people who depend on the river as a means of sustenance. According to him, the President believes the Niger River, commonly called Djoliba in

By Dipo Olowookere All is set for the 2019 edition of a Business and Family Fair organised by a group known as Mums in Business. The programme is taking place on Saturday, April 27, 2019 at Fountain Gardens Ilupeju from 9am. According to the organisers, there would be a lot of freebies during the fair from Airtel Nigeria, So Fresh, Artsmith Jewelries and others. Also, officials of FCMB Trustees would be on ground at the fair to give free lectures on finances especially savings and investments, while those from ADRON Homes and Properties will give participants useful hints on how