Connect with us

Technology

Telecoms Firms Rubbish Emefiele’s 3 Minutes Call Tax Proposal

Published

on

man-makes-phone-call

By Dipo Olowookere

The proposal by Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, that government should consider collecting tax on calls above minutes has been rejected by the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON).

The association described the suggestion as “not only technically” wrong, “but [also] economically” faulty and “not founded on any theory.”

Mr Emefiele, at the 2016 Annual Bankers’ Dinner organised by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), had opined that government could look in the direction of taxing calls above three minutes from consumers as a way of generating billions of Naira as revenue, which would be used to reflate the economy, which is struggling with recession.

Addressing newsmen in Lagos on Saturday, president of ATCON, Mr Olusola Teniola, noted that stakeholders in the telecommunications industry were not consulted on the issue before the pronouncement.

He said if the proposal was targeted at the poor and middle class in the society and not the rich, which the CBN Governor said make longer calls and would affect.

“Contrary to the CBN Governor’s believe, it is the poor people who make more calls than the rich.

“So, the proposal is not targeted at the middle or higher class.

“I have not seen any industry where you don’t want people to use your products or services more.

“We want people to be speaking longer,” Mr Teniola told journalists in Lagos.

Furthermore, he said that, “In fact, you will now see that people will be cutting their calls.

“It does not make sense, not only technically but economically, to apply that kind of thinking as a tool or solution out of the present economic recession, it is not going to work.”

Mr Teniola suggested that government could raise additional revenue by “introducing a negligible telecom surcharge to be entirely borne by the initiator of a call in order to protect the poor and vulnerable amongst us.

“We could structure it to only take effect after the third minute of talk.

“Some analyses have indicated that the government could earn about N100 billion per annum from this alone.

“Obviously, this surcharge will mainly be borne by middle and upper class people since I do not know many poor people who make calls for more than three minutes.”

The ATCON boss urged the Senate to look into the one percent VAT increase across all sectors it proposed to it, saying, “This is a more realistic measure toward getting more revenue for the government.”

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]

Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

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

Technology

Meta Launches AI Support Assistant on Facebook, Instagram

Published

on

Meta AI Support Assistant

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

New Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools designed to provide support for users of its applications have been launched by Meta.

The AI Support Assistant will work on the Facebook and Instagram apps, the company said in a statement.

The tools will help users to receive reliable and action-oriented assistance when needed.

In December, the Meta AI support assistant, a tool designed to provide reliable, 24/7 support for nearly any support issue at any time, was previewed.

Now, Meta is rolling it out globally on the Facebook and Instagram apps for iOS and Android, and within Help Centre on Facebook and Instagram on desktop, with even more capabilities and ways to help.

The new Meta AI support assistant is designed to help resolve account problems from start to finish. It offers answers for any question, like notification settings or new features, and can also take action for users on a growing set of requests directly within Facebook and, in the future, on Instagram.

The feature can report scams, impersonation accounts, or problematic content, make it easier to see why content was taken down, provide appeal options, track what happens next, manage privacy settings, reset passwords, and update profile settings.

The Meta AI support assistant can respond to requests typically in under five seconds, dramatically reducing wait times compared to traditional help centre searches or seeking answers on external websites.

“The Meta AI support assistant is a major step in our work to deliver stronger support on our apps. In fact, among people who have provided feedback, the majority report a positive experience with the Meta AI support assistant. It’s rolling out now in all languages supported by Facebook and Instagram for support topics.

“We’re continuing to invest in AI- powered tools to make support more accessible, reliable, and effective — and we’ll keep evolving the Meta AI support assistant as more people use it and as the technology advances, so it continues to improve over time,” the organisation disclosed.

Meta has also deployed AI to improve content enforcement to help users reduce the chance that scammers trick people into giving away their login details, ultimately finding and mitigating 5,000 scam attempts per day that no existing review team had caught before.

Meta said over the next few years, it would be deploying these more advanced AI systems across its apps once they consistently perform better than its current methods of content enforcement, transforming its approach.

“As we do this, we’ll reduce our reliance on third-party vendors for content enforcement and focus on strengthening our internal systems and workforce.

“While we’ll still have people who review content, these systems will be able to take on work that’s better-suited to technology, like repetitive reviews of graphic content or areas where adversarial actors are constantly changing their tactics, such as with illicit drug sales or scams,” it stated.

Continue Reading

Technology

Facebook Offers New Tools to Report Impersonation, Removes 20 million Accounts

Published

on

Facebook Original content creators

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

As part of its commitment to celebrating and rewarding creativity, Facebook has updated its guidance, with clear definitions of what counts as original and unoriginal content.

In a message on Monday, the social media platform said it was offering content creators new tools to report impersonation.

Launched last year, the content protection tool is expanding beyond detecting reel matches across Meta platforms to now also flag potential impersonation.

Creators can take action on content theft and easily submit impersonation reports all in one place.

Facebook, in the statement received by Business Post, said creators can check for access to content protection in their professional dashboard or apply for access here.

The platform also disclosed that in 2025, it removed over 20 million accounts impersonating large content creators, and impersonation reports related to large content creators dropped by 33 per cent.

Further, Facebook is deprioritising unoriginal content by making sure they do not perform well on its platform.

It noted that content that is duplicated from other sources or makes low-value changes to someone else’s content may see significantly reduced reach, and accounts that primarily post unoriginal content may lose eligibility for recommendations and monetisation.

It was emphasised that “these changes provide creators who post original content with greater reach and monetisation opportunities, provide stronger protections for their work, and reduce the reach of unoriginal content.”

Continue Reading

Technology

Genetec Sets New Standard for Enterprise Physical Security with Cloudlink 2210

Published

on

Genetec Cloudlink 2210

By Dipo Olowookere

A new high-density appliance that enables enterprises to scale cloud-managed physical security without forcing cloud-only storage or infrastructure replacement has been launched by a global leader in enterprise physical security software, Genetec.

The product, Cloudlink 2210, was designed for complex, enterprise-scale deployments and supports multiple workloads, including video management, access control, and intrusion detection, in a single appliance. By consolidating these workloads into one appliance, it reduces system sprawl, simplifies management in large-scale environments, and lowers operational overhead.

Unlike solutions that separate workloads across multiple proprietary systems, Genetec Cloudlink 2210 is built on an open architecture that supports a wide range of third-party devices, including cameras, access control systems, and intrusion panels. This enables organisations to modernise at scale within a unified, cloud-managed model designed to preserve architectural flexibility, while securely integrating existing hardware, maintaining business continuity, and reducing migration risks.

The company disclosed that Cloudlink 2210 also supports hundreds of connected devices per appliance and provides up to 240 TB of local storage per unit, making it well-suited for deployments with high device density and long retention policies. The Cloudlink 2210 is ideal for enterprise environments where uptime and local retention requirements are operational priorities because its design minimises dependence on cloud storage, helping organisations control long-term storage costs while maintaining the performance and availability required in enterprise environments.

The new product also incorporates hardware-level resiliency to support strict uptime and retention requirements. RAID-protected storage and redundant system components help ensure data protection and OS availability. Security workloads continue operating locally, independent of cloud connectivity, allowing deployments to maintain continuity even during network disruptions. Dual network interfaces provide redundancy and support network isolation to strengthen cybersecurity.

It scales by adding units as requirements grow, enabling organisations to increase device counts and storage capacity without redesigning their infrastructure. Centralised cloud management maintains visibility and control across deployments.

Genetec Cloudlink 2210 is part of the broader Genetec approach to deployment flexibility.  The cloud-managed appliance portfolio enables organisations to operate on premises, in the cloud, or across hybrid environments based on their operational and regulatory requirements. By combining high-performance local processing and storage with centralised cloud operations and management, Cloudlink 2210 supports scalable, cloud-managed deployments without compromising control or performance.

The Product Director for Unified Solutions at Genetec Incorporated, Mr Christian Chenard Lemire, said, “Enterprises don’t want to choose between innovation and operational certainty.

“With Cloudlink 2210, we’re redefining what cloud-managed physical security looks like at scale by giving organisations the freedom to modernise on their own terms, control long-term costs, and maintain the resiliency and continuity their most critical environments demand.”

Continue Reading

Trending