Konga, Nigeria’s leading composite e-commerce giant, has pledged huge savings and more importantly, same day delivery for shoppers in the second edition of the much-anticipated Mid-Year Shopping Festival.

Widely regarded as the biggest discount sale in the first half of the year, Konga Mid-Year Shopping Festival kicks off formally on Tuesday, May 30 and will run through Friday, June 30, 2023 online at www.konga.com and offline in every Konga store nationwide.

An annual promotion, the month-long fiesta coincides with the celebration of Konga’s 11th anniversary, with the management of the e-commerce giant also seizing the opportunity to roll out KongaNow, its same day delivery initiative through which shoppers can get their verified items delivered within one to six hours.

All products tagged KongaNow on the Konga website are available for immediate delivery, provided orders are placed before 2pm daily.

Alternatively, shoppers can access www.konga.com/konga/now to select from a wide array of genuine high and medium-value items across categories.

Meanwhile, a variety of exciting offers have been lined up for shoppers throughout the month-long duration of the Konga Mid-Year Shopping Festival.

In addition to mouthwatering price crashes of up to 70% across multiple product categories including Computing, Electronics, Mobile Phones, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Home & Kitchen Appliances, Wine & Spirits, Fashion, etc., Konga has equally lined up a suite of budget offerings tailored for every pocket, including Under 5k Shop, 10k Shop, 20k Shop and Under 30k shop, among others. Shoppers are also in for a treat, with treasure hunts, live auctions and flash sales on specific days of the campaign.

In partnership with leading financial institution, Access Bank, Konga is also offering extra 10% discount off all purchases made by Xclusive Plus subscribers who shop with their Visa Signature Card.

Also on offer are app-only deals for Konga App users, early bird discounts, special deals for walk-in customers to Konga stores, free delivery for Konga Prime subscribers, special bulk deals for heavy shoppers, business owners, corporate/religious organizations, cooperatives and educational institutions, among others.

In line with its mandate of helping shoppers save money, prospective travelers will also enjoy special deals on visa and passport processing, summer flight packages to major destinations as well as flexible instalment payments via Konga Travels & Tours.

These offers are available simply by emailing [email protected] or WhatsApp: 08112114488.

KongaPay users are also set to benefit from attractive discounts and bonuses on daily transactions, airtime and data recharge, among others during the Mid-Year Shopping Festival.

Konga Mid-Year Shopping Festival runs from Tuesday May 30 till Friday June 30, 2023.

Kaspersky recently analysed what digital superstitions Internet users believe in nowadays and investigated whether there are grounds for these beliefs.

According to the global Kaspersky Digital Superstitions survey, the most popular misbelief is that one should not pronounce “Yes” or “No” when speaking on the phone with strangers.

Allegedly, the conversation can be recorded and used to steal money from banking accounts: the majority of respondents surveyed from the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region (84%) agree with this.

In fact, voice identification systems are used in some banks, but only as an additional authentication tool which is not enough for carrying out a transaction, in particular to withdraw or transfer money.

Another common misconception that 85% of respondents in the META region believe in is that the HTTPS protocol of a website guarantees its authenticity. While in fact, the HTTPS certificate means that personal data can’t be reached from outside of the website, however this data can still be stolen by the site itself if it is a phishing resource.

More than half (57%) of respondents believe that it’s possible to delete all information on a smartphone by rolling it back to factory settings. In reality, the data can often be recovered after a factory reset and formatting. Specifics of the storage space on gadgets implies that the data is deleted only in case it’s overwritten, which is not happening during a reset.

57% of respondents from the META region think that if the device is not connected to the Internet, it is impossible to infect it with malware. In fact, it’s possible to infect a device even if it is not connected to the Internet, for example, using a flash drive or other removable media.

Four in five (82%) users think that the “Incognito” mode in the browser provides complete anonymity on the Internet. Though “Incognito” mode doesn’t guarantee absolute privacy. In this mode, the browser is not saving the history of visiting websites, cookies, download history and authorisation data which is not equal to complete anonymity.

“For over 25 years already we’ve been fighting not only various cyberthreats, but also digital superstitions. However, many of them are extremely durable. For example, it is interesting that more than a third of the users surveyed still believe that cactus plants absorb radiation from a monitor that may be harmful.

“That is why it is important to constantly improve digital literacy, as well as use reliable security solutions. There is nothing to be ashamed of not knowing something – and it is never too late to learn something new,” says Brandon Muller, technology expert and consultant for the MEA region at Kaspersky.

Federal Executive Council, (FEC) on Wednesday, approved a memo from the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) allowing banks to print debit cards that double as National identity cards.

With this Nigerians can now request their commercial banks to provide them with a debit card which doubles as their National Identity Card at no extra cost than the normal fees charged for debit cards.

Prof. Isa Pantami, minister of Communication and Digital Economy, said that “It is going to be a form of multipurpose card where it will serve as your national identity card on one hand and also your bank card on the other hand, either MasterCard, Visa or any other kind of card,”

Pantami said although the NIMC Act 2007 only mandates Nigerians to have a National Identity Number and not necessarily a printout card, demands for cards have swelled nonetheless.

He explained that “As in the NIMC Act 2007, section 27, what is mandatory for our citizens and legal residents is the acquiring of the National Identity Number, not the card. However, the card is optional.

“But many citizens, particularly those living in rural communities, always go to NIMC offices complaining that they need the card at hand, even though it’s optional.

“To make it easier, NIMC last year, introduced a smart ID card you can download from the NIMC app. It is just a smart card. You don’t need to have it physically, but that is becoming difficult for our people living in rural communities.”

To ease the difficulty, Pantami said “NIMC has partnered with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) so citizens who are interested in having a card at hand can easily go to the relevant banks.”

“The bank is permitted to print the card along with either MasterCard or Visa card. It is going to be a form of multipurpose card that will serve as your national identity card on one hand and also your bank card on the other. And based on the agreement, it is without any additional costs on our citizens.

“So when you apply for a card at your bank, you can indicate that ‘I want this card to be multiple purpose whereby it will serve as my bank card and also my national identity card’. Both of them are going to be printed on the same card and it is going to serve the same purposes without any additional costs. So that memo has also been approved by the Federal Executive Council,” the minister said.

The minister revealed that the NIMC and the CBN signed a non-disclosure agreement to protect the privacy and confidentiality of card applicants.

“NIMC and the central bank signed a non-disclosure agreement where your privacy and your confidentiality must be respected in the course of providing the card for you.

“When you apply for the card, the bank will apply online to the NIMC through their database. When they verify and confirm that your record in the database is in alignment with your record in NIMC database, it will be permitted and the card is going to be printed for you immediately,” the outgoing minister told journalists.

In a similar vein, Pantami revealed that FEC okayed a memo proposing the deployment of an automated system to integrate NINs with individual SIM cards.

The system, according to him, is to consolidate the implementation of the NIN-SIM linkage.

He said “As we all know that previous administrations made efforts to verify NIN and SIM starting from 2011 without success. In February 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the implementation of the policy and the revised version of the policy was also launched and unveiled by Mr. President on May 6, 2021.

“As it stands today, the NIN and SIM policy registration is being implemented. In order to consolidate the implementation.

“The Nigerian Communications Commission came up with a proposal that will enhance the implementation of the policy and bring many more benefits to it.”

Pantami boasted that the automated system would sanitise the database and ease the process of SIM replacement for Nigerians or legal residents.