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CTO 2008 Summit Opens with Grandeur in Abuja
The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organizations’ (CTO) ICT Summit with the theme: "Ensuring Effective Connectivity for a Socially Inclusive and a Commercially Vibrant Africa;" in which top government officials from more than 58 Commonwealth countries and territories would converge to discuss Africa’s march towards ICT development, will last from 6-8th October, 2008; while the CTO Council Meeting will hold from 9-10th October
Mr. John Odey, minister of Information and Communications, who is the chief host of the event organized by CTO in collaboration with his Ministry and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC); said the event will again put Nigeria in the limelight in her latest efforts to fast-track ICT development in Africa.
Mr. Odey expressed satisfaction with the response of the private sector towards the hosting of this year’s forum which he said is in line with the expectations of government for public and private sector collaboration towards transforming ICT in Africa.
Key global telecom and ICT personalities, including Dr. Hamadoun Toure, secretary general of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU); will be at the event which holds at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja and will also feature exhibition of ICT products and services from international operators and equipment vendors.
Telecom and ICT policy makers, regulators, academics, operators, equipment manufactures and vendors, financiers, technology and software developers, international aid agencies and civil society organizations are expected to converge in Nigeria’s capital city to deliberate at the forum.
The event is also expected to attract stakeholders and ICT enthusiasts who may wish to avail themselves of latest telecom, ICT and financial products and services at the exhibition stands during the summit.
An Inter-Ministerial organizing Committee chaired by Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, executive vice chairman of NCC, also confirmed that arrangements have been concluded for hosting this major event which is considered the biggest ICT summit of the year in the sub-region.
"We are pleased with the overwhelming positive response from the private sector, especially the telecom companies and financial institutions some of whom have taken up sponsorships of several events during the summit," said Ndukwe.
The Forum comes at a time when Nigeria has attained leadership position in Africa as the nation with the highest number of active telephone lines at about 55 million connected and active lines by end of August, 2008. Nigeria was given the hosting right for the summit at the last Council meeting in Jamaica in 2007.
CTO is an international development partnership between Commonwealth and Non-Commonwealth governments as well as civil society organizations with a major objective of providing the international community with effective means to helping bridge the digital divide and achieve social and economic development.
It delivers unique knowledge sharing programmes in the specific areas of telecommunications, information technology, broadcasting and Internet.
At present, 33 countries are full members while 18 countries and territories are represented indirectly.
The work of the CTO goes back to its creation in 1901 as the Pacific Cable Board. Since then, it has been at the centre of continuous and extensive international communications development funding, co-operation and assistance programmes.
Since 1985, the organization has delivered to its recipient members in Europe, the Caribbean, Americas, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions; over 3,500 bilateral and multilateral telecommunications and ICT capacity-building projects in the form of policy, operational and regulatory training and expert assistance.
News
FG Unveils AI Public Services Platform

Federal government has launched GovGuideNigeria, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered digital platform designed to streamline access to public service information through WhatsApp and the web.

The platform consolidates information from more than 35 federal ministries and over 60 government agencies, marking a significant step in Nigeria’s drive to expand AI-enabled public infrastructure and digital government services.
According to Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s minister of communications, innovation and digital economy, the initiative aims to simplify interactions with government services, particularly for underserved communities that often face challenges navigating complex public-sector systems.
Developed in collaboration with the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Meta, and Publica AI, GovGuideNigeria uses conversational AI to provide real-time responses via WhatsApp and a web interface in English, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.
Sade Dada, head of public policy at Meta, said the multilingual rollout highlights the growing use of natural language processing within African public institutions to improve digital inclusion and broaden access to services.
Ignatius Willie, chief executive of Publica AI, said the platform demonstrates how Africa’s next generation of digital public infrastructure can be developed locally using African languages.
GovGuideNigeria is intended to address longstanding challenges in Nigeria’s public information system, where citizens often struggle to access reliable guidance because of fragmented government websites, poor communication channels and the expense of travelling to physical offices.
Through AI-driven automation, users can obtain information on immigration procedures, documentation requirements, public programmes and agency-specific services through chat-based interactions.
The launch also reflects Nigeria’s broader ambition to integrate AI into digital governance, while strengthening partnerships between government agencies, global technology companies and local AI startups to modernise public service delivery.
News
Elon Musk to Become First World’s Trillionaire with SpaceX Historic IPO

Elon Musk is poised to become the world’s first trillionaire after SpaceX, his company, confirmed plans to go public.

Elon Musk
Because Musk owns the majority of the shares, it could push his net worth over the trillion dollar mark.
The entrepreneur is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X, and xAI.
Musk has been the wealthiest person in the world since 2025; as of May 2026, Forbes estimates his net worth to be $788 billion.
SpaceX has filed for a blockbuster public listing in the United States, paving the way for what could become the largest stock market debut in Wall Street history.
The company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies, announced plans to begin trading under the ticker symbol “SPCX” as early as next month.
The listing values SpaceX at about $1.25 trillion, with Musk’s majority ownership potentially worth more than $600 billion alone.
Combined with his existing holdings in companies including Tesla, the IPO could push Musk’s personal wealth above the $1 trillion mark.
The long-awaited filing also offered investors a rare look into SpaceX’s finances.
The company reported $18.6 billion in revenue last year but recorded a net loss of $4.9 billion. In the first quarter of this year, SpaceX generated $4.7 billion in sales while posting a $4.3 billion net loss.
Financial disclosures showed the company holds $102 billion in assets, including rockets, launch infrastructure and satellite systems, while carrying debts totalling $60.5 billion.
Despite the losses, analysts suggested investors were unlikely to be deterred given SpaceX’s dominance in commercial space launches and satellite internet services.
Ruth Foxe-Blader, managing partner at Citrine Venture Partners, described the planned flotation as “extremely exciting.”
“SpaceX is just an absolutely sprawling, enormous project with so many different selling points, and so many points that really point to the future,” she said.
SpaceX operates the Starlink satellite internet network and also owns Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI.
The IPO filing revealed that xAI recently reached a major commercial agreement with rival AI company Anthropic, maker of the Claude chatbot.
Under the arrangement, Anthropic will reportedly pay $15 billion annually to access data centre infrastructure linked to xAI operations in the American South.
The filing also disclosed that SpaceX expects to incur more than half a billion dollars in legal costs from multiple ongoing lawsuits and regulatory disputes.
Among the cases listed were claims alleging that xAI’s chatbot Grok had been used to create sexualised deepfakes of women and girls, alongside patent infringement disputes, music copyright claims, data breach allegations and investigations into compliance with European Union content moderation rules.
Musk has previously said he plans to dissolve xAI as a standalone company and pursue his AI ambitions directly under SpaceX.
The filing came shortly after Musk lost a high-profile legal battle against OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman.
Musk had accused OpenAI of abandoning its non-profit mission after shifting towards a commercial model, but a jury dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that he had waited too long to bring the claims.
News
Moniepoint Boosts UK Payments Security

African financial services platform Moniepoint has partnered with open banking software-as-a-service provider tell.money to deploy a transaction security system in the UK market.

The companies said the partnership will allow Moniepoint to implement Confirmation of Payee, an account name-checking service designed to verify recipient details before payments are processed.
The integration will be rolled out through Monieworld, Moniepoint’s UK remittance subsidiary, as part of the company’s broader European expansion strategy.
Tell.money will provide the underlying verification technology, which the companies said is intended to reduce misdirected payments and help protect users against cross-border fraud.
Ravi Jakhodia, CEO of Monieworld, said: “Our goal with Monieworld is to build financial services for Africans in the diaspora.”
He added that tell.money was selected because it manages compliance and accreditation requirements, allowing the fintech company to focus on customer service.
Moniepoint is entering a competitive UK-to-Africa remittance market that includes established providers such as Wise, WorldRemit and Remitly, as well as African fintech firms including Flutterwave’s Send App.
According to data from the World Bank’s KNOMAD programme, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries are estimated at about $620 billion annually, with digital -first platforms capturing increasing market share through open banking integrations and automated compliance systems.
The rollout reflects a broader trend of African fintech firms expanding into developed markets by adopting local regulatory and open banking standards.
Industry analysts expect diaspora-focused platforms to evolve beyond money transfers into services such as multi-currency banking, credit and investment products.
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