Telecom
Shoprite Nigeria Partners Edo State Government on Construction of Benin Mall
Persianas Group, a co-investor of Ketron Investment Limited, has entered an agreement with the Edo State Government for the development and construction of a Shoprite outlet in Benin City, the Edo State capital. The announcement was made during a press briefing on Tuesday, September 21, 2021.
The briefing had in attendance, respected members of the press, Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, the Chairman of Ketron Investment Nigeria Limited, Mr Tayo Amusan, amongst other dignitaries.
According to Amusan, the expansion signals the company’s commitment to its mission and vision for Shoprite in Nigeria. “We are excited to bring Shoprite to Edo State. More importantly, the willingness of this state to see the establishment of a new shopping outlet fills us with more optimism as we work towards contributing to the growth and development of this state,” he said.
“Rest assured, we will ensure the establishment of a novel and elevated shopping experience for the people of Edo. It will be characterised by cutting-edge technology and state-of-the-art infrastructure, and of course a source of gainful employment for many of the people of Edo State.” he concluded.
Tayo Amusan also confirmed transformation plans for the headquarters of the State Library located in the proposed location of the new mall. He stated that, “as part of the conditions agreed with the Edo State Government, a new library will be constructed within the premises of the new mall. This will ensure that Edo residents, who frequent the facility, enjoy a conducive and enabling environment for learning.”
The Edo State Government’s enthusiasm represents a welcome development for Amusan, who expressed satisfaction with regards to the developmental strides of the Obaseki-led administration while commending the governor for prioritizing the welfare, development, and elevation of the livelihoods of the Edo people.
The Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, while addressing journalists after signing the agreement for the Benin mall project, said the project is coming after 12 years of failed attempts. Obaseki stated that the goal of his administration is to ensure that Benin City has all the features of a modern smart city while stimulating the economy.
According to him, “Our struggle to bring Shoprite or a major mall experience to Edo State has been on for more than a decade.
“There have been several attempts and one of the promises I made during my electioneering was that before leaving office, I was going to make Edo like modern cities in the world, making Edo people experience a retail shopping mall in the state.”
The Edo State governor also lauded Amusan, commending him for his commitment to stimulating investment into the state.
“We are pleased with our partners, Persianas Group. We thank the chairman, whose company built the first mall to house the first Shoprite store in Nigeria. For our administration, it’s all about partnerships. This is what we call a classic public-private partnership between the government and the private sector,” he said.
Since launching in December 2005, Shoprite Nigeria has established about 25 retail stores across Nigeria, choosing to focus on major commercial cities. The management’s plans to expand the outlets to Benin is a welcome development, as the company seeks to penetrate more cities, create more opportunities, and drive an entire distribution of benefits across the value chain, as part of its growth strategy.
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, Dr. Aminu Maida, executive vice chairman, NCC, 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.
Accidental Billionaire Opts for Jail Instead of Returning Money Credited Him by Mistake
US Set to Deport 79 Nigerians on Criminal List
SEC Warns of Potential Ponzi-style Risks in AURUM BOT, ModMount
Airtel Nigeria Commits to Boosting Nigeria’s Digital Infrastructure
Ungoverned AI is Quietly Scaling Risk in Nigeria – Dr. Naiho
19 Nigerian Banks Meet CBN Recapitalization Targets Ahead of March Deadline
Youth Talent Takes Center Stage as T2 Ignites High-Octane Rap Battles @ Carnival Calabar
Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation Wrapped Up 2025 with Real Change in Governance, Health, Media Across Africa
Showmax Unlocks Easier Payments for Nigerian Subscribers via Baxi
Nigerian Terra Industries Secures $11.8m for Expansion
Telecom2 days agoTelecom Operators Invest Over $1Bn on 2,850 New Sites in 2025 – NCC
E-Financial2 days agoAmaanah Finance to Unveils Non-Interest Banking Services Today
E-Financial2 days agoIf Capital is the Answer, What Exactly is the Problem with First Holdco
General News2 days agoFirst Trustees to Host 8th Islamic Estate Planning Clinic in Abuja
News2 days agoNSCDC Hands over Fake Crypto Currency Trader to EFCC
News2 days agoAlakija’s Flourish Africa Provides N300m Grants for Women Entrepreneurs
General News2 days agoSecurity Forces Probe Use of Drones by Terrorists
Broadcasting2 days agoNew Horizons Nigeria Breaks Ground: First to Fuse Mandarin into ICT Curriculum