E-Business
Microsoft Leads, Drives Down Cost of Cloud Computing Globally- Courtois
Microsoft, devices and services company, has reaffirmed its status as the number one in the driving down of data costs especially for SMEs that often don’t have the capital for IT infrastructure investment.
This is with cloud computing taking the continent by storm and literally changing the way businesses and individuals’ access technology.
Jean-Philippe Courtois, president, Microsoft International, who disclosed this at a press briefing shortly after several meetings with the company’s local partners also on his visit to Nigeria, said that Nigeria is one of Microsoft’s most important markets in Africa hence upgrade of Microsoft Nigeria office to a single country subsidiary come its new Financial Year 2015 which will commence on July 1, 2014.
During the parley, Courtois said with Microsoft’s rapid transition to devices, the corporation is set to double its efforts in skills investments, innovation support and access provision for people across the globe in general and Nigeria in particular, to create sustained economic opportunities.
A testament being the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Federal Ministry of Communications Technology to support the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Week.
Fielding questions from the journalists, Courtois said Microsoft Inc. has invested fresh $75 million in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and other African countries.
According to him, “I think so far in a new drive, we have invested about $75 million in the African Markets and Nigeria has had a fair share of that deal. We have invested in access, innovation, skills development, youth empowerments; software development; digital curriculum, skills among others”.
Lending his voice earlier, Kabelo Makwane, the in-coming country manager, Microsoft Nigeria said the Nigeria office elevation became necessary because of the maturity of the market; immense opportunities that abound; fast economic growth; skills deposit as well as large enterprise that exist.
According to him, there is urgent need to support these all.
Makwane also noted that under the 4Afrika initiative which goal is the empowerment of African youth, Microsoft is already training 18 interns while one of its partners, Galaxy Backbone is training 50 with an explanation that 75 per cent of them will end up in Microsoft Ecosystem.
Addressing Microsoft’s acquisition of NOKIA, Courtois explained that full possession will take place once every regulatory structure has been put in place.
He also tipped Steven Elop, to head the Devices division once the transaction is completed.
Jean-Phillipe expressed optimism that Microsoft which will expand its cloud services in Nigeria and other markets, will benefit from NOKIA’s mapping system.
Shortly after the press briefing, Jean-Phillipe made a stop-over at the Co-Creation Hub which he described as a vibrant place of innovation.
He encouraged the app developers present to take advantage of the new Windows 8 platform to identify real life problems; create functional local applications that have global competitiveness around such and publish same to the Windows Store so they can monetize their innovation and share it with the world.
Meanwhile, Jean-Philippe Courtois leads global sales, marketing, and services for Microsoft International, a territory that spans more than 110 subsidiaries operating outside the United States and Canada.
As president of Microsoft International, Jean-Philippe drives strategic planning, global operations, and key growth initiatives in developed and emerging markets across Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia and Latin America for all of Microsoft’s products and services.
Courtois previously served as CEO and president of Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), where he led business planning and sales, marketing and services.
His many notable accomplishments include significant improvements in customer satisfaction, enhanced regional integration and record sales growth.
Before his role in EMEA, Courtois was Corporate Vice President of worldwide customer marketing, based out of Microsoft’s worldwide headquarters in Redmond, Wash. Courtois joined Microsoft in 1984 as a channel sales representative and, after holding several leadership positions, rose to general manager for Microsoft France in 1994.
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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