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Technology Critical for Wealthier, Healthier & More Productive Nation- Onuegbu

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(L-r): Yemi Keri, Managing Director Edo State Information Communication Technology Agency, Collins Onuegbu, and Adanma Onuegbu, executive vice chairman and CEO, Signal Alliance/Sasware respectively.
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Mr. Collins Onuegbu, executive vice chairman, Signal Alliance/Sasware has likened the deplorable state of the country as being at multiple crossroads.

But with technology, he said, building a wealthier, healthier and more productive nation is very possible.

Onuegbu made the remarks during Signal Alliance 2015 Customer Week Workshop, lamenting that Nigeria is at the political and economical crossroads,

He said that more than ever before, a conversation about Nigeria needs to be done at all levels of society.

The Signal Alliance Executive Vice Chairman said that as individuals Nigerians get involved every day in offices, beer parlours, Facebook, and any gathering and debate the Nigerians situations.

According to him, “Often, companies stay away from conversions because they after all are just doing their business. But more and more, companies are realizing that they are part of the society. What they do affects the society. What the society does affects them. So it is in our collective responsivity to be part of the conversation to create a better society for us to do our business.

“Recent events in the global and local economy, more than ever, highlights the need for Nigeria to get its acts together in the building of an economy to sustain its citizens. We can no longer afford to plod along and accept the statistics that 33% of our people living on less than $1 a day is an achievement. We must think big and bet big and create the space that will enable our people maximize their potential and join the rest of society who want to conquer the world.

“Look at other countries in the world: they are building cities in the desert, exploring mars, deconstructing the human genome, building smart cities. Look at great companies and their dreams: driverless cars, hyper loop, building drugs that cure from cancer to Ebola. What is our ambition as a nation? What is our ambition as companies? We cannot reduce our ambition to the capability of holding an election? To have 5000MW for a nation of 160m people”.

Onuegbu added that Nigeria’s immediate need is the diversification and the growth of the economy to allow citizens maximize the potential.

“We believe that technology offers us one of the fastest routes to achieve that. We have tested how simple and possible this is with the telecoms industry. By simply developing a fair process to open the space for companies to use existing technology we allowed our citizens who were struggling to have access to telephone in 1999 to now struggle to juggle the number of phones they can carry.

“Today, our tele-density is 100%. In 1999, it was far less than 1%. But this is a tip of the iceberg. Telecoms is just a building block to the possibilities technology can bring.

“Technology can make the 160 million Nigerians live a better and smarter life. Technology can make us live a healthier life. Technology can make us work smarter in offices, become more productive and grow better companies to compete with the rest of the world. Just imagine for a moment a Nigerian government that entirely relies on appropriate technology to operate.  Elimination of waste, massive reduction in corruption, better ability to secure our people. A better managed society.

“And just imagine that the 17.2m SMES in Nigeria relied on technology to operate.  And imagine 160m people consuming technology to create a more convenient life for themselves, from shopping online, having conversation online, accessing better healthcare, better education, better mobility and access to the right information at the right time. All these are taken for granted in most of the rest of the world.  That’s the reason why the productivity and the quality of life of the individual in most of the world is better than what you and I experience in Nigeria.

“The industry to provide this will be bigger than our oil industry. And better still, will allow us use our brains instead of relying on a commodity that makes us lazy and breeds corruption and insecurity”.

He advised the nation’s economic managers to get engaged in the conversation to diversify the Nigerian economy.

“I believe that technology offers one of the quickest routes to diversify our economy. Let us show Nigeria that technology can build a wealthier nation. A healthier nation. A more productive nation,” Onuegbu said.

 


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Nigeria CommunicationsWeek believes that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. So since 2007, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and how they affect lives.

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Trump Threatens More Strikes in Nigeria

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President Donald Trump has warned that the United States could carry out further military strikes in Nigeria if Christians continue to be killed, reigniting a sensitive debate over religious violence and foreign intervention in Africa’s most populous nation.

Trump Threatens More Strikes in Nigeria

President Donald Trump

Trump made the remarks in an interview with The New York Times, published on Thursday, while responding to questions about a US military strike carried out in Nigeria on Christmas Day.

At the time, the US military said the operation targeted Islamic State militants in north-west Nigeria and was conducted at the request of the Nigerian government.

Nigeria, however, described the operation as a joint counterterrorism effort, stressing that it was aimed at armed groups designated as terrorists and “had nothing to do with a particular religion”.

“I’d love to make it a one-time strike,” Trump was quoted as saying. “But if they continue to kill Christians, it will be a many-time strike.”

Pressed on comments by his own Africa adviser that extremist groups such as Islamic State and Boko Haram have killed more Muslims than Christians in Nigeria, Trump acknowledged that Muslims were also victims but insisted that Christians were being targeted disproportionately.

“I think that Muslims are being killed also in Nigeria. But it’s mostly Christians,” he said.

Trump has repeatedly raised alarms about the safety of Christians in Nigeria, beginning in late October when he warned that Christianity faced what he described as an “existential threat” in the country. He has accused Nigerian authorities of failing to adequately protect Christian communities and has openly threatened US military intervention if the violence continues.

Nigeria has firmly rejected claims of systematic persecution of Christians. The government maintains that the country’s security challenges are complex and largely driven by insurgency, banditry and criminal violence rather than religious targeting.

With a population of more than 230 million people, Nigeria is almost evenly divided between Christians, who are concentrated mainly in the south, and Muslims, who predominate in the north. Islamist insurgencies, particularly Boko Haram and its offshoots, have plagued parts of northern Nigeria for more than a decade, killing thousands and displacing millions.

Nigerian authorities have repeatedly pointed out that militant attacks have claimed the lives of both Muslims and Christians, arguing that framing the violence along religious lines oversimplifies the crisis and risks inflaming tensions.

Following Trump’s earlier threats, the Nigerian government said it was willing to continue cooperating with Washington in combating terrorism but rejected language suggesting that Christians alone were under threat.

The latest comments are likely to strain diplomatic relations further, as Nigeria balances its partnership with the United States against concerns over sovereignty, security cooperation and the portrayal of its internal conflicts on the global stage.


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OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Health

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OpenAI maker of ChatGPT is rolling out a health-focused feature to the generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool that’s used by nearly a billion users.

Named ChatGPT Health, the new feature aims to provide users with health and wellness information. This, as health is one of the most common ways people use ChatGPT, according to OpenAI.

In a blog post, Microsoft-backed OpenAI says de-identified analysis of conversations show that over 230 million people globally ask health and wellness-related questions on ChatGPT every week.

ChatGPT Health will also “securely” connect medical records and wellness apps to ground conversations with a user’s own health information, making responses more relevant and useful.

“Designed in close collaboration with physicians, ChatGPT Health helps people take a more active role in understanding and managing their health and wellness – while supporting, not replacing, care from clinicians.”

According to OpenAI, health information is often scattered across portals, apps, wearables, PDFs, and medical notes making it hard to see the full picture, and people are left to navigate a complex healthcare system on their own.

“ChatGPT Health builds on these so responses are informed by your health information and context. You can now securely connect medical records and wellness apps – like Apple Health, Function, and MyFitnessPal – so ChatGPT can help you understand recent test results, prepare for appointments with your doctor, get advice on how to approach your diet and workout routine, or understand the trade-offs of different insurance options based on your healthcare patterns.”

According to the company, ChatGPT Health is designed to support, not replace, medical care, adding that it is not intended for diagnosis or treatment. “Instead, it helps you navigate everyday questions and understand patterns over time – not just moments of illness – so you can feel more informed and prepared for important medical conversations.

“To keep your health information protected and secure, Health operates as a separate space with enhanced privacy to protect sensitive data. Conversations in Health are not used to train our foundation models. If you start a health-related conversation in ChatGPT, we’ll suggest moving into Health for these additional protections.”

OpenAI adds that access to ChatGPT Health has started with a small group of early users to learn and continue refining the experience, adding that users with ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans outside of the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the UK are eligible.

“As we make improvements, we plan to expand access and make Health available to all users on web and iOS in the coming weeks.

“Medical record integrations and some apps are available in the US only, and connecting Apple Health requires iOS.”


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Kaspersky Shares AI Cybersecurity Predictions for 2026

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Kaspersky experts outline how the rapid development of AI is reshaping the cybersecurity landscape in 2026, both for individual users and for businesses. Large language models (LLMs) are influencing defensive capabilities while simultaneously expanding opportunities for threat actors.

Deepfakes are becoming a mainstream technology, and awareness will continue to grow. Companies are increasingly discussing the risks of synthetic content and training employees to reduce the likelihood of falling victim to it. As the volume of deepfakes grows, so does the range of formats in which they appear.

At the same time, awareness is rising not only within organisations but also among regular users: end consumers encounter fake content more often and better understand the nature of such threats. As a result, deepfakes are becoming a stable element of the security agenda, requiring a systematic approach to training and internal policies.

Deepfake quality will improve through better audio and a lowering barrier to entry. The visual quality of deepfakes is already high, while realistic audio remains the main area for future growth.

At the same time, content generation tools are becoming easier to use: even non-experts can now create a mid-quality deepfake in just a few clicks. As a result, the average quality continues to rise, creation becomes accessible to a far broader audience, and these capabilities will inevitably continue to be leveraged by cybercriminals.

Online deepfakes will continue to evolve but remain tools for advanced users. Real-time face and voice swapping technologies are improving, but their setup still requires more advanced technical skills. Wide adoption is unlikely, yet the risks in targeted scenarios will grow: increasing realism and the ability to manipulate video through virtual cameras make such attacks more convincing.

Efforts to develop a reliable system for labelling AI-generated content will continue. There are still no unified criteria for reliably identifying synthetic content, and current labels are easy to bypass or remove, especially when working with open-source models. For this reason, new technical and regulatory initiatives aimed at addressing the problem are likely to emerge.

Open-weight models will approach top closed models in many cybersecurity-related tasks, which create more opportunities for misuse. Closed models still offer stricter control mechanisms and safeguards, limiting abuse.

However, open-source systems are rapidly catching up in functionality and circulate without comparable restrictions. This blurs the difference between proprietary models and open-source models both of which can be used efficiently for undesired or malicious purposes.

The line between legitimate and fraudulent AI-generated content will become increasingly blurred. AI can already produce well-crafted scam emails, convincing visual identities, and high-quality phishing pages.

At the same time, major brands are adopting synthetic materials in advertising, making AI-generated content look familiar and visually “normal.” As a result, distinguishing real from fake will become even more challenging, both for users and for automated detection systems.

AI will become a cross-chain tool in cyberattacks and be used across most stages of the kill chain. Threat actors already employ LLMs to write code, build infrastructure, and automate operational tasks.

Further advances will reinforce this trend: AI will increasingly support multiple stages of an attack, from preparation and communication to assembling malicious components, probing for vulnerabilities and deploying tools. Attackers will also work to hide signs of AI involvement, making such operations harder to analyse.

“While AI tools are being used in cyberattacks, they are also becoming a more common tool in security analysis and influence how SOC teams work. Agent-based systems will be able to continuously scan infrastructure, identify vulnerabilities, and gather contextual information for investigations, reducing the amount of manual routine work.

“As a result, specialists will shift from manually searching for data to making decisions based on already-prepared context. In parallel, security tools will transition to natural-language interfaces, enabling prompts instead of complex technical queries,” adds Vladislav Tushkanov, Research Development Group Manager at Kaspersky.

 


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