Telecom
Team Earth Emerges Winner of InterswitchSPAK 2.0 Innovation Challenge
Team Earth has emerged from the InterswitchSPAK 2.0 Innovation Challenge, which was organized to spark innovation among the youths, especially teenage students.
Team Earth is a group of nine collaborated to identify a problem in the agricultural value chain in Nigeria leveraging technology.
They were tasked with developing solutions to three salient socio-economic issues in the areas of Agriculture, the Electoral process and Financial inclusion.
Team Earth, which was made up of nine SS2 students, proffered brilliant solutions to their given tasks by leveraging technology and were mentored by Paul Otu and Tolulope Adesokan and Opeyemi Adekugbe who are members of staff at Interswitch.
The team’s Agricultural solution, FarmEazy, is a platform expected to help the farmers connect to potential buyers. It brings people who want to buy farm produce in contact with the farmers on a single platform.
FarmEazy was proposed to be made available as a mobile app for IOS and Android devices, USSD and SMS for non-internet enabled phones. The FarmEazy has three sections: Farmers, buyers and investors.
To get on the platform farmers simply need to create a bank account for their wallet, with registered farmers will be granted access to all features available on the platform, including news feeds and updates.
Buyers who sign up on the platform can select and pay using the Quickteller PayPoint eWallet or USSD.
In addition, investors who sign up will be required to indicate an investment option that they would be interested in and also indicate the kind of services they would render.
The winners were selected by an eminent jury panel made up of Akeem Lawal, Divisional CEO, Transaction Processing & Enablement, Interswitch Group; Folasade Femi-Lawal, Head, Cards & Messaging Business, FirstBank, and Ifeoma Onibuje, Divisional Head, Electronic banking, Fidelity Bank.
Ideas and presentation were the two major criteria used in deciding the winners. For ideas, the Jury considered Team Earth’s presentation to be simple, disruptive and cost-effective. They also thought the solution was out of the box and relevant in today’s world. For presentation, the Jury considered the delivery, creativity and the demonstration of teamwork.
Commenting on the competition, Cherry Eromosele, group Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Interswitch, said: “The quality of the ideas and level of creativity demonstrated during the presentations gives credence to the assertion that Nigeria is filled with truly brilliant students.
“With access to the right tools and technology, they can produce solutions that would address practical everyday problems in Nigeria. While this is a worthwhile experience for the students, it may be the start of a digital revolution in Nigeria.”
Following their announcement as the Innovation Challenge winner, Team Earth will receive the InterswitchSPAK 2.0 Founder’s Award at the Grand Finale in the coming weeks.
In the wake of increasing geopolitical tension, Cassava Technologies has unveiled its National Sovereign Cloud offering for African governments.
The solution, the company claims, will help the continent’s governments ensure data is kept on infrastructure that remains under local legal and operational jurisdiction.
According to the official announcement, made yesterday, the solution provides “secure, locally-governed digital infrastructure that enables the deployment of AI-enabled public services”.
The overarching solution encompasses cloud, cyber security, AI computing infrastructure, as well as local language AI models and skills support for governments.
The announcement comes amid increasing uncertainty over the hosting of sensitive national data on cloud services operated by foreign hyperscalers, which are subject to legal frameworks, such as the U.S. CLOUD Act. The CLOUD Act opens the door to allow American authorities to access data stored on the servers of US hyperscalers, wherever those servers are physically located.
Cassava has claimed separately that currently, “approximately 33% to 45% of the world’s data is hosted in the USA”.
The company added: “A sovereign cloud reduces exposure to extraterritorial laws, improves cyber resilience, and ensures that model weights and training data for public AI remain under national custody.”
The Africa Data Centres Association’s 2026 Economic Report states that “data sovereignty has evolved from a legal aspiration into a strategic policy lever”.
Ahmed El Beheiry, Group COO and Group Chief Technology and AI Officer, Cassava Technologies said: “Across Africa, governments are accelerating their digital transformation agendas and are increasingly focused on ensuring that data and digital infrastructure remain secure and sovereign.”
Announced at the Mobile Word Congress in Barcelona, this week, the Sovereign Cloud offering launch accompanied the launch of Cassava’s Cloud Partner programme.
The partner programme targets mobile network operators and system integrators across Africa to resell and distribute AI, cloud, and other digital services using Cassava’s infrastructure and technology platforms.
El Beheiry added: “We are expanding Africa’s sovereign AI ecosystem to build solutions that address the continent’s unique challenges while creating new opportunities for growth and digital inclusion.”
The programme offers partners access to NVIDIA Cloud Partner solutions, Cassava’s AI Factory, its own native AI solutions and its AI Multi-Model Exchange, which supports both Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini models.
Mazen Mroue, a non-executive director at MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, has resigned effective February 27, 2026, to prioritise other responsibilities within the MTN Group, the company announced in a Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) filing.
MTN Nigeria
The notice, signed by company secretary Uto Ukpanah, stated: “This is to enable Mr. Mroue to focus on other priorities within MTN Group Limited. The Board wishes to express its appreciation to Mr. Mroue for his immense service to MTN Nigeria and wishes him success in his future endeavours.”
Mroue joined MTN Nigeria’s board on June 1, 2022, bringing over 28 years of telecom experience. A veteran MTN executive, he previously served as CEO of MTN Uganda and MTN Liberia, non-executive director at MTN Cyprus, and held leadership roles at MTN Ghana.
Since February 2022, he has been MTN Group’s Chief Technology and Information Officer, overseeing technology strategy and governance. Earlier, as MTN Nigeria’s COO from August 2018 to January 2022, he also sat on the MTN Nigeria Foundation board.
The exit follows MTN Nigeria’s stellar 2025 results, posting a ₦1.70 trillion profit before tax—reversing a ₦550.3 billion loss in 2024 driven by forex woes—marking one of the telco’s strongest rebounds.
Google has rolled out support for Yorùbá and Hausa languages in its AI-powered Search features—AI Overviews and AI Mode—enabling millions of Nigerians to get quick answers, summaries, and conversational web exploration in their mother tongues.
The update forms part of Google’s push to cover 13 African languages, including Afrikaans, Akan, Amharic, Kinyarwanda, Afaan Oromoo, Somali, Sesotho, Kiswahili, Setswana, Wolof, and isiZulu, selected based on high search activity across the continent.
Now, a Kano student can ask complex questions in Hausa, while an Ibadan trader seeks business tips in Yorùbá—both receiving culturally nuanced AI responses via text or voice on Android, iOS, or web.
Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, Google’s West Africa Communications Manager, said: “Building truly global Search requires nuanced local understanding. With Gemini-powered AI, we’ve made advanced capabilities relevant in Yorùbá and Hausa, so Nigerians converse naturally with Search in their mother tongues.”
To use: Open the Google app, tap AI Mode, and query in Hausa or Yorùbá for personalised guidance—breaking language barriers and making technology reflect Nigeria’s diverse identity.
Police Says Victims Enable Cyber Attacks Out of Ignorance
Bank Accuses Magistrate, Lawyer of Using Fake Order to Steal N3.5m from Account
FG Launches NERD to Combat Certificate Fraud
NCDC Issues Public Advisory on Cerebrospinal Meningitis
Goodnews Naija Launches ‘Building in Nigeria’ Series on Entrepreneurs, Real Sector Builders
Dr. Cairo Ojougboh Foundation Bolsters Nigeria’s Education Drive with ₦2.7m Student Support
Kaspersky Brings more Transparency to Threat Detection with New Hunt Hub
PwC Reveals AI Scaling Gap Slows Africa’s Digital Transformation
Kaspersky Discovers New Phishing Campaign Exploiting Google Tasks Notifications to Steal Corporate Credentials
esentry 2025 Report Shows Healthcare, Financial Services and Telecoms as Staging Grounds for Increased Cyberattacks in Africa
General News2 days agoFCCPC Bans Lagos ‘No Refund’ Policy, Vows Fines and Shutdowns for Traders
E-Financial2 days agoSenate Targets Fintech Overreach, Vows Ponzi Crackdown After ₦1.3trn CBEX Scam
E-Business1 day agoPolice Says Victims Enable Cyber Attacks Out of Ignorance
Telecom2 days agoGoogle Adds Yorùbá, Hausa to AI Search, Boosting Access for Millions of Nigerians
E-Financial2 days agoSmartCash Launches ‘No Be Cho Cho Cho’ Campaign to Boost Digital Banking in Nigeria
E-Financial1 day agoQuest Merchant Bank Achieves CBN Regulatory Recapitalisation Milestone
Telecom2 days agoMTN Nigeria Non-Executive Director Mazen Mroue Quits to Focus on Group Role
Telecom2 days agoNativeID Launches Free Digital Identity Platform to Shield Nigerian SMEs from Scammers