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IBM Invests in Accelerating Innovation in Nigeria

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L- R - Dr. Pascal G. Dozie, Chairman, MTN Nigeria Limited; Ginni Rometty, IBM Chairman, President and CEO and IBM West Africa Country General Manager, Taiwo Otiti.*
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IBM has announced it is further expanding its operations across Africa with the opening of an IBM Innovation Centre in Lagos, Nigeria.

The new facility is designed to accelerate innovation for Nigerian and West African business and IT skills.

Using the centre, clients, IT partners, developers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and academics can now access enhanced cloud capabilities and extensive big data and analytics resources.

Adoption of cloud technology in Africa has reached a tipping point and in Nigeria alone, cloud usage is expected to more than double to 80 percent of businesses in the next year.

In addition, the growing proliferation of mobile phones and tablets is accelerating the opportunity to interpret data patterns to anticipate needs and deliver improved services.

As the local demand for these types of technologies and skills increases, Africa is quickly moving to the center of global attention as the last big emerging market of the current economic era.  

According to the IMF, Sub Saharan Africa is set to be the world’s second fastest growing region with projected economic growth of over six percent this year.*

To take advantage of this explosive growth, the new centre will focus on providing solutions that use Big Data & Analytics and cloud technologies to solve key local challenges such as improving government services, digitising banking services and enhancing customer centricity in telecommunications.

Clients will be able to participate in virtual and in-person training, test out new products, network with peers from around the world, and receive mentoring and guidance from IT and business experts.

For example, the centre will provide clients hands-on access to cloud-based industry solutions such as IBM Intelligent Operations designed to provide cities, governments and utilities with a central command center for the use of predictive analytics to enhance efficiency and manage all their operations.

“Our investment in this centre is in line with our strategy to help fuel growth in Nigeria’s IT sector and to support the use of advanced technology service delivery for the public sector and commercial business growth, particularly expansion in West Africa,” said Taiwo Otiti, IBM West Africa country general manager.

“IBM Innovation Centres are designed to help clients envisage their future, illustrated using IBM Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud solutions, combined with industry focused experience and expertise. Through this centre, we will bring the reach of IBM’s global capabilities and thought leadership closer to local and regional clients.”

IBM believes its new test and demonstration environment will serve to cut the costs and complexity of assessing IT solutions, but will also assist CIOs in presenting strong business cases for advanced technology adoption.

The company is already working with the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) to create the world’s largest and most comprehensive clinical dataset on cancer patients by building cancer registries in developing nations, beginning in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“Innovation has become a key driver of positive change in developed economies, and IBM has blazed the trail once again in this market with its new Innovation centre,” said Mr Victor Hammond, managing director of Lagos-based Bankers Warehouse Ltd, a non-bank financial services institution and Nigeria’s leading cash management and cash-in-transit service provider.

 “I foresee this facility becoming a key driver of technology innovation in Nigeria, helping to promote the culture of knowledge incubation and scientific enquiry in all sectors of the national economy.”

IBM has been operating in Africa since the 1930’s, and today has a direct presence in more than 20 African countries, including: Nigeria, Tanzania, Senegal, South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and Mauritius.

IBM plans to continue strengthening this network with more new facilities, offerings and partnerships in the next few years.

The new centre joins a worldwide network of over 41 other IBM Innovation Centers in 33 countries including South Africa and Kenya.

Through this network, IBM connects local companies and entrepreneurs with technical and industry experts around the world and can support growth with introductions into new markets.


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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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