Telecom
Telcos Showcase New Products at W.Afri.Tel 2009
Two telecommunications operators in the country, Etisalat and Visafone are among many Information and Communications Technology operators that plans to showcase new products at this year’s West African International Telecommunications and Information Communications Technology show, (W.Afri.Tel 2009).
Determined to reach out to its growing number of subscribers and touch other potential ones with innovative and quality products using cutting edge technologies, Etisalat has signed on to exhibit in this year’s West African International Telecommunications and Information Communications Technology show, (W.Afri.Tel 2009).
Nigeria’s fifth GSM licensee recently signed up to participate at the event. Etisalat’s participation at the ninth edition of W.Afri.Tel, scheduled to hold from June 2 to June 4, at the Expo Centre, Oceanview, Lagos reflects the telecom operator’s perception of the exhibition as the premier medium to showcase its products and services to its clients, potential customers and numerous visitors.
According to a company official, Etisalat intends to leverage on the successes achieved through its participation at the 2008 edition of the exhibition. Its participation at the exhibition’s eighth edition, even when it was yet to formally commence operations, drew a mammoth crowd of curious visitors who flocked at the company’s booth to catch a glimpse of what telecom services the new entrant would be intending to offer. The legion of intending subscribers who had signed up as potential Etisalat customers, at the event professedly overwhelmed the company officials.
This time, the telecom operator, through its W.Afri.Tel 2009 participation, intends to leverage on the successes achieved at W.Afri.Tel 2008; a testament to the exhibition’s status as the premier business and networking opportunity for West African companies operational in the information and communications technology sector. While the company is keeping sealed lips over the nature of its innovative offerings at the foremost ICT exhibition, it has however revealed that its chief mission at the West African exhibition, was the introduction of new products.
“Our main aim as the fifth GSM operator is to introduce a whole new range of innovative offerings to our subscribers. Our status as a late entrant necessitates that we be innovative in our product offering. Our participation at last year’s edition, and the sheer volume of requests about our formal launch date, as well as the enthusiasm about our packages and tariffs from the public was overwhelming. Hence, we are taking advantage of W.Afri.Tel’s popularity to avail our customers of the latest offerings from the Etisalat stable” an official of the company stated.
From an obscure subscriber base ranking in Nigeria ’s telecom sector, Visafone Communications would be participating at W.Afri.Tel 2009 as a leading CDMA operator, if the company continues with its impressive performance. According to NCC statistics, the telecom operator is currently ranked the fourth largest telecom operator according to subscriber base figures.
Visafone’s participation at W.Afri.Tel, West Africa ’s premier information and communications technology exhibition is geared towards maintaining its foothold in Nigeria ’s telecom sector. As a measure of the company’s seriousness and as a mark of the importance the telecom operator accords W.Afri.Tel, the company has signed up for four booths.
Visafone’s first participation at W.Afri.Tel was in 2008, when as a fledgling telecom operator it opted for West Africa ’s leading exhibition as a leverage to expand its scope of services and subscriber base.
Expectedly, the Visafone stand is set to experience a flurry of activities as subscribers would be trooping to the telecom operator’s stand to make enquiries about the company’s set of promotions. Visafone Communications Limited is a wholly owned Nigerian telecommunications company.
Visafone offers an exciting bouquet of superior telecom service encompassing the very best of voice, high speed data (3G), internet and other innovative value added services to individual subscribers while also providing unequalled business solutions to both corporate entities as well as the small and medium scale enterprises in Nigeria.
Reacting to Etisalat and Visafone’s participation at W.Afri.Tel 2009, Mkpe Abang, editor-in-chief of IT & Telecom Digest, sole Nigerian representative to Exhibition Management Services, organisers of the event, described the two company’s participation as a vote of confidence on the Nigerian information and communications sector. He further commended the companyies strategy to showcase new products and services at W.Afri.Tel as apt.
“As competition in Nigeria ’s telecom sector continues to get fierce, due to the peculiar nature of the country’s telecom sector, the onus is on operators to apply ingenuity in their product offerings. Etisalat and Visafone’s plan to showcase exclusive new product offerings at W.Afri.Tel is commendable. Visitor attendance at W.Afri.Tel has continued to soar over the years, and it paid off for the telecom company as the volume of enquiries at the operator’s booth in a way translated to its impressive subscriber acquisitions when it formally commenced operations” stated Abang.
Dimension Data has said that the proceeds from its Series 1 corporate bond, will support the expansion of the company’s fibre infrastructure to meet Nigeria’s growing demand for digital connectivity.
This followed the successful subscription of the corporate bond.
Recall that Dimension Data Limited said that it has completed the signing ceremony for the issuance of N4.05 billion (approximately US$2.9 million).
This sum marks the first tranche of a N20 billion (US$14.7 million) bond programme announced earlier this year.
The bond programme was raised under Dimension Data SPV Funding Plc, following approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Nigeria.
The company says the proceeds will support the expansion of the company’s fibre infrastructure to meet Nigeria’s growing demand for digital connectivity.
Speaking at the ceremony, Olugbenga Olabiyi, managing director of Dimension Data Limited, said the investment reflects the company’s long-term commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s digital economy.
The planned investments will fund the continued expansion of Dimension Data’s fibre network, supporting increasing demand from financial institutions, fintechs, enterprise customers and other technology-driven sectors.
Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Johannesburg, the company has grown its footprint across the Middle East and Africa.
Today Dimension Data is a member of the NTT Ltd Group, one of the world’s leading technology companies.
As cloud adoption, digital financial services and data-intensive applications continue to grow, the company believes resilient fibre infrastructure will remain a critical enabler of Nigeria’s digital economy.
The Federal Government has announced that work will commence within weeks on a 90,000-kilometre fibre optic network expected to connect every state, local government area and ward in Nigeria, marking what officials describe as one of the country’s most ambitious digital infrastructure projects.
Dr Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, disclosed this on Tuesday after briefing President Bola Tinubu at the State House, Abuja, on the progress of three flagship digital transformation initiatives being implemented by his ministry.
According to the minister, all resource mobilisation and contractual processes for the nationwide fibre project have been completed, paving the way for physical deployment.
“We’re now at the point where, in a few weeks’ time, we should start to lay those fibre, so people will start seeing us around the country deploying the fibre. This is going to transform Nigeria for good,” Tijani said.
He explained that the project would deliver fibre optic infrastructure to every geopolitical zone, state, local government area and ward, significantly expanding broadband access and improving the quality of internet connectivity across the country.
“This is a project where every state, every geopolitical zone, every local government and every ward in this country will be covered with fibre optic cables, which will transform the quality of connectivity,” he added.
Bosun Tijani attributed the progress in the digital economy to a series of reforms approved by President Tinubu, including the designation of digital infrastructure as Critical National Infrastructure, tariff adjustments and tax harmonisation measures sought by industry operators.
“I think our sector has been extremely fortunate. Mr. President has given us quite a number of things that the sector has been demanding for a long time. Whether it’s the Critical National Infrastructure designation for all digital infrastructure, the slight adjustment in tariff, or the tax harmonisation, these are reforms the industry has long requested.
“I think it’s probably the sector that is most appreciative of this government because when we came in, the sector was contributing between 16 and 18 per cent to our GDP, but today it is tracking close to 21 per cent. That represents significant growth,” he said.
The minister noted that the reforms had also improved the financial performance of major operators in the telecommunications sector.
On efforts to bridge the digital divide, Tijani disclosed that the government would begin deploying about 3,700 telecommunications towers from October to provide network coverage for more than 20 million Nigerians currently living in underserved communities without access to telecom services.
He said the President had approved the project after months of capital mobilisation and planning.
“Today we’re at a point where, before the end of the year, we’ll also start to deploy close to 3,700 towers. It’s taken a lot to put this project together and raise the required capital, but we are now ready to begin deployment around October,” he said.
The minister also announced that Nigeria would officially launch an alphanumeric postcode system on October 1, a move he said would place the country among a select group of nations operating an advanced digital addressing system.
“Nigeria will be amongst maybe 10 or 15 countries in the world with an alphanumeric postcode. It’s the latest design in postcode systems, where we can identify every property in this country. We’re hoping to launch that on the 1st of October,” he said.
Tijani explained that the new system would assign a unique address to every property nationwide, enhancing logistics, accelerating e-commerce, improving emergency response and strengthening public service delivery.
“Inability to locate places comes at a cost. You can imagine what this will do for e-commerce. It means goods can now be delivered in record time,” he said.
He added that integrating the postcode system with existing government identity databases would improve security and make public services more efficient.
“Our alphanumeric postcode is unique because it allows us to assign a unique address to every property. In many countries, such as the UK, postcodes cover clusters of buildings. What we are introducing will uniquely identify every building, and that will be a game changer for Nigeria in terms of security, commerce and public service delivery,” the minister stated.
In a bold move to strengthen Nigeria’s digital sovereignty and the digital economy, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has formally unveiled the National Sovereignty Cloud Initiative (NSCI) Regulatory Instruments, thereby setting a new benchmark for the country’s digital future.
NITDA
The NSCI is a strategic programme of the federal government coordinated by NITDA. It is designed to bolster Nigeria’s digital sovereignty and accelerate the country’s adoption of reliable cloud infrastructure. The initiative consists of the National Computing Guideline, the National Cloud Technical Guideline, the National Digital Infrastructure Assurance Framework, and the National Cloud Investment Strategy.
Speaking during the ceremony in Abuja, the Director General, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi CCIE, described the NSCI as a strategic move to safeguard Nigeria’s digital future. He noted that the instruments will stimulate innovation, encourage investment in local cloud services, and enhance digital resilience.
“These instruments provide the regulatory certainty, technical standards, and assurance framework required to build a trusted cloud ecosystem that safeguards Nigeria’s digital sovereignty while creating new opportunities for investment, innovation, and sustainable economic growth.
“We should position ourselves not to serve Nigeria alone, but to serve West and Central Africa. Nigeria is already the digital gateway to West Africa and can extend to every part of Africa. But we can only realise that goal when we build our infrastructure. So, today’s event is the first step in that direction,” he stated.
Abdullahi appreciated the support of relevant stakeholders and the efforts of the NSCI Technical Working Group, which culminated in the successful development of the regulatory instruments. He emphasised that collective action of regulatory agencies is necessary for a seamless implementation of the initiative.
Speaking earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Engr. Nadungu Gagare, declared that the launch of the NSCI underscores the federal government’s commitment to safeguarding Nigeria’s data borders and digital economy.
“By ensuring that government data remains strictly within national jurisdiction and under local operational control, we are guaranteeing data sovereignty and regulatory compliance. It will catalyse local cloud capacity, foster local job creation, and empower indigenous investors and innovators to build solutions on a secure, locally hosted foundation,” Gagare said.
The Permanent Secretary commended the management team of NITDA, the NSCI Technical Working Group, and other stakeholders for their collaborative spirit in driving the initiative. He promised that the Ministry would ensure that the strategic objectives of the NSCI are fully realised across all ministries, departments, and agencies.
In a message, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Olayemi Cardoso, congratulated NITDA for promoting a collaborative approach, adding that modern digital regulation succeeds through coordinated regulatory actions for common national objectives.
Cardoso, who was represented by Dr. Rakiya Opemi Yusuf, the Director of the Payment System Supervision Department, acknowledged that the launch testifies to the robust collaboration existing between the apex bank and other government institutions.
“CBN regulates the financial ecosystem. NITDA provides the national framework for digital infrastructure, cloud governance and assurance. These responsibilities are complementary, not competing. Together, they create a coherent national architecture.
“Together with NITDA, and with the continued cooperation of industry, we will continue to build an ecosystem that protects Nigeria’s financial system today and positions our nation as Africa’s trusted hub for digital finance and cloud innovation.
One of the most encouraging aspects of today’s event is the strong institutional collaboration between NITDA, the CBN, and other relevant government institutions. This collaboration demonstrates an important principle.”
Cardoso reiterated that as a responsive regulator, the CBN remains committed to providing clear expectations, firm principles, proportionate implementation, and constructive engagement with all stakeholders to position Nigeria as Africa’s trusted hub for digital finance and cloud innovation.
Also, the Managing Director/CEO of Galaxy Backbone Limited, Prof. Ibrahim Adeyanju, noted that the NSCI couldn’t have come at a better time than now, especially considering CBN’s recent directive mandating banks and financial institutions to localise their data.
Adeyanju expressed confidence that the initiative would push the ecosystem to greater heights by encouraging investment, developing indigenous talent, and creating employment opportunities akin to the gains brought by the deregulation of the telecoms sector.
NITDA will constitute the Sovereign Cloud Governance Committee (SovGov) within the next two weeks to oversee the implementation of the NSCI. The committee would comprise representatives from relevant Government institutions, sector regulators, industry, and the private sector, with NITDA serving as the Secretariat
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