General News
Basis for Underdevelopment is Lack of Knowledge – Ajayi

Engineer Lanre Ajayi is the president of the Nigerian Internet Group and the managing director of Pinet Informatics. He started his career with Nitel where he worked for 11 years before starting Pinet Informatics as part of his contribution to the development of the sector. He spoke to funmi ilesanmi on a wide range of industry issues.
NIG Increasing Internet Penetration in Nigeria
The Nigerian Internet Group has devised a couple of strategies to ensure that we boost Internet penetration in the country and out of all our activities and strategies, we consider policy advocacy as a prime one. It is through policy advocacy that we can get input into government policies that will facilitate quick roll out of Internet services in the country. The roll out of Internet services that is not limited to the urban areas but extends to the rural areas, so we tend to participate actively in the process of policy formulation. We attend meetings with government, we submit memoranda, we attend public hearings where we new things are being discussed and we tend to help government fashion out policies that will ensure appropriate and adequate penetration of Internet in the country. We also do a lot of sensitization, creating public awareness through workshops, conferences and we generally highlight the importance of the Internet, how it can benefit individuals and the nation as a whole. We also showcase the potentials of the Internet in the improvement of social and economic well being and of late we have been focusing on the need for Nigerians to adopt the Internet as a tool for job creation and as a tool for wealth creation. It is in view of this that we launched an initiative called the Internet for Jobs (I4J) initiative to sensitize people on the power of the Internet to crate jobs for out teeming unemployed population.
Government’s Response to NIG Advocacy Activities
The government’s response has not been bad. They have been generous in inviting us to some of these for a where policies are being formulated. Specifically we were part of the process that came up with the new Information Technology Policy that will replace the existing policy and we had the opportunity to give our inputs. For giving us this kind of opportunities in presenting our perspective, we want to say that the government has been responding positively and we can see that some of the policies that we have particularly the telecoms policy have been proven to be quite good. The policy espouses deregulation, liberalization and all private sector led economy and we can see today that that has worked to a large extent and has created the right environment for investors to put their money down for the roll out of telecoms services and Internet services. Some of the policies we have can be considered good because government was gracious enough to accept inputs from various sectors including the Nigerian Internet Group in formulating some of these policies.
Position of Internet for Jobs Initiative
It is essentially about awareness creation, to let people know that you can make a living by using the Internet positively. Sensitization is an ongoing thing, the more we talk about it, the more we drive into people’s subconscious the opportunities on the Internet in creating jobs. It is an ongoing process, we only need to talk about it using every opportunity we have and I want to believe that people are listening to us. There are a number of moves by people to start their online businesses, which is quite encouraging to us and that is a proof that our I4J campaign is working.
Centralising Campaigns in Urban Areas
Yes, the NIG office might be located in Lagos and our activities might concentrate more in urban areas, our conferences, workshops and seminars but through the use of the media, I believe we can extend that campaign to the rural areas. Newspapers do get to the rural areas, radio and television stations are listened to and watched in the rural areas so by that some of our campaigns also get to these areas. We may not have the resources to move into every rural area in Nigeria but through the use of the media we believe we can reach out to people in rural areas and spread the gospel about the need to use the Internet for job creation.
Why Are Government Activities Still Paper Based?
Yes, I am as disappointed as you are. We expect government to take a lead in adopting the use of the Internet for service delivery. We are quite surprised that a good number of government agencies are not using this platform that makes their life easy and also make the lives of citizens easy. A platform that makes service delivery very efficient and cost effective, so we are surprised that government agencies are not buying into this but that is not to say all of them have shunned the Internet. There are some good examples of people who are adopting the Internet to deliver government services to citizens. The ones that readily come to mind are the JAMB of this world, WAEC and NECO which allow candidates to register online. You will agree with me that that has eased the burden on students and have made these organizations more efficient. Another good example is the passport office which allows you to apply for your passport online. Some of them are actually using the platform for service delivery but a good number of government agencies have not woken up to the opportunities presented by the Internet.
Need for Documentation in the Nigerian Internet Space
I don’t want to say it’s a cultural thing. We’ve not being documenting properly, people don’t write books in this area and we don’t read, so if you cannot learn from experiences, how do you develop your knowledge base? We need to develop a culture of documenting. We did not inherit that from our fore fathers because they lacked the capacity to write, the basic literacy was not there; the culture of documenting was not there so they were not able to pass all the experiences they gathered over the years to the new generation. People have ascribed our level of underdevelopment to that because we are not able to transfer knowledge to the new generation but the Internet has provided a great opportunity for us to capture our experiences, our knowledge and make it easier to transfer these resources to one another with ease. Now experiences can be captured with digital camera, a whole lot of resources that we have in physical form can be easily digitized and captured and transferred on the Internet in seconds. The Internet and the information era that we are offer great opportunities for us to capture our experiences, our knowledge and be able to transfer these to the new generation.
On the Set Back of a Computer per Nigerian Student
You see there is no initiative or project that will not have its draw back, that will not have some loopholes that could be exploited; but we have to weigh the pros and cons. Will you say because a couple of parents will sell the computer given to their children, should we use that as an excuse to deny other parents who will value the opportunity to enhance the knowledge of their children? Yes, we cannot rule out the possibility of few parents who cared little about their kids would dispense the computers that were given to their kids. I think there are millions of other parents that will realize the benefits of those computers to their children and will leave it for their children to develop themselves and will even join their children in utilizing this tool to empower themselves. If you continue to see the little draw back of initiatives then you will not embark on greater initiatives. I believe with all my heart that if we give every Nigerian student a computer today, the social and economic profits that the nation will derive from it far outstrip whatever other avenue we are putting the resources into now; be it fuel subsidy, be it even road construction or any other avenue we are putting money. What we actually lack in the country as basis for underdevelopment today is lack of knowledge. We are not knowledgeable relative to the people in the developed world. If acquiring knowledge is what we make us great, why don’t we put all our resources there? We have identified the Internet as a reservoir of knowledge so why don’t we give every Nigerian student that device that will enable them tap into that resource base so that Nigerians can become very knowledgeable for us to compete globally. I believe we need that investment, we need to put a huge resources, a great percentage of our resources in empowering the Nigerian student and the way to go about it is by giving them the opportunity to tap into the vast resources on the Internet. You cannot tap into the Internet without a terminal device like the computer, a smartphone and anything you can use to accessing the Internet. An ordinary Nigerian cannot afford a computer. An average low end computer will cost about N50,000, how many homes can afford that? It means there must be a government intervention to facilitate that ownership. That knowledge that will be acquired is in the national interest because whatever knowledge is acquired will still be used within this economy to boost our productivity; so it is an investment that needs to come top on priority, we should not look at some of the draw backs. There will be some loopholes and people will take advantage of it but it should never be the basis of us taking decisions on whether or not to go for great initiatives.
Addressing Bottlenecks in Broadband Penetration
There are a couple of bottlenecks and luckily they are not bottlenecks that are insurmountable. Operators do not have access to spectrum and that is the honest truth. Some operators have money to invest in broadband but to do wireless broadband, they need spectum and if the government is not releasing spectrum what do you do? You hold on to your money and who losses? The Nigerian populace will not be able to access the Internet at the right amount and at the right quality because there is no service delivery. We can make spectrum available to investors, to people who would like to roll out services. The other parts are already being addressed and that is the international backbone. International cables are being laid, we know of Glo 1 and MainOne that are possibly going to commence services this year. We believe that when these cables land, they are going to bring abundant international bandwidth and we also know that on the national scale, a number of companies are already rolling out fibre to major cities that will link Nigerian cities together.
The issue of last mile is still a pending issue because spectrums are not made available and incidentally that is the easiest part of the whole scenario. It should not be a difficult thing for anybody to do. The spectrums are there, three spectrums have been ascribed for Wimax globally; the 2.3GHZ, the 2.5GHZ and the 3.5GHZ. We have these spectrums there unoccupied so why are we not releasing it for the roll out of broadband services? I think that is an area the government has to look into.
About Pinet Informatics
Pinet is one of the first ISPs not only in Nigeria but in Africa. We are a traditional ISP, we started during the days of the dial up. We have been involved as technology evolve, we’ve done Vsat, we’ve done wireless, we’ve pioneered a number of products and services in the industry. We were the first to do a prepaid Internet card which we called the Log On card which was the first prepaid card in the country. We developed the Nipost e-mail when e-mail was still emerging. We’ve pioneered a number of initiatives and even now we hope to launch a number of products which are also pioneering services in the country and that is in the area of content and in the area of e-payments. Hopefully soon we will launch the products. We are an engineering company, we are also an innovative and creative company. We have moved from being a pure engineering company to an all encompassing company.
Competition between ISPs and Telcos
I will say it is an unfair competition. Of all the traditional ISPs we started with, there are about one or two left, the others seem dead. GSM and CDMA operators bundling Internet into their services eliminated traditional ISPs. But we are a little bit lucky that we anticipated it, we saw it coming so we started exploring other opportunities. We saw a big opportunity in the area of content, in the area of e-services and we started conducting intensive research and we are lucky that the number of products that we have been researching on are fully developed now; and we will soon launch the products.
General News
Cybersecurity Experts Seek Improvements to Maximise Protection

A study titled “Improving resilience: cybersecurity through system immunity” conducted by Kaspersky, explored how organisations currently manage cybersecurity and how they are preparing for future challenges.
This research surveyed 850 IT professionals responsible for cybersecurity in large companies across Europe, the Americas, APAC, Russia, and the Middle East, Turkiye, and Africa (META) region, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt, and South Africa.
These respondents represented a diverse range of industries and organisational levels, offering a comprehensive view of current security postures and pain points.
The survey reveals that, despite high satisfaction levels—with 94% of experts from the META region stating they are “satisfied” to “extremely satisfied” with their current protection—the desire for stronger and more adaptable defenses remains widespread.
Although only 6% of respondents from META expressed dissatisfaction with their cybersecurity measures, most recognise the need for improvement. Specifically, 64% believe there are “a few” or “some” areas that could be enhanced, while 35% advocate for significant upgrades.
When asked to identify the weakest aspects of their cybersecurity systems that they would like to improve, respondents from the META region pointed to various operational and technical challenges. The most common issues included:
- Manual processes consuming excessive time (31%)
- Reactive protection lacking proactive threat detection (28%)
- Shortage of skilled personnel (28%)
The reliance on manual processes leads to increased operational overhead and delays in identifying and responding to threats, while the absence of proactive threat detection reduces the ability to prevent breaches before they occur.
Among other critical weak sides of their current cybersecurity systems noted by respondents in the META region were high risks of systemic collapse following breaches (24%), overly complex IT/OT environments (22%), and outdated threat intelligence (21%).
Additional concerns included “alert fatigue” (22%) and insufficient functionality of current solutions (19%), complexity of managing disparate solutions (19%), and poor control over security policy implementation (19%).
The management of multiple different security solutions leads to gaps in coverage, misconfigurations, and increased risk of oversight, as security teams struggle to maintain an integrated, effective defense across diverse systems.
The fragmentation hampers swift response times and increases the likelihood of overlooked vulnerabilities, ultimately weakening the organisation’s overall security posture.
These findings highlight the urgent need for streamlined intelligent security tools to address these vulnerabilities effectively.
As organisations worldwide strive to strengthen their cybersecurity posture, this research highlights that, alongside enhancing traditional cybersecurity solutions, vendors are working to develop innovative approaches: shifting from protecting inherently vulnerable software with applied security measures toward creating secure-by-design systems with innate resilience. Such systems are capable of safeguarding their core assets even when compromised, often with minimal or no additional cybersecurity spending.
“More and more organisations are beginning to understand that modern challenges require not just strong protection but also a proactive and cohesive security strategy that strengthens every aspect of their digital landscape against potential breaches.
“That’s why it is essential for companies to adopt a transformative approach, integrating advanced threat intelligence and streamlined processes, and applying reliable, all-encompassing solutions to protect their assets while ensuring operational continuity and building customer trust,” says Alexander Kostyuchenko, Head of Technology Solutions Product Line at Kaspersky.
General News
NCAA Orders Airlines to Enforce $10,000 Currency Declaration Rule

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority has ordered all international airlines flying into Nigeria to enforce the $10,000 currency declaration rule.
The authority said the rule is required for passengers to declare cash or negotiable instruments above the limit, as part of efforts to strengthen anti-money laundering compliance.
According to the NCAA, the directive, referenced as NCAA/CPD/ABV/298, dated 24 April 2025 seeks to address gaps in the enforcement of existing currency declaration obligations for inbound passengers.
This was announced in a statement issued by the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, via his official X account on Tuesday.
“International carriers must take two key actions, which include “Make inflight or pre-landing announcements informing passengers of their legal obligation to declare any currency or Bearer Negotiable Instruments exceeding $10,000 USD or its equivalent upon arrival in Nigeria.
“Distribute currency declaration forms onboard for passengers to complete before landing. The NCAA has received reports indicating that some airlines are yet to comply with this directive”, the statement read.
The NCAA said these requirements are consistent with international best practices and are vital to preventing the illegal movement of large sums of money across borders.
The Authority warned that full cooperation from international airlines is essential, saying, “Please note that the cooperation of all international airlines operating in Nigeria is critical to supporting the country’s efforts to align with global financial standards.”
Accordingly, the authority emphasised that full implementation of this directive, particularly as it concerns inbound passenger declarations, is of utmost importance.
“Compliance will be closely monitored, and non-compliant airlines will face appropriate sanctions,” it added.
General News
Appeal Court Nullifies Registration of ‘KPMG Professional Services’

The court of appeal in Lagos has asked the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to revoke the certificate of registration of “KPMG Professional Services”.
In a unanimous decision delivered on Thursday, the appellant court granted the reliefs sought by KPMG Nigeria against CAC and KPMG Professional Services.
The judgment was read by Abdullahi Mahmud Bayero, the judge.
The two other judges are Abimbola Obaseki-Adejumo and A.M. Talba.
In 2002, KPMG Professional Services was registered as a company with CAC despite the existence of KPMG Nigeria, comprising its audit, tax, and consulting arms.
The KPMG Nigeria has long been registered in Nigeria before 2002.
KPMG Audit was registered in 1969, KPMG Tax Consultants in 1990, and KPMG Consulting in 1969.
Displeased with the registration of KPMG Professional Services, KPMG Nigeria approached the federal high court.
The consulting firm had argued that the name “KPMG Professional Services” was deceptively similar to its long-established identity.
In 2005, the lower court dismissed KPMG Nigeria’s case, citing an alleged merger between KPMG Nigeria and Akintola Williams Deloitte as reason the company could no longer assert rights to the name.
The lower upheld the second respondent’s (KPMG Professional Services) counterclaim and ordered that KPMG Nigeria’s name be struck off the CAC register.
The lower court had premised its decision on newspaper articles stating that KPMG Nigeria reportedly merged with Akintola Williams Deloitte.
Delivering the judgment, Bayero ruled that the lower court erred by relying on newspaper articles to ascertain that KPMG Nigeria allegedly merged with another company.
The judge said the documents showing the alleged merger were not presented before the lower court, and the form of the alleged merger could not have been known.
“In any event, the only branch of KPMG, if any, that entered into a merger with Akintola Williams as stated in the newspaper articles 18, is KPMG Audit,” the judge ruled.
“The other spheres were totally unaffected. It would therefore be wrong to state that the merger (which has not been shown to this Court) of KPMG Audit with Akintola Williams means all the other areas of business, including KPMG Consulting and KPMG Tax Consultants, also ceased to exist.
“Even if the Appellants (KPMG Nigeria) had ceased to do business as the Court seemed to have held, the 2nd Respondents (KPMG Professional Services) should not have been carrying on business until the Appellant’s certificate of registration is withdrawn or set aside.
“They cannot use the name until the Appellant’s certification of registration is withdrawn or set aside. They cannot use the name until the name is removed from the 1st Respondent’s (CAC) Register of Names.
“The 1st Respondents can only assign the name to the 2nd Respondents after first taking it away from the Appellants.”
The court ruled that CAC erred by registering KPMG Professional Services despite the existence of a business name, which is already registered.
The judge reversed the earlier ruling of the lower court and reaffirmed the primacy of statutory protection for existing business names under Nigerian corporate law.
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