Telecom
Three Execs Join Starcomms top Rank
Starcomms Plc, Nigeria’s largest 3G CDMA operators has announced the appointment of three senior management staff.
The new staff are Mrs. Charlotte Courtenay chief finance director, Mr. Tushar Maheshwari, chief commercial officer and Mr. Lalit Verma, chief technical officer respectively.
Mrs. Courtenay a BA holder in Politics, Philosophy & History and a UK chartered Management Accountant has over 15 years work experience in a cross section of organizations. This spans various capacities in Telecommunication and other Sectors.
Prior to her appointment in Starcomms, she was the finance director, Zain Communications Ghana. Other positions that she has held include, Finance Director, ED & F, Man Ltd subsidiary in Ivory Coast, Chief Financial Officer for Millicom International Cellular SA subsidiaries in Senegal, Sierra Leone & Democratic Republic of Congo.
She is responsible for account management and return on investment.
Maheshwari, the new commercial officer, has over 20 years work experience, out of which 13 years have been in blue chip telecom companies in Africa, Asia and South Central Asia. His distinguished career is highlighted by strong management and operating performance, and an impressive record of commercial and business development contributions.
He has in-depth experience across all core business functions and history of success in launching new telecom networks and consolidating existing ones. Tushar was appointed chief commercial officer (CCO) of Starcomms, Nigeria’s largest 3G CDMA operators in August 2009.
He’s responsible for the development and implementation of the company’s overall commercial strategies and realization of revenue targets. Before joining Starcomms, he was the chief commercial officer at Warid Telecom Uganda, a start up Telecommunication Company where he launched GSM/WIMAX services and established a nationwide brand, increased market share in a short span of time. During his tenure the company received many awards for innovation and customer service.
He has also held senior marketing positions at Airtel in India where he rolled out new networks in the shortest possible time and his key focus has been on ensuring that revenue targets and corporate goals are achieved without compromising the company’s excellent reputation and brand, and creating a culture that is adaptable to ever-changing business environments while improving efficiency and customer focus. Tushar holds an MBA from Institute of Management Technology, one of India’s top 10 business schools and a Bachelors of Commerce from Delhi University. He has attended various senior management programs at leading institutions. He is a speaker of international repute and has been invited to speak in leading conferences like AfricaComm, GSM Middle east, GSM World Congress and leaders in Telecom
While Verma, the new chief technical officer, a B.Tech (1st Class with distinction) from Delhi College of Engineering and M.Tech (Integrated Electronics & Circuits) from IIT-Delhi is a veteran of telecom business with over 30 years of experience holding key positions. These includes; Business CTO at Reliance Infratel, Senior Vice President – Corporate Planning at Reliance Communications, Senior General Manager – Technical (CDMA Business) at LG India and deputy general manager – Business Development at Escorts Communications.
He has championed pioneering assignments in Strategic Analysis and recommendations on key regulatory policies related to Spectrum, MNP, 3G etc and its business impact. He provided Business Development in end to end solutions in new operators for nation-wide launch through NW infrastructure sharing.
He was also involved in new technology induction and capacity enhancements using spectral efficient techniques. He drove & institutionalized NW benchmarking process on syndicated basis with involvement of other operators for larger industry acceptability and harnessing cost-benefit advantage. He implemented Opex reduction through energy savings. Verma is responsible for technology planning, budgeting, implementation and operations. He facilitates CEO/MD to define business objectives, best practices, and/or set future technology directions.
Speaking on the appointment, Mr. Maher Qubain, chief executive officer, Starcomms Plc, stated that the appointments were necessitated by the continued desire of company to enhance service quality and ensure return on investments to shareholders.
Telecom
Telcos Resume SIM Card Sales after 2-Week Halt

Telecommunications operators have resumed full SIM swap and related services following a four-week nationwide outage linked to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)’s migration to a new verification platform.
The outage rendered millions of subscribers unable to perform SIM-related tasks such as swaps, replacements, and activations.
Operators in the industry say the disruption began on June 26, 2025 when telcos temporarily halted SIM registrations and swaps due to unforeseen technical challenges during the transition to NIMC’s upgraded identity verification system.
The migration was mandated to enhance the integrity and efficiency of national identity management but caused major service interruptions across all Nigerian networks.
However, July 21, both MTN and Airtel confirmed via their social media handles that SIM swap services have now fully resumed.
MTN announced: “SIM swaps have now resumed. We can confirm that NIMC services are fully operational and appreciate their support in the migration to a new platform for NIN verification services for the telecommunications industry.
In a public update issued via its MTN Nigeria Support handle on X (formerly Twitter), MTN confirmed that SIM swaps have now resumed.
Telecom operators complained that the portal was unreliable or inaccessible, which resulted in the suspension of SIM swaps, number porting, and new SIM registrations, even though NIMC maintained that the platform was operating as intended.
Unexpected technical difficulties arose during the switch to the new platform, according to the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria.
Real-time NIN verification for SIM registration, replacement, and network migration was impacted by these issues.
“Unexpected technical difficulties have surfaced, impacting real-time NIN verification for SIM registration, replacement, and porting, following a recent directive from the National Identity Management Commission mandating Mobile Network Operators to transit to a new identity verification platform,” ALTON stated in a previous joint statement signed by Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, and Damian Udeh, publicity secretary.
Telecom
Nigeria, Others Achieve 84% Adult Mobile Phones Penetration

The World Bank has affirmed that 84 per cent of adults in low-and middle-income economies, including Nigeria, own personal mobile phones.
The bank in its Global Findex 2025 report said mobile phone ownership was widespread and nearly everywhere. It said data from the Global Findex 2025 Digital Connectivity Tracker, revealed that “86 per cent of adults worldwide, and 84 per cent of adults in low- and middle-income economies, own personal mobile phones.”
The report pointed out that mobile phones and the internet had become widespread and essential to daily life in every economy around the world.
A earlier overview had indicated that Nigeria had a high mobile phone penetration rate, with estimates around 85 per cent to 87 per cent in 2024.
This translates to over 200 million mobile connections, making Nigeria a leading market in Africa for mobile phone ownership and usage. While the overall penetration is high, there’s a growing trend towards smartphone adoption, with forecasts predicting over 140 million smartphone users by 2025.
According to DataReporter, a total of 150 million cellular mobile connections were active in Nigeria in early 2025, with this figure equivalent to 64.0 per cent of the total population.
However, note that some of these connections may only include services such as voice and SMS, and some may not include access to the internet.
There were 107 million individuals using the internet in Nigeria at the start of 2025, when online penetration stood at 45.4 percent. Nigeria was home to 38.7 million social media user identities in January 2025, equating to 16.4 percent of the total population.
These headline stats offer a great overview of the “state of digital” in Nigeria at the start of 2025, but in order to make sense of how digital trends and behaviours have been evolving over time, we need to dig deeper into the data.
According to the World Bank, “as of 2024, individual ownership of mobile phones reached 86 per cent of adults worldwide.
“For many people, barely an hour goes by without their using a mobile device to make a call, ext a friend, read the news, access business information, post a meme on social media, pay for something, play a game, engage with a colleague or a customer, or search for information.
“As access to and use of digitally connected technologies increase, people, businesses, and governments place an increasingly high priority on online interactions. “Digitally connected technologies have clear, well-documented benefits.”
It further highlighted that access to mobile phones and the internet was associated with reduced poverty, increased consumption, and more employment for individuals in lowand middle-income economies.
“Women also experience these benefits, as internet access enables access to flexible jobs3 and has been shown to increase female labor force participation. “Mobile phones also facilitate information sharing.
For instance, in agricultural contexts, farmers’ access to real-time prices and buyer demand data can inform their decisions on where to sell, enhancing market efficiency and reducing the distances they would otherwise travel to get the best return for their product and time.
“Internet access also helps create jobs and aids individuals and countries in exporting goods and services,” it added. The World Bank further noted that owning a mobile phone furthermore enabled financial access through mobile money and other mobile financial services.
It added that these financial accounts and services, typically offered by mobile network operators or fintech firms and accessed via networks of local agents, were associated with lower rates of poverty, increased consumption and savings,and greater resilience to economic shocks.
Telecom
Sophos Secures Leadership Spot in 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection

Sophos, a global leader of innovative security solutions for defeating cyberattacks, today announced that it has been named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP), marking the 16th consecutive time the company has received this recognition.
Sophos has been recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP) since the inaugural publication for this category in 2007.
Sophos’ market-leading endpoint security solutions include Sophos Endpoint powered by Intercept X, Sophos Extended Detection and Response (EDR/XDR), and Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR).
Over 300,000 organizations trust Sophos endpoint security solutions to defend against cyberthreats, including advanced remote ransomware attacks and active adversaries.
Unique to Sophos, the solution includes adaptive defenses that automatically disrupt attackers by dynamically adjusting protection levels based on threat context.
“Sophos’ strength lies in its prevention-first strategy, designed to stop breaches before they start, adapt defenses in real time, and strengthen detection and response when it matters most,” said Kyle Falkenhagen, SVP, Product Management, Sophos. “We believe that receiving this recognition in the highly competitive endpoint security market for 16 consecutive reports reflects our relentless focus on developing innovative solutions that stay ahead of the global threat landscape and the adversaries we face every day.”
Sophos and Secureworks: The future of protection, detection, and response
Following Sophos’ acquisition of Secureworks in February 2025, combining two leading and complementary portfolios to offer a comprehensive suite of solutions for small, midmarket and enterprise organizations.
Secureworks Taegis XDR customers can use Sophos Endpoint to elevate their cyber defenses, at no additional charge, delivering both improved protection and return on investment.
The integration of Secureworks also adds a new Counter Threat Unit (CTU) to the Sophos X-Ops advanced threat response joint task force, further expanding the rich threat intelligence that informs all customers’ defenses.
Backed by Sophos’ advanced security technologies and a broad network of intelligence contacts and partners, the CTU plays a critical role in identifying and tracking threat actors and analyzing anomalous activity, uncovering new attack techniques, threats, and major shifts in the threat landscape.
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