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Govts, MDAs Shun .ng, Host Servers Abroad

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Mary Uduma, President, NiRA
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Most of the federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are currently hosting their webs and emails’ servers outside of the country, thereby making a mockery of the government directive to register their websites with the country’s top level domain name .ng.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that some of the MDAs which previously hosted their web and email servers in the country, had to relocate to foreign countries, citing trust issues as reason.

Among the MDAs whose website servers are hosted abroad to include, cbn.gov.ng which is hosted in USA, Ferma.gov.ng hosted in UK;  National Health Insurance Scheme nhis.gov.ng hosted in USA;  efcc.gov.ng hosted in USA;  nuc.ed.ng hosted in UK;  pfp.gov.ng hosted in USA;  federal ministry of finance fmf.gov.ng hosted in USA; and  ncc.gov.ng hosted in USA, among others.

Mrs. Mary Uduma, president, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) decried this situation stating that it is inimical to capacity building and infrastructure development of the country.

According to her, “local content in information and communications technology will not grow and we must do something to arrest this situation”.

She noted that hosting servers outside of the country does not make economic sense as those MDAs pay in foreign currency there by depilating the country’s foreign exchange.

She added that minister of Communications Technology who has been in the fore-front of campaign of promoting local content frowns at this development and has been making effort to ensure that they relocate their servers to the country.

‘If they can’t patronize commercial data center operators, Galaxy backbone has cloud services that can host servers of federal MDAs. We need proactive action in this regard such as memo to federal executive council on the need for federal MDAs to relocate their website servers to Nigeria.”

Uduma also decried the lack of competitiveness in the local data centre business in Nigeria as a factor that may affect people planning to relocate their server to Nigeria.

Engr. Sam Adeleke, chief executive officer of Steineng Nigeria Ltd and immediate past president, Internet service providers association of Nigeria (ISPAN), identified some reasons why federal MDAs and others preferred hosting their servers abroad which include cost, according to him, it is cheaper to host abroad because power, security and bandwidth contribute to high cost in Nigeria.

Another factor he said is multiplicity of location of server, where most of the hosting companies abroad provider multiple location in case there is disaster in one location they will move to another location without their customers suffering downtime.

He added that continuity of business in Nigeria is not certain because of harsh business environment. ”Suggesting Galaxy backbone as alternative is risky because in as much as it is owned by government there is no guarantee that it will not collapse one day, as government is not good business man,” he said.

Mr. Timitope Osunrinde, marketing supervisor, MainOne Cable company, said that there are data centres in the country that are certified tier 111, of which MainOne MDX-i is one of them that can host website servers.

He said MainOne data centre is one of the most connected data centers in the world, because it has submarine cable connected to it.

He noted that MainOne data center was built in-line with PCI DSS and ISO 27001 standard to guarantee security and wondered why Nigerians should host their website servers abroad when there are data centers locally which are of international standard.


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Nigeria CommunicationsWeek believes that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. So since 2007, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and how they affect lives.

E-Business

UK Orders Apple to Create Backdoor for Encrypted iCloud Data

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United Kingdom has issued a “technical capability notice” to Apple, mandating that the company create a backdoor to access users’ encrypted iCloud data.

UK Orders Apple to Create Backdoor for Encrypted iCloud Data

This directive, issued under the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, requires Apple to provide British security officials with the means to retrieve all content uploaded to iCloud by any user worldwide.

Apple’s Advanced Data Protection (ADP) feature, introduced in 2022, offers end-to-end encryption for iCloud data, ensuring that only users can access their information.

The UK’s demand challenges this security measure, potentially compelling Apple to either comply by creating the backdoor or withdraw the ADP feature from the UK market.

Compliance could set a precedent, leading other governments to request similar access, thereby raising global privacy concerns.

The UK Home Office has declined to confirm or deny the existence of such notices, stating, “We do not comment on operational matters, including, for example, confirming or denying the existence of any such notices.”

This development underscores the ongoing tension between governmental surveillance efforts and technology companies’ commitments to user privacy.

 


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Oracle Adds AI Pricing Features to Financial Software

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Oracle on Thursday added another set of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to NetSuite, one of its corporate finance software offerings, including some that might make it faster for consumers to get a price quote on purchases like custom bicycles.

Oracle has taken a different tack with AI than rivals such as Microsoft. Rather than racing toward general purpose virtual assistants, Oracle has decided to add targeted features that speed common-but-tedious tasks like entering a brief write-up of how a sales meeting went into a corporate records system.

Another such task that is common in the business world is giving a customer a price quote on a complicated purchase that might have a lot of options, when a sales professional would need to sift through materials to come up with a price.

NetSuite on Thursday announced a feature to compile such a quote via conversation with a chatbot asking what the customer wants, which can either be used by sales professionals behind the scenes to speed up their work, or directly by consumers in the case of e-commerce businesses.

“When you buy something like a bicycle, you have to configure it – figure out what parts you want and which parts work together. We all do it when we buy our cars on the web these days,” Evan Goldberg, executive vice president of Oracle NetSuite, said.

“If you can configure (products) for customers more easily, you can do more deals in a day, or each deal costs less.”

To power those features, Oracle has decided to skip the costly race to develop huge AI models and instead works with partners such as Canadian startup Cohere.

Goldberg said that Oracle’s recent agreement to build massive data centers with ChatGPT creator OpenAI could lead to working with it as well, though the two firms have made no formal announcements.

“I think you could safely say that there’s a possibility that OpenAI will be part of this,” Goldberg told Reuters. “We are eager to work with OpenAI.”

 


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IBM Exits Nigeria and Ghana, Transfers Operations to MIBB

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IBM, the American multinational technology giant, has reportedly announced plans to exit Nigeria, Ghana, and other key African markets, transferring its regional operations to MIBB, a subsidiary of the Midis Group.

IBM Exits Nigeria and Ghana, Transfers Operations to MIBB

The move, which according to TechCabal was revealed in a statement by the company, effective April 1 2025, is part of a new operating model IBM is adopting across select African countries.

Under this arrangement, MIBB will take over IBM’s local operations, customer support, and relationships while marketing and selling IBM products and services across 36 African nations.

“MIBB will market and sell IBM products and services in 36 African countries, thereby giving MIBB’s sales network direct access to IBM products, services, and support, further boosting innovation and growth in the region,” IBM stated.

IBM has been a key player in Africa’s tech industry for decades, providing critical infrastructure for banking, telecom, oil and gas, and government services.

However, its planned exit follows a trend of multinational corporations leaving Nigeria.

In December 2024, Swiss cement giant Holcim announced its departure from Nigeria, selling its 83% stake in Lafarge to a Chinese firm.

Similarly, South African grocery retailer Pick n Pay disclosed plans in October 2024 to exit Nigeria by selling its 51% stake in a joint venture.

IBM has yet to respond to media inquiries regarding the specifics of its transition strategy and reasons for the exit.


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