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Digital Encode Scoops 7 Awards @ BoICT 2020
Digital Encode, a leading consulting and integration firm, has received industry-wide accolades, for the specialties in the design, management and security of business-critical networks, telecommunications environment and other IT infrastructures, in Nigeria and indeed Africa.
After receiving massive votes, the team from Digital Encode received standing ovation at the year 2020 Beacon of Information and Communications Technology (BoICT) Lecture/Awards held on Saturday, November 28, 2020 at Eko Hotel Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.
A range of awards won by Digital Encode Limited and the Co-Founders: Dr, Adewale Obadare and Dr. Oluseyi Akindeinde, at the 2020 BoICT Lecture/Awards held in Lagos over the weekend.
On a corporate level, Digital Encode was named the Cybersecurity Company of the Decade. Communications Week Media Limited, organisers of the award also disclosed that Digital Encode was voted the Compliance Advisory Company of the Decade.
At Digital Encode, technology serves two purposes: to save money and solve a problem.
To this end, the company has been recognized in the industry for its vendor independent perspective and expertise that lies in solving multifaceted, complex enterprise network security and audit problems.
Today, Digital Encode is notable for its effective and successful methodology for achieving compliance to ISO 27001 (IMS); ISO 20000 (ITIL), ISO 22301 (BCM), ISO 9001 (QMS) and several other international compliance standards such as COBIT and PCI DSS compliance.
The duo – Dr. Obadare and Dr. Akindeinde received (joint) Nigeria CommunicationsWeek Man of the Year award.
Digital Encode Limited and the Co-Founders: Dr, Adewale Peter Obadare (L) and Dr. Oluseyi Akindeinde (3rd right) receiving the Nigeria CommunicationsWeek ‘Man of the Year award’. On hand to present the award are the former President of the Institute of Software Practitioner of Nigeria (ISPON – 3rd left), Chris Uwaje and the Publisher of the Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, Ken Nwogbo (L), at the 2020 BoICT Lecture/Awards held in Lagos over the weekend.
Dr. Obadare Peter Adewale is arguably the most “Credentialed” and Multi-Award winning Pan- African Cybersecurity & GRC Thought Leader, He is a Fellow British Computer Society (FBCS), Fellow Institute of Management Consultants (FIMC), Fellow Institute of Information Management (FIIM), Fellow Enterprise Security Risk Management (FESRM), Fellow Institute of Brand Management (FIBM), Chartered Information Technology Professional (CITP), The First PECB Certified Data Protection Officer (CDPO) in Nigeria, The First Ec-Council Licensed Penetration Tester (LPT) in Africa, First Ec-Council Certified Blockchain in Africa, and Second COBIT 5 Certified Assessor in Africa Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Qualified Security Assessor (PCI DSS QSA).
He is a seasoned cybersecurity Expert and GRC Technopreneur with over 50 (Fifty) international professional certifications to his credit and was awarded Honorary Doctorate Degree in Cybersecurity from Trinity International University of Ambassadors Atlanta Georgia, United State of America.
Dr. Oluseyi Akindeinde has 18 years working experience in the IT and Information Security arena, but has spent the better part of the last few years exploring the security issues faced by Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) and the Financial Transaction Systems (FTS).
He has mostly presented the outcome of his research works at several conferences; including the Information Security Society of Africa Nigeria (ISSAN), the E-Payment Forum, the Electronic Payment Providers Association, the Forum of the Committee of Chief Inspectors of Banks in Nigeria (CCIBN), Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), the apex bank – Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as well as the senior management of 17 top financial institutions in Nigeria.
Presenting the awards to the recipients, Former President, Institute of Software Practitioner of Nigeria (ISPON) and the current MD of Mobile Software Solutions, Chris Uwaje, (Oracle), described Digital Encode as a ‘fruitful seed’ that has distinguished itself in the African cybersecurity space.
Digital Encode Co-Founders – Dr. Adewale Peter Obadare & Dr. Oluseyi Akindeinde receiving Digital Encode’s Cybersecurity Company of the Decade at BoICT Award 2020 as presented by the President, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), Muhammad Rudman, at the 2020 BoICT Lecture/Awards held in Lagos over the weekend.
“I recall that team Dr. Obadare and Dr. Akindeinde are members of the team Nigeria in 2012 CyberLympics. That team conquered Africa and won gold at the global level. They repeated the feat in 2015.
“Today, see how far Digital Encode has gone; they have demonstrated resilience, skills and understanding of that space. I am super-proud of the team. The future is even brighter”, he said.
Ken Nwogbo, publisher/editor in-chief, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, said that the awards are testaments to Digital Encode’s critical role in the Continent’s cybersecurity space.
He said that the co-founders are well-recognized subject matter experts with numerous successful engagements to their credit in Africa.
Earlier in his keynote presentation titled: “Cybersecurity and its Critical Role in Nigeria Economy”, Dr. Obadare, said that cybersecurity can take Nigeria out of recession.
According to him, Nigeria needs to engage the digital natives more as IT is, presently, the elephant in the house that cannot be ignored.
“Check Point has predicted that next global crisis will be the Cyber Pandemic. Much is at stake.
“Thus, Cyber Crime is currently the 3rd biggest economy after U.S. and China as can be deduced from the rising losses which are put at $10.5trillion by 2025; according to Cybersecurity Ventures”, he said.
Co-Founder/COO of Digital Encode Limited, Dr. Adewale Peter Obadare, delivering BoICT keynote lecture at the Award ceremony held in Lagos over the weekend.
Obadare, who said that the keyboard is the new knife, stressed that Nigeria’s software industry should be bigger than it is today.
“Therefore, there is a need to build capacity to compete internationally”, he said while thanking Nigeria CommunicationsWeek for the Digital Encode at this year’s BoICT Lecture/Awards.
On his part, Dr Akindeinde, said that while every well-meaning Nigeria must condemn cybercrimes in the strongest of terms, however, the Company is concerned with the need to harvest the talents of our youngsters and transform them to become more productive to the economy and themselves.
“We have just been told that the global market needs 4 million skilled cybersecurity experts. Nigeria can benefit from this big time. So, we feel really honoured by the awards and testimonies shared here today. Our promise is to keep raising the bar”, he added.
Also present at the award include; President, Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Engr, Ikechukwu Nnamani; President, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), Mr. Muhammad Rudman; the President of ISPON was represented by the GMD of Fintrak Software, Mr. Bimbo Abioye, amongst other dignitaries.
Mr. Kashifu Inuwa, Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has urged Northern Nigeria to pivot urgently from traditional commerce to an innovation-driven digital economy for sustainable growth.
NITDA
Inuwa issued the call at the Future Map Foundation Roundtable 1.0 (North-West Edition) in Kano, attributing the region’s sluggish digital adoption not to talent deficits but to the lack of deliberate, coordinated strategies.
He stressed deeper collaboration across academia, private sector players, entrepreneurs, and government, positioning the private sector as the primary innovation engine while government supplies robust policies and an enabling ecosystem.
Inuwa advocated for people-focused, locally tailored innovations that tackle regional challenges head-on, enabling global competitiveness by transitioning from mere technology users to creators of homegrown solutions.
The roundtable convened policymakers, tech founders, and ecosystem stakeholders to forge a comprehensive roadmap for North-West digital transformation, yielding firm commitments to bolster regional innovation policies and public-private synergies.
Inuwa’s push dovetails seamlessly with the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which sets an ambitious target of 95 per cent nationwide digital literacy by 2030, fostering inclusive economic empowerment.
Participants hailed the forum as a pivotal step toward unlocking Northern Nigeria’s tech potential, with NITDA poised to lead implementation through strategic interventions and partnerships.
Samsung Electronics plans to double this year the number of its mobile devices with “Galaxy AI” features largely powered by Google’s Gemini, its co-CEO said, which would give the U.S. firm an edge over rivals as the global race in artificial intelligence heats up.
The South Korean company, which had rolled out Gemini-backed AI features to about 400 million mobile products, including smartphones and tablets, by last year, plans to boost that figure to 800 million in 2026.
“We will apply AI to all products, all functions, and all services as quickly as possible,” T M Roh told Reuters in his first interview since becoming Samsung Electronics co-CEO in November.
The plan by the world’s largest backer of Google’s Android mobile platform is set to give a major boost to its developer Google, which is locked in a race with OpenAI and others to attract more consumer users to their AI model.
Samsung seeks to reclaim its lost crown from Apple in the smartphone market and fend off competition from Chinese rivals not only in mobile telephones, but televisions and home appliances, all overseen by Roh.
It will offer integrated AI services across consumer products to widen its lead over Apple in such features, though the latter was set to be the top smartphone maker last year, according to market researcher Counterpoint.
AI Race
Alphabet’s Google launched the latest version of Gemini in November, highlighting Gemini 3’s lead on several popular industry measures of AI model performance.
In response to Gemini 3, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly issued an internal “code red,” pausing non-core projects and redirecting teams to accelerate development. The ChatGPT maker launched its GPT-5.2 AI model a few weeks later.
Roh expects the adoption of AI to accelerate, as Samsung’s surveys on awareness of its Galaxy AI brand jumped to a level of 80% from about 30% in just one year.
“Even though the AI technology might seem a bit doubtful right now, within six months to a year, these technologies will become more widespread,” he said.
MENXTT NG, a leading technology distributor, has announced plans to bundle Bitdefender Antivirus software with all laptops sold in Nigeria starting 2026, aiming to enhance cybersecurity for consumers and businesses.
MENXTT NG
As an authorised reseller of Bitdefender, the company said the initiative would ensure devices meet global security standards right from purchase, addressing rising cyber threats in personal, educational, and corporate sectors.
Bitdefender, a globally recognised antivirus solution, offers advanced threat detection against viruses, malware, ransomware, spyware, and phishing; lightweight performance without impacting device speed; multi-layered ransomware protection; safe browsing features; and certifications from independent testing bodies.
Anthony Emeka Nwosu, Co-Founder of MENXTT NG, stated: “At MENXTT NG, we pride ourselves on offering some of the best laptops, smartphones, and gadgets in the market.
“These devices power businesses, education, and daily life, and it is only right that they are properly protected. By partnering with Bitdefender, we are ensuring our customers enjoy world-class security alongside world-class devices.”
The move, according to industry analysts, positions MENXTT NG as a solutions provider in Nigeria’s tech market, bridging global best practices with local needs amid accelerating digital adoption.
MENXTT NG described the bundling as part of its strategy to deliver complete technology solutions and build customer trust.
For enquiries: +234 814 090 2614; www.menxtt.cm.ng; [email protected].
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