Telecom
Pantami Makes Case for PLWD, Says They Ought to Be Employers of Labour Rather Than Job Seekers
Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, minister of Communications and Digital Economy, has said that with adequate knowledge, skills and resources, Persons Living with Special Needs can be job employers, rather than job seekers.
The Minister stated this on Friday at the closing ceremony of the 5-day training programme for People Living With Disabilities (PLWD’S) organized by the National Information Technology Development Agency at Enugu State.
The 50 participants trained were all given laptops, internet dongles, laptop bags and cash.
Pantami, while giving the closing remark, said that the population of persons living with special needs, as he prefers to call them, in the world is over 785 million, according to the World Health Organization, which is almost four times the population of Nigeria as a country.
He, therefore, averred that a responsible society will give them priority and preference.
He said that the training was in line with the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy for a Digital Nigeria which was launched on the 28th November 2019, by President Mohammad Buhari GCFR.
He admonished all participants to consider the training as an opportunity because there are millions of people living with special needs in Nigeria who do not have the opportunity of being trained directly like them.
The Honoroble Minister admonished the participants to take good advantage of the facilities and support given to them through this training.
He advised them to keep them safe in order to continue working with it. “Consider the training to be a foundation of your becoming a digital entrepreneur”, the Minister added.
He cited examples of previous beneficiaries of the same training programme from Abuja, Oyo and Gombe states who have now established their own businesses through the knowledge acquired.
Pantami urged all participants to extend the knowledge and skills acquired at the training programme to train their family members which will make them job providers, rather than job seekers.
“I urge you to extend the knowledge and skills you have acquired here to your family, friends and associates thereby bridging the digital divide we have in Nigeria” he said.
The Honourable Minister commended the National Information Technology Development Agency’s Board, Director General and the Management for organizing the programme and for the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy while urging them to extend the training to other states in the country.
He particularly thanked the Enugu State Government for supporting to host the programme and hoped for continued cooperation and partnership for the benefit of its residents.
Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, director general of NITDA, while giving a welcome address earlier said that; “the exclusion and marginalization of Persons Living with Special Needs is a human right violation as well as economic issue for the country”.
Abdullahi noted that on the 25th of January 2019, President Mohammadu Buhari, GCFR, signed into law, the discrimination of persons with disability provision act and that the Honorable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy has been implementing the National Digital Economy Policy for Digital Nigeria.
“Digital technology can break traditional barriers to communication, interaction and access to information”, the DG stated.
He told the participants that technology will make all their challenges possible and therefore urged them to use the knowledge they have acquired from the training to make all that was impossible for them, possible.
The Executive Governor of Enugu State who was represented by the Special Adviser to the Governor on ICT, Mr Emeka Ani, thanked the Honorable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy for the initiative and particularly thanked the Director General of NITDA for the implementation of the initiative.
“Enugu state will continue to give all the support, cooperation and collaboration to NITDA and to the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy” he assured.
Wireless Application Service Providers Association of Nigeria (WASPAN) has dragged Tunji Bello, executive vice chairman, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), before the Federal High Court in Lagos over alleged disobedience of a subsisting court order in a legal dispute involving telecom-based lending services.
Tunji Bello, EVC, FCCPC
Wireless Application Service Providers Association of Nigeria initiated this in Suit No: FHC/L/CS/760/2026 pending before the court.
According to court documents, Bello was issued a Form 49 Notice to Show Cause, directing him to appear before the court on 22 May 2026 to explain why an order of committal should not be made against him for allegedly failing to comply with interim orders issued by Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa on 15 April 2026.
The court had earlier granted interim injunctions restraining the FCCPC, its officers, agents and privies from enforcing provisions of the Digital, Electronic, Online or Non-Traditional Consumer Lending Regulations 2025 against members of WASPAN, pending the determination of the substantive suit.
The restraining orders specifically barred the commission from interfering with services rendered by WASPAN members, including airtime lending, data advances and other mobile value-added services.
The orders also restrained the FCCPC from imposing sanctions, penalties or directives connected to the disputed regulations.
In the Form 49 notice dated 18 May 2026, WASPAN alleged that despite being aware of the court orders and having been served with Form 48 — the statutory notice warning against disobedience of court orders — the FCCPC and its Executive Vice Chairman allegedly continued actions contrary to the directives of the court.
The notice stated that the alleged contemnor refused to comply with the orders and had continued to deliberately defy the orders of the court.
An affidavit of service filed before the court disclosed that Form 48 was served on Bello at the FCCPC headquarters located at 23 Jimmy Carter Street, Asokoro, Abuja, on 6 May 2026.
The latest development followed earlier proceedings in which Justice Lewis-Allagoa declined an application by the FCCPC seeking to vacate the interim injunction.
The court instead directed that the substantive suit and the commission’s preliminary objection be heard together.
WASPAN is challenging the FCCPC’s authority to regulate telecom-based lending services, arguing that certain provisions of the DEON Regulations encroach on the statutory powers of the Nigerian Communications Commission to regulate telecommunications services in the country.
Wireless Application Service Providers Association of Nigeria, is the primary self-regulatory body and trade association for licensed Value-Added Service (VAS) providers and aggregators in Nigeria’s telecommunications sector
Lagos State government has raised alarm over the growing misuse of its emergency hotlines, and warned that fake calls are delaying response times and putting lives at risk.
According to the state, fake emergency calls or prank calls, account for a massive majority of distress communications—nearly 70 per cent.
This severe misuse dangerously delays response times for real emergencies like fires, crimes, and medical crises, and wastes critical first-responder resources
Olugbenga Oyerinde, commissioner for Special Duties, called the numbers (nearly seven out of every 10 calls made to Lagos emergency hotlines) deeply troubling.
The scale of the disruption has significantly affected emergency response operations, with the government disclosing that 5.47 million incoming calls went unanswered during the period under review.
The abandoned call rate climbed sharply from 9.3 per cent in January 2025 to 37.6 per cent by April 2026, suggesting worsening pressure on operators handling emergency traffic.
Officials warned that if the current trend continues, more than 7.2 million calls could go unanswered before the end of 2026
The Lagos State Command and Control Centre serves as the central coordination hub for emergency response agencies across the state, including the fire service, ambulance services, traffic management authorities and neighbourhood safety operatives.
According to the report, the sheer volume of fake and misdirected calls has forced the system to devote significant operational resources to filtering non-emergency traffic before genuine distress cases can be handled.
To address the growing burden, the ministry said it plans to introduce artificial intelligence-driven call screening technology designed to detect and filter nuisance calls before they reach human operators.
The proposed system, expected to be introduced before the end of 2026, is projected to reduce operator handling time by 35 per cent.
Other reforms outlined in the ministry’s strategic response plan include expanding agent capacity by 40 per cent, deploying automated callback systems for abandoned calls and establishing a real-time analytics dashboard for emergency response monitoring.
Yet one of the most striking figures in the report was not the 16.39 million nuisance calls, but the fact that only 39 calls were officially categorised as hoax calls requiring legal follow-up during the same period.
Google and Blackstone (BX.N), said they will form an artificial intelligence cloud business venture aimed at capitalising on an insatiable demand for AI computing services.
Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, will invest an initial $5 billion in equity to help bring 500 megawatts of data centre capacity online in 2027, with further expansion planned over time.
The U.S.-based venture will provide data centre capacity along with Google’s custom AI chips, known as Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs, through a compute-as-a-service model.
The total investment value could reach $25 billion, including leverage, according to Bloomberg News.
Both companies did not immediately respond to a request for comments on the Bloomberg report. Blackstone has appointed Benjamin Sloss, a long-time Google executive, as CEO of the new venture.
Thomas Kurian, chief executive of Google Cloud, said the venture would help address growing demand for TPUs by offering organisations additional ways to access computing capacity.
Analysts and investors have said Google is taking a sizeable share of new AI-driven computing demand, supported by its business tools and custom chips that have attracted customers such as Anthropic.
“This isn’t the biggest headline number we’ve seen. But it’s a high-quality bet on sustainable growth in AI infrastructure,” said Brittain Ladd, AI and supply chain consultant at Florida-based Chang Robotics.
Blackstone has stepped up investments in AI-related infrastructure, including data centres, power generation and transmission assets.
Those investments are valuable as the AI boom pushes operators to secure long-term energy supply deals.
The new partnership reflects rising demand for AI infrastructure and the need for large-scale capital deployment, Blackstone President Jon Gray said.
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