E-Business
NiRA Changes Strategy on Getting States, Local Govts. on .ng

After unsuccessful efforts to get all the 774 local governments and state governments in the country to register on.ng just as federal ministries and parastatals, Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) has changed its earlier strategy in order to achieve this result.
Mr. Sunday Folayan, president, NiRA, told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek that the idea of bringing States and Local Governments Areas on .ng has not been abandoned rather the strategy has change from focusing on creating name of those entities on the superhighway to creating services for citizens on the internet which will add value to both citizens and the authorities that register.
He said that NiRA’s engagement group plans to present this strategy as well as others for discussion at the forth coming National Council on Information and Communications Technology schedule to hold in November this year.
It would be recalled that the immediate past administration of NiRA under Mrs. Mary Uduma initiated the effort to get all states and local governments to register their websites on the country’s top level domain name in line with e-government policy of the federal government.
To this end, NiRA collaborated with National Information Development Agency (NITDA) that acts as their registrar aimed at making the process easy for them. However, in spite of the deadline given to the 774 local governments in the country to comply which have since elapse, a handful of them have complied recording less than 30%.
It is in view of this lustra attitude that necessitated the change in strategy to ensure that a good number of them comply wilfully without compulsion by making it value driven.
Folayan also decried high rate of government ministries and parastatals’ websites that are on .ng and their servers hosted abroad. This, according to him has adverse effect on the country’s economy as well as growth of information technology.
“NiRA has mapped out plans to start encouraging local hosting in the country and will roll it out in a matter of weeks. One of the issues to be addressed include technological limitations as well as none technological limitations,’ he said.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek had gathered that Lagos state government which previously hosted its web and email servers in the country had to relocate it to a foreign country, citing trust issues as reason for doing so.
Mohammed Rudman, managing director, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria, said that the implication of such action is that email exchange among staff of those ministries or departments are no longer private as it will have to leave the country to the country where the server is hosted and in the process could be tapped by agents of the government of the country.
He added that it also encourages capital flight as cost of such service will be paid in foreign currency; as well as create employment for foreigners at the expense of Nigerians.
“More so, if by any means there is cut or tsunami that damages undersea cable that provides connectivity between the host network and the ministry or agency, staff cannot communicate through the email,” he said.
It was learnt that presently, there are several Data centres in the country that have attended international certification that can host web and email servers for governments, ministries and departments thereby creating employment and encourage local companies for the development of the country.
E-Business
Transcorp Hotels Delivers Stellar H1 Results, Declares Over ₦1Bn Dividend

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.
E-Business
Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

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”.
E-Business
NIMC Warns Nigerians of Fake NIN Website

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.
- Telecom3 days ago
Glo Launches Nigeria’s First-of-its-kind Device Protection Plan
- Telecom3 days ago
Telcos: How and Why Network Services have Been Poor
- Broadcasting3 days ago
Canal+ Clears Final Hurdle to Acquire South Africa’s MultiChoice
- E-Business3 days ago
NIMC Warns Nigerians of Fake NIN Website
- Telecom3 days ago
MTN Executive Adeola Oduntan Emerges as Africa’s Supply Chain Leader of 2025
- Telecom3 days ago
MTN Nigeria Sweeps Africa’s Procurement Awards With Innovation and Impact
- E-Business3 days ago
Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups
- Telecom3 days ago
Telegram to allow U.S. users send, receive crypto directly in app