Telecom
Ndukwe Reiterates Commitment to Improved Telecom Access
Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, chief executive officer, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reiterated the commitment of the commission to ensure that every Nigerian has access to telecommunications services wherever he lives.
He said that as we live in a global village where ICTs have a direct impact on a nation’s ability to improve the economic well being of her people and compete globally, we must therefore ask ourselves how well we have fared in comparison with other regions of the world in providing access to this vital infrastructure for our people. He noted Nigeria no doubt has cause to celebrate eight years of tremendous growth in the information and communication technologies sector.
Ndukwe stated this at the inaugural lecture of African Telecom Hall of Fame a part of 8th Nigerian Information Technology and Telecom Awards (Nitta 2009) organized by IT & Telecom Digest. He said while Nigeria and other African countries may be celebrating increase in access to and the use of basic telephone services, the more advanced countries are increasing access to internet and broadband at such an exponential rate. “Broadband is no doubt an accelerator of social and economic development in the modern world with its applications enabling and facilitating economic and social services such as Public Safety, National Security, Telemedicine, E-government, distance learning, utility applications among others,” he said.
One of the main limitations he said to faster deployment of internet in the continent is the access challenge. “Without access there is no internet. Internet is not real and cannot: be experienced, used or valued by the individual who does not have access. Access for me means being connected to the internet at the right speed and at the right price and linked to the right content at the right time and the right place,” he added.
He noted that many developing countries lost out on the telecom revolution that happened before the advent of mobile communications, when the rest of the world developed copious installed capacities for fixed line transmission and last-meter cable infrastructure. And that, with the coming of internet, the cable infrastructure became the access infrastructure in more developed countries for linking homes and offices to the internet employing ADSL technology. Thus for many developing countries today, mass market last-meter access to the internet has to be wireless.
“It is also important that last meter access is developed side by side with national and regional backbone infrastructure to ensure affordable bandwidth cost and interconnection/peering. Regulators and governments have a responsibility to encourage investment in the building of large capacity optic fibre infrastructure within the nations and across the region,” he explained.
He said "Fibre Without Borders" campaign he launched recently came on the realization that some countries in Africa delay or deny rights of way for cross border or cross country optic fibre cable (OFC) infrastructure projects. He said some countries even deny landing rights to companies seeking to land sub¬-marine cables on their shores. “These are serious policy and regulatory issues that must be addressed. Africa today needs optic fibre highways crisscrossing the continent. This no doubt will help aggregate African data traffic, reduce cost of access, increase regional transit footprints, encourage regional peering, facilitate development of local content and enhance the contribution of Africa to the knowledge resource in the World Wide Web,” he stated.
He stressed the need for security of access, citing recent development in the country where a major cable cut of the link to the SAT-3 submarine cable infrastructures was recorded, which affected voice and data traffic to and from the outside world. He said although this was an inadvertent and unplanned cable cut, it nevertheless disrupted critical business processes and social interactions. “This brought home the realization that a planned sabotage of unprotected critical communications infrastructure, whether State or privately owned can have far reaching consequences on the business and social life of a country and could grind certain critical activities to a halt and can escalate to disaster proportions.
There is therefore need for regulators and policy makers to encourage the build out of redundancies and diversity in the provision of critical infrastructure and this may include satellite communications ;alternatives, even where cable transmission access are available,” he said.
Telecommunications operators have resumed full SIM swap and related services following a four-week nationwide outage linked to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)’s migration to a new verification platform.
The outage rendered millions of subscribers unable to perform SIM-related tasks such as swaps, replacements, and activations.
Operators in the industry say the disruption began on June 26, 2025 when telcos temporarily halted SIM registrations and swaps due to unforeseen technical challenges during the transition to NIMC’s upgraded identity verification system.
The migration was mandated to enhance the integrity and efficiency of national identity management but caused major service interruptions across all Nigerian networks.
However, July 21, both MTN and Airtel confirmed via their social media handles that SIM swap services have now fully resumed.
MTN announced: “SIM swaps have now resumed. We can confirm that NIMC services are fully operational and appreciate their support in the migration to a new platform for NIN verification services for the telecommunications industry.
In a public update issued via its MTN Nigeria Support handle on X (formerly Twitter), MTN confirmed that SIM swaps have now resumed.
Telecom operators complained that the portal was unreliable or inaccessible, which resulted in the suspension of SIM swaps, number porting, and new SIM registrations, even though NIMC maintained that the platform was operating as intended.
Unexpected technical difficulties arose during the switch to the new platform, according to the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria.
Real-time NIN verification for SIM registration, replacement, and network migration was impacted by these issues.
“Unexpected technical difficulties have surfaced, impacting real-time NIN verification for SIM registration, replacement, and porting, following a recent directive from the National Identity Management Commission mandating Mobile Network Operators to transit to a new identity verification platform,” ALTON stated in a previous joint statement signed by Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, and Damian Udeh, publicity secretary.
The World Bank has affirmed that 84 per cent of adults in low-and middle-income economies, including Nigeria, own personal mobile phones.
The bank in its Global Findex 2025 report said mobile phone ownership was widespread and nearly everywhere. It said data from the Global Findex 2025 Digital Connectivity Tracker, revealed that “86 per cent of adults worldwide, and 84 per cent of adults in low- and middle-income economies, own personal mobile phones.”
The report pointed out that mobile phones and the internet had become widespread and essential to daily life in every economy around the world.
A earlier overview had indicated that Nigeria had a high mobile phone penetration rate, with estimates around 85 per cent to 87 per cent in 2024.
This translates to over 200 million mobile connections, making Nigeria a leading market in Africa for mobile phone ownership and usage. While the overall penetration is high, there’s a growing trend towards smartphone adoption, with forecasts predicting over 140 million smartphone users by 2025.
According to DataReporter, a total of 150 million cellular mobile connections were active in Nigeria in early 2025, with this figure equivalent to 64.0 per cent of the total population.
However, note that some of these connections may only include services such as voice and SMS, and some may not include access to the internet.
There were 107 million individuals using the internet in Nigeria at the start of 2025, when online penetration stood at 45.4 percent. Nigeria was home to 38.7 million social media user identities in January 2025, equating to 16.4 percent of the total population.
These headline stats offer a great overview of the “state of digital” in Nigeria at the start of 2025, but in order to make sense of how digital trends and behaviours have been evolving over time, we need to dig deeper into the data.
According to the World Bank, “as of 2024, individual ownership of mobile phones reached 86 per cent of adults worldwide.
“For many people, barely an hour goes by without their using a mobile device to make a call, ext a friend, read the news, access business information, post a meme on social media, pay for something, play a game, engage with a colleague or a customer, or search for information.
“As access to and use of digitally connected technologies increase, people, businesses, and governments place an increasingly high priority on online interactions. “Digitally connected technologies have clear, well-documented benefits.”
It further highlighted that access to mobile phones and the internet was associated with reduced poverty, increased consumption, and more employment for individuals in lowand middle-income economies.
“Women also experience these benefits, as internet access enables access to flexible jobs3 and has been shown to increase female labor force participation. “Mobile phones also facilitate information sharing.
For instance, in agricultural contexts, farmers’ access to real-time prices and buyer demand data can inform their decisions on where to sell, enhancing market efficiency and reducing the distances they would otherwise travel to get the best return for their product and time.
“Internet access also helps create jobs and aids individuals and countries in exporting goods and services,” it added. The World Bank further noted that owning a mobile phone furthermore enabled financial access through mobile money and other mobile financial services.
It added that these financial accounts and services, typically offered by mobile network operators or fintech firms and accessed via networks of local agents, were associated with lower rates of poverty, increased consumption and savings,and greater resilience to economic shocks.
Sophos, a global leader of innovative security solutions for defeating cyberattacks, today announced that it has been named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP), marking the 16th consecutive time the company has received this recognition.
Sophos has been recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP) since the inaugural publication for this category in 2007.
Sophos’ market-leading endpoint security solutions include Sophos Endpoint powered by Intercept X, Sophos Extended Detection and Response (EDR/XDR), and Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR).
Over 300,000 organizations trust Sophos endpoint security solutions to defend against cyberthreats, including advanced remote ransomware attacks and active adversaries.
Unique to Sophos, the solution includes adaptive defenses that automatically disrupt attackers by dynamically adjusting protection levels based on threat context.
“Sophos’ strength lies in its prevention-first strategy, designed to stop breaches before they start, adapt defenses in real time, and strengthen detection and response when it matters most,” said Kyle Falkenhagen, SVP, Product Management, Sophos. “We believe that receiving this recognition in the highly competitive endpoint security market for 16 consecutive reports reflects our relentless focus on developing innovative solutions that stay ahead of the global threat landscape and the adversaries we face every day.”
Sophos and Secureworks: The future of protection, detection, and response
Following Sophos’ acquisition of Secureworks in February 2025, combining two leading and complementary portfolios to offer a comprehensive suite of solutions for small, midmarket and enterprise organizations.
Secureworks Taegis XDR customers can use Sophos Endpoint to elevate their cyber defenses, at no additional charge, delivering both improved protection and return on investment.
The integration of Secureworks also adds a new Counter Threat Unit (CTU) to the Sophos X-Ops advanced threat response joint task force, further expanding the rich threat intelligence that informs all customers’ defenses.
Backed by Sophos’ advanced security technologies and a broad network of intelligence contacts and partners, the CTU plays a critical role in identifying and tracking threat actors and analyzing anomalous activity, uncovering new attack techniques, threats, and major shifts in the threat landscape.
Kuda Unveils New Wallet for Multiple Currencies
Telcos Resume SIM Card Sales after 2-Week Halt
NITDA, API Partner Against Harmful Online Content
NCAA Orders Airlines to Enforce $10,000 Currency Declaration Rule
NIA Questions Legality of Reps’ Financial Probe
E-Financial2 days agoUBA’s LEO Becomes Africa’s First Chatbot to Enable Cross-Border Payments
News2 days agoUN Appoints Sa’id, Nigerian to Nuclear Panel
E-Business2 days agoNIMC Enrolls 122m for NIN, Cuts Extortion by 40 Percent
Telecom1 day agoMTN Nigeria Rewards 1,500+ Winners with ₦290m in Mega Billion Promo
Telecom2 days agoMTN Urges Nigerian to Regards Telecom Infrastructure as National Assets
General News2 days agoAppeal Court Nullifies Registration of ‘KPMG Professional Services’
Telecom2 days agoBitget Launches $6M Global Crypto Trading Contest with New Competitive Segments
E-Financial1 day agoNaira Slides Again, Hits ₦1,532.34/$ Despite CBN’s Dollar Push