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Growth Meets Reality in Africa’s ICT In 2014, Predicts IDC

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International Data Corporation (IDC) on Thursday offered the first of its annual predictions for the coming year for the African information and communications technology (ICT) industry.

IDC’s predictions for 2014 were heavily influenced by the 3rd Platform, the industry’s emerging platform for growth and innovation built on the technology pillars of mobile computing, cloud services, Big Data analytics, and social networking.

“Africa seeks relevant technology that brings direct answers to the continent’s social, economic, and commercial issues,” said Mark Walker, director of Insights and vertical industries at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey.

“Solving challenges through innovative approaches and leapfrogging technologies and business models will be key themes across Africa in 2014.”

IDC’s Africa predictions for 2014, presented by Walker at a press conference on Thursday, include the following:

Africa will remain a key ICT investment destination, but reality is set to bite in 2014 – Strong GDP growth plus high ICT spend and investment means Africa will remain an attractive technology region in 2014, but users are becoming more sophisticated and demanding so suppliers must become more focused in the year ahead if they are to remain relevant.

Although some African countries are experiencing double-digit economic growth, the majority of local markets are small when compared with the mature markets of Europe and the U.S. Due to currency volatilities, labor issues, and reactions to global trends, short-term market outlooks are often turbulent.

Over the short term, regional offices of multinational companies will increasingly face the challenging task of managing headquarter expectations solely based on the relevant experience gained in developed markets.

Moreover, clients express a preference for providers with solid track records and continued local presence.

Service providers will have to display solid long-term strategies and commitment to African markets in order to gain confidence and increased market share in 2014 and beyond.

Keyboard-ready IT skills will be in high demand but short supply; academia and commerce to meet minds in 2014 – In 2014, commercial enterprises, government entities, and academic institutions will work together to produce ‘keyboard-ready’ graduates and young professionals.

According to a recent IDC survey, the majority of African CIOs (57%) believe that staffing issues (i.e., the recruitment, retention, development of IT staff) will be the number-one IT challenge for African businesses in the years ahead.

African CIOs believe that IT staffing shortages will result in an increased dependency on IT service companies (60%), delays to projects (48%), and decreased adoption of new and innovative technologies (42%).

Considering the ability to drive innovation internally in an efficient and timely manner has become a key factor of success for companies operating in the increasingly competitive African markets, IDC believes such organizations will increasingly include the need to directly address the IT skills challenge in their growth strategies. In order to fight the upcoming war on African IT talent, IDC expects companies to develop training programs aimed at adapting existing skills to meet business requirements.

Innovation will be the name of the game – African CIOs have been struggling with different challenges in 2013: staffing issues, limited IT budgets, the need to maintain IT security, and the requirements of governance, regulation, and compliance obligations. In spite of these constraints, however, African IT departments have been and will continue to be innovative in their approaches to newer technologies.

Governments’ focus on developing sustainable ICT sectors will shift up a gear – 2014 will see governments across the region re-examine or initiate policies regarding ICT sector development as a driver for economic growth.

The coming year will also see governments across the region heavily promote the creation and development of domestic high-tech sectors that will stimulate economic development, provide employment, and drive regional growth and investment.

3rd Platform technologies will shape the hustle and bustle of the African ICT landscape –Business models based on mobility, Internet, and cloud technologies will grow quickly in 2014, but local constraints will cause this to be in fits and starts and within regional pockets.

The key premise behind IDC’s worldwide ICT predictions for 2014 is that the most important events of the year will continue to cluster around what IDC calls the ‘3rd Platform’ for IT growth and innovation, built on mobile devices, cloud services, social technologies, and Big Data analytics.

Mobile technologies in particular are seeing rapid adoption, with mobile enterprise applications a leading investment priority for organizations across the continent, particularly in South Africa.

With undersea bandwidth already taken care of, the focus will shift to the terrestrial network – ICT infrastructure development will accelerate across Africa in 2014 as collaboration between the private and public sectors improves, demand for access grows, and competition heats up. Alternative technologies, including satellite and radio, will come to the fore in a new guise, while the regulatory environment will focus on spectrum allocation.


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E-Business

Transcorp Hotels Delivers Stellar H1 Results, Declares Over ₦1Bn Dividend

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Transcorp Hotels Plc has delivered a stellar performance in the first half of 2025, recording a 60% year-on-year surge in revenue to ₦47.57 billion, up from ₦29.72 billion in H1 2024. Gross profit climbed 71% to ₦36.21 billion, maintaining a strong 76% margin despite inflation and operational headwinds.

The hospitality giant, a subsidiary of Transnational Corporation Plc, also announced an interim dividend payout of ₦1.024 billion — offering ₦0.10 per 50 kobo ordinary share to shareholders.

In a bold move, the company unveiled Nigeria’s largest corporate venue — the 5,000-seat Transcorp Centre — staking its claim as the new leader in event hospitality. Chairman Emmanuel Nnorom described the results as proof of Transcorp Hotels’ transformative strategies and unwavering investor commitment. MD/CEO Uzo Oshogwe attributed the success to relentless execution and a resilient business model.

Transcorp Hotels, renowned for iconic assets like Transcorp Hilton Abuja and its digital platform Aura, says it isn’t just leading Nigeria’s hospitality sector — it’s redefining excellence across Africa.


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Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

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Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.

Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

 

China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.

The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.

“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.

The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.

It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.

Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.

Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.

Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.

A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.

“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.

Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.

Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.

It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.

Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.

 

 

 


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NIMC Warns Nigerians of Fake NIN Website

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National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued a public warning that it is not associated with NINcard.com.

NIMC Warns Nigerians of Fake NIN Website

According to the commission, the website has been circulating online to offer services for Nigerians seeking National Identification Number (NIN) services.

NIMC, in a post on its official X account on Wednesday, said, “NINcard.com is not in anyway affiliated to NIMC. Stay vigilant!”

The warning was accompanied by screenshots of fake payment receipts and OTP request pages from the website, both of which were boldly stamped “FAKE” by NIMC to alert the public.


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