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Nigeria Uses Android App with Facebook to Beat Ebola

When Nigeria was hit by its first outbreak of the Ebola virus, health workers monitoring suspected cases armed themselves with mobile phones and an Android app that cut the time it took to report the onset of symptoms.
The app and most of the phones were provided by eHealth & Information Systems Nigeria, a Santa Ana, California-based non-profit research company that operates in the northern city of Kano, according to Bloomberg’s report.
Ebola Alert, a group of volunteers, used Facebook and Twitter to educate Nigerians about the illness.
Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Nigerian unit organized training sessions for journalists on how to use Google Trends to identify top questions most people wanted answered about the disease.
The phone app helped reduce reporting times that would normally take 12 hours by half initially, then 75 percent, before becoming almost real time, according to Daniel Tom-Aba, senior data manager at the Ebola Emergency Operation Centre in Lagos.
Information previously written on forms by hand before being sent to databases could be updated immediately, he said.
Ebola Scourge
“With Ebola, time is very important,” Adam Thompson, the chief executive officer of eHealth & Information Systems, an organization that had gained experience fighting the polio virus in northern Nigeria, said by phone from Kano. “If there’s a two or three-day lag in order to get a contact to the list, this could be a problem. The person could be in a different country by that point.”
Outbreak Contained
After a two-month campaign, during which more than 800 people who came into contact with infected persons were placed under surveillance, Nigerian officials are confident the outbreak has been contained.
The Health Ministry isn’t monitoring anyone at the moment and expects Nigeria to be declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization about Oct. 20, spokesman Daniel Nwomeh said by phone on Oct. 3 from Abuja, the capital.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation with about 170 million people and the continent’s biggest economy, recorded 19 cases, with seven confirmed deaths and 12 recoveries, according to the Health Ministry. That’s a 40 percent fatality rate for a disease that could kill as much as 90 percent of those infected.
The latest Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed more than 3,400 people, according to the WHO, making it the worst in history.
Bloomberg reported that eHealth is exporting its app-loaded mobile phones and other tech-based tools to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the three worst-hit countries in West Africa.
Instant Tracking
“We’ve established three operations in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea,” Thompson said in an Oct. 4 e-mailed response to questions from Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. “We’re managing about $14 million of private foundation funds to support emergency operations.”
The main lessons in Nigeria were the importance of fast communication and instant tracking.
“One of the key things that worked for Nigeria was the fact that we knew the index case and we were able to trace all the contacts back to him,” Tom-Aba said. “Every contact tracer had a GPS incorporated in their phones so we knew that they had gone to the contact’s house. That built accountability.
Liberian civil servant Patrick Sawyer introduced the virus into Nigeria when he arrived on July 20.
Sawyer and four of the health workers who treated him also died of Ebola. Contact tracers made 18,500 home visits to check on people who may have been exposed, according to a Sept. 30 report on the website of the Center for Diseases Control.
Tablet Scans
Laboratory technicians conducting tests were given tablets to scan and upload results to the emergency center data base.
Field teams in turn got text-message alerts on their phones informing them of the results, he said.
Journalists were also shown how to create visuals using Google Maps and Google Earth to better tell the story.
“From the beginning of August to mid-September, about two terms in the top five searches were Ebola-related,” Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, Google’s communications manager for West Africa, said in a phone interview from Lagos on Oct. 6. “We noticed journalists were missing the story because people were asking questions as simple as, what is quarantine?”
Lawal Bakare, a 31-year-old dentist, corralled Facebook friends at home and abroad to create Ebola Alert, which educated Nigerians about the disease online.
Within a week, they formed a partnership with the government to operate a helpline that took 600 calls a day.
The group’s Facebook and Twitter accounts have more than 30,000 followers combined as of Oct. 6, and its website, www.ebolaalert.org, had 4 million hits in August alone, Bakare said.
U.S. Interest
As Nigerians’ interest in Ebola wanes, a growing amount of traffic is now coming from the U.S., which diagnosed its first case of the disease in Dallas last week.
The patient had traveled from Liberia. Bakare estimates that about 21 percent of the group’s followers are now from the U.S.
Fast communication in a country where they are 130 million mobile-phone users had its downside: unsubstantiated rumors.
Some text messages circulated saying that drinking a salt solution would prevent the infection.
At least two people were confirmed dead from drinking too much salt by the Health Ministry.
“As the rumor mongers are generating their rumors, we are countering almost real-time on Twitter especially to manage panic,” Bakare said.
He cited the example of a Lagos church that put up a poster advertising “free immunization” from the virus.
For Nigeria, the next target in the fight against Ebola is to halt its spread in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to Alex Okoh, the director of Port Health Services in Lagos.
“We may be Ebola free, but as long as there’s still an outbreak in the sub-region, we’re still at risk,” she said in an interview. “We can’t let our guard down because we still have people criss-crossing the continent,” Bloomberg reported.
News
NIA Questions Legality of Reps’ Financial Probe

The Nigerian Insurers Association has urged the House Committee on Capital Market and Institutions to respect the constitutional separation of powers as it carries out a probe on over 20 insurance firms.
In a statement on Tuesday night, the Director General/Chief Executive Officer of NIA, Mrs Bola Odukale, said the decision of NIA and the affected firms to approach the court was to seek clarity on the constitutional limits of the House Committee’s probe.
It would be recalled that the House of Representatives on Monday is investigating no fewer than 25 insurance companies operating in the country for various financial infractions spanning financial reporting, claims settlement, premium remittance, and issuance of policies.
The Chairman, House Sub-Committee on Capital Market and Institutions, Kwamoti Laori, during a meeting with the management of the insurance companies at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja, said the meeting was convened following the receipt of a petition on infractions by the insurance companies.
In the statement, Odukale said, “The Association wishes to state unequivocally that all actions taken by the NIA and the affected member companies in response to the Committee’s invitations and pronouncements were based entirely on legal advice by its Solicitors. It was on the firm instruction of legal counsel that recourse was made to the courts.
“The objective of approaching the Court is to seek judicial guidance on the legality, propriety, and constitutional limits of the Committee’s intervention in order to safeguard institutional integrity, uphold regulatory independence, and ensure that legislative oversight remains within the bounds of law.
“The Court action seeks to determine whether the current posture of the Committee reflects an exercise of legislative judgment, which, by constitutional design, is the exclusive province of statutory regulators, such as the National Insurance Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigerian Exchange, Financial Reporting Council, Nigeria Data Protection Commission, and the National Information Technology Development Agency.
“This raises serious questions about legislative overreach and an erosion of the doctrine of separation of powers, a cornerstone of Nigeria’s constitutional democracy.”
Odukale maintained that the NIA was committed to lawful and constructive engagement with all arms of government, provided that such engagement respects the autonomy of statutory regulators and the boundaries established by the Constitution.
“The NIA will continue to provide its full support to all member companies while upholding the principles of legal compliance and sector-wide integrity,” Odukale concluded.
17 of the companies that went to court were represented by their lawyer, Mr Abimbola Kayode, at the meeting with the committee.
News
Horn of Africa Leaders Seek Enhanced Digital Integration for Increased Regional Growth

Finance ministers and development partners from the Horn of Africa have called for enhanced digital integration to boost trade, drive economic growth and promote regional stability during the 25th Ministerial Meeting of the Horn of Africa Initiative (HoAI).
Held in Nairobi, on July 14, the meeting was co-chaired by the African Development Bank’s Vice President for Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery, Nnenna Nwabufo and Somalia’s Minister of Finance, Bihi Iman Egeh. Discussions underscored the critical role of digital integration in reducing trade barriers, boosting government service delivery and creating employment — particularly for the region’s youth.
“Digital technologies are shaping today’s economy and tomorrow’s industries. By embedding these technologies into our programs, we can not only improve inclusion but also leapfrog outdated development models,” said Nwabufo.
She called for digital integration a “central enabler” in each of the Horn of Africa Initiative’s pillars – trade, infrastructure, resilience, and human capital,
Learning through experience
Drawing from global and regional success stories, speakers highlighted the transformative potential of technology-led development. The ministers pointed to the Philippines as a strong example, where ICT has generated millions of jobs in business process outsourcing. Similarly, Kenya’s fintech innovation—especially the success of M-PESA—was cited as a model for scaling digital financial services across the region.
Participants urged governments to proactively foster digital ecosystems by capitalizing on the demographic dividend, identifying infrastructure upgrades, tighter regulatory reforms, and digital skills trainings as priorities to enable broader participation in the digital economy.
Minister Egeh reiterated the need for more coordinated regional efforts to create the enabling environment required for accelerated digital integration and expansion. He referenced the HoAI Digital Policy Matrix, adopted in 2023 which provides a blueprint on how to address key obstacles to achieving effective digital integration across the region.
Barack Makokha, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury, underscored the importance of regionally-aligned public private partnerships and advocated for blended financing to reduce investment risk and expand digital access in underserved areas.
World Bank Vice President for Eastern and Southern Africa, Ndiame Diop, called for a comprehensive multi-pronged approach, combining cross-border coordination, large-scale financing, robust policy support, and digital infrastructure investments. He pointed out that such measures could transform digital integration into, “a powerful engine of economic transformation” for the Horn of Africa—ensuring no one is left behind in the digital era.
The meeting concluded with a shared recognition that sustained political will and the determination to implement a multifaceted approach are essential to unlocking the region’s economic potential and driving long-term growth.
The event also welcomed observers from the East African Community, Agence française de développement, and Shelter Afrique, reflecting strong regional and international backing for the HoAI in the development community.
News
CSCS Inaugurates Custodian Portal to Enhance Digital Access, Operational Efficiency

Central Securities Clearing System Plc (CSCS), Nigeria’s capital market infrastructure provider, has launched its Custodian Portal, a user-centric digital solution designed to optimise custodian operations through intuitive, secure and efficient features.
Haruna Jalo-Waziri, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), CSCS, announced this in a statement on Monday.
The CSCS is a Public Limited Company with a diversified shareholder base, which serves as the Central Securities Depository for the Nigerian Capital Market.
It serves as the Central Depository for Equities, Commercial Papers, Corporate Bonds, Sub-National Bonds, certain Sovereign Bonds like the FGN Sukuk and the FGN Savings Bond, Equity-traded Funds, Real Estate Investment Trusts, Mutual funds and Commodities.
Jalo-Waziri said that the custodian portal offered a streamlined experience for market participants with powerful tools that facilitate comprehensive portfolio and trade management, document tracking, share transfer operations, client symbol search, and real-time access to vital data.
He explained that the portal, designed to operate through a flexible subscription-based model, empowered users to manage their records effortlessly and securely through convenient payment channels such as GTPay and Paystack.
According to him, “Digital transformation remains at the core of our strategy to enhance the efficiency, transparency and accessibility of Nigeria’s capital market services.
“The custodian portal is a significant leap in that direction, offering custodians a centralised platform to manage critical processes in real-time.
“We are excited about the value this innovation brings to our stakeholders, and we will continue to evolve the platform in line with users’ needs and industry trends.”
The CEO also explained that the portal was designed with user experience in mind with feature tools like portfolio viewing and downloads in PDF or Excel format.
He further said that it also featured tracking of stock movements across date ranges, inbox messaging and request tracking, as well as robust user management capabilities including role assignment and status tracking.
Similarly, the Divisional Head, Business Technology and Digital Innovation, CSCS Plc, Tobe Nnadozie, said that the portal aligned with CSCS’s drive to automate the market.
“In addition to the normal features, the platform is a part of an omnichannel platform for custodians, and includes API services.
“It also connects to the market-wide workflow, which CSCS has built to ensure secured communication and approvals across all major stakeholders in the market.
“The platform is well secured with best-of-breed cybersecurity solutions and our SOC,” he said.
The Custodian Portal reinforces CSCS’s commitment to leveraging technology to streamline back-office functions and support a more agile, data-driven capital market ecosystem.
All custodians in the Nigerian capital market have now been successfully on-boarded on the Custodian Portal, marking a significant milestone in CSCS’s ongoing drive to enhance collaboration, standardise operational processes, and promote digital adoption across the market.
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