Telecom
NITDA Brings Digital Technology to the Grassroots
In its continued effort to transform Nigeria into a globally recognised hub of technology and innovation to drive economic diversification and boost productivity across all sectors, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is set to collaborate with relevant organisations in effectively cascading the benefits of digital technology to all the local governments across the country.
This was disclosed by the NITDA Director General, Kashifu Inuwa when he played host to the Senior Special Advisers to President on Community Engagement – South East, Barr Chioma Nweze; South West, Ms Moremi Ojudu and North West, Hon. Abdallah Tanko Yakassai who visited the Agency to discuss possible areas of collaboration on Nigeria’s digital transformation journey.
This gesture is in total alignment with the present administration’s priority areas, particularly in the area of reforming the economy for sustained inclusive growth.
While stating the agency’s vision for Nigeria where inclusive economic growth is fostered through technological innovation, the NITDA DG noted that the vision aligned with the president’s 8 priority areas.
“The President wants to Reform the Economy to Deliver Sustained Economic Growth; Strengthen National Security for Peace and Prosperity; Boost Agriculture to Achieve Food Security; Boost Infrastructure and Transportation as Enablers of Growth; Focus on Education, Health and Social Investment as Enablers of Development; Accelerate Diversification through Digitisation, Industrialisation, Creative Art and Innovation; and Improve Governance for Effective Service Delivery to Citizens,” he said.
He added that the agency recently crafted its Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2.0) 2024-2027, and its pillars are the tool that will help Mr President in delivering on all the presidential priority areas.
Enumerating the 8 pillars of the SRAP, Inuwa highlighted “Foster Digital Literacy and Cultivate Talents” as one of the most important pillars the document is anchored on where inclusivity is pronounced.
“To ensure we are inclusive, we need to get our citizens to be digitally literate, so we developed the National Digital Literacy Framework with an ambitious target of achieving 95% digital literacy by 2030 but Mr President cited a mid-term target for us to achieve 70% by 2027,” he stated.
He further said that the agency is collaborating with the Ministry of Education in infusing digital literacy into all academic institution’s curricula while at the same time developing standard training with certifications that would be a prerequisite for securing government employment.
“We have already worked with the Head of Service to put it as a requirement for government workers to be digitally literate. But for the market people, artisans and so on, what they need is the literacy to use digital devices to access internet banking, government digital services and others.
“We have therefore been exploiting many channels to deliver them through TV programmes, social media, radio, roadshows and so on,” he averred.
The NITDA Boss stated that, the 3 Million Tech Talent programme was another initiative of the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy in collaboration with the agency to identify skill gaps in the country and build youth’s capacity on skills in high demand locally and internationally.
“We have started the training and so far we have trained over 30,000 and completed the first phase which is a pilot. We are now executing the second phase of the training,” he said.
While giving deep insight into the other seven strategic pillars of Building a Robust Technology Research Ecosystem; Strengthening Policy Implementation and Legal Framework; Promoting Inclusive Access to Digital Infrastructure and Services; Strengthening Cybersecurity and Enhance Digital Trust; Nurturing an Innovative and Entrepreneurial Ecosystem; Forging Strategic Partnerships and collaborations and lastly, Cultivating a Vibrant Organisational Culture and an Agile Workforce in NITDA, Inuwa shared the various infrastructures, innovative solutions, sponsorships and training programmes the government has been offering nationwide.
In his remark, Hon. Yakassai appreciated the DG NITDA for his wonderful presentation by sharing insights into the various activities of the agency to ensure a digitally empowered nation by building the digital capacities of Nigerians.
He however expressed his team’s willingness to collaborate with the agency in the areas of propagating the agency’s activities to the grassroots throughout the 774 local governments in the country.
“Mr President is a grassroots person that is why he created this office so that we make sure whatever the government is doing is taken down to the grassroots level and we need to show the people the importance of your programmes and how they can key into it”, he stated.
Pan African Towers (PAT), a Nigerian infrastructure provider serving 9mobile and Spectranet, has appointed Echezona Osi as chief executive officer.
Echezona Osi
Adefolarin Ogunsanya, company’s, board chairman, explained in a statement that Osi would succeed Oladipo Badru, whose tenure lasted nine months in acting CEO position. Osi has more than 28 years of experience in the telecommunications sector across various regions of Africa.
Prior to his appointment as CEO, he had served as the head of network deployment at Airtel Nigeria, operations director and chief technical information officer at MIC Tanzania, chief technology officer roles at IPT PowerTech Nigeria, Rhino Niger Networks and Biswal Nigeria.
He obtained a degree in electrical/ electronic engineering from the University of Benin and a postgraduate diploma in data science and business analytics from the University of Texas.
Companies sending bulk international text messages, also known as Application-to-Person (A2P) messages, will now have apply for a licence that costs N10 million.
This is part of new rules introduced by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) aimed at cleaning up the system, fighting fraud, blocking spam messages and stopping money from leaving the country unchecked.
These A2P messages are the kind customers get from banks, online stores, hospitals and political campaigns, automated texts sent from apps to their phones.
According to the commission, the bulk international text message system has been poorly regulated, allowing misuse and invasion of privacy.
“The International SMS Service Ecosystem in Nigeria has not been fully brought under regulatory control. It has been observed that the excessive use of the Short Message Service has led to fraud, spam and illegal activities,” the NCC said.
The regulator warned that without action, the problem would worsen as more people use mobile phones and digital services.
To solve this, the NCC is creating a central platform, or gateway, through which all international bulk text messages must pass through.
The agency said this would help to monitor messages in real time, ensure proper fees are paid, and make sure the money stays in Nigeria where it can contribute to the economy.
As part of the incoming change, service providers must follow strict rules, including strong data protection, spam filters, and message encryption.
Also, they must also work with local mobile networks and make sure all messages come from a verified sender
The NCC warned that any message without a proper sender ID will be blocked and not delivered to users.
To protect users from unwanted texts, the new rules say companies must get clear permission before sending any promotional content.
The rule also says people must also be able to choose whether they want to receive such messages or not.
Companies are now required to keep records of all messages for at least six months and must clearly state all charges involved.
The NCC said fees for help requests, cancellations, or service info must be transparent and not include hidden charges.
The commission will issue licences to several providers to encourage healthy competition but may limit new licences if needed.
Only companies that show they can stop fraud and safely deliver messages will be allowed to operate. They must also regularly report their message traffic and finances to the NCC.
It warned that any company that breaks the rules risks getting fined, suspended, or having its licence revoked.
Offences like charging illegal tariffs, ignoring security rules, or avoiding taxes will be punished, the NCC said.
The commission added that the new rules follow the Nigerian Data Protection Act 2023 and support the federal government’s goal of strengthening cybersecurity and controlling Nigeria’s digital space.
The framework will also be reviewed from time to time to keep up with new technology and market trends.
MTN Nigeria has launched what it claims is the country’s largest prefabricated modular data centre, marking a bold push into the country’s fast-growing cloud market and taking aim at global giants such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Karl Toriola, CEO, MTN Nigeria.
The shift comes as demand for cloud services in Nigeria soars — driven by the uptake of mobile apps, fintech tools and e-learning platforms — while foreign providers have become costlier in the wake of the naira’s sharp devaluation.
“This is one of the biggest data centres in West Africa and probably one of the biggest in Africa,” said Karl Toriola, CEO, MTN Nigeria.
He described the new Tier III-certified facility, with locally hosted cloud services, as “transformative for the technology ecosystem in Nigeria and very supportive of the federal government’s agenda”.
MTN Nigeria, the country’s largest telecoms provider, has so far invested $120m in the first phase, delivering an IT load of 4.5MW. A second phase, set to double capacity to 9MW, is budgeted at $135m.
“We already have data centres that are running our existing capacities,” Toriola said.
“We will go to 9MW in short order, possibly 14MW, and we can expand even further.”
He said the facility would allow local hosting for tech developers, large enterprises including banks and oil companies, and government agencies — markets long dominated by foreign cloud providers.
“Multinational companies such as Netflix, Facebook and Instagram can also host a lot of their data here. That improves the quality of service and reduces the cost of storage,” he added.
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