Telecom
NITDA Partners AREAI to Drive Digital Innovation for Rural Community
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has made commitment to support and collaborate with Non-Governmental Organisations working within the scope of the Agency’s Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2021-2024), and that includes Aid for Rural Education and Access Initiative, (AREAI).
Mallam Abdullahi, Director General of NITDA,
Mallam Abdullahi, director general of NITDA, made this commitment to the Chief Executive Director of AREAI, Prince Gideon Olarewaju, and some members of the organisation during a courtesy visit to NITDA headquarters in Abuja, Thursday.
Abdullahi disclosed that NITDA recently unveiled its Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan, saying; “The SRAP is designed as a template or map to assist the agency achieve the targeted plans through the execution of the strategic pillars,” he explained.
While elaborating further, the NITDA boss said; “SRAP is anchored on 7 strategic pillars, namely, Developmental Regulations, Digital Literacy and Skills, Digital Transformation, Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Cyber Security, Emerging Technologies, and the seventh pillar is the promotion of Indigenous Content.”
He further explained that; “with the mandate and expertise from the Aid for Rural Education and Access Initiative, there is an opportunity for Nigerian youth to position itself as a leader in terms of ICT and digital economy and digital literacy with skills and innovation.”
The DG explained that NITDA is particularly passionate about four mentioned areas of collaborate, these are: Digital literacy and skills, where we have a target of 95% digital literacy in Nigeria by 2030.
He said during the lockdown of COVID-19 pandemic, NITDA came up with virtual academy with an enrolment of over sixty thousand online students and beneficiaries.
The Agency is now working to upgrading it to a standard mass open online courses platform like Coursera and Edx.
He said NITDA is hoping that other related institutions will key into this and start providing skills and certificate courses for our citizenry and even beyond the shores of our country.
On Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Abdullahi said NITDA is already coming up with something new that will impact knowledge to the rural communities.
Thirdly, he said, is the Local Content development of which the National Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics is one of the centers set up as an intervention center to develop local content and upgrade the skills of our citizen.
He encouraged the AREAI to take advantage of this facility to identify talents and develop ideas in their areas of interest that will impact on the girl child education’s digital literacy and skills.
He said it is a platform that the Agency has adopted to change the Nigerian trajectory through training and skill empowerment.
Mallam Abdullahi is quite optimistic that the two agencies partnership will uplift the actualisation of their similar mandates such as indigenous investors and innovation programs among others.
He later advised on the constitution of forum for discussions between NITDA and AREAI to come up with working tools to develop the idea into practicable reality.
Earlier, the Chief Executive Director of Aid for Rural Education and Access Initiative commended the NITDA for the opportunity to showcase their talent most especially in Digi-learn which is one of the smartest ways of impacting knowledge to the rural communities.
He hopes that the collaboration with NITDA will be a huge advantage to AREAI in harnessing potentials and expertise in bringing more innovation to the Rural communities in digital ways.
SHELT, a leading cybersecurity-as-a-service provider, has earned inclusion in the 2025 MSSP 250, the annual ranking of the world’s top 250 Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) by MSSP Alert, a CyberRisk Alliance publication.
SHELT
The list evaluates firms on business performance, service breadth, and industry impact, spotlighting those excelling in growth, operational excellence, and advanced managed security amid rising cyber threats. Selection criteria include annual recurring revenue, profitability, workforce expansion, business growth, and the depth of managed security offerings.
SHELT’s recognition underscores its investments in scalable security operations, threat intelligence, and tailored managed services across multiple regions, enabling clients to navigate complex risk landscapes effectively.
“Being recognised in the MSSP 250 is a meaningful milestone for our team,” stated Youssef Abillama, CEO of SHELT. “It validates our focus on building practical, resilient security services that help organisations manage risk and respond effectively to today’s evolving cyber threats.”
The company hailed the honour as testament to its teams’ dedication and expertise worldwide, reaffirming commitment to enhancing capabilities and delivering trusted cybersecurity solutions.
Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook, has appointed Dina Powell McCormick, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, as its new president and vice chairman, bolstering its leadership amid aggressive AI and infrastructure expansion.
Dina Powell McCormick
The announcement, made on Monday, positions Powell McCormick – who recently stepped down from Meta’s board after eight months – to guide overall strategy, including multi-billion-dollar investments in data centres and global partnerships.
A Goldman Sachs veteran with 16 years in senior roles and prior stints as deputy national security adviser under Trump and in the Bush administration, she brings deep finance and international ties to the role.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hailed her as “uniquely qualified” for the company’s next growth phase, while President Trump praised the move on Truth Social as a “fantastic choice”.
The hire signals Meta’s efforts to strengthen White House relations, following recent dinners with Trump and U.S. investment pledges worth hundreds of billions
X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has suspended the @Twitter account, replacing its profile with a standard notice citing violation of platform rules.
Musk
The action, which occurred on Sunday, January 11, left users encountering the handle greeted by a bold “Account Suspended” message on a black screen, with no details provided on the specific rules broken or the duration of the suspension.
The development has sparked widespread confusion and nostalgia among users, given that Elon Musk rebranded Twitter to X in July 2023, approximately six months after acquiring the platform for $44 billion in late 2022.
The @Twitter handle had remained dormant since before Musk’s takeover, serving as a legacy remnant of the platform’s original branding, and its suspension appears to mark the final erasure of the Twitter name amid X’s ongoing efforts to combat spam, impersonation, and rule violations.
X’s official statement on the suspended page simply reads: “X suspends accounts that violate our rules,” without offering an appeal process or further explanation, unlike standard user suspensions.
Public reactions on social media ranged from humorous laments of “RIP Twitter” to speculation that the move resulted from automated moderation or a deliberate cleanup of legacy trademarks.
xAI’s Grok AI described it as a purposeful retirement of outdated elements rather than a genuine infraction, while neither Elon Musk nor X spokespeople issued any comment as of Monday morning.
This incident underscores the evolving identity of the platform under Musk’s ownership, which also saw a domain shift to x.com in 2024, further distancing it from its Twitter roots.
Industry observers note that while the suspension aligns with X’s stricter enforcement policies, the lack of transparency has fueled debates on consistency in applying rules to high-profile legacy accounts.
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