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The 5G Opportunity for Nigeria

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Eniola Campbell, Country Senior Officer and CBT Head for Nigeria at Nokia
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By: Eniola Campbell

There has been a lot of talk about 5G, but the reality is that in Africa, many operators are still focusing on 4G to get the most return on investment from the networks. Is this the case in Nigeria?

The 5G Opportunity for Nigeria

Eniola Campbell, Country Senior Officer and CBT Head for Nigeria at Nokia

Yes, in Nigeria this is still the case. According to the GSMA, operators in Nigeria have managed to achieve 45% 4G coverage since the launch of the first 4G network in 2016.

This increased 4G coverage has already resulted in improved network download and upload speeds and lower latencies as operators continue to roll out 4G in cities. There are several reasons why the market is lagging in 5G adoption, including cost of infrastructure roll-out, smart phone penetration and affordability.

According to Global Monitor, the Nigeria Telecom Market is expected to continue seeing strong growth over the next 4 – 5 years.

This is mainly due to increased urbanization and the slowly rising adoption of mobile phones that support 3G, 4G and 5G services.

Global Monitor further expects that all the remaining major 2G/3G platforms will be closed by the end of 2025 and forecasts that by 2029 most mobile connections will be on 5G. This is also in support of Nigeria’s 2020-2025 National Broadband Plan, which has set very ambitious targets for Nigerian CSPs.

5G holds a lot of promise for the world, but it requires a huge investment to attain nationwide 5G coverage.

This coupled with the economic impact of COVID-19 in Nigeria will impact the investment case for 5G in Nigeria and the rest of Africa in the short term, thus 3G will remain a viable option due to the lower adoption rate of 4G and the need to have a fallback strategy for rural areas.

Recent developments, however, have seen a big push toward making 5G a reality for the country.

Spectrum for 5G is set to be auctioned in the last quarter of the year and the Federal Government hopes that urban centres in Nigeria will have been 5G enabled by 2025. The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has also submitted a 5G Development Plan (5GDP) to Federal Government for final approval, paving the way for increased momentum in rolling out 5G.

What are some of the key inhibitors in building 4G networks and ultimately making the shift to 5G?

The key inhibitors in building 4G networks include right of way for fiber deployment, the cost associated with network upgrades and limited, albeit growing, smart phone penetration in the market.

These elements will ultimately affect 5G introduction. In addition, the 5G spectrum in Nigeria is still being defined and needs to be allocated in enough contiguous spectrum to allow the value of 5G to be realized in the mid to low frequency bands.

At the beginning of May, the Nigerian Communications Commission did, however, sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with NigcomSat, around the use of C-Band spectrum for 5G services, showing a commitment to fast-tracking the roll out of the technology. The Commission highlighted the possibilities that 5G will bring to the economy, including higher connection speeds, mobility, and capacity, as well as low latency capabilities.

What are some of the biggest trends you see in 4G adoption?

There are several big trends that are driving 4G adoption currently. These include continued remote working policies due to COVID-19, an increased use in social media platforms, video-on-demand and streaming services, and eLearning. These have positively impacted 4G adoption and increased demand. On the downside, 4G enables the use of voice-over-IP (VoIP), which becomes a substitute to voice services offered by communications service providers, and this has led to a decline in voice revenue for operators in Nigeria.

How ready is the country to adopt 5G and what are some of the interesting discussions that are emerging around it?

Nigerian market is ripe for 5G adoption. We have already seen commitments by the Ministry for Communication and Digital Economy and the Nigerian Communications Commission through the National Broadband Plan, and the MOU signed with NigcomSat to prioritise pervasive broadband and speed up 5G roll out plans. There is a segment of society, the early adopters, that will see a lot of value with the enhanced mobile broadband and ultra-low latency use cases that 5G will enable. Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) for home broadband users is a key trend that would drive 5G adoption in Nigeria.

Which industries in Nigeria do you foresee will be early adopters of 5G and what are some of the use cases you expect to see emerging?

5G as a technology will enable high download speeds and low-latency applications. These are important for remote learning, media, medical, public safety (citywide surveillance) and manufacturing industries. We believe the early adopters will majorly be the media industry especially streaming and video-on-demand service providers.5G will also be a key driver in developing smart cities in Nigeria as it provides a high-performance network foundation and robust city-grade platforms to bring together the intelligence within smart city applications and services to fuel economic and social growth in cities.

What are some of the most recent enhancements that Nokia has made to its product portfolio?

Nokia recently announced some enhancements to our mobile network portfolio that will enable CSPs to offer superior services to their subscribers while lowering their overall total cost of ownership. Some of these include the industries lightest 32×32 TRX massive MIMO radio at 17kg, O-RAN support of RF products and the widest Instantaneous Bandwidth (IBW) of 400 MHz in the market. It also includes high-capacity baseband called ABIO that supports 90,000 connected users.

To reduce time to rollout, while ensuring optimal performance of cell sites, we have introduced Nokia Digital Deploy and best-in-class 5G/NR RF planning and optimization services and tools.

From a transport infrastructure perspective, Nokia’s integrated IP/optical solution combines high performance 7750 Service Routers with high capacity 1830 Photonic Service Switches and network automation improve response times. It also reduces service delivery times so that customers can always operate at full speed, growing and scaling up connectivity as needed.

Our optical portfolio is powered by Nokia in-house, advanced chipsets (Photonic Service Engine) that can transmit high-capacity optical signals of up to 800 Gbps over long distances. Nokia’s industry-leading edge routing portfolio provides the scale, performance, and extensive service capabilities that our customers need to keep pace with evolving network demands. Featuring the breakthrough in-house-designed router silicon innovations, our proven Service Router Operating System (SR OS) enables software and multi-vendor systems integration capabilities.

To address the rising demand for home broadband, the Nokia GPON, XGS and 25G PON products are powered by the Nokia Quillion chipset to enhance capacity and performance of the network. In addition, Nokia Fixed Wireless Access products, Nokia Residential Gateway and Indoor CPE have been designed for optimal performance to unlock value to home broadband customers in a secure manner.

The complexity of modern networks has introduced new security requirements and to address this Nokia has released NetGuard XDR Security Operations to extended detection and response (XDR), which natively integrates multiple security products into a cohesive security operations system. XDR provides overarching security lifecycle management that orchestrates and automates risk and threat prediction, detection, and response, with threat intelligence tailored to a CSP’s unique requirements.

– Campbell is Country Senior Officer and CBT Head for Nigeria at Nokia

 


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Truecaller Targets Global Market with Powerful New Business Chat Push

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Truecaller, the leading global communications platform, today announced the expansion of its Business Chat platform, making it accessible to global channel partners and enterprise solution providers. By “opening up” market access to its platform, Truecaller is empowering partners to transition their enterprise clients from legacy, low-trust SMS to a verified, smart, media-rich, and conversational communication experience.

Truecaller Targets Global Market with Powerful New Business Chat Push

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Through this partner-led expansion, Truecaller empowers businesses to reclaim customer attention and establish immediate trust and credibility.

“The definition of success for modern enterprises has fundamentally evolved. It’s no longer just about delivery – it’s about earning attention, establishing credibility, and driving meaningful conversion,” said Priyam Bose, Global Head, GTM at Truecaller.

“By opening up market access to our global partners, we’ve created a powerful gateway for brands to engage with over 500 million active users where they already interact daily through communication that is contextual, trusted, free from clutter, and designed to initiate actions. For existing customers, the outreach opportunity extends to an additional high-impact channel, strengthening the overall customer experience journey.”

Truecaller Business Chat enables a clutter-free, high-trust conversational experience between businesses and consumers. The Business Chat platform equips partners with actionable insights, including real-time data and rich engagement metrics. This facilitates a more sophisticated, data-driven communication strategy that adapts at every stage of the customer journey.

Partners, including Gupshup and OneXtel, are already live in India along with Globe Teleservices, Cloudcom, and Sling Africa in other global markets, rapidly scaling the product in their respective regions. Global partners can now leverage Truecaller’s massive footprint to offer their clients a trustworthy engagement channel in an increasingly crowded digital world.


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Meta Unveils Muse Spark: MSL’s Groundbreaking People-First AI Model

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Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) unveiled Muse Spark Tuesday, its first large language model in a new Muse series, designed from scratch to deliver “personal superintelligence”—an AI assistant tailored to users’ real-world needs like complex reasoning in science, math and health.

Meta Unveils Muse Spark: MSL’s Groundbreaking People-First AI Model

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A New Model: Muse Spark

Over the last nine months, Meta Superintelligence Labs rebuilt our AI stack from the ground up, moving faster than any development cycle we have run before. Muse Spark is the first model in our new Muse series — a deliberate and scientific approach to model scaling where each generation validates and builds on the last before we go bigger. This initial model is small and fast by design, yet capable enough to reason through complex questions in science, math, and health. It is a powerful foundation, and the next generation is already in development. Muse Spark now powers the Meta AI assistant in the Meta AI app and meta.ai, built to support complex reasoning and multimodal tasks.

What’s Changed with Meta AI

The Meta AI app and meta.ai are getting an upgrade today, along with a new look. Whether you need a quick answer or help with complex problems that need strong reasoning, Meta AI now handles both. You can switch between modes depending on the task, and Meta AI can launch multiple subagents in parallel to tackle your question. Like planning a family trip to Florida where one agent drafts the itinerary, another compares Orlando vs. the Keys, and a third finds kid-friendly activities — all at the same time, giving you a better answer, faster.

Ask Meta AI: It Understands

The real world moves fast, and most of it does not fit into a text box. That is why we built strong multimodal perception into Muse Spark, so Meta AI can see and understand what you are looking at, not just read what you type. Snap a photo of an airport snack shelf and Meta AI can identify and rank the snacks with the most protein — no label-squinting required. Scan a product and ask how it compares to alternatives. It is the difference between an AI that waits for you to explain the world and one that can simply look at the world with you. And when Meta AI powered by Muse Spark comes to our AI glasses, the assistant will be able to better see and understand the world around you.

Multimodal perception is especially valuable for health. With Muse Spark, Meta AI is now able to help you navigate health questions with more detailed responses, including some questions involving images and charts. Health is one of the top reasons people turn to AI, so we worked with a team of physicians to develop the model’s ability to provide helpful information on common health questions and concerns.

Muse Spark excels at visual coding, letting you create custom websites and mini-games straight from a prompt. Ask Meta AI to build a dashboard for planning a big surprise party, spin up a retro arcade game to chase a high score, or launch a whimsical flight simulator — and share any of them with friends.

Ask Meta AI: It’s Plugged Into What You Care About

Meta AI can now help you discover what to wear, how to style a room, or what to buy for someone you know. Shopping mode draws from the styling inspiration and brand storytelling already happening across our apps, surfacing ideas from the creators and communities people already follow.

And when you are looking up a place to go or a topic that is trending, Meta AI surfaces rich and relevant context right alongside the conversation. Tap into a location and see public posts from locals who know the area. Ask what people are buzzing about and get the full picture, pulled from content and community posts. It is context from your people, right where you need it.

Looking Ahead

The Meta AI app and meta.ai will have the upgraded experience with Instant and Thinking modes everywhere they are available today. The new Meta AI features are starting to roll out in the US on both. In the coming weeks, we will bring these new modes and capabilities to more countries and to the places where people use Meta AI, including Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and our AI glasses — where these perception capabilities become even more powerful. We are also opening access to the underlying technology. It will be available in private preview via API to select partners, and we hope to open-source future versions of the model.

This is only the start. As we expand these features, expect richer, more visual results, with Reels, photos, and posts woven directly into your answers, with credit back to the content creators. And as our models improve, we’ll continue to build safeguards for things like safety and privacy, starting with the strengthened risk framework and other protections we’re sharing today.

The future of Meta AI is rooted in the relationships and context already at the center of your life. We are building toward personal superintelligence — an AI that does not just answer your questions but truly understands your world because it is built on it.


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From Import Dependency to Local Capacity: Nigeria’s Tech Manufacturing Journey

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The recent escalation in the US-Israel conflict with Iran has delivered a sharp reminder of Nigeria’s economic vulnerability. As oil prices surged past $100 per barrel and fuel costs climbed by 35% at Nigerian pumps, a troubling paradox emerged: Nigeria, a major crude oil producer with Africa’s largest privately-owned refinery now operational, still found itself buffeted by global energy shocks originating thousands of miles away.

From Import Dependency to Local Capacity: Nigeria's Tech Manufacturing Journey

Zinox

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz and resulting disruptions to global energy markets exposed the deeper structural challenge facing Nigeria’s economy. Despite domestic crude production and the operational Dangote Refinery, Nigeria has struggled with rising inflation, which reached approximately 27% in 2025. The crisis illuminated an uncomfortable truth: decades of import dependency have left Nigeria’s economy precariously exposed to external shocks, even in sectors where the country possesses natural advantages.

This vulnerability extends beyond energy. Nigeria’s technology sector offers a particularly instructive case study in the costs of import reliance, and the transformative potential of local capacity as the pathway to economic stability and technological sovereignty.

Against this backdrop, Zinox Technologies stands as a compelling counternarrative. Founded in 2001 by technology entrepreneur Leo Stan Ekeh, Zinox operates West Africa’s only computerized digital assembly plant. As Nigeria’s first indigenous computer manufacturer, Zinox demonstrates what becomes possible when vision, investment, and commitment to local capacity converge.

The company’s reach extends beyond traditional computing. Zinox’s innovation spans renewable energy through iPower and home electronics with iTEC, addressing Nigeria’s chronic power challenges with locally-assembled solar solutions and backup systems designed for Nigerian conditions. This diversification reflects sophisticated understanding: true technological sovereignty requires integrated capabilities.

Zinox’s journey offers a clear case study in how indigenous companies can drive transformation. By focusing on local assembly and manufacturing of computer hardware and digital devices, the company has contributed to building a domestic technology ecosystem that supports government institutions, educational systems, and private enterprises. This approach not only reduces reliance on foreign imports but also creates jobs, transfers knowledge, and strengthens national capacity.

The implications are significant. Every locally assembled device represents a step away from foreign exchange exposure. It also signals a shift in mindset — from consumption to production. In a country where demand for technology continues to rise, especially with the acceleration of digital adoption, the importance of local manufacturing cannot be overstated.

Beyond economics, there is also a strategic dimension. Technology is no longer just a commercial tool; it is a defense tool and a national asset. Countries that control their technology supply chains are better positioned to innovate, secure their data, and compete globally. In this context, companies like Zinox are not merely businesses; they are enablers of national development.

Furthermore, local capacity development has a multiplier effect. It stimulates ancillary industries such as logistics, retail, maintenance, and technical services. It also fosters entrepreneurship, as more Nigerians gain access to affordable and reliable technology tools needed to participate in the digital economy.

Yet, while progress has been made, there is still work to be done. Scaling local manufacturing requires sustained policy support, infrastructure investment, and a deliberate focus on skills development. It also calls for stronger collaboration between the public and private sectors to create an environment where indigenous innovation can thrive.

Encouragingly, the momentum is building. There is a growing recognition that Nigeria must move beyond being a consumer market to becoming a production hub. This shift is not only necessary, it is urgent. Global uncertainties will continue to test economies, and only those with strong internal capabilities will remain resilient.

The current global crisis offers clarity. If the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened or supply chains to imports are fractured, only countries with strong domestic manufacturing capacity will weather the storm. Those dependent on imports suffer disproportionately.

The story of Zinox Technologies underscores what is possible. It shows that with the right mix of vision and execution, Nigeria can chart a new course, one defined by self-reliance, innovation, and sustainable growth. As the country navigates an increasingly complex global landscape, the message is clear: the future belongs to economies that build, not just buy.


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