Telecom
Industry and Thought Leaders Unite for World PR Day to Advocate for The Future of PR Practice

For the fourth year in a row, public relations practitioners, students, and industry thought leaders will gather on July 16, 2024, to celebrate, share knowledge and address critical issues facing the PR and communication landscape for the highly acclaimed global event, World PR Day (WPRD).
WPRD, an annual event, was instituted in 2020 for practitioners to celebrate and take pride in the role they play in shaping and building brands through strategic communications. For its past three editions, it has also provided a platform for professionals to set standards for the practice, create a unified agenda, and continue to help brands, companies, and governments understand the crucial role the industry plays in shaping businesses.
Speaking about this year’s edition, themed “The Future Of Public Relations In A Changing World,” Ayeni Adekunle, Convener of World PR Day, said that activities will be held across the globe with the aim of furthering the message of not only what PR practitioners do, their contributions to the growth and success of businesses, and also help professionals understand the trajectory the industry is taking a rapidly changing world.
“In line with our commitment to celebrating the pivotal role of PR practitioners, this year’s edition promises a global showcase of our industry’s invaluable contributions to business, institutions, and international growth and success,” he said.
“World PR Day 2024 will offer practitioners the opportunity to have the much-needed conversation regarding the future of our industry – asking and answering questions like: what needs to be done to stay abreast of the dynamic changes the world is witnessing? What role can practitioners, as communicators, play in a world faced with multiple wars and where brands indulge in unhealthy competitions?”
There has been, for years, a misconception by the general public regarding what PR professionals do. While some view their role as ambiguous, others do not trust public relations practitioners as a report by PR Week showed. Even more extreme are public views that see the industry as one contracted by brands to ‘deceive.’ Another study by PR Week reviewed that 92 percent of surveyed 1,500 Britons believe that brands and organisations use PR to “hide the truth and cover up mistakes.”
Within the industry, maintaining ethical and professional practices remains the major concern of practitioners. As a 2022-2023 Africa PR & Communications Report review found, 20.1 percent of the over 3,000 participants surveyed expressed this concern. Talent drought remains another major problem that needs to be addressed. A staggering 74.8 percent of practitioners living across 29 African countries say there is a drastic drop in talent in their countries. This, understandably, has resulted in over 80 percent of professionals admitting to being overworked.
Addressing these challenges, from public perception of the industry to earning trust – emphasising that transparency and integrity are hallmarks of public relations – tackling industry issues (underpayment, talent drought, and overwork), remains the core objectives and driving force of WPRD.
Since its debut in 2021, WPRD has witnessed commendable growth as professionals continue to queue into this initiative of building an inclusive and trusted industry where practitioners take absolute pride in the work they do. While 3,500 practitioners participated in the first edition of WPRD, the second edition in 2022, themed ‘Trust, Truth, and Transparency’, saw participation grow to 10,000. Stakeholders like GLG Communications, Global Media Alliance Forum, and the Public Relations Council of India held conferences, fireside chats, virtual and physical events, summits, and festivals to amplify the need for gaining trust, standing for the truth, and maintaining transparency in the practice.
Enitan Kehinde, Lead Coordinator, World PR Day, described the annual event as crucial, particularly in a world where there’s not only a growing need for well-tailored brand messages to stand out among competitors but also a need to show what PR professionals do.
“Against the backdrop of an increasingly competitive landscape, the significance of this annual event cannot be overstated. It serves as a vital platform to showcase the indispensable role of PR professionals in crafting distinct brand narratives that resonate amidst fierce market dynamics,” she said.
The 2023 edition of WPRD, with its global reach of 60 million across 20 physical and 25 virtual events in over 60 countries, garnered recognition at the 2023 PRovoke EMEA SABRE awards. This achievement underscores WPRD’s ongoing success in promoting the public relations industry.
Telecom
Gombe Commissioner of Police Visits GBB Command Centre, Strengthens Collaboration on ICT-Driven Security Solutions

Galaxy Backbone (GBB) Limited welcomed the newly appointed Commissioner of Police for Gombe State, CP Bello Yahaya, on a courtesy visit to its North East Regional Office and Safe City Emergency Command Centre.
This visit underscored the growing synergy between law enforcement and technology-driven solutions in strengthening security operations and fostering digital transformation in the region.
During the visit, CP Bello Yahaya was received by Mr. Ibrahim Bello, Regional Coordinator of GBB North East Regional Office, alongside key members of the GBB team.
The engagement provided a platform to explore strategic collaborations aimed at enhancing security infrastructure, digital transformation, and capacity-building initiatives for the Gombe State Police Command.
The Commissioner was taken on a guided tour of the Safe City Emergency Command Centre, a state-of-the-art facility that forms a critical part of the National Information and Communications Technology Infrastructure Backbone (NICTIB) project.
The centre plays a pivotal role in improving security architecture across Gombe State and the North East region, leveraging cutting-edge surveillance systems, real-time monitoring tools, and integrated emergency response mechanisms.
With its advanced Unified Communications System, security analytics, and digital emergency response coordination, the Safe City Command Centre provides law enforcement with real-time intelligence, proactive threat detection, and seamless inter-agency collaboration, enabling a more effective and responsive approach to public safety.
CP Bello Yahaya expressed keen interest in leveraging ICT solutions to strengthen policing efforts, emphasizing the importance of technology in modern crime prevention, data-driven policing, and crisis management.
He highlighted the need for enhanced digital transformation, improved connectivity, and expanded training programs to equip officers with the necessary skills to operate effectively in a digitally evolving security landscape.
Galaxy Backbone reaffirmed its commitment to supporting law enforcement agencies, government institutions, and critical stakeholders through innovative ICT solutions, secure cloud infrastructure, and digital training programs.
By providing access to high-speed connectivity, cybersecurity frameworks, and cloud-powered command centres, GBB continues to drive the adoption of smart policing solutions and enhanced security management across Nigeria.
The visit concluded with a shared commitment to deepening engagement between Galaxy Backbone and the Gombe State Police Command, focusing on optimizing digital transformation initiatives for law enforcement efficiency, expanding the scope of ICT-driven surveillance and emergency response systems and strengthening training programs for officers to enhance digital skills and operational effectiveness.
As Nigeria’s leading digital infrastructure provider, Galaxy Backbone continues to shape the future of public safety, digital governance, and cybersecurity, ensuring that law enforcement agencies have access to the best tools to protect lives and property.
Telecom
Salesforce Collaborates with Tech Leaders to Launch AI Energy Score for Model Efficiency

Salesforce, in collaboration with Hugging Face, Cohere, and Carnegie Mellon University, announced the release of the AI Energy Score, a first-of-its-kind benchmarking tool that lets AI developers and users evaluate, identify, and compare the energy consumption of AI models.
Salesforce also announced it will be the first AI model developer to disclose the energy efficiency data of its proprietary models under the new framework.
The AI Energy Score aims to address the lack of transparency about the environmental impact of AI models. Similar to how ENERGY STAR transformed energy efficiency standards for appliances and electronics, this initiative establishes a clear, trusted benchmark for AI model sustainability.
“Reducing AI energy consumption lowers operational costs, optimises infrastructure, and enhances long-term sustainability and profitability. We are proud to work with industry leaders to build a more transparent AI ecosystem,” says Linda Saunders, Salesforce Country Manager and Senior Director of Solution Engineering for Africa.
The AI Energy Score will debut at the AI Action Summit, where leaders from over 100 countries, the private sector, and civil society will convene to harness AI for good. By enhancing transparency, the score can drive market preference for efficient models and incentivise sustainable AI development. Recognised by the French Government and the Paris Peace Forum for its transformative potential, the AI Energy Score features:
Standardised Energy Ratings: A standardised framework for measuring and comparing AI model energy efficiency.
Public Leaderboard: A comprehensive leaderboard that features scores for 10 common AI tasks — such as text generation, image generation, and summarisation — performed by 166 models, including Salesforce’s SFR-Embedding, xLAM, and SF-TextBase.
Benchmarking Portal: A platform where AI developers can submit their open or proprietary AI models to be evaluated and added to the leaderboard. Open models can be automatically tested, while closed models can be evaluated through a secured testing sandbox.
Recognisable Energy Use Label: A new 1- to 5-star label that rates AI model energy use, with five stars indicating the highest efficiency. This helps developers and users easily identify and choose more sustainable models. Once rated, AI developers can generate standardised labels to share their models’ energy score, with built-in guidance on the proper label display for visibility and impact.
Last year, the company introduced Agentforce, the agentic layer of the Salesforce Platform for deploying autonomous AI agents across any business function. Agentforce offers tools to build and customise agents, as well as a library of ready-to-use skills for sales, service, marketing, commerce, Tableau, Slack, and more.
Telecom
Breaking….Tariff Hike: MTN Apologizes to Nigerians but Silent on Reversal

MTN Nigeria Communication Plc has apologised to customers for the 200 per cent tariff hike.
MTN’s apology came in the wake of public outcry for raising tariff above the 50 per cent upward review approved by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
The network provider urged netizens to ‘forgive and forget’.
Recall that MTN surprised its customers by raising its 15GB data bundle from N2,000 to N6,000, reflecting 200 per cent hike.
MTN also reviewed the 1.5TB plan from N150,000 to N240,000, which represents a 60 per cent hike.
Before, a 100GB bundle cost N20,000 but the network reviewed a 90GB bundle to N25,000.
The 600GB bundle has been raised from N75,000 to N120,000 for 480GB, representing 60 per cent surge.
The operator has apologized for the increase but no mention was made on whether the data price would be reviewed.
MTN said in a message:
“To our 15G digital bundle lovers,
You dey vex. We know.
We know how upsetting it must have been to suddenly wake up to a 200% increase on your favourite digital bundle.
We could share several reasons, and provide explanahions, bur omo, all that One na story.
We don cast. We get it and admit it. Let’s just say na mistake.
In this love season, don’t stay angry with us. Please Forgive and forget. You matter die and we will never stop showing you how much.
Let’s continue our relationship.
Thank you for your understanding.
Yours Truly,
MTN Nigeria”
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