Telecom
Digital Ad Expert Joins UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition to Improve Digital Advertising Education
Digital Ad Expert, Aleph Group, Inc’s social initiative to create economic opportunities through digital advertising education, is delighted to join UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition.
Formed in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Global Education Coalition was established by UNESCO – the United Nations agency dedicated to bringing people together through education and science – to bring together multi-sector partners to mobilise local, national, regional and global responses to ensure the continuity of learning.
In 2023 and beyond, the Coalition has moved from pandemic response to focus on the transformation agenda, and aims to help realise the power of digital transformation, close the global educational gap, and support actions and investments for pilot projects that can be brought to scale at a national level in a sustainable way.
Joining more than 200+ partners, Aleph’s Digital Ad Expert initiative – a skills-based education platform that provides students with the fundamentals they need to manage digital advertising channels and campaigns – will specifically support UNESCO’s Global Skills Academy, an initiative that aims to help ten million young people build skills for employability and resilience by 2029.
Commenting on the partnership, Gaston Taratuta, CEO & Founder at Aleph Group, Inc, said: “As CEO & Founder of Aleph, I am incredibly proud to join this initiative to align with UNESCO’s ambitious plans to upskill ten million people by 2029.
“At Aleph, we believe that the provision of digital literacy is a fast track to helping local communities and economies unlock huge economic opportunities. Combining the experience of UNESCO – one of the world’s leading global authorities on digital literacy – with Aleph’s industry leading expertise in digital advertising, the agreement will ensure people can confidently navigate the digital landscape, access greater employment opportunities, and help shape sustainable growth for generations to come.
“The learnings from this initiative will also aid the continued evolution of Digital Ad Expert, which we believe has the potential to become the world’s leading skills-based digital advertising education platform.”
Borhene Chakroun, Director of Policies and Lifelong Learning Systems Division at UNESCO, added: We have witnessed the positive impact of the Digital Ad Certificate program in Grenada. This is a remarkable demand-driven example of UNESCO Global Skills Academy action in the Caribbean and we are excited to expand our efforts beyond. We look forward to creating similar opportunities in other countries, unlocking the potential of digital skills for economic growth and sustainable development.
To kick start its partnership, Aleph launched Digital Ad Expert’s Digital Ad Certificate programme with a specific cohort in Grenada. During the programme, which comprises several uniquely designed modules, students met virtually for four hours per week and had access to a wealth of online resources. Approximately 200 students from Grenada took the Digital Ad Certificate programme for three months.
In addition to education for students, Digital Ad Expert launched Train the Trainers – a bespoke one-month intensive training course – to upskill more than 50 digital advertising trainers in Grenada. Combined with Digital Ad Certificate, this will provide a strong platform that initially upskills students in the country and equips trainers with the skills and resources they need to maintain digital literacy over the long term.
The programmes offered by Digital Ad Expert and UNESCO in Grenada will provide an important opportunity to improve accessibility to digital education and, in turn, drive economic growth. As part of Grenada’s National Sustainable Development Plan 2020-2035 (NSDP), the national government is aiming to create a vibrant, dynamic, and competitive economy, which will—in part—be achieved through expanding training and building national capacity in digital literacy.
Over the coming months, Digital Ad Expert and UNESCO will use the learnings from activity in Grenada to evolve the pair’s cooperative agreement, which is targeting the launch of similar schemes in other countries.
“We are hugely excited to kick start our work with UNESCO in Grenada, a country with bold national development plans that will be unlocked through digital skills,” said Francisco Anello, SVP – Education at Aleph Group. “We look forward to introducing students to our free Digital Ad Expert programme in the months ahead and look forward to playing our part in helping Grenada’s young people learn digital skills and access new economic opportunities.”
In the wake of increasing geopolitical tension, Cassava Technologies has unveiled its National Sovereign Cloud offering for African governments.
The solution, the company claims, will help the continent’s governments ensure data is kept on infrastructure that remains under local legal and operational jurisdiction.
According to the official announcement, made yesterday, the solution provides “secure, locally-governed digital infrastructure that enables the deployment of AI-enabled public services”.
The overarching solution encompasses cloud, cyber security, AI computing infrastructure, as well as local language AI models and skills support for governments.
The announcement comes amid increasing uncertainty over the hosting of sensitive national data on cloud services operated by foreign hyperscalers, which are subject to legal frameworks, such as the U.S. CLOUD Act. The CLOUD Act opens the door to allow American authorities to access data stored on the servers of US hyperscalers, wherever those servers are physically located.
Cassava has claimed separately that currently, “approximately 33% to 45% of the world’s data is hosted in the USA”.
The company added: “A sovereign cloud reduces exposure to extraterritorial laws, improves cyber resilience, and ensures that model weights and training data for public AI remain under national custody.”
The Africa Data Centres Association’s 2026 Economic Report states that “data sovereignty has evolved from a legal aspiration into a strategic policy lever”.
Ahmed El Beheiry, Group COO and Group Chief Technology and AI Officer, Cassava Technologies said: “Across Africa, governments are accelerating their digital transformation agendas and are increasingly focused on ensuring that data and digital infrastructure remain secure and sovereign.”
Announced at the Mobile Word Congress in Barcelona, this week, the Sovereign Cloud offering launch accompanied the launch of Cassava’s Cloud Partner programme.
The partner programme targets mobile network operators and system integrators across Africa to resell and distribute AI, cloud, and other digital services using Cassava’s infrastructure and technology platforms.
El Beheiry added: “We are expanding Africa’s sovereign AI ecosystem to build solutions that address the continent’s unique challenges while creating new opportunities for growth and digital inclusion.”
The programme offers partners access to NVIDIA Cloud Partner solutions, Cassava’s AI Factory, its own native AI solutions and its AI Multi-Model Exchange, which supports both Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini models.
Mazen Mroue, a non-executive director at MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, has resigned effective February 27, 2026, to prioritise other responsibilities within the MTN Group, the company announced in a Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) filing.
MTN Nigeria
The notice, signed by company secretary Uto Ukpanah, stated: “This is to enable Mr. Mroue to focus on other priorities within MTN Group Limited. The Board wishes to express its appreciation to Mr. Mroue for his immense service to MTN Nigeria and wishes him success in his future endeavours.”
Mroue joined MTN Nigeria’s board on June 1, 2022, bringing over 28 years of telecom experience. A veteran MTN executive, he previously served as CEO of MTN Uganda and MTN Liberia, non-executive director at MTN Cyprus, and held leadership roles at MTN Ghana.
Since February 2022, he has been MTN Group’s Chief Technology and Information Officer, overseeing technology strategy and governance. Earlier, as MTN Nigeria’s COO from August 2018 to January 2022, he also sat on the MTN Nigeria Foundation board.
The exit follows MTN Nigeria’s stellar 2025 results, posting a ₦1.70 trillion profit before tax—reversing a ₦550.3 billion loss in 2024 driven by forex woes—marking one of the telco’s strongest rebounds.
Google has rolled out support for Yorùbá and Hausa languages in its AI-powered Search features—AI Overviews and AI Mode—enabling millions of Nigerians to get quick answers, summaries, and conversational web exploration in their mother tongues.
The update forms part of Google’s push to cover 13 African languages, including Afrikaans, Akan, Amharic, Kinyarwanda, Afaan Oromoo, Somali, Sesotho, Kiswahili, Setswana, Wolof, and isiZulu, selected based on high search activity across the continent.
Now, a Kano student can ask complex questions in Hausa, while an Ibadan trader seeks business tips in Yorùbá—both receiving culturally nuanced AI responses via text or voice on Android, iOS, or web.
Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, Google’s West Africa Communications Manager, said: “Building truly global Search requires nuanced local understanding. With Gemini-powered AI, we’ve made advanced capabilities relevant in Yorùbá and Hausa, so Nigerians converse naturally with Search in their mother tongues.”
To use: Open the Google app, tap AI Mode, and query in Hausa or Yorùbá for personalised guidance—breaking language barriers and making technology reflect Nigeria’s diverse identity.
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