Telecom
Sophos Launches MSP Elevate Program to Boost MSP Growth and Profitability
Sophos, a global leader of innovative security solutions for defeating cyberattacks, today launched MSP Elevate, a new business-accelerating program for managed service providers (MSPs). With the new program, Sophos enables MSPs to expand their business with high-value, differentiated cybersecurity offerings that elevate their customers’ cyber defenses and rewards growth with additional investment to fuel further success.
With the increasing complexity and sophistication of today’s cyberattacks, organizations are increasingly turning to MSPs for 24/7, human-led monitoring and management of their cybersecurity environments. This has made Managed Detection and Response (MDR) a major focus for MSPs with 81% currently offering a MDR service, according to the Sophos MSP Perspectives 2024 report.
MSP Elevate helps MSPs to differentiate themselves as a high-value provider to customers by delivering unique business-enhancing benefits, including an exclusive high-value Sophos MDR service offering.
Managing multiple cybersecurity platforms is a major overhead for MSPs and consumes valuable billable hours. MSPs estimate that consolidating on a single platform would slash their day-to-day management time by 48%.
MSP Elevate includes Network-in-a-Box bundles that enable MSPs to manage the full network stack through the unified Sophos Central platform, freeing-up staff for business generation activities.
Furthermore, the single biggest perceived risk to MSP’s businesses is the shortage of in-house cybersecurity expertise.
Sophos’ network solutions respond automatically to threats across the customer environment, enabling MSPs to elevate their customers’ defenses without adding workload.
“MSP Elevate is the first of many business-driving MSP programs following the powerhouse union of Sophos and Secureworks,” said Chris Bell, senior vice president of global channel, alliances and corporate development.
“As a channel-first organization that defends more than 250,000 customers of MSPs, we are constantly looking for opportunities to reward our partners and invest in their success when they grow their business with us.
“MSP Elevate fuels long-term growth for our partners by providing MSPs with exclusive solution access, discounts, rebates and training to deliver the best possible value to customers.”
Sophos MSP Elevate program benefits include:
· Exclusive Access to the Sophos MDR Bundle for MSP: Includes access to Sophos MDR Complete premium service tier with 24/7 incident response, 1 year data retention, Sophos Network Detection and Response (NDR), and all Sophos integration packs, enabling defenders to leverage all available telemetry from across the customer environment to accelerate threat detection and response.
· Simplified Sales Process: Speeds up time to deployment and reduces MSP overhead. With the new MDR Bundle for MSP, partners can quickly and easily allocate a single SKU to the customer for all their current and future MDR needs.
· Discounted Network-in-a-Box Hardware Bundle: Access to Sophos’ advanced network security solutions, including Sophos Firewall, Sophos Switch and Sophos Wireless Access Points at a significant discount. These products work together to automate threat response and are managed through Sophos Central.
· Growth-Based Rebates: As part of our commitment to grow with and invest in our partners, the program will recognize and reward MSPs that increase their Sophos MSP monthly billings.
· Architect-Level Training Courses: Equip MSPs to increase their in-house services delivery capabilities with trainings on Sophos Endpoint and Sophos Firewall.
· Invite-Only Access to Sophos Summits: Gain exclusive access to hands-on training and enablement, Ask the Experts sessions, attend exclusive Sophos events and meet with Sophos executive leadership to influence the Sophos roadmap and MSP strategy.
· Future benefits: Introduction of new program benefits to increase MSP’s profitability, customer defenses and overall value as a service provider.
“MSP Elevate enables MSPs to quickly deploy a comprehensive MDR service that eliminates blind spots by leveraging all available telemetry from across the customers’ environment,” said Raja Patel, chief product officer, Sophos. “This enhanced visibility accelerates threat detection and response while delivering improved return for customers on their existing technology investments. Furthermore, the service adapts seamlessly as the technology environment evolves over time, future-proofing customers’ defenses and providing both commercial and cybersecurity peace of mind.”
MSP Elevate is a non-exclusive commitment to sell Sophos’ best-in-class cybersecurity solutions available on the Sophos Central platform, including Sophos MDR, Sophos Endpoint powered by Intercept X, and Sophos Firewall. To access the program benefits, MSPs need to commit to a minimum monthly spend for a 12-month period. As a pre-requisite to joining MSP Elevate, partners need to be part of the MSP Flex program, which enables MSPs to offer Sophos solutions on a monthly billing basis.
“Joining MSP Elevate is a no-brainer. This new program adds further rocket fuel to the MSP growth trajectory we’ve enjoyed with Sophos over the last 17 years. Not all MDR offerings are the same, and I’m excited to be able to offer a superior service based around value and quality of outcomes that will elevate my customers’ defenses and differentiate my business in this increasingly crowded market,” said Craig Faiers, sales director, Arc.
With 80% of MSPs offering MDR through a specialist vendor for delivery*, partners can choose to have Sophos fully deliver the MDR service or to use Sophos to augment in-house teams, including for the provision of out-of-hours coverage. This is particularly important considering 88% of ransomware attacks start outside of standard business hours, according to Sophos’ Active Adversary report.
Sophos MDR is the service most trusted by MSPs to secure their clients and currently defends more than 18,000 MSP-managed customer environments against advanced threats, including ransomware. This unmatched breadth of customer coverage delivers unparalleled insights into attacks on MSP-managed environments that are continually leveraged to update customers’ defenses in real-time, optimizing their protection from ever-evolving attacks.
To learn more about MSP Elevate, visit www.sophos.com/elevate. Sophos partners can sign up for the MSP Elevate Program on the Sophos Partner Portal at https://www.sophos.com/en-us/partners/partner-portal.
In celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) 2026, Techeconomy, a leading business news platform in Nigeria, has unveiled its “100 Women Shaping the Future: Techeconomy Power List 2026,” recognizing exceptional women driving innovation, leadership, and impact across technology and the broader digital economy.
Techeconomy
The annual recognition spotlights women who are transforming industries through entrepreneurship, policy leadership, digital innovation, financial inclusion, media, education, and emerging technologies.
The initiative is part of Techeconomy’s commitment to promoting gender inclusion and highlighting female leadership shaping Africa’s technology ecosystem.
The Techeconomy IWD Power List features a diverse group of women, from corporate executives and startup founders to policymakers, ecosystem builders, and social innovators, whose work continues to influence the future of technology, business, and digital transformation in Nigeria and across Africa.
Speaking on the initiative, Joan Aimuengheuwa, the Managing Editor at Techeconomy, noted that the recognition goes beyond celebrating titles, focusing instead on impact, resilience, and the ability to shape the future through innovation and leadership.
According to her, “the women on the list represent different sectors including fintech, banking, healthcare, agriculture, education, communications, and the creative economy, demonstrating the growing role of women in advancing technology-driven development.
The unveiling aligns with the global celebration of International Women’s Day, which highlights the achievements of women and calls for accelerated progress toward gender equality. Across the world, the technology sector continues to push for greater female representation and leadership as part of efforts to build more inclusive digital economies.
Also speaking, Oluwatosin Aloba, the Brand Manager at Techeconomy, said: “Techeconomy IWD 2026 Power List is specially designed to inspire the next generation of female innovators and leaders by showcasing role models who are breaking barriers and redefining possibilities in the technology landscape.
“Techeconomy encouraged industry stakeholders, institutions, and the broader public to celebrate the achievements of these women while continuing to support policies, programs, and investments that expand opportunities for women in technology”, she added.
The full list of the “100 Women Shaping the Future: Techeconomy Power List 2026” is available on the Techeconomy website or visit: https://techeconomy.ng/techeconomy-iwd-2026-power-list-celebrates-100-women-shaping-the-future-of-tech/.
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), via its Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI), has partnered with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to launch applications for the fifth cohort of the iHatch Startup Incubation Programme, targeting 37 innovation hubs—one per state and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
NITDA
The initiative selects hubs as state-level managers to run incubation programmes, addressing uneven support outside Lagos and Abuja. “Nigeria’s startup ecosystem has grown rapidly, but access remains uneven,” said ONDI National Coordinator Victoria Fabunmi. “iHatch builds stronger hubs, standardises quality, and boosts investment readiness across all regions.”
Amid Africa’s $3.42 billion startup funding in 2025, Nigeria’s innovation clusters in major cities, sidelining rural founders. Selected hubs will incubate five startups each for at least one year, providing structured guidance for growth and funding. Hubs gain operational support, resources, and performance rewards—prioritizing ecosystem leadership over cash grants.
Eligibility and Timeline
Eligible hubs must:
Operate for at least one year with local engagement.
Possess infrastructure for incubation activities.
Applications close March 16 at ondi.nitda.gov.ng/#/ihatch.
Fabunmi emphasized: “By equipping hubs with tools, curriculum, and oversight, iHatch ensures consistent outcomes for founders everywhere,” tackling geographic gaps to scale local innovation.
French media group Canal+ has announced a €100 million turnaround plan to revive growth at MultiChoice, Africa’s largest pay-TV operator, after the DStv owner lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers and suffered a decline in revenue in 2025.
MultiChoice
The move follows Canal+’s full takeover of the South Africa-based broadcaster, which has been squeezed by weaker household purchasing power across Africa and intensifying competition from global streaming platforms.
According to Canal+’s latest financial disclosures, MultiChoice ended 2025 with 14.4 million subscribers, down from 14.9 million a year earlier, while revenue fell 6 per cent to €2.4 billion.
Adjusted earnings before interest and tax dropped 14 per cent to €159 million, prompting Canal+ to describe 2025 as “another challenging year” marked by falling subscriber numbers and an unsustainably high cost base.
The group cited currency depreciation in key markets such as Nigeria and persistent electricity shortages as major headwinds making it harder for households to maintain pay-TV subscriptions.
Canal+ also pointed to problems at Showmax, MultiChoice’s streaming service, describing one of its key contracts as an “expensive failure” and confirming that the arrangement is being shut down as part of a wider refocus on the core pay-TV business.
Under the new “boost plan,” which will roll out from 2026, Canal+ aims to restart subscriber growth and improve profitability across MultiChoice’s footprint by investing in content, pricing, distribution and sales.
On content, the French group says it plans to assemble the “best content on the African continent” by blending premium international programmes with more locally produced films, series and sports tailored to African audiences.
It will also simplify subscription packages and adjust pricing structures to make DStv and related offerings easier for customers to understand and afford.
To expand reach, Canal+ intends to subsidise hardware such as decoders and satellite dishes, lowering entry costs for new users.
In addition, the company will recruit more than 1,000 sales staff across African markets as it shifts MultiChoice towards a more aggressive, “sales-focused” model designed to win back and attract subscribers.
Alongside this investment push, Canal+ is embarking on significant cost-cutting measures, including a voluntary severance plan for some MultiChoice support staff and a restructuring of Irdeto, its technology and cybersecurity subsidiary.
Canal+ now expects to generate over €250 million in synergies by 2026, up from an earlier €150 million estimate, driven by the shutdown of loss-making Showmax contracts, operational restructuring at MultiChoice and rationalisation of company-owned properties.
The cost of delivering these savings is projected at between €70 million and €100 million. Despite the planned reforms, the group still anticipates a slight further decline in MultiChoice’s subscriber base in 2026, though the pace of losses is expected to slow, with adjusted earnings before interest and tax forecast to rise modestly to about €170 million as cost savings begin to offset weaker revenue and higher expenses.
Canal+ gained effective control of MultiChoice on 20 September 2025 after acquiring a majority stake, later buying out remaining shareholders and delisting the company from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in December 2025.
The French media group has said it intends to complete a secondary listing on the JSE before June 2026 to reinforce its presence in Africa’s fast-growing media and entertainment market.
The €100 million boost plan underlines the mounting pressure on traditional pay-TV operators across the continent as currency weakness, rising living costs and rapid expansion of streaming services force a strategic rethink of legacy television business models.
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