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UK Pledges Commitment to Support Inclusion of Women into Digital Space in Nigeria

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Founder/Executive Director, Cybersafe Foundation, Confidence Staveley (4th from left); British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Johnny Baxter (5th from left); Chairman, Cybersafe Foundation, Dr. Adewale Peter Obadare (2nd from right), with Award recipients at the CyberHubs Awards in honour of forerunners in the initiative to empower women and young girls with digital skills, held at the the residence of the British Deputy High Commissioner over the weekend
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Jonny Baxter, British Deputy High Commissioner in Nigeria has pledged the commitment of United Kingdom to close the digital divide in the country. He said UK has been a leading partner in working with the Nigerian people to close the digital gender divide in Nigeria.

Speaking at an Award Ceremony for DigiHubs (DigiGirls Partners) held in Lagos, Baxter said: “we have championed inclusion for women and girls into the digital economy through projects such as Digi girls. This is because we know that the data says that inclusion leads to an increase in economic power.

“We know that women and girls are disproportionately impacted by climate change, natural disasters and conflict because they exacerbate existing inequality and barriers in accessing services and support.

“Yet women are critical front-line responders when crisis hits and are crucial voices in decision making processes – if given the space to be heard”.

He noted that, the participation of civil society groups, including women’s organisations, makes a peace agreement of 64% less likely to fail, and “we know that the benefit of reducing conflict in other countries is felt in many other countries of the world.

“Gender inequality is particularly entrenched for women and girls who face multiple discrimination because of their age, religion, disability, sexuality, race or other difference,” he added.

Mr. Baxter while reflecting on the Digital Access Programme in Nigeria, expressed the UK’s committment to being a global science and technology partner, working with others to develop solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges, including on digital skills.

He said the UK firmly believes in the future growth story of Nigeria’s digital sector. “To continue to drive this growth, Nigeria needs a combination of increased access to safe, affordable, faster and better-quality internet, an encouraging regulatory environment, a skilled talent pool, and access to investment and partnership opportunities.

“Our in-country digital strategy focuses on working with both the government and private sector to improve infrastructure, build cyber resilience, reduce barriers to digital innovation, drive the upskilling of a digital workforce and improve policy and regulatory frameworks.

“Through the Digital Access Programme, we work with the Federal Government, State governments and policy makers as well as the Private Sector on removing systemic barriers to connectivity expansion”.

One of such programmes is the Digi-girls programme where last year on International Women Day, the UK launched a 10-year Women and girls’ strategy which showcases its commitment to tackling gender inequality across the globe.

“The first two cohorts of the Digi-girls programme saw the training and upskilling of 6,800 women and girls. While that might look like a large number it was only 6.3% of the people that applied for the opportunity to be trained for free.

“For us, it felt like we needed to do more. We thought about how we could make this project reach more people and have a wider impact yet still be sustainable.  We then decided to experiment with using local technology hubs to deliver upskilling to women and girls. This would strengthen the hubs as well as provide a physical space where women and girls could learn undisturbed.

“Our experiment paid off and in this present phase of the project Cybersafe was able to train 59,900 women and girls. We did this with support of 200 volunteer Alumni DigiGirls called DigiChampions and a partnership with 60 hubs across 22 states in Nigeria.

“We believe that this programme has helped in addressing the digital inequality in Nigeria – and we will continue to support programmes like this,” he stated.

Mrs. Confidence Staveley, founder and executive director of CyberSafe Foundation said that Education is the key to getting more women into tech and a door to innovation. “Inclusion of women will not happen by chance, it will take intentional, tailored and targeted investment in women to accelerate progress that we so desperately need”.

Among DigiHubs that won award at the event include; Guru Innovation Hub, Cross River that won Impact Amplifier Award, Inclusive Excellence Champion Award was won by NHub Incubator, Plateau.

Community Engagement and Outreach Award went to Dignity International Consults, Imo State.

Others are Outstanding Community Impact Award (A.K.A Grassroot Empowerer Award) won by Jbest ICT, Kaduna; and  Mission Champion Award (A.K.A Overall Best Hub) won by Development Hub, Borno.


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E-Business

UK Orders Apple to Create Backdoor for Encrypted iCloud Data

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United Kingdom has issued a “technical capability notice” to Apple, mandating that the company create a backdoor to access users’ encrypted iCloud data.

UK Orders Apple to Create Backdoor for Encrypted iCloud Data

This directive, issued under the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, requires Apple to provide British security officials with the means to retrieve all content uploaded to iCloud by any user worldwide.

Apple’s Advanced Data Protection (ADP) feature, introduced in 2022, offers end-to-end encryption for iCloud data, ensuring that only users can access their information.

The UK’s demand challenges this security measure, potentially compelling Apple to either comply by creating the backdoor or withdraw the ADP feature from the UK market.

Compliance could set a precedent, leading other governments to request similar access, thereby raising global privacy concerns.

The UK Home Office has declined to confirm or deny the existence of such notices, stating, “We do not comment on operational matters, including, for example, confirming or denying the existence of any such notices.”

This development underscores the ongoing tension between governmental surveillance efforts and technology companies’ commitments to user privacy.

 


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Oracle Adds AI Pricing Features to Financial Software

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Oracle on Thursday added another set of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to NetSuite, one of its corporate finance software offerings, including some that might make it faster for consumers to get a price quote on purchases like custom bicycles.

Oracle has taken a different tack with AI than rivals such as Microsoft. Rather than racing toward general purpose virtual assistants, Oracle has decided to add targeted features that speed common-but-tedious tasks like entering a brief write-up of how a sales meeting went into a corporate records system.

Another such task that is common in the business world is giving a customer a price quote on a complicated purchase that might have a lot of options, when a sales professional would need to sift through materials to come up with a price.

NetSuite on Thursday announced a feature to compile such a quote via conversation with a chatbot asking what the customer wants, which can either be used by sales professionals behind the scenes to speed up their work, or directly by consumers in the case of e-commerce businesses.

“When you buy something like a bicycle, you have to configure it – figure out what parts you want and which parts work together. We all do it when we buy our cars on the web these days,” Evan Goldberg, executive vice president of Oracle NetSuite, said.

“If you can configure (products) for customers more easily, you can do more deals in a day, or each deal costs less.”

To power those features, Oracle has decided to skip the costly race to develop huge AI models and instead works with partners such as Canadian startup Cohere.

Goldberg said that Oracle’s recent agreement to build massive data centers with ChatGPT creator OpenAI could lead to working with it as well, though the two firms have made no formal announcements.

“I think you could safely say that there’s a possibility that OpenAI will be part of this,” Goldberg told Reuters. “We are eager to work with OpenAI.”

 


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IBM Exits Nigeria and Ghana, Transfers Operations to MIBB

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IBM, the American multinational technology giant, has reportedly announced plans to exit Nigeria, Ghana, and other key African markets, transferring its regional operations to MIBB, a subsidiary of the Midis Group.

IBM Exits Nigeria and Ghana, Transfers Operations to MIBB

The move, which according to TechCabal was revealed in a statement by the company, effective April 1 2025, is part of a new operating model IBM is adopting across select African countries.

Under this arrangement, MIBB will take over IBM’s local operations, customer support, and relationships while marketing and selling IBM products and services across 36 African nations.

“MIBB will market and sell IBM products and services in 36 African countries, thereby giving MIBB’s sales network direct access to IBM products, services, and support, further boosting innovation and growth in the region,” IBM stated.

IBM has been a key player in Africa’s tech industry for decades, providing critical infrastructure for banking, telecom, oil and gas, and government services.

However, its planned exit follows a trend of multinational corporations leaving Nigeria.

In December 2024, Swiss cement giant Holcim announced its departure from Nigeria, selling its 83% stake in Lafarge to a Chinese firm.

Similarly, South African grocery retailer Pick n Pay disclosed plans in October 2024 to exit Nigeria by selling its 51% stake in a joint venture.

IBM has yet to respond to media inquiries regarding the specifics of its transition strategy and reasons for the exit.


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