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NITDA, ECOWAS Partner to Foster Cybersecurity Talent in West Africa
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have joined forces to empower West African youth with the skills and knowledge needed to safeguard the region’s cyberspace.
A regional security hackathon held in Abuja, Nigeria, showcased the talent and potential of young participants from across West Africa.
The event aimed to identify and nurture cybersecurity experts who can combat the growing threat of cybercrime in the region.
NITDA Director General Kashifu Inuwa, represented by Oladejo Olawumi, emphasised the importance of harnessing the energy and creativity of young people to address cybersecurity challenges.
He stressed the need for countries to adhere to regional regulations and implement robust measures to protect critical institutions.
Olawumi stressed the importance of tapping into the region’s youthful talent to combat cybercrime.
He emphasised NITDA’s ongoing commitment to supporting future initiatives and stated, “The vibrant competition within the technology sector is encouraging. By harnessing the energy and creativity of our youth, we can effectively fight cybercrime and prevent them from engaging in criminal activities.”
On his part, the ECOWAS Commission President, Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, highlighted the urgency of protecting the region’s cyberspace and the role of the hackathon in identifying and supporting talented individuals.
He emphasized the collaboration between ECOWAS, NITDA, governments, private sector, and academia in making the event a success.
The hackathon, which was the third in the series, attracted participants from 12 West African countries.
Winners and participants received cash prizes and gift items as recognition for their achievements.
In addition to the competition, the event included training programs sponsored by donors and partners to further enhance the skills of the young participants.
After 30 hours of intense competition, the TeamERROR from Nigeria emerged third and got a cash prize of $6000 with laptops for each member of the team.
The M3V7R team from Benin Republic came second with a cash prize of $8,000 and laptops for its members, while the First Prize went to Shell X Roots from Cote d’ Ivoire with a cash prize of $10,000 and laptops for members of the group.
A highlight of the event was the recognition of Hannah Bangoura from Sierra Leone, who won the Best Female Participant award.
Her achievement underscored the growing influence of women in the field of cybersecurity across West Africa.
Earlier at the opening of the competition in Abuja, the Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, commended ECOWAS for its commitment to promoting regional unity in addressing cyber security.
He emphasised that the Hackathon represents a powerful symbol of unity and cooperation among ECOWAS member states, noting that “As threats become increasingly sophisticated and transnational, collaboration between nations is no longer optional, but essential.
“Making partnerships with relevant Cybersecurity outfits in various countries and a call for global Cybersecurity strategies is vital.”
Inuwa explained that the global Cybersecurity workforce places a gap with billions of jobs unfilled for the coming years, noting that the Hackathon is a response to that challenge.
Represented by the Director of IT Infrastructure Solution Mr. Oladejo Olawumi, Inuwa explained that participants need to be provided with opportunities to showcase their abilities to ensure that the youths have pathways to recognition, employment, and growth in this field.
“Our efforts also extend to fostering home-grown solutions towards our annual Hackathons, which offer startups to showcase real world problems.
“This Hackathon coincides with the National Cybersecurity Awareness month, during which we conduct extensive awareness to educate the public about the trending cyber threats and how to stay safe,” Inuwa said.
He added that the Hackathon competition saw 1,500 teams participate, including 139 teams led by female captains. With 1,362 female participants out of 5,341, the event highlighted the significant contributions women make to Cybersecurity in the region.
ECOWAS Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy, and Digitalisation, Mr. Seido Douko, while welcoming the participants, commended their dedication to addressing the pressing Cybersecurity challenges affecting the region
He stated that “ECOWAS passionately believes in harnessing the power of innovation and collaboration to drive progress. As technology continues to evolve, mere vigilance is no longer enough.
“To stay ahead of emerging threats, we must foster adaptability, creativity, and collaboration across borders, building a robust and resilient cyber ecosystem that benefits all member states.”
“Today’s event embodies the spirit of collaboration and innovation, bringing together talented young minds to tackle a critical regional challenge.
“It is not just about competition, but about collective contribution and creativity, fostering innovative solutions that will drive meaningful change and resilience in our region,” he added.
While maintaining that the competition is more than just a contest but a collaborative effort to combat cyber threats, he advised for a push to the boundaries of what is possible, harnessing collective creativity and expertise to develop innovative solutions.
The 30-hours ECOWAS Cyber Security Hackathon competition brought together over 40 young tech talented enthusiasts drawn from fourteen countries in the West African sub-region.
Airtel Nigeria has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s digital infrastructure and data access to bridge gaps in connectivity and unlock new opportunities in the country.
The company restated this commitment during a recent high-level inspection tour of the Nxtra Data Centre that is being developed through Nxtra by Airtel Africa at Eko Atlantic, Lagos, the highly rated smart city with ambition to become the Data Centre hub of Nigeria.
The inspection tour was led by the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh and the Chief Executive Officer of Nxtra by Airtel Africa, Yashnath Issur, with the esteemed chairman of Eko Atlantic Mr. Gabbi Massoud, the CEO of the lead Engineering firm Design Group Limited, Mr. Bayo Odunlami and tech journalists.
The Nxtra Data Centre went through a stringent design validation process and cleared the approval to proceed construction from Eko Atlantic.
Commenting on the developments, Mr Issur said the site visit was a milestone marker and an indication of the company’s commitment to delivering the world-class digital facility on time and ensure that, ultimately, the investments deliver reliable, secure, world-class services for Nigeria and the rest of the continent.
“This Nxtra Data Centre in Lagos represents a critical part of our long-term vision for Nigeria’s digital ecosystem. Today’s visit allows us to review progress, engage our stakeholders, and ensure that our infrastructure investments continue to meet global standards and local needs.
“This data centre will deliver critical high multi megawatt capacity in line with hyperscale customers and enable high density environment. We are putting the infra to bring the cloud to Nigeria,” he said.
The data centre, set to be the largest in Nigeria, is being established to deliver hyperscale and edge facilities across key African markets. With a load of 38 Megawatts, the Lagos facility is expected to serve as a major hub for data hosting, cloud services, content distribution, artificial intelligence, and enterprise solutions in West Africa.
In his remarks, Mr Balsingh reiterated that the data centre was progressing steadily towards the previously announced 2028 go live date.
“Since the announcement of this project, our focus has been on building a world-class facility that supports Africa’s digital transformation agenda. We are encouraged by the progress recorded so far and remain committed to delivering a secure, energy-efficient, and future-ready data centre for Nigeria,” he said.
During the tour, stakeholders were ushered through key sections of the site, including piling zones, where required structural requirements have been tested. Technical teams provided briefings on infrastructure design, security architecture, redundancy systems, and sustainability measures being implemented to ensure reliability and operational excellence.
Strategically located close to major fibre routes and undersea cable landing stations, the Eko Atlantic data centre is designed to enhance Nigeria’s data sovereignty, reduce latency, and improve access to reliable digital services for private and enterprise customers, significantly boosting the country’s data hosting capacity and supporting emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Mr. Massoud noted that the inspection tour underscored the city’s dedication to infrastructure of global relevance.
“Eko Atlantic as a city with high quality infrastructure will contribute positively to boost the economy of Nigeria and is a perfect place for the development of the digital infrastructure of Nigeria. The Nxtra data centre reflects the calibre of projects we seek to attract — long-term, technology-driven investments built to the highest global standards.
Today’s visit affirms the rigour of the planning and execution process by Nxtra, and the commitment of Eko Atlantic to facilitate and promote the Nigeria’s evolving digital ecosystem,” he said.
Through this ongoing investment, Airtel Nigeria and Nxtra continue to demonstrate their commitment to building infrastructure that enables innovation, supports economic development, and accelerates Nigeria’s digital transformation.
Nxtra by Airtel is developing a network of hyperscale data centres across the continent. Besides Lagos, construction of a new data centre has also commenced in Nairobi, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Google has partnered with top African research institutions to unveil WAXAL, a massive open-access speech dataset aimed at giving over 100 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa a stronger voice in the AI future.
The initiative, announced Monday, targets a key digital gap by supplying high-quality data for 21 local languages, such as Hausa, Yoruba, Luganda, and Acholi. It includes 1,250 hours of transcribed natural speech and more than 20 hours of studio-grade recordings for advanced synthetic voice tech.
Voice AI has exploded globally, yet Africa’s 2,000-plus languages suffer from severe data shortages, sidelining hundreds of millions from native-tongue tech access. WAXAL, three years in the making with Google funding, changes that equation.
“This dataset lays the groundwork for students, researchers, and entrepreneurs to craft tech in their own languages, impacting over 100 million lives,” said Aisha Walcott-Bryantt, Head of Google Research Africa.
She highlighted its potential for African innovators to develop educational tools and voice services that spark economic growth continent-wide.
Community-led from the start, the project involved Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana, Digital Umuganda (Rwanda), and others. These partners own the data outright, pioneering fair AI collaboration models.
Covered languages: Acholi, Akan, Dagaare, Dagbani, Dholuo, Ewe, Fante, Fulani (Fula), Hausa, Igbo, Ikposo (Kposo), Kikuyu, Lingala, Luganda, Malagasy, Masaaba, Nyankole, Rukiga, Shona, Soga (Lusoga), Swahili, Yoruba.
WAXAL goes live today. Details at goo.gle/IntroducingWaxal.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has unveiled its Q4 2025 Network Performance Reports, showcasing nationwide quality boosts fueled by over $1 billion in industry investments and sharper regulatory focus.
NCC
Speaking at the launch, Executive Vice Chairman Dr. Aminu Maida hailed the Ookla-backed data as proof of NCC’s drive for transparent, evidence-driven oversight of Nigeria’s digital growth.
The reports track real-user experiences across cities, villages, highways, and nascent 5G areas, revealing faster median download speeds in both urban and rural spots versus Q3 2025.
Video streaming quality gaps between city and countryside have shrunk, thanks to a beefed-up 4G network—yet 5G rollout lags, upload speeds falter, and coverage holes linger in spots.
Maida said NCC is leaning on operators to fix these via spectrum tweaks, infrastructure drives, and stricter service rules, with 2025’s 2,850 new sites already paying off in broader reach and capacity.
Operators pledge even bigger spends in 2026 to keep the momentum, aiming for top-tier connectivity and economic inclusion for all Nigerians.
“We’ll turn these insights into real gains in service and access,” Maida affirmed, calling for sustained industry teamwork.
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