Telecom
Ericsson Joins Pathways Coalition for Fossil-free Commercial Heavy Transport
Ericsson has joined The Pathways Coalition, a group of innovative companies representing the infrastructure, utilities, transportation and retail sectors, with the ambition to accelerate decarbonisation of heavy transport and reach the objective of zero CO2 emissions latest by year 2050 or earlier, in line with The Paris Agreement. Find out how Ericsson will support the coalition with its unique expertise here.
Today, transport is the second largest source of global CO2 emissions and currently contributes nearly a quarter of all global emissions. Within this, commercial heavy transport represents a significant share of the pie, and in order to reach the climate target set in The Paris Agreement, it is essential to fully decarbonize commercial heavy transport by the year 2050 or earlier.
Produced and published by The Pathways Coalition, The Pathways Study concludes that a transition to decarbonized heavy transport is not only possible, but also financially attractive from a societal perspective. However, to tackle the challenge and speed up the pace of change, cooperation across sectors is necessary.
The four companies that have formed The Pathways Coalition – E.ON, H&M Group, Scania and Siemens – represent different parts of the value chain for electrified transport: energy infrastructure provision, energy solutions and supply, vehicle manufacturing, as well as retail with the transport buyer perspective.
A successful de-carbonization of heavy transport will depend on how well the transport, energy and digital sectors can realize the required integration of infrastructures and services from a planning and operational perspective as well as from a business model and regulatory perspective.
With Ericsson from the digital sector now joining the coalition to share its expertise within digitalization and advanced connectivity, it will add a missing piece to advance the pace of change necessary across this crucial sector. Ericsson will also bring its experiences as a major buyer of transport services for the global distribution of its mobile network equipment and the successful work to reduce CO2 emissions in its own supply chain.
Mats Pellbäck Scharp, Head of Sustainability at Ericsson and responsible for the organization’s cooperation with the coalition, says its unique cross-sector setup is the key to success.
“The coalition is unique from the perspective that we have a cross-value chain approach instead of a within-industry approach – most industry associations like this are comprised of members all from the same industry and are focused on working with your peers in the same industry more or less,” Pellbäck Scharp says.
“We understood that the coalition was seeking a digitalization partner and our involvement felt very natural from both a sustainability and technology perspective, as well as what we thought we could bring to the table to help this coalition reach its objectives.”
Ericsson aims to support the coalition with its unique insights into how digitalization and especially 5G will open up new opportunities for all industry sectors, and more specifically, for making fossil-free road transport a reality.
Managing big data, connected vehicles and infrastructure, as well as more sophisticated digital tools is crucial to reduce emissions faster and generate the efficiencies needed for success. Ericsson will provide important contributions to realize these goals through its competence and experience in the Internet of Things (IoT) and the high-speed and low latency connectivity provided by 5G.
The company’s expertise in these areas will be used to envision and showcase how intelligent planning of transport systems and increased efficiency in the management of e-commerce can reduce the amount of transports needed. Faster and more secure connectivity of vehicles can also enable more refined policy instruments to increase the speed of transition to alternative fuels and solutions for commercial heavy transportation.
Olle Isaksson, Director Global Partnering Industry Verticals at Ericsson says: “The services and infrastructures of transport, energy and digital will have to get much more integrated from a planning and operational perspective as well as from a business model and regulatory perspective.
“We firmly believe in the strength of cross-sector partnering and ecosystems to realize this integration and we are convinced that 5G and easy-to-use global connectivity have the capacities to enable a smarter, more efficient and sustainable transport system. The Pathways Coalition will be an important accelerator for this, and we are very happy and motivated to contribute as a new member.”
An immediate priority of The Pathways Coalition is to prototype and demonstrate new potential solutions for possible adoption in the transport industry that will accelerate and contribute to reaching its goals.
“There are already discussions with members of the coalition on how we can really take the next step and demonstrate our thoughts and ideas on how we can use digitalization, electrification and other fossil-free alternative energy sources to replace traditional fuels and progress this industry toward a fossil-free future,” Pellbäck Scharp says.
Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) has named the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) among the top three Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government with the Best Ranking in Website Performance for 2025.
L-R: Head Special Projects, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Salamatu Andu; Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Engr. Abaraham Oshadame; Director General Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Head Customer Support Service, Galaxy Backbone, Rosemary Ehize; Secretary to the ES. Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Tahir Aminu at the BPSR award ceremony for top four MDAs in BPSR Website Performance and Ranking 2025 at the BPSR office on Tuesday, 23rd December, 2025.
This is coming barely three weeks after the telecom regulator was recognized as one of the top five best-performing Federal Government agencies for 2025 by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) – a testament to the Commission’s consistency in investment in technology for ensuring efficient service delivery.
In the BPSR 2024/2025 scorecard ranking of agencies’ websites, the NCC came second in the ranking, trailing behind Galaxy Backbone Limited, which came first while the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) clinched the third position, from a pool of 235 MDAs, whose website were evaluated.
BPSR deployed 14 evaluation criteria in include MDA’s website compliance with .gov.ng domain name, appearance and aesthetics (look and feel) of the website, content, relevance to MDAs mandate/government policy and the website’ structure.
Others include website’s responsiveness (device compatibility), security, load time, usability/ease of navigation, availability/uptime, functionality, interactivity, accessibility and capacity building.
The recognition was announced at the official release of Federal Government 2024/2025 Scorecard Ranking for MDAs’ Website held at the Federal Ministry of Finance Auditorium in Abuja on Monday (December 22, 2025) while the award presentation took place at BPSR’s Office on Tuesday (December 23, 2025).
The award, which is an important index metric of the National e-Government Masterplan for determining the Nigeria e-Government Status, was received by the Commission in recognition of its commitment to maintaining a world-class website that enhances service delivery to the citizens.
Receiving the award on behalf of the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida, the NCC’s Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, Abraham Oshadami, appreciated the BPSR for the recognition, describing the award as “another encouragement for the Commission to be a better public service institution leveraging digital platforms such as our web presence to enhance public service delivery to our various stakeholders, thereby implementing the Federal Government’s Ease of Doing Business policy direction.”
While presenting the award to the NCC, alongside other two agencies, BPSR’s Director-General, Mr. Dasuki Arabi, commended the top three for their proactive decisions in maintaining world-class websites, which are compliant with the Federal Government’s policy direction in effective and efficient service delivery to the citizens.
According to the DG, the 2024/2025 MDA’s websites’ ranking represents a collective effort of federal public institutions in Nigeria to be transparent, accountable and open in governance, as well as a confirmation to align with global best practices in service delivery to the citizens.
Developed about six years ago, Arabi said as a result of the annual ranking, more public institutions have indicated readiness to embrace reforms, and align with the policy direction of the current administration’s Renewed Hope agenda on improve governance for effective service delivery, as introduced by His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“The ideals of harnessing and deploying technological tools for service delivery has become imperative following the COVID pandemic, and distortions of socio-economic system of nations, culminating in the evolution of competitiveness, cost effectiveness, and agile governance.
“As engine room of governance, it behoves on us in the public service to perform our statutory duties and we must put in place technological innovations and standardized websites to operate services as well as deliver service needs to citizens,” he said.
The Scorecard exercise, he said, is part of the BPSR reform broader function of conducting research on reform implementation efforts and presenting ‘best practice’ models to the entire Public Service, and to among others, improve access to government information, facilitate seamless financial transaction, eliminate corruption and cyber theft, as well as facilitate access to government services.
Speaking on the rigorous nature of the exercise that produced the top three winners, the DG said “in the past few weeks members of the Scorecard Jury drawn from inter-Ministerial Agencies, had worked tirelessly to mill websites of selected MDAs through a rigorous process of enduring criteria for the ranking and the outcome had also passed through a quality assurance mechanism to validate the outcome.”
Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, has dismissed reports that bank accounts not linked to a Tax Identification Number (TIN) will be frozen or automatically debited from January 1, 2026.
Taiwo Oyedele
Oyedele described the claims as false and misleading, warning Nigerians against panic over misinformation surrounding recent tax and financial reforms.
In a post on his X handle Tuesday morning, he wrote: “Don’t let anyone manipulate you. Your bank account is safe. Misinformation makes you panic and fear a reform that is designed to help you.
“When they tell you that your account will be frozen or automatically debited from January 2026, ask them for the evidence in the new law. Be wise.”
He stressed that no provision in the new tax laws authorises the freezing of bank accounts, adding that the rumours are part of widespread misrepresentation of the reforms.
The committee chairman reiterated that the reforms are intended to simplify Nigeria’s tax system and ease the burden on ordinary citizens, not to impose punitive measures on bank customers.
US tech giant, Amazon has disclosed that it blocked more than 1,800 North Koreans from applying for jobs, amid growing concerns that Pyongyang is deploying large numbers of IT workers overseas to earn and launder funds.
Amazon
In a LinkedIn post, Amazon’s Chief Security Officer, Stephen Schmidt, said North Korean nationals have been attempting to secure remote IT roles with companies around the world, particularly in the United States.
He noted that the company recorded nearly a one-third increase in such applications over the past year.
According to Schmidt, many of the applicants operate through so-called “laptop farms” — computers physically located in the US but remotely controlled from abroad.
He warned that the issue is not unique to Amazon and is likely occurring at scale across the tech industry.
He added that common red flags include incorrectly formatted phone numbers and questionable academic credentials.
The issue has previously drawn the attention of US authorities. In July, a woman in Arizona was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for running a laptop farm that helped North Korean IT workers obtain remote jobs at more than 300 US companies.
Officials said the scheme generated over $17 million in revenue for both the woman and North Korea.
Last year, South Korea’s intelligence agency also warned that North Korean operatives were using LinkedIn to pose as recruiters, approaching South Koreans working at defence companies in an attempt to steal sensitive technological information.
“North Korea is actively training cyber personnel and infiltrating key locations worldwide,” Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP.
He added that, given Amazon’s business model, the motivation behind such operations is largely economic, with a high likelihood of attempts to steal financial assets.
North Korea’s cyber warfare programme dates back to at least the mid-1990s and has since expanded into a cyber unit of about 6,000 personnel known as Bureau 121, according to a 2020 US military report.
In November, Washington announced sanctions against eight individuals accused of being state-sponsored hackers, alleging their illicit activities were carried out to fund North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.
The US Treasury has also accused North Korea-linked cybercriminals of stealing more than $3 billion over the past three years, primarily through cryptocurrency-related crimes.
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