Telecom
Lenovo Maintains Status as Top OEM in the Traditional PC Space Ahead of HP, Dell & Apple

Preliminary results from International Data Corporation’s Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker for the fourth quarter of 2018 (4Q18) shows shipments of traditional PCs (desktop, notebook, and workstation) totaled just over 68.1 million units, marking a decline of 3.7% in year-on-year terms.
The results slightly outperformed the forecast, which called for a decline of 4.7%, but also produced the largest year-on-year decline since the third quarter of 2016 (3Q16) and capped the full year at a nearly flat rate of -0.4%.
Heading into the quarter there was industry-wide concern over processor shortages and rising economic tensions between the U.S. and China.
Aggressive stocking of inventory during the previous quarter (3Q18) in anticipation of the shortage led to some sell-through challenges, driving a reduction of Q4 shipments in some regions.
The fourth quarter is typically oriented toward consumer promotions that help drive the industry’s biggest quarter of the year, but the confluence of events in 2018 led to the lowest sequential growth for a holiday quarter since the fourth quarter of 2012.
Nonetheless, the market performed better than expected, with corporate PC refresh – driven by the looming Windows 7 end of life (EOL) in January 2020 – helping to offset consumer market challenges.
Japan had an especially strong quarter driven by commercial refresh, which lifted virtually all aspects of the market.
All regions except the U.S. exceeded the forecast, although Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) faced challenges from a difficult Chinese commercial environment.
Maciek Gornicki, research manager with IDC’s Asia/Pacific Client Devices Group,said “The ongoing economic tensions between China and the United States continue to create a lot of uncertainty in the business environment in China.
“As demand for Chinese products in the U.S. drops, this particularly impacts businesses of all sizes from the manufacturing sector in China, which, in turn, translates to a drop in IT purchases by these companies.
“As a result, the PC market in China is expected to suffer bigger declines throughout the year.
“And if the trade war escalates further, we should expect spillover of the impact to other countries, particularly due to the expected fluctuations of the exchange rates impacting businesses across the region.”
Neha Mahajan, senior research analyst with IDC’s Devices and Displays Group, said “As the U.S. PC market, especially the lower-end, continued to suffer from the ongoing shortfall of Intel CPUs, overall PC sales took a hit during the fourth quarter of 2018.
“While the processor supply challenges are expected to continue into the first two quarters of 2019, PC makers are likely to see the situation improve before the back-to-school season begins during the latter half of the year.”
Regional Highlights shows that the traditional PC market in the U.S. saw a modest uptick in volume from the year prior.
Total shipments for the quarter reached 16.7 million units, which was slightly below forecast.
Commercial shipments remained fairly robust during the quarter, thanks to the ongoing Windows 10 refresh cycle.
While market leader HP saw its year-over-year volumes modestly decline (despite a quarter-over-quarter improvement), the other top five vendors mostly saw volumes improve.
Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA): The traditional PC market was negative in 4Q18 for the first time in six quarters with both desktop and notebooks reporting a moderate decline.
This weakening of the market stemmed from the ongoing component shortages and was further impacted by a level of disruption and uncertainty arising from challenging geopolitical and economic scenarios within major economies in the region.
Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) (APeJ): The traditional PC market in APeJ posted a single-digit decline in 4Q18, which was relatively close to IDC’s forecast.
Overstock in the channels, coupled with Intel CPU shortages, impacted sell-in across the region.
In India, a significant drop in consumer demand together with high inventory remaining in the channels led to a stronger than expected decline in the consumer and SMB segments, while Intel supply shortages led to a drop in sales to the enterprise customers.
In China, the commercial PC market came in below expectations, impacted by Intel CPU shortages and slowness in spending from the public sector, while U.S.-China trade issues had a negative effect on demand from the private sector.
Japan: Corporate Windows 10 refresh entered its final phase and helped to beat expectations for 4Q18, with growth among virtually all OEMs, although multinational OEMs reaped most of the benefits.
While Company Highlights reveals that Lenovo maintained its status as the top OEM in the traditional PC space, and one of only two top 5 companies to post growth in the quarter compared to a year ago. Its U.S. operation continued to recover from a year ago.
In APeJ, Lenovo felt increased pressure from HP and Dell, and posted the largest decline within the region among the three vendors.
HP Inc. declined 3.2% worldwide mostly due to a challenging quarter in the Americas.
The company fell below market growth in the U.S. where unfavorable comparisons arose due to strong results in 4Q17.
At the same time the company weathered the APeJ market slide better than many of its rivals and tieda with Lenovo in global market share for all of 2018.
Dell Inc. had the strongest year-on-year growth among the top OEMs at 1.6% for the quarter and ended 2018 growing 5.6% over 2017, also the strongest among the top OEMs.
Apple remained in the fourth position with market share of 7.2% and year-on-year growth of -3.8%. Both desktop and notebook shipments saw year-on-year declines in 4Q18.
Acer Group took fifth place with market share of 6.7% and a year-on-year decline of 8.5%. Acer continues to compete in the gaming space, which remains a big focus for the company in 2019, but challenges within the component constraints likely affected its overall consumer business in 4Q18.
Telecom
Flutterwave Announces Massive Staff Shake-Up, Promotes Over 100 Employees

Flutterwave has announced a company-wide employee support package that includes promotions for about 25 per cent of its global workforce, a one-off economic relief payment and enhanced support measures for employees in Nigeria.

The fintech company said more than 100 employees across its global operations had been promoted as part of efforts to reward performance and strengthen employee welfare.
In addition, all staff worldwide will receive a one-time economic relief payment, while employees in Nigeria will benefit from additional tax support and cost-of-living adjustments following recent regulatory changes affecting take-home pay.
The company said the initiative was introduced in response to rising living costs across key markets, particularly in Nigeria, where inflation and increased transportation expenses have placed pressure on household incomes.
Speaking on the development, Olugbenga Agboola, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flutterwave, described employees as the driving force behind the company’s growth and innovation.
“I often say our people are our secret sauce. They are the ultimate engine behind everything we build, giving us the capacity to create solutions that power businesses, unlock opportunities and move money seamlessly across Africa and beyond,” he said.
According to the company, the support measures form part of its broader strategy to improve staff welfare, retain talent and create an environment where employees can focus on their work without undue financial pressure.
Also speaking, Annette Akpolo said the initiative reflects a balance between rewarding individual performance and addressing the collective needs of employees.
“Our goal has always been to build an environment where our people can focus on doing their best work, rather than being weighed down by economic anxiety.
“Pairing merit-based individual growth with supporting the collective needs of the whole team are both essential parts of how we build a company culture where people genuinely want to stay and grow over the long term,” she said.
Founded in 2016, Flutterwave is marking its 10th anniversary in 2026.
The company disclosed that it has processed more than one billion transactions and facilitated over 40 billion dollars in total payment value globally since inception.
Flutterwave also reported strong growth across its payment channels, including a 289 per cent increase in wallet-based collections by transaction volume and a 184 per cent rise in bank transfer value over the past year.
The company attributed the growth to increasing adoption of local payment methods across its operating markets.
Industry observers note that the latest employee support package comes amid increasing competition for skilled talent in Nigeria’s fintech sector, where firms are adjusting compensation and benefits to retain workers in the face of rising living costs.
Agboola said future growth opportunities within the company would continue to be based on performance, leadership and meaningful contributions to its mission.
“At Flutterwave, growth is earned through meaningful contributions to the business and to the mission we are building together.
“As we continue to grow, the people who will shape our future are those who consistently step up, solve hard problems, support others and move the company forward,” he said.
Telecom
NCC Retains Rudman as Chair of Newly Inaugurated IPv6 Council Board, Urges Advancement of Nigeria’s Digital Migration

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has officially inaugurated the new board of the Nigerian Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) Council in Ikeja, Lagos. Mr. Muhammed Rudman, Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), will continue to serve as Chairman.

This inauguration marks a significant milestone for Nigeria’s telecommunications sector, as global demand for IPv4 now exceeds the available IPv4 address space.
Following the event, Rudman acknowledged the contributions of former board members, including Olusola Teniola (former President, ATCON), Funke Opeke (Founder, MainOne), Mary Uduma (former President, NiRA), and Lanre Ajayi (past President, ATCON), emphasizing that their involvement was instrumental in establishing the nation’s foundational IPv6 migration efforts.
Rudman noted that membership in the IPv6 Council is institution-based. The reconstituted board includes Mr. Muhammed Rudman as Chairman and a representative from the NCC as Co-Chairman. Institutional representatives from NITDA, ATCON, NIRA, ALTON, ISPON, and NgREN serve as board members, with Dr. Chris Uwaje and Prof. Latif Ladid acting as Advisers. This group is responsible for leading the nationwide migration from IPv4 to IPv6.
“The transition to IPv6 is a strategic national priority. It is essential for enabling Nigeria’s digital transformation, economic growth, and global competitiveness. The council’s strategy identifies IPv6 as a primary catalyst for national development, focusing on three pillars: supporting emerging technologies such as 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT), promoting economic diversification, and providing enhanced security and performance compared to legacy solutions such as Network Address Translation (NAT),” Rudman stated.
To achieve these objectives, the council’s action plan is structured around two primary initiatives: awareness-raising and capacity-building. The board will prioritize promoting national awareness of IPv6 through targeted events and workshops, while also providing IPv6 training to network engineers across various operators, including ISPs, telecommunications companies, educational institutions, and financial organizations. These efforts are expected to facilitate the acquisition and deployment of IPv6 throughout Nigerian networks.
The council will develop and oversee the national IPv6 strategy, monitor adoption across sectors, and report regularly to the Federal Government. Additionally, the council will identify technical challenges, strengthen local engineering capacity, and recommend regulatory measures to encourage ISPs, telecommunications operators, academic institutions, and enterprises to upgrade.
With the Nigeria IPv6 Council now operational, local enterprises and network providers are required to upgrade their systems to sustain the nation’s position in the global digital landscape.
Telecom
MTN, ALTON, Upperlink, NiRA back 2026 Nigeria DigitalSENSE forum, awards

Leading telecommunications, technology, and internet governance stakeholders have thrown their weight behind the 16th milestone edition of the annual Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum (NDSF) on Internet Governance for Development (IG4D), scheduled to hold on Thursday, June 11, 2026, at the Welcome Centre Hotels, Ikeja-Lagos.

The high-profile convergence, organized by pioneer tech-media firm ITREALMS Media and hosted by DigitalSENSE Africa (DSA); an ICANN-certified At-Large Structure, will center its discourse on the national theme: “Sustaining WSIS Vision with Multistakeholder Synergy in Nigeria.”
Confirming their corporate backing and institutional participation are industry giants including ICT infrastructure leader MTN Nigeria; the Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON); premier software and DNS infrastructure firm Upperlink Limited; and the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA).
Speaking on the preparations, the Lead Convener of NDSF and Group Executive Editor of ITREALMS Media Group, Ogbuefi Remmy Nweke, KSM, stated that the 2026 forum marks a crucial trajectory in examining how local multi-stakeholder synergy can sustain the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) frameworks to accelerate Nigeria’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) and domain economy.
“We are delighted to have the robust support of critical ecosystem drivers like MTN, ALTON, Upperlink, and NiRA. Their participation underscores the vital importance of multi-stakeholder dialogue in addressing contemporary policy, infrastructure growth, digital rights, and the transition into more advanced, secure digital spaces,” Nweke said.
A major highlight of this year’s forum will be that it will hold under the distinguished chairmanship of industry veteran, Dr. Olusola Teniola (hon), as approved by the Board of Directorate and the Central Committee. Under his chairmanship, the forum will also feature the presentation of the prestigious DigitalSENSE Africa 2026 awards to distinguished players in the ecosystem and corporate technology landscape across the continent.
The forum’s comprehensive agenda will feature high-level plenaries and technical sessions led by seasoned industry experts. Key areas of discourse will cut across the role of regulatory organs in the digital economy, bridging innovation gaps, leveraging Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for SME growth, digital rights, and data protection.
The organizers have invited additional internet stakeholders, including civil society organizations (CSOs), academia, young innovators, women in tech, and industry professionals, to maximize the networking and advocacy windows presented by this 16th edition.
With corporate sponsorship tiers spanning Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze partnerships now actively filling up, corporate brand materials and production collaterals are expected to reach the NDSF secretariat on or before Thursday, June 4, 2026, to guarantee technical alignment.
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