Telecom
Zoho, Digital Encode, Layer3, Rack Centre, Others Among AfriTECH2021 Award Winners
Africa Tech Alliance Forum (AfriTECH) organisers have recognized outstanding organizations for driving creative, innovative solutions and products to enhance Africa’s digital economy.
L-r: Dr. Ayotunde Coker, managing director, Rack Centre presenting the AfriTECH Award to Mr. Remi Adejumo, CEO Cloudflex Computing Service Limited
The eight (8) award winners across different categories were honoured at Africa Tech Alliance Forum 2021 (AfriTECH2021), held in Lagos.
The hybrid Forum provided opportunity for inter-sectorial cross-fertilization of ideas on economic impacts of COVID-19 on digital transformation on Businesses and way forward with critical look at Boosting digital infrastructure for Cloud Hosting; Digital tools for education & reskilling African youth; CyberSecurity: Pushing for Privacy & Data Protection; and Harnessing Blockchain Technology for Digital Economy Growth.
The 2021 winners of AfriTECH Awards are:
1. Hybrid Cloud Services Achiever Award – Galaxy Backbone Limited
2. Most Efficient Data Centre of the Year -Rack Centre
3. Data Protection Compliance Organisation of the Year – Digital Encode Limited
4. Business Intelligence (BI) Software Company of the Year – Zoho Corporation
5. Cloud Innovator of the Year – Layer3
6. Best Cloud Infrastructure Company of the Year – Cloudflex Computing Services Ltd
7. Digital Transformation Project Award – Notion Technology Limited
8. ICT Infrastructure Provider (Data Centre) of the Year – Medallion
9. Africa Tech Alliance Forum Convener’s Award – Olatomiwa Williams
1. Hybrid Cloud Services Achiever Award presented to Galaxy Backbone Limited.
Galaxy Backbone Limited is an ICT services provider; wholly owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria and has the official mandate to build and operate a single nation-wide IT infrastructure platform to provide network services to all Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Galaxy Backbone Limited drives national development through the provision of a pervasive ICT infrastructure and services to public institutions and under-served communities.
2. Rack Centre – Most Efficient Data Centre of the Year.
Founded in 2012, Rack Centre is the only carrier neutral Tier III Constructed Facility Certified data centre in Africa and focuses solely on providing best in class data centre colocation services and unrestricted interconnect between carriers and customers.
This gives customers a technically superior, physically more secure and lower cost environment for their information systems.
Rack Centre’s carrier neutrality allows customers to manage traffic to get better value, lower latency and higher resilience, and creates an open market for partnerships between customers, networks, cloud and content providers, the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria and managed service providers.
Rack Centre clients include 40 telecommunication carriers, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), global Tier 1 networks and pan Africa international carriers, including direct connection to all 5 undersea cables serving the South Atlantic Coast of Africa and every country on the Atlantic coast of Africa.
3. Digital Encode Limited – Data Protection Compliance Organisation of the Year
Digital Encode is a leading consulting and integration firm founded in 2003 that specializes in the design, management, and security of business-critical networks, telecommunications environments and other Information Technology (IT) infrastructures.
Digital Encode is one of the few companies certified by the Nigerian government through the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) as Data Protection Compliance Organisation (DPCO).
Recognized in the industry for its vendor independent perspective the firm’s expertise lies in solving multifaceted, complex enterprise network security and audit problems.
At Digital Encode, technology serves two purposes: to save money and solve a problem.
Digital Encode also provides advisory services toward improvements in Information Security Management, Network Security, Vulnerability Management, Penetration Testing, Computer Forensics, Risk Management and Business Continuity Management.
Digital Encode unique methodology is rooted in the concept that a company should run its IT organization as a business.
Throughout the well-defined process, Digital Encode translates strategic business objectives into sound, achievable technology solutions.
This approach ensures that the technology never obscures the business goals.
4. Zoho Corporation – Business Intelligence (BI) Software Company of the Year
Zoho is popular project management and #CRM software that needs no introduction.
Be it multi-channel communication, taking care of multiple tasks, CRM insights – Zoho offers a host of features that can easily cater to the needs of large as well as small enterprises.
With 50+ apps in nearly every major business category, including sales, marketing, customer support, accounting and back-office operations, and an array of productivity and collaboration tools, Zoho Corporation is one of the world’s most prolific software companies.
Zoho is privately held and profitable with more than 9,000 employees. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with international headquarters in Chennai, India. Additional offices are in the United States, India, Japan, China, Singapore, Mexico, Australia, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates.
Zoho respects user privacy and does not have an ad-revenue model in any part of its business, including its free products.
More than 60 million users around the world, across hundreds of thousands of companies, rely on Zoho every day to run their businesses, including Zoho itself.
5. Layer3 – Cloud Innovator of the Year
The team at Layer3 aims to remain at the forefront of the clients’ business transformation ambitions. Combining knowledge of world-class technology solutions in addition to their partnership with some of the global technology providers, Layer3 delivers exceptional value for the clients.
The solutions cut across all sectors and include the innovation of the data center, software, server & storage systems, mobile device management, security & network infrastructure solutions and access solutions including broadband and VPN services.
The success of Layer3’s customers is always paramount in the minds and the culture drives them to work closely with the clients to truly understand the business and ICT needs.
The Company continuously builds strategic partnerships with global technology leaders that enable them to deploy solutions that minimize risks, maximize flexibility and optimize the use of capital with results that exceed our customers’ expectations.
Layer3 runs a 24/7 network management and support center that allows the team to provide round the clock remote monitoring and support services for the customers’ IT and network infrastructure as well as the expansive metro fiber network infrastructure guaranteeing optimal performance and quick fault resolutions.
Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Nigeria, Layer3’s services are available in several African countries and they have a large pool of some of the most technically certified and experienced experts within the region.
6. Cloudflex Computing Services Ltd – Best Cloud Infrastructure Company of the Year
CloudFlex Computing Limited is Nigeria’s leading Enterprise local cloud service Provider. We are the first choice of Cloud Solutions and managed data services for local and Global businesses with great ambitions.
Cloudflex offers Information Technology as a service (Cloud services, Co-location, Managed solutions, Backup services, Disaster Recovery etc.), and support for diverse infrastructure needs by providing Industry-specific Solutions.
The Company is based on the principle of developing and delivering top of the line Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) solutions to meet the needs of the existing and prospective clients.
7. Notion Technology Limited – Digital Transformation Project Award
If you are looking for perfect IT services for your business, YOU JUST FOUND Notion Technologies; the representative of American #1 technology company – Comway and Hsv Products in Nigeria.
The company’s vision is simply put as: “To be the one-stop enterprise for resolving information and telecommunication technology connections problems through intelligent, consistent, innovative, high-skill technical efforts bringing about products and services that ensure customers satisfaction and joy”.
Their beliefs are in the capabilities, experience and the passion for rendering intelligent technological solutions in the ICT Sector in Nigeria and beyond indeed necessitate the birth and continuous existence of NTL.
Notion Technology is piloted by an experienced and very intelligent technical team of proven skills, capabilities and par excellence technological designs for the ICT/Telecom Industry in Nigeria.
The ensure services rendered are finished to the highest quality. Notion Technology offers Designing, Procuring, Installation and Maintenance of very precise and Reliable Fibre Optic Technology, Networking (Wireless or Fixed), VSAT Technology, Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX) Communication System, Security Systems that include CCTV, IP Surveillance Camera, Access Control, Intruder alert etc, Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and sales of relevant and related equipment.
To simply put it, NTL makes intelligent and innovative connections and interactions possible for businesses.
Using the best technology available, Notion Technologies integrate voice, data and video applications into specialized solutions designed for our clients’ usage that ensure a seamless communication experience within and outside their organizations keeping them happy, satisfied and thrilled.
8. Medallion – ICT Infrastructure Provider (Data Centre) of the Year
Interconnection is the linking of the networks of two or more service providers thus enabling the subscribers on one network to access the subscribers of the other networks.
In a multi-operator environment, seamless interconnection is the most important factor that could affect the growth of the industry.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) estimates that in most telecom environments, at least 60% of all traffic is interconnected.
Medallion Communications Incorporated – (MCL) is the product of structured collaboration between technocrats with versatile exposures and competences in the telecommunication industry.
The company was founded with the vision of bridging the digital divide between the developing and the developed economies of the world.
Olatomiwa Williams, the country manager, Microsoft Nigeria received Africa Tech Alliance Forum Convener’s Award. Ola presented the keynote address at this year’s award.
He said that the AfriTECH Award was instituted as part of AfriTECH Forum to celebrate organisations making an impact on the African economy.
Commenting on the awards and recognition, Peter Oluka, the Editor, TechEconomy.ng congratulated the winners for their high performances in the respective areas of focus which if weaved together form a web of innovations for economic and business developments and growth.
He said that the AfriTECH Award was instituted as part of the AfriTECH Forum to celebrate organisations making an impact on the African economy.
“The maiden AfriTECH Awards 2021 applauds the amazing work of the organisations across private and public sectors.
“Congratulations to all the winners. It is amazing to hear and feel the so many amazing innovations these companies project despite the novel pandemic that ravaged the global economy in the year 2019; the impacts are still there. We at TechEconomy.ng as AfriTECH Forum organisers are very proud of your innovations”. Oluka said.
Google has unveiled a new feature that allows Gmail users to change their existing email addresses without losing data or access to services, marking a major shift in the company’s long-standing policy.
Gmail
According to an update on Google’s account help page, the new option enables account holders to replace their current @gmail.com address with a new one while retaining all associated data, including emails, photos, and integrations with services such as Google Drive, Maps, and YouTube.
The guidance, however, was first spotted on the Hindi version of Google’s support page, suggesting that the rollout may begin in India or Hindi-speaking markets before expanding globally.
The English-language support page still carries the older advisory that Gmail addresses “usually cannot be changed.”
Google explained that under the new policy, users who update their Gmail address will automatically keep their original address as an alias.
This means emails sent to the old address will continue to arrive in the inbox, and the original address will remain valid for signing in to Google services.
Previously, users seeking a new Gmail address had to create an entirely new account and manually transfer their data, a process that often disrupted third-party app integrations. The new feature eliminates that inconvenience, ensuring continuity for users.
The company further clarified that while users can reuse their old Gmail address at any time, accounts that change their address will face certain restrictions.
These include a 12-month waiting period before another new Gmail address can be created, and the inability to delete the newly chosen address once it has been set.
Google assured users that all existing data would remain intact after an address update, including stored photos, messages, and emails.
The gradual rollout of the feature indicates that full global adoption is expected in the coming months, a move likely to be welcomed by millions of users who have long requested the ability to update their Gmail identities without starting afresh.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that Nigeria’s internet usage reached a record 1.24 million terabytes in November 2025.
According to the latest data from the NCC, the figure rose modestly from 1.235 million terabytes in October, reflecting steady growth in digital activity across the country.
Broadband penetration in Nigeria crossed the halfway mark in November 2025, reaching 50.58 per cent, up from 45.61 per cent in January, the telecoms regulator reported.
The figure, however, falls short of the 70 per cent coverage target outlined in the National Broadband Plan 2020–2025, which expires this month.
The country had roughly 109 million broadband subscriptions by November. Growth has been uneven, hindered by infrastructure and regulatory constraints, including frequent fibre-optic vandalism that triggers 30 to 43 network cuts daily, high right-of-way fees, and declining subscriber numbers earlier in the year.
Expansion of mobile networks, particularly 3G and 4G services, alongside limited 5G rollouts in urban centres, affordable smartphones, and competitive data plans, has driven uptake.
Investments in the National Communications Backbone and private-sector initiatives have also improved access, especially in underserved areas.
While Nigeria is gradually improving digital inclusion, achieving the original broadband plan remains challenging due to high infrastructure costs, coverage limitations, and deployment hurdles.
The NCC maintains that continued investment in mobile networks and broadband infrastructure will sustain gradual growth in the sector.
Commenting on the development, some Nigerian analysts attributed the surge to the broader mobile and broadband adoption and the growing appetite for streaming, online learning and other digital services.
According to the analysts, the figures suggest that internet connectivity is no longer a luxury but a necessity for both business and leisure, underscoring the slow but steady expansion of Nigeria’s digital economy.
Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) has named the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) among the top three Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government with the Best Ranking in Website Performance for 2025.
L-R: Head Special Projects, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Salamatu Andu; Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Engr. Abaraham Oshadame; Director General Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Head Customer Support Service, Galaxy Backbone, Rosemary Ehize; Secretary to the ES. Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Tahir Aminu at the BPSR award ceremony for top four MDAs in BPSR Website Performance and Ranking 2025 at the BPSR office on Tuesday, 23rd December, 2025.
This is coming barely three weeks after the telecom regulator was recognized as one of the top five best-performing Federal Government agencies for 2025 by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) – a testament to the Commission’s consistency in investment in technology for ensuring efficient service delivery.
In the BPSR 2024/2025 scorecard ranking of agencies’ websites, the NCC came second in the ranking, trailing behind Galaxy Backbone Limited, which came first while the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) clinched the third position, from a pool of 235 MDAs, whose website were evaluated.
BPSR deployed 14 evaluation criteria in include MDA’s website compliance with .gov.ng domain name, appearance and aesthetics (look and feel) of the website, content, relevance to MDAs mandate/government policy and the website’ structure.
Others include website’s responsiveness (device compatibility), security, load time, usability/ease of navigation, availability/uptime, functionality, interactivity, accessibility and capacity building.
The recognition was announced at the official release of Federal Government 2024/2025 Scorecard Ranking for MDAs’ Website held at the Federal Ministry of Finance Auditorium in Abuja on Monday (December 22, 2025) while the award presentation took place at BPSR’s Office on Tuesday (December 23, 2025).
The award, which is an important index metric of the National e-Government Masterplan for determining the Nigeria e-Government Status, was received by the Commission in recognition of its commitment to maintaining a world-class website that enhances service delivery to the citizens.
Receiving the award on behalf of the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida, the NCC’s Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, Abraham Oshadami, appreciated the BPSR for the recognition, describing the award as “another encouragement for the Commission to be a better public service institution leveraging digital platforms such as our web presence to enhance public service delivery to our various stakeholders, thereby implementing the Federal Government’s Ease of Doing Business policy direction.”
While presenting the award to the NCC, alongside other two agencies, BPSR’s Director-General, Mr. Dasuki Arabi, commended the top three for their proactive decisions in maintaining world-class websites, which are compliant with the Federal Government’s policy direction in effective and efficient service delivery to the citizens.
According to the DG, the 2024/2025 MDA’s websites’ ranking represents a collective effort of federal public institutions in Nigeria to be transparent, accountable and open in governance, as well as a confirmation to align with global best practices in service delivery to the citizens.
Developed about six years ago, Arabi said as a result of the annual ranking, more public institutions have indicated readiness to embrace reforms, and align with the policy direction of the current administration’s Renewed Hope agenda on improve governance for effective service delivery, as introduced by His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“The ideals of harnessing and deploying technological tools for service delivery has become imperative following the COVID pandemic, and distortions of socio-economic system of nations, culminating in the evolution of competitiveness, cost effectiveness, and agile governance.
“As engine room of governance, it behoves on us in the public service to perform our statutory duties and we must put in place technological innovations and standardized websites to operate services as well as deliver service needs to citizens,” he said.
The Scorecard exercise, he said, is part of the BPSR reform broader function of conducting research on reform implementation efforts and presenting ‘best practice’ models to the entire Public Service, and to among others, improve access to government information, facilitate seamless financial transaction, eliminate corruption and cyber theft, as well as facilitate access to government services.
Speaking on the rigorous nature of the exercise that produced the top three winners, the DG said “in the past few weeks members of the Scorecard Jury drawn from inter-Ministerial Agencies, had worked tirelessly to mill websites of selected MDAs through a rigorous process of enduring criteria for the ranking and the outcome had also passed through a quality assurance mechanism to validate the outcome.”
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