E-Business
WAFICT Congress to Focus on Big Data, Cloud Computing
As big data and cloud computing increasingly occupy the core of global activities in service delivery for both private and public sectors, how can governments and businesses in West Africa key into those areas through robust infrastructure to provide broadband to transform their countries?
This is the central focus of discussions for this year’s West African Information and Communications Technology Congress (WAFICT 2014) whose theme is “Broadband for Transformational Development: Empowering peoples, governments and industries in West Africa with technologies and solutions to transform societies.”
When government officials, regulatory agencies in telecom and information technology, telecom operators, computing and software firms, technology companies, manufacturers, and other stakeholders converge this year, therefore, their task will be to provide answers on how to maximally utilise the infrastructures that already on ground in the sub-region as well as increase or add new ones in order to deploy broadband as a transformational tool for development.
Consolidating on the gains of past editions, the 2014 WAFICT Congress will open new frontiers for all-round economic development across West Africa using technology.
The two-day event, which will draw participants from across the sub-region, is billed to take place between October 30 and 31 at the Expo Hall of Eko Hotel and Suites Victoria Island, Lagos.
Running for the sixth consecutive year, the Congress is upping the ante this year, as it brings people at the highest levels of government, regulators, and operators as well as all stakeholders in the ICT industry together with one full focus of finding ways to leverage on technology for economic development.
Globally, broadband technology is seen as veritable tool in driving economic growth and this is not without verifiable evidences from countries with huge broadband penetration.
From Agriculture to power, education to healthcare, as well as commerce and financial services, how can Nigeria and West Africa leverage on broadband for an all-sector development? What progress has the sub-region achieved so far with broadband plans and blueprints? What is the current level of technology input in agriculture, healthcare, education etc. and how can this be improved upon? These and many more questions are waiting to be answered by industry experts, regulators as well as the operators.
According to the organisers, Africa’s foremost ICT magazine, IT & Telecom Digest, WAFICT 2014 is a grand platform to hear from Governments and Regulators in West Africa their policies, plans and strategies towards developing their economies with technology, especially as original equipment manufacturers as well as big data and cloud computing companies and professionals will feature prominently at the event.
The Congress, which holds alongside Exhibition, will provide an opportunity to beam further searchlights on cybercrimes and the challenging tasks for cybersecurity, as well as the way forward for local content in the telecom and ICT sectors in the sub-region. Telecom regulators and operators across the sub-region with top notch speakers will thus chart the course for the industry’s growth.
Mkpe Abang, editor in chief of the Magazine, in a statement, said WAFICT 2014 will be building on the success of previous events; but this year’s event presents delegates an even better platform as speakers and presentations will come from across many sectors, all of which sorely need broadband for their growth and the development of the society.
Right here in West Africa, the revolution also beckons but to what extent are the governments, regulators, operators as well as other stakeholders driving this revolution? How will this revolution result into enviable growth in agriculture, education and advancements in our healthcare systems? What policies and laws have governments in the region put in place to support and encourage investment in broadband, and expansion of the ICT industry? Could the governments have done more? Have they done enough? Could the regulators have been better partners in progress with operators than they have been? Are there still challenges preventing operators from rolling out broadband services to West African citizens? These and many more are the salient topics and issues that will occupy the focal points at WAFICT 2014” Abang said.
Big data is simply a blanket term for any collection of data sets are so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process them using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications as we know them in today or in the past.
And, to deliver computing as a service rather than as a product already further compounds the challenges of big data for a region that has difficulties of infrastructure.
According to Abang, “this throws up the challenges of capture, curation, storage, search, sharing, transfer and analysis, among others. As can be seen, the challenges affect both public and private sector, and such challenges are even more in West Africa where the channels of communication are not broad enough; hence, the need for broadband.
While a number of undersea cables area already available in West Africa, last mile and other challenges still hold back the region from reaping the fruits of these cables and provide broadband for the citizenry, which would be a great source for transformation development. WAFICT Congress 2014 will be a great platform for discussion s on the way forward,” Abang stated.
Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.
China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.
The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.
“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.
The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.
It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.
Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.
Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.
Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.
A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.
“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.
Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.
Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.
It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.
Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.
National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued a public warning that it is not associated with NINcard.com.
According to the commission, the website has been circulating online to offer services for Nigerians seeking National Identification Number (NIN) services.
NIMC, in a post on its official X account on Wednesday, said, “NINcard.com is not in anyway affiliated to NIMC. Stay vigilant!”
The warning was accompanied by screenshots of fake payment receipts and OTP request pages from the website, both of which were boldly stamped “FAKE” by NIMC to alert the public.
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in partnership with the Advocacy for Policy and Innovation (API), has convened a one-day workshop in Abuja to advance dialogue on the draft Online Harm Protection (OHP) Bill to confront harmful online content.
The bill, a rights-based, locally rooted, and multi-stakeholder initiative, is aimed at addressing the challenges of the digital age.
The event, which held yesterday, brought together government officials, civil society, academics, digital platforms, and legal experts to shape a policy framework designed to combat online ills such as cyberbullying, disinformation, hate speech, digital exploitation, and gender-based violence, while safeguarding democratic freedoms and digital inclusion.
In his keynote remarks, Kashifu Inuwa, director general, NITDA urged a paradigm shift in the way society engages with digital technologies.
“For almost two decades, we have viewed digital technology through a consumer lens. But these technologies are not just products and services. They are transforming how we live, work, and interact. They shape our politics, our society, and our democracy,” he said.
Warning against unaccountable digital power in the hands of private corporations, the DG likened the digital journey to the tale of Alice in Wonderland, where initial fascination with innovation has given way to deeper concerns about privacy, autonomy, and manipulation by big tech platforms.
“We thought we were using Google, but now we realise Google is using us. Social media, once a tool of expression, has become a tool of surveillance and influence,” Inuwa noted.
He, therefore, emphasised the urgency of developing a democratic and accountable framework. He explained that following the 2021 Twitter ban, NITDA facilitated dialogue between the government and platform operators, leading to a Code of Practice that stressed Nigeria’s sovereignty and legal standards.
According to him, the same process birthed the multi-stakeholder steering committee and the OHP White Paper in December 2024, laying the foundation for the current legislative push.
Earlier in her opening remarks, Victoria Manya, co-founder, API, observed the moral and civic necessity of the bill.
Her words: “The internet did not break society, it merely revealed its unfiltered version. Every day, Nigerians are exposed to harassment, disinformation, exploitation, and even algorithmic violence. The OHP Bill is not a war on the Internet. It is a peace offering to its users, a social contract for a digital future that is safe, inclusive, and democratic.
“We cannot answer the question of algorithmic power with unchecked state control. We must answer it with shared, rights-based governance. This bill must not be written for the people, but with them.”
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