News
NCC Seeks Lagos Support on QoS, Right of Way
Dr. Eugene Juwah, executive vice chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has sought the support of Babatunde Fashola, SAN, Lagos State governor, for resolution of identified problems associated with right of way and multiple taxes and levies at various levels of government which have become impediments to realizing good quality of telecom services in Nigeria.
Dr. Juwah who paid a courtesy visit to Gov. Fashola at his Alausa office, in company of two commissioners and other officials of the Commission, informed the governor that the nation has about 119 million active subscribers while teledensity reached more than 85 per cent from some 0.4%, while contributing more than 7 .8 per cent to the national GDP, and that Lagos State controls more than 15 per cent of the mobile phone subscriber population in Nigeria, hence its position is seen as critical in matters that affect telecommunications services.
He said while it is important to reiterate that quality of services in Lagos, and indeed, other parts of the country, is not desirable, there are challenges contributing to this with the Right of Way issues being the most critical.
He said that “We are already aware that you are involved with other governors in the National Economic Council in discussing and finding solutions to the issue of RoW in the country as currently being championed by Vice President Namadi Sambo. We urge you to continue to support these patriotic efforts so that the objectives of providing easy passage for telecommunications infrastructure, to accelerate and encourage more investments in the country, are realized”.
He also acquainted the governor with the level of the nation’s infrastructure deficit with reference to the paucity of masts and towers in Nigeria with less than 25,000 base stations compared with a country like UK with up to 65,000 base stations adding that a 2009 survey by the NCC showed that out of a total of 6, 196 masts and towers in Lagos, 48 per cent belonged to corporate bodies and individuals, 25 per cent belonged to telecom operators, 18% to banks, 8% to unidentified owners and 2% to the broadcast industry.
The NCC boss said even if the number of base stations owned by operators, which was 2, 975 then, had increased by 100%, it would still have fallen short of what is needed to serve Lagos subscribers alone”, he said.
“Your Excellency, this situation is made worse by multiple taxations and regulations that await the service providers at the various levels of government, including state governments, local governments, and even some communities. In most cases, unfortunately, telecom masts and towers easily become specific targets for multiple taxes and regulations even where there are other masts and towers in existence, or even when appropriate taxes have been imposed at the Federal Level.
Given the scenario of infrastructure deficit that we have painted above, the situation on ground becomes very discouraging as some of the service providers depend on very few base stations to serve the populace.
“We have noticed that some of these regulations exist in Lagos and it is our hope that this progressive administration will be disposed to taking a serious look at some of them with a view to eliminating double and inequitable taxation. This will in turn engender an enabling business environment that would encourage more investments and accelerate deployment of more telecom infrastructure and facilities”, he said.
Dr. Juwah also brought the attention of the governor to vandalism of telecommunications infrastructure which has taken its toll on the quality and availability of services, and the need to support the Commission in pursuit of the critical infrastructure bill at the National Assembly as Lagos is mostly affected in any of these vandalism incidents.
The NCC boss also invited the governor for collaboration in the implementation of the Emergency Communications Centres, ECC, across the country as the pilots have already been commissioned at Awka and Minna, so that Lagos will be a model city for this national assignment which the Commission has elected to bring to the nation.
Governor Fashola in his response, commended Dr. Juwah “for the thoughtfulness and initiative of the broadband”.
“You will regulate the allocation of frequencies, you will regulate bandwidths and so many other things but you cannot regulate where the towers and mast are positioned, you need me as indeed you need all of my colleagues to determine where the right of way will be and under what conditions and this was the point that we took”, he said
He regretted that a lot of time have been lost in the legal process in the matter of approvals for the operators for erection of masts because of the disagreement with his government which refused to grant approvals for new installations and government’s insistence on collocation, payment of levies, and quality of installations.
He promised to bring the dispute out of the courts for amicable settlement.
He disagreed with the use of the term multiple taxation as a proper way to describe levies being imposed on operators for services rendered to them at state levels as the operators’ licenses for operation does not foreclose payment for the land and other associated fees.
“It is an incidence of the nature of business that they have entered, the issues we should be talking about is how to mitigate cost and that is what I’ve told my colleagues that we cannot make revenue from the cost of right of way or from the cost of setting up masts and towers”, he said.
“Lagos State does not seek to do so, we see the revenue in the business growth that ICT and stronger broadband and fiber optic capacity give to citizens, that’s where I see money. The revenue that comes from businesses, more people employed, paying more income tax is much more than what any government could ever collect”, he said.
He however, chided the operators for not applying appreciable level of corporate governance as is evident in the types of contractors that they use, resulting in damages to infrastructure like roads already built by the government.
“There must be a sense of patriotism from the contractors and I choose my words very carefully, by the contractors being used by the telecom operators in laying their infrastructure, a sense of ownership and duty to protect the existing public asset. They’re not enough, so the few that we have, we must protect, it can’t be I want to do business, I want to give people telephone, I don’t care if we get lost, so this really is the heart of the matter”, he said, while promising to “get the parties out of court, so that we can set a regulatory regime in which everybody can work together”, he said.
The Lagos State Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems, has launched TELE-VET, Nigeria’s first Tele-Veterinary Call Centre, marking a groundbreaking milestone set to transform access to expert animal healthcare using mobile technology.
Speaking at the event held at the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems, Animal Hospital, Oko-Oba, Agege, the state’s Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Systems, Ms. Abisola Olusanya, described TELE-VET as a transformative initiative that strengthens animal health systems, improves food safety, and accelerates agricultural innovation across the state and beyond.
She stated that technology continues to redefine global food systems, and Lagos, under the leadership of Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, remains committed to deploying digital solutions that enhance efficiency, empower farmers, and safeguard public health. The Commissioner explained that TELE-VET addresses long-standing challenges faced by farmers and pet owners, especially limited access to timely and professional veterinary care.
Ms. Olusanya highlighted that TELE-VET builds on the existing mobile platforms, M-Agric and M-Health, available on MTN and Glo networks, which provide daily expert tips, mentorship, and animal-care guidance. By dialing *20791#, users can subscribe for ₦100/day, ₦300/week, or ₦500/month, gaining instant access to a variety of services, while all active subscribers can access the Call Centre free of charge.
She added that the Call Centre will deliver emergency support, first-aid guidance, disease-prevention information, and livestock and pet care assistance, noting that the platform helps farmers reduce costs, save time, and access expert care without traveling long distances. She emphasized that TELE-VET will also enhance surveillance and early detection of zoonotic diseases, aligning with the One World, One Health framework that integrates human, animal, and environmental health.
The Commissioner further mentioned that TELE-VET sets the stage for future innovations, including livestock and pet health insurance, e-commerce for veterinary products, improved mobility for safe animal transport, and enhanced financing opportunities for farmers, positioning Lagos as a national leader in technology-driven agricultural transformation.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems, Mr. Emmanuel Audu, commended the initiative as a groundbreaking intervention that will significantly improve service delivery within the State’s veterinary ecosystem. He stressed that TELE-VET responds to the evolving needs of farmers and pet owners who require swift and professional support to enhance productivity and ensure animal well-being.
Mr. Audu noted that the Ministry has invested extensively in strengthening the infrastructure, technical systems, and human resources needed to operate a world-class veterinary call centre. He stated that the service is a strategic investment in Lagos State’s food security architecture, enabling efficient livestock health management and timely response to potential disease outbreaks.
The Permanent Secretary explained that the Call Centre will minimize animal losses, improve farm management practices, and provide timely advisory services to farmers, aligning with the Ministry’s mandate to promote sustainable agricultural practices across all 57 LGAs and LCDAs. He praised the collaboration among veterinary professionals, ICT partners, and technical teams that made the initiative possible.
Mr. Audu reaffirmed the Ministry’s commitment to continuously upgrading the TELE-VET platform to accommodate innovations that improve efficiency and expand service offerings. He encouraged residents to adopt the platform fully, noting that its success depends on widespread participation.
In his remarks, the Director of Veterinary Services, Dr. Rasheed Macaulay, stated that the launch of TELE-VET marks a new era in veterinary care delivery in Lagos State. He explained that the platform provides a practical solution to challenges such as limited manpower, delayed emergency response, and difficulties reaching farmers in remote areas by connecting residents directly to certified experts.
Dr. Macaulay added that TELE-VET will strengthen disease surveillance and reporting across the State, aiding early detection of animal diseases and preventing zoonotic infections. With real-time consultations, improved documentation, and faster escalation processes, the platform will support frontline veterinarians and promote safer, healthier food systems for all Lagos residents.
Manufacturers and small businesses are set to benefit from a new era of seamless cross-border payments, thanks to the launch of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System- PAPSS Cowry, a game-changing payment platform.
This cutting-edge platform, backed by Afreximbank, the AU and AfCFTA, and recently launched in Lagos, promises to increase efficiency, reduce costs and boost trade across the continent as it connects 160 banks across 19 countries and positions Africa for a bigger share of its $329 cross-border market.
The platform delivers 120-second local currency settlement, removing USD bottlenecks, cutting FX friction and strengthening the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) driven trade flows.
Mike Ogbalu, CEO of PAPSS, in his keynote address at the platform launch themed ‘Building an Interoperable and Sovereign Africa Payment Ecosystem for Trade and Economic Growth,’ explained that AfCFTA has provided a single market for the continent’s 1.9 billion people that needs a seamless cross-border payment platform to trade.
“We have created it as an ecosystem that will pack all of us together in a way that we are able to empower each other rather than compete,” he said.
“Create a centralised value that everybody can leverage without affecting the individual value proposition of all the entities that leverage this way,” he added.
He stated that the Pan-Africa payment rail has connected 19 countries and plans to expand to 40, adding that 160 leading commercial banks across the continent are connected to the platform.
“We are also now enabling fintech companies across the continent to be able to originate payments in one market and terminate them in another market,” he explained.
“PAPSS is that financial market infrastructure that allows for the processing of cross-border payments in local currencies and is able to do that in no more than 120 seconds,” he added.
He appreciated central banks across the continent for their support, saying that a governance infrastructure has been created to make sure the payment system continues to operate in the right way. He stressed that sovereign payments are critical for the continent’s survival.
Haytham EI Maayerigi, executive vice president – global trade bank, Afreximbank, stressed that African businesses still face real barriers, whose border payments remain slow, expensive, and impossible sometimes, with $5 billion lost yearly to third-currency routing.
He explained that the situation has made it difficult for small businesses to find trusted partners, affordable finance and adequate market information, noting that with AfCFTA advancing, it must be easy for firms to trade with each other.
He said Afrexim, which is a promoter of PAPSS, works daily to remove these obstacles. “Together with AfCTA and the African Union, we are building the institutional foundation of a truly integrated market, supporting a lot of the initiatives.”
“Through advisory, guarantees, certification and project preparation, we mobilise the capital that builds factories, logistic hubs, processing plants, energy systems, the backbone of African industrialisation.”
He stressed that capital alone will not deliver integration and that the African continental trade also needs a digital spine, a system that connects markets, trust, information, logistics, finance and payments.
Experts say Africa requires a better business environment to unleash its potential and drive intra-African trade. The experts noted that the PAPSS Cowry platform will help improve the ease of doing business across the continent.
Wamkele Mene, secretary general, AfCFTA Secretariat, described the platform as a key enabler of AfCFTA, giving its practical effect on the continent’s vision of a fully integrated African market.
“It operationalises financial sovereignty by enabling the seamless flow of funds needed to sustain the world’s largest free trade area, and by reducing the friction that has historically held back intra-Africa trade,” Mene said.
He noted that the continent has 42 currencies, which alone creates structural barriers, saying that when two African traders rely on a third-country currency to trade, the cost of doing business rises sharply.
“Our continent loses an estimated $5billion annually in currency conversion.” PAPSS addresses this bottleneck directly by enabling instant settlement in local currencies and reducing reliance on expensive corresponding banking corridors.”
Africans are better educated today than they have been at any other time, with many African nations making strides towards ensuring access to quality education and lifelong learning for their citizens.
Afrilearn
UNESCO’s report on Transforming Learning and Skills Development notes that delivering education well is not only a fundamental human right, it is also a critical ingredient of building solid foundations for the future, empowering people not just to develop the skills they will need for the workplace, but also ensuring that they can unlock their potential as members of society.
UNICEF estimates that there are 450 million school-age children in Africa in 2025, and this population is predicted to swell to over 600 million by 2050. However, although 75 million more African children are enrolled in school today compared to 2015, the number of out-of-school children has increased by 13.2 million to over 100 million during the same period. For Africa to actively participate in the global digital economy, it’s a continent-wide imperative to unlock not just access to education, but access to the resources that will help children thrive in education.
Harnessing technology to provide educational resources
Millions of children across the continent are eager but struggling to learn or are dropping out due to the high cost of quality education, outdated materials, and overburdened teachers. Schools also struggle with reliable web access – the Global Education Monitoring Report found that Africa has the lowest school connectivity globally, with most schools lacking even basic electricity, making reliable internet rare. Mobile penetration in Africa is far higher, yet many learning platforms are built for the web.
In 2020, frustrated by their own experiences, and tired of witnessing how young Africans were held back by a lack of access to quality education, a group of entrepreneurs started Afrilearn International Limited. Their goal was simple, but ambitious: to democratise access to quality education across Africa using a mobile-first solution.
The company started with ClassNotes.ng, which quickly became the #1 education platform in Nigeria, empowering students with curriculum-based class notes. By July 2022, Afrilearn had reached 1 million learners across Nigeria and Africa, a major step in delivering quality education to undeserved communities.
Now, this AI-powered K-12 learning platform is on a mission to make world-class education freely available to all African children by making learning fun, using gamified experiences to engage school learners with their studies.
The Afrilearn App for Students provides a comprehensive library of study materials and homework help. Learners can master a subject using the class notes, video lessons, quiz materials and games on the app, earning coins, and winning rewards along the way, while parents can track their children’s progress through learning reports. Afrilearn also provides adaptive practice for local and international exams through Exambly.com, which provides free exam practice for entrance, admission and matriculation exams across Africa.
Supporting educators is part of the process
To support educators, Afrilearn has built and refined its new AI-powered School Management Software, which is a smart platform for learning, administration, and managing school fees, reports and results.
The company collaborates with Schoolinka, a leading African teacher-training organisation, to co-create and distribute professional development resources, onboard teachers onto Afrilearn, and support schools with continuous training. This has significantly improved teacher adoption and classroom impact across the schools Afrilearn serves.
A constant evolution
The School Management Software offering was developed as part of the first cohort of the Microsoft and NVIDIA African GenAI Accelerator Programme. The collaboration allowed Afrilearn to leverage Azure AI and cloud infrastructure to enhance automation, learning personalisation and school analytics on the platform.
The company created a rebuilt, AI-powered SMS programme during the Accelerator Programme, and plans to introduce upgrades including adaptive learning profiles, predictive analytics and automated fee management for schools, and offline-first learning flows. Teachers will soon benefit from enhanced AI tools for lesson preparation and assessments.
With Microsoft’s support, Afrilearn uses GitHub for its engineering workflow, enabling the company to release updates faster and with fewer errors. Visual Studio Code is the team’s preferred integrated development environment, as its integration with Axure extensions, debugging tools and GitHub repository reduce friction across engineering tasks. Collectively, these tools, alongside Azure, have improved delivery speed, strengthened reliability and enabled the team to build a more stable, scalable AI education platform. And for a distributed team working in multiple countries, Microsoft’s collaboration tools, Teams and Sharepoint, have proven invaluable for daily contact and communication.
Broadening access to education across Africa
To date, Afrilearn has reached more than 4 million learners and more than 800 schools across more than 10 countries. More than 80% of users report achieving improved learning outcomes within a week of consistent usage, while the AI-powered personalisation improves learners’ grades by up to 52 percent within eight weeks of consistent study. Schools implementing the Afrilearn management software have saved more than 10 administrative hours per week and have boosted their fee collection by 35 to 40 percent.
The Afrilearn team has big ambitions to scale into additional countries across Africa, deepening partnerships with UNICEF and the African Union to scale their impact. In addition to Nigeria, Afrilearn serves learners in Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Gambia and the wider diaspora.
“At Afrilearn, we’re the ecosystem closing the gap between Africa’s potential and its future, where no child is left behind because of where they live or how much their parents earn. We’re especially excited about our upcoming product upgrades that make personalised learning even more accessible to children at home and in school,” says Isaac Oladipupo, CEO at Afrilearn. “Our goal is to reach 10 million learners across 12 African countries in the next 36 months. We believe that every child deserves a quality education that positions them for future success.”
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