Telecom
Bitget Expands Innovation Zone with Priority Access to Exceptional Projects

Bitget, the leading global crypto derivative exchange, announces to add AI (Artificial Intelligence), Arbitrum, and NFT zone listings to its Innovation Zone for users who would like to expose their crypto portfolio to related tokens in an early stage.
The newly listed tokens will need to be regularly reviewed to ensure that the token adheres to Bitget’s platform standards, including trading volume, liquidity, the team, project development, and other criteria to keep the listing status active.
The expanded Innovation Zone listings aim to assist users to discover quality digital assets and sift out disqualified tokens at the same time.
All digital assets listed in Innovation Zone are under regular review to ensure the tokens are progressing upward in the long run.
Based on requirements in trading volume and liquidity, network or smart contract stability, team involvement, activeness of the community, any misconduct or negligence record, and so on, the token will be assessed for a rolling 60-day valuation period, and those that fail to meet the criteria will be delisted.
Within this week, 21 tokens had already been listed in the Innovation Zone, including seven AI-related and six Arbitrum-related tokens.
Most of these newly listed tokens witnessed overwhelming enthusiasm from investors, with the greatest gain of 1263% for Future (AI), followed by 646% for Botto(BOTTO), and thirdly 450% for ArbInu (ARBINU), according to the data over the past week. Various trending artificial intelligence start-up projects such as SingularityNET (AGIX), Image Generation AI (IMGNAI), Artificial Liquid Intelligence (ALI), Oraichain (ORAI), and Future AI (AI), are also trading on Bitget’s platform now.
And Blur (BLUR), the native token of the NFT marketplace and aggregator for pro traders, will have its global initial listing on 14th Feb in the NFT Zone, another important category of the Innovation Zone of Bitget.
Gracy Chen, Managing Director of Bitget, comments, “At Bitget, we are always trying our best to support quality projects with potential and facilitate the development of the industry as a whole in the long run.
By implementing a rigorous vetting process, the Innovation Zone was designed to help users in their research process to uncover hidden gems within the vast number of tokens launching every day, and users can then decide which token suits their own portfolio the most.”
Meanwhile, Bitget’s data has been included in the Coin360 Verified Exchange data dashboard, and plus connected its deposit and withdrawal data on the blockchain analytics platform, Nansen, allowing users to more easily verify the platform data, ensuring transparency and protection of the interests of both retail and institutional users.
Telecom
PAT Taps Osi as CEO

Pan African Towers (PAT), a Nigerian infrastructure provider serving 9mobile and Spectranet, has appointed Echezona Osi as chief executive officer.

Echezona Osi
Adefolarin Ogunsanya, company’s, board chairman, explained in a statement that Osi would succeed Oladipo Badru, whose tenure lasted nine months in acting CEO position. Osi has more than 28 years of experience in the telecommunications sector across various regions of Africa.
Prior to his appointment as CEO, he had served as the head of network deployment at Airtel Nigeria, operations director and chief technical information officer at MIC Tanzania, chief technology officer roles at IPT PowerTech Nigeria, Rhino Niger Networks and Biswal Nigeria.
He obtained a degree in electrical/ electronic engineering from the University of Benin and a postgraduate diploma in data science and business analytics from the University of Texas.
Telecom
NCC Introduces N10m Licence Fee for Bulk SMS Service

Companies sending bulk international text messages, also known as Application-to-Person (A2P) messages, will now have apply for a licence that costs N10 million.
This is part of new rules introduced by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) aimed at cleaning up the system, fighting fraud, blocking spam messages and stopping money from leaving the country unchecked.
These A2P messages are the kind customers get from banks, online stores, hospitals and political campaigns, automated texts sent from apps to their phones.
According to the commission, the bulk international text message system has been poorly regulated, allowing misuse and invasion of privacy.
“The International SMS Service Ecosystem in Nigeria has not been fully brought under regulatory control. It has been observed that the excessive use of the Short Message Service has led to fraud, spam and illegal activities,” the NCC said.
The regulator warned that without action, the problem would worsen as more people use mobile phones and digital services.
To solve this, the NCC is creating a central platform, or gateway, through which all international bulk text messages must pass through.
The agency said this would help to monitor messages in real time, ensure proper fees are paid, and make sure the money stays in Nigeria where it can contribute to the economy.
As part of the incoming change, service providers must follow strict rules, including strong data protection, spam filters, and message encryption.
Also, they must also work with local mobile networks and make sure all messages come from a verified sender
The NCC warned that any message without a proper sender ID will be blocked and not delivered to users.
To protect users from unwanted texts, the new rules say companies must get clear permission before sending any promotional content.
The rule also says people must also be able to choose whether they want to receive such messages or not.
Companies are now required to keep records of all messages for at least six months and must clearly state all charges involved.
The NCC said fees for help requests, cancellations, or service info must be transparent and not include hidden charges.
The commission will issue licences to several providers to encourage healthy competition but may limit new licences if needed.
Only companies that show they can stop fraud and safely deliver messages will be allowed to operate. They must also regularly report their message traffic and finances to the NCC.
It warned that any company that breaks the rules risks getting fined, suspended, or having its licence revoked.
Offences like charging illegal tariffs, ignoring security rules, or avoiding taxes will be punished, the NCC said.
The commission added that the new rules follow the Nigerian Data Protection Act 2023 and support the federal government’s goal of strengthening cybersecurity and controlling Nigeria’s digital space.
The framework will also be reviewed from time to time to keep up with new technology and market trends.
Telecom
MTN Nigeria Targets $1Bn Cloud Market with Largest Modular Data Centre

MTN Nigeria has launched what it claims is the country’s largest prefabricated modular data centre, marking a bold push into the country’s fast-growing cloud market and taking aim at global giants such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

Karl Toriola, CEO, MTN Nigeria.
The shift comes as demand for cloud services in Nigeria soars — driven by the uptake of mobile apps, fintech tools and e-learning platforms — while foreign providers have become costlier in the wake of the naira’s sharp devaluation.
“This is one of the biggest data centres in West Africa and probably one of the biggest in Africa,” said Karl Toriola, CEO, MTN Nigeria.
He described the new Tier III-certified facility, with locally hosted cloud services, as “transformative for the technology ecosystem in Nigeria and very supportive of the federal government’s agenda”.
MTN Nigeria, the country’s largest telecoms provider, has so far invested $120m in the first phase, delivering an IT load of 4.5MW. A second phase, set to double capacity to 9MW, is budgeted at $135m.
“We already have data centres that are running our existing capacities,” Toriola said.
“We will go to 9MW in short order, possibly 14MW, and we can expand even further.”
He said the facility would allow local hosting for tech developers, large enterprises including banks and oil companies, and government agencies — markets long dominated by foreign cloud providers.
“Multinational companies such as Netflix, Facebook and Instagram can also host a lot of their data here. That improves the quality of service and reduces the cost of storage,” he added.
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