E-Business
The Benefits of Virtual Servers for Nigeria’s Education Institutions
If Nigeria’s universities and colleges are going to compete favourably with their counterparts across the world, they have to scale up the IT infrastructure that undergirds their operations. Virtual servers provide them with a means to achieve this, at relatively low costs.
Nigeria’s education system has recently come under significant strain. In the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic forced institutions of learning to pivot from in-person classes to online instruction. Students and educators alike had to adapt to virtual learning.
For many, this transition came with hitches. Universities struggled to organize online classes, hold tests on a digital platform, and protect results and biodata generated for candidates. Low-performance speeds were common, and downtimes were frequent.
In several of these instances, the major problems were insufficient server capacity and poor support from service providers.
An obvious solution to these problems is the adoption of virtual servers. Unlike physical servers, virtual servers can be scaled up to meet demand. This means they’re more flexible, less costly on the whole, and potentially more efficient.
What Are Virtual Servers?
A server is an infrastructure that accepts and responds to queries sent over a network. It facilitates the processing, storage, and retrieval of data or services, on the request of a ‘client’. A client is a computer other than the server that’s part of a network.
An internet server is what enables you to ask for and receive results for your web searches. It allows you to run web pages, mobile applications, and enterprise solutions. It’s the ‘pillar’ on which Operating Systems rest. In many cases, the server is hardware made up of a motherboard, CPU, RAM, and other physical components.
Virtual servers are software designed to work just like a physical server. Like the hardware, they enable the processing, storage, and delivery of data over networks. But there are important distinctions between the two.
Besides not being tangible, virtual servers can be built out of a single hardware server. You can also have Operating Systems on each virtual server. With multiple virtual resources created out of a single physical server, you could utilize a lot more capacity than you would have if you simply stuck to hardware alone.
Laying A Foundation For Efficiency
Greater capacity utilization suggests the potential for increased efficiency. This could play out in several ways, across much of a typical university’s operations.
If a college of education has a distance or remote learning program, it may improve the quality of its service delivery in this area by working with virtual servers. Thanks to the scalability and increased capacity use that it enables, the college can adjust resources to properly support its online classes.
Network disruptions are a major challenge for virtual learning in Nigeria. They are capable of truncating ongoing sessions and causing the loss of data that students and tutors consider crucial. But if universities use virtual servers, they could whip up Operating Systems with temporary instances of the data or sessions that they’ve lost. This would take just a few seconds, and ensure continuity for classes and other online activities.
Schools and higher institutions also have to keep their staff and student information safe and accessible. Often, they will set up password-protected profiles for people in either category on web portals. If it’s a large database (perhaps containing details for tens of thousands of people), robust storage and query response capabilities may be required to maintain it.
Profile updates will also be expected for things like session fees, course registration, and test results. The traffic to these pages could surge at the start or end of terms or sessions. Because virtual servers are scalable, universities can boost capacity to accommodate increases in traffic at these times, and prevent portal crashes.
Higher Cost Savings And Greater Security
Given the nature of the Nigerian market for educational services, institutions of higher learning in the country are likely to appreciate offers that reduce their running expenses.
Virtual servers avail them of this possibility. As has already been noted, it’s much easier to scale up virtual server capacity than it is to add more physical servers. The organizations that use it can request a ramp up or scale down of capacity, to fit with current demand. This way, they only pay for the resources they utilize.
Security is a big concern as well. Polytechnics and universities hold a vast trove of staff and student information. Unless these systems holding this information are protected, they become open targets for cybercriminals. Thankfully, IaaS providers take care of a lot of this with endpoint protection. This typically forms part of their agreement with the client organization (in this case, education institutions).
These institutions still have a stake in shoring up their defenses. They can do this by limiting access with passwords and other means of authentication, monitoring traffic for potential DDoS attacks, installing and updating malware protection, and performing regular data backups.
vServer: A Private Virtual Server for Organizations Seeking Flexibility
If you are a university or polytechnic that maintains a large and growing database, you need a Virtual Private Server (VPS) that’s secure and easily scalable.
That’s what Layer3 offers with its vServer solution. It’s designed for organizations that want a direct say in the management of their network resources. Unlike the limited scope available from hosting companies, vServer gives its user institutions greater control of their websites and databases.
What’s more, vServer comes with features and add-ons like a web hosting control panel, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), and vulnerability detection. Layer3 also has a straightforward customer onboarding process and provides round-the-clock support for clients. There are no setup fees and no vendor lock-ins.
The costs involved are within reach as well. And because Layer3 operates within Nigeria, clients don’t have to pay for its services in foreign currency. It saves them the difficulties associated with fluctuating exchange rates.
If you would like to find out more about the virtual server solution from Layer3, you can click here to request a free demo.
Nigeria has emerged as one of Africa’s most regulated online gambling markets, even as illegal operators continue to dominate the continent, according to a new report by Gaming Compliance International (GCI).
The report, the first comprehensive assessment of online gambling across all 54 African countries, showed that Africa’s online gambling Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) reached $23 billion in 2025.
However, only $5.2 billion (23 per cent) was generated by licensed operators, while $17.8 billion (77 per cent) remained in the unregulated market.
In West Africa, total online gambling revenue rose to $4.8 billion in 2025 from $4.3 billion in 2024. Of the 2025 figure, regulated operators accounted for $1.5 billion (31 per cent), while $3.3 billion (69 per cent) flowed to unlicensed platforms, highlighting the region’s persistent enforcement challenges.
Nigeria stood out as the region’s strongest performer, recording the lowest unregulated market share at 56 per cent, compared with the West African average of 69 per cent and the African average of 77 per cent.
The study also found that online gambling participation across Africa increased from 198 million people (13 per cent of the population) in 2024 to 215 million (14 per cent) in 2025.
Despite this growth, GCI estimated that illegal operators deprived African governments of about $3.55 billion in tax revenue in 2025. The number of unlicensed gambling platforms targeting African consumers also rose to 4,129, up from 3,644 in 2024.
Commenting on the findings, Matt Holt, chief executive officer, GCI, said the report provides regulators with the first continent-wide benchmark for strengthening oversight and consumer protection.
Ismail Vali, president, GCI, urged governments to develop competitive and well-regulated markets that encourage consumers to patronise licensed operators, boost public revenue and attract greater investment.
Online gambling in Nigeria is regulated by the Nation Lottery Regulatory Commission.
At the height of the Northern Hemisphere tourist season, demand for communications and mobile Internet services rises sharply. Kaspersky’s security experts have uncovered scams that target anyone purchasing mobile connections or SIM cards worldwide.
Fraudsters create counterfeit websites that look like the portals of major regional and international telecom providers to trick users into revealing their phone numbers, personal details or banking information.
Kaspersky is sharing several examples of these fake login pages that mimic legitimate telecom operator sites and giving recommendations on how not to be deceived.
In the first case, scammers exploit the brand name of an international telecommunications company operating services in Asia, Africa and Europe. Fake authentication pages encourage users to put in their phone number and credentials.
While the first example shows the different design, the second scam site closely mimics the original log in page, making it hard for users to tell the difference and spot a fake. Entering authentication or payment data on fraudulent web sites may result in money or data loss and become a reason for more frequent spam and fraudulent calls.
Another example is a scam page which poses as another international communications company, working in North Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. In this scheme scammers encourage users to top up their mobile data/Internet plans by entering their personal information and bank cards details.
Kaspersky experts have also identified a scam when cyber criminals suggest users enter their personal data to check and pay a bill inquiry. Such scam schemes are usually aimed at gaining victims’ personal data for further fraud or account hacking and stealing money.
“Because of the active use of AI, scammers can now create fake pages with ever increasing accuracy and speed, targeting the most popular user interest areas. We constantly see scams revolving around sports events, music concerts, seasonal sales and holidays. Unfortunately, the telecoms industry is no exception.
To keep your data and money safe, be vigilant when purchasing mobile or Internet plans online. Using an eSIM – purchased through an official app – is one way to avoid fake telecom sites, as it eliminates the need to enter personal details on questionable web pages.
If you’re unsure about a site’s legitimacy, search for the brand name directly in a search engine and enable a security solution that blocks phishing links for you,” comments Tatyana Kulikova, cybersecurity expert at Kaspersky.
In a strategic push to bridge the gender digital divide, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has partnered with the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) to advance women’s digital inclusion and drive the nation’s transformation agenda.
Dr Aristotle Onumo and some NITDA staff, pose for a group photograph with the President of the National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Comrade Aisha Ibrahim, and members of the delegation following a strategic engagement at the Agency’s Headquarters in Abuja.
The partnership was cemented during a courtesy visit to NITDA Director General, Kashifu Inuwa, CCIE, by a NAWOJ delegation led by National President Comrade Aishatu Ibrahim, who introduced the agency to the forthcoming Women in Security (WINSEC) Summit & Awards 2026.
Inuwa, represented by Dr. Aristotle Onumo, the Director of the Stakeholders Management and Partnerships Department, assured the association that NITDA would not only participate in the conference, but also support the success of the conference.
Inuwa hailed the NAWOJ for creating a platform for peacebuilding, dialogue on security and women’s inclusion, which he described as one of the critical areas NITDA is focused on to ensure that more women obtain digital literacy and skills under the National Gender Inclusive Strategy.
Beyond NITDA’s plan to participate in the conference, the DG noted that a robust partnership between the organisations would engender meaningful opportunities and initiatives through which many more women can access digital literacy.
“Inclusivity is the key to everything we do at NITDA. We clearly defined that 40 per cent of our programmes must recognise the issue of gender. We ensure that women are adequately represented and positioned to benefit greatly from the programmes that we organise in the agency.
“We graciously accept to participate actively in that conference. Apart from acquiring skills among journalists themselves, partnership with NAWOJ will also serve as a platform through which we can also reach out to various women’s groups across the federation,” Inuwa said.
Earlier, Comrade Ibrahim commended the DG for his visionary and transformational leadership which has continued to position NITDA as the catalyst for Nigeria’s digital economy through its various programmes.
She explained that the Women in Security (WINSEC) Summit and Awards 2026 is an initiative of NAWOJ designed to promote collaboration among government institutions, security agencies, technology experts, the media, and other stakeholders to address contemporary security challenges.
According to Comrade Ibrahim, the association also aims to recognise outstanding individuals and institutions that have demonstrated excellence in security, governance, and innovation while fostering meaningful dialogue on the role of technology in building a safer and more resilient Nigeria.
“We deeply appreciate your exemplary leadership, passion for innovation, and unwavering commitment to building a digitally empowered Nigeria. We respectfully invite the agency to partner with NAWOJ in making this landmark initiative a success.
“We look forward to establishing a long-term partnership with NITDA that will empower women journalists with cutting-edge digital skills, support digital inclusion and contribute to innovation, digital literacy, and human capital development,” the NAWOJ president added.
Both organisations expressed optimism that the meeting would lay a solid foundation for a rewarding partnership agreement with specific and clearly defined objectives that will support digital inclusion and contribute to innovation, digital literacy, and human capital development.
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