E-Business
IBM Promotes Innovation at Lagos Hackathon

The technology giant flagged off its pan-African hackathon series recently in Lagos, Nigeria’s industrial and commercial hub with the “IBM Lagos Hackathon”, a four-day technology training and ideas incubation programme codenamed ‘The IBM “Lasgidi” Hackathon’ in reference to the moniker (Lasgidi) used by Lagos residents to describe their city.
Targeted at young technology and computing practitioners, software developers, engineering and computer science students, the IBM Lasgidi Hackathon was attended by about 90 individuals, mostly budding software scientists and students from about 10 tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
Many student participants travelled from parts of Western and Eastern Nigeria to be part of this talent and capacity building programme which will also be convened by IBM in East and Southern Africa in the months ahead.
Taiwo Otiti, country general manager, IBM West Africa formally declared the hackathon event open by advising participants to “get hungry for technology information and always be eager to soak in as much knowledge as they can.”
“I can tell you that talent has never been more important as it is today in the technology sector,” Otiti said.
“Innovation and talent are at the core of the Information Technology revolution with the potential for positive impact on individuals, communities, countries and the world.”
“This ‘IT Impact’ has been due to the evolution of organizational behavior and the growing role that organizations like IBM play in ensuring that many of society’s challenges and problems do not go unaddressed or unresolved. Promoting talent in the field of Science & Technology has therefore become a way of life at IBM,” Otiti said.
The IBM Lasgidi Hackathon will enable and encourage students to build mobile applications that run on mobile devices, compete for innovation grants, and develop new skills. The coding competition will introduce them to IBM’s latest leading technology tools and frameworks to help build smarter and faster software solutions.
IBM is reputedly one of the top corporate promoters of hackathons globally, which is part of the organization’s culture of Research & Development.
The company spends over $8 billion annually on R&D, and has recently opened its 12th research laboratory in Africa, in Nairobi, Kenya.
Hackathons are software programs or projects which seek to create a virtual environment where society’s problems and solutions are simulated and incubated for future development.
Participants at the IBM Lasgidi hackathon focused on developing applications for Mobile Payments and Smarter Government Solutions, two key areas relevant to the development of Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy by population (150 million).
And the location of this hackathon, Lagos, Africa’s most populated city (25 million, according to the United Nations) is home to 80% of Nigeria’s technology industry, according to Nigeria Computer Society (NCS).
“IBM has been helping to power transformation and technology innovation for over 100 years,” Mrs. Adeola Allison, IBM’s West Africa Leader for Developer Relations, Independent Software Vendors, Startups & Academic Initiatives said.
“Focusing on mobile payments and smarter government solutions is therefore a deliberate attempt to make a positive impact and contribution to the innovation agenda of Business and Government in Nigeria.”
IBM Innovation Partners for this Lagos hackathon are the Federal Ministry of Communications Technology, the Lagos State Ministry of Science & Technology, University of Lagos, Airtel, CBC Limited, Wecyclers, Coders4Africa, CcHUB, Smart Campus, ICT Brokers, Quality Certain and other academic and non academic institutions in Nigeria.
E-Business
Transcorp Hotels Delivers Stellar H1 Results, Declares Over ₦1Bn Dividend

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.
E-Business
Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.
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”.
E-Business
NIMC Warns Nigerians of Fake NIN Website

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