E-Business
INEC Mulls New Technologies for 2023 Polls
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it is contemplating the introduction of new technologies to improve the conduct of the 2023 general elections.
It also hinted that existing technologies would be reviewed for optimum performance.
Mr. Nick Dazang, director of Voter Education and Publicity (VEP), INEC, stated this at a workshop for the department on the “Review of National Voter Education Manual” in Keffi, Nasarawa State.
The five-day workshop was organised by INEC in partnership with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD).
Dazang said INEC began the process for electronic voting in 2004 when it introduced optic map registration forms.
He said: “After that, in 2010, the commission introduced the use of direct data capture machines, and then expanded the use of the machines in the conduct of the 2011 election.
“So, we started the process as far back as 2004, culminating in the use of the Smart Card Reader (SCR) and the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) that we also used in 2015.
“But the commission is reviewing this process with a view to upgrading and improving the conduct of elections in 2023.”
“The commission wants to introduce new technologies that will help deepen the conduct of the elections and improve on them. So, the commission is working assiduously on that.
“Very soon, when the commission has taken a position, it will come out and explain to Nigerians how this is going to be done.”
The INEC director explained that in introducing the new technologies, INEC would revisit the use of PVC and likely to introduce other technologies that will work seamlessly with electronic voting in 2023.
He added: “The commission has been working on that in the past few months and, God willing, in the next few months, the commission will make its position known to the public.”
Dazang assured the nation that “INEC would continue to introduce new technologies to the electoral system, not for the fancy of it, but the technologies that work”.
On the amendment of the Electoral Act, Dazang said INEC was working with two committees of the National Assembly, adding that substantial gains were being made on the amendment.
He expressed optimism that the National Assembly would rise to the challenge in meeting up with its promise to Nigeria to amend the Electoral Act before the end of the first quarter of 2021.
On the Anambra governorship election, Dazang said the commission would, at the appropriate time, issue the date and timetable for the conduct of the election, latest by six months to the poll.
He urged INEC workers to always upgrade themselves on new technologies as well as continue to obey the COVID-19 safety protocols.
Mr. Adebowale Olorunmola, WFD country representative in Nigeria, expressed the foundation’s continued determination and support for INEC to deepen voter education in Nigeria, especially at the grassroots.
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.
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”.
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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