E-Business
Airtel Aligns with Huawei, Microsoft to Launch Windows 8 Smartphone
Airtel Nigeria, leading telecommunications service provider, has partnered with Huawei and Microsoft to unveil Ascend W1, its first Smartphone that runs on the Microsoft windows Phone 8 operating systems.
The latest Huawei Ascend W1 smartphone comes bundled with free 200 Megabytes (MB) data plan for the first 6 months on the Airtel network.
In addition, customers who purchase the phone would also enjoy Airtel’s special Smartbytes plan of 20 free SMS, 18K per second calls to all networks in Nigeria and 20k per second call rate to 5 international destinations (USA, United Kingdom-Land Line, Canada, India and China).
Speaking at the launch, Inusa Bello, chief sales officer for Airtel Nigeria, said the company was proud to collaborate with Huawei in providing Nigerians with innovative mobile experience especially on superior data offerings, to enhance the way they work and play.
“Only recently, we unveiled a special recharge card called the Single Recharge that enables customers to do both voice and data recharge using one card. Today, WhatsApp subscribers on Airtel platform are enjoying exclusive first of its kind data bundle service in partnership with “WhatsApp Inc. These innovations ride on our superior and widest 3.75g service, underscoring our determination to become the most loved brand in the daily lives of Nigerians”, Bello stated.
According to Tony Liang Wei, managing director, Huawei Devices, West Africa, “the phone is specifically created for Africa and is powered by Microsoft, making it the first Huawei Windows 8 smart phone in the world.
He added that the smart phone has 470 hours of standby time, the longest of all Smartphone’s in its class.”
Emmanuel Onyeje, country manager, Microsoft Anglophone West Africa, stated: “Microsoft is confident that the Ascend 1 from Huawei, being unveiled today, provides excellent value for African consumers and will support both companies’ ambitious growth plans for the continent.
We recently made a commitment through the 4Afrika Initiative to deliver tens of millions of smart devices into the hands of Africans in the coming years, and every new Windows Phone that becomes available further enables us to deliver on that commitment”.
The Ascend W1 is 10.15 mm thin and features a 4-inch IPS LCD 480 x 800 touchscreen with OGS Technology, powered by the high-end Qualcomm Snapdragon™ S4 MSM8230 dual-core 1.2 GHz processor and Adreno 305 GPU. With a 1950 mAh battery, the Ascend W1 has 470 hours of standby time, the longest among all smartphones in its class.
It features a visually iconic design inspired by a tropical island and comes in an array of bold colors including blue, red, black and white. The Ascend W1 is a smart and stylish alternative for consumers looking for great technology at a price that is right.
E-Business
Transcorp Hotels Delivers Stellar H1 Results, Declares Over ₦1Bn Dividend

Transcorp Hotels Plc has delivered a stellar performance in the first half of 2025, recording a 60% year-on-year surge in revenue to ₦47.57 billion, up from ₦29.72 billion in H1 2024. Gross profit climbed 71% to ₦36.21 billion, maintaining a strong 76% margin despite inflation and operational headwinds.
The hospitality giant, a subsidiary of Transnational Corporation Plc, also announced an interim dividend payout of ₦1.024 billion — offering ₦0.10 per 50 kobo ordinary share to shareholders.
In a bold move, the company unveiled Nigeria’s largest corporate venue — the 5,000-seat Transcorp Centre — staking its claim as the new leader in event hospitality. Chairman Emmanuel Nnorom described the results as proof of Transcorp Hotels’ transformative strategies and unwavering investor commitment. MD/CEO Uzo Oshogwe attributed the success to relentless execution and a resilient business model.
Transcorp Hotels, renowned for iconic assets like Transcorp Hilton Abuja and its digital platform Aura, says it isn’t just leading Nigeria’s hospitality sector — it’s redefining excellence across Africa.
E-Business
Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.
China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.
The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.
“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.
The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.
It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.
Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.
Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.
Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.
A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.
“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.
Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.
Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.
It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.
Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.
E-Business
NIMC Warns Nigerians of Fake NIN Website

National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued a public warning that it is not associated with NINcard.com.
According to the commission, the website has been circulating online to offer services for Nigerians seeking National Identification Number (NIN) services.
NIMC, in a post on its official X account on Wednesday, said, “NINcard.com is not in anyway affiliated to NIMC. Stay vigilant!”
The warning was accompanied by screenshots of fake payment receipts and OTP request pages from the website, both of which were boldly stamped “FAKE” by NIMC to alert the public.
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