Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Connect with us

General News

ConSol & Mellanox Partnership is Symbolic- Adeoye

Published

on

Abiodu Adeoye, managing director, Contact Solutions
Kindly share this post

Abiodun Adeoye is the Managing Director of Contact Solutions Ltd “ConSol”. He has consulted for various telecom operators around the globe (KPN-Orange Belgium, Vodafone Netherland, SBC Technologies, Vodacom SA, Vodafone Australia, Vodafone NZ, Vodafone Hungry, Telsim Turkey, Turkcell, etc.) also held intermediate and Senior Engineering positions at One2One (now T-Mobile) in the UK.
He briefly spoke to peter ugwu on how a new partnership between ConSol and Mellanox will benefit the enterprises in the Nigerian market.

ConSol and Mellanox Symbolic Partnership
One of the synergies with our business is that we also run data centres. Our contact centre services are datacentric.
The whole operation is powered from the data centre. So, we have that as an advantage. Now, the founders of ConSol were the same people that built the MTN network.
We understand technology and what BIG DATA is all about. Having operated in this environment, pre-ConSol, we understand some of the challenges that organizations have. It is not actually so much as in infrastructure deployment, rather throughput.
So, a customer wants a service not excuses. For example, you go to an ATM, slot in your card and expect to withdraw cash; there is a failure along the line.
A lot of the time, it is because the pipe tries to carry a lot of transactions at the same time and there is a jam along the line.
The typical example is traffic gridlock we witness on the road daily. With that understanding, we came across Mellanox Technologies.

Why InfiniBand, Ethernet and Other Mellanox Products
They have solutions that can triple the capacity and upgrade the network, so that you can increase the pipe and allow much traffic go through.
So, they are interested on how you manage the BIG DATA. The ICT industry in Nigeria is getting that.
Fortunately, we had a Government that set the pace and we are keenly interested in seeing continuity of the ICT blueprint by the present Government.
In fact, we are at a par with the world in terms of technology. We have the infrastructural challenges that have held us back. But in terms of technology deployment, we are not lagging behind as such; LTE is there in USA, it is here in Nigeria.
However, the biggest challenge is how we are deploying the technology, and we need to prepare for BIG DATA. There is a lot of activities revolving around the concept such as the National Identity Number (NIN); Bank Verification Number (BVN); data capture by the Police, FRSC, and national population census is around the corner.
There is a lot of data. It used to be in the oil sector that we harvest data, presently; every sector is feeling the impact of the concept.
Thus, for quality of service, we should start looking at Mellanox technologies that can help us manage data and throughput in a more efficient manner.

Opportunities for SMEs
If you look at their range of products, it is very wide. The reason for that is that there is a solution that can be tailored for each level or size of organization; whether you are SME, medium or large size organization.
The complexity of your data increases as you get better. From that point of view, they have low-cost solutions for SMEs, where you have solutions like CloudX that allows and SME to plug in without necessary spending the capex to deploying a data centre large infrastructure to benefit from the same services.

Critical Challenges to Be Tackled
Power, network optimization and, of course, bandwidth are challenges many enterprises face. What is critical at the end of the day is how that data centre should be able to deliver services.
If you look at the financial services, when one demands for a service and there is a downtime while people are doing transactions online, it could cost the company millions of naira.
 In other words, half a second downtime can cost a company millions of naira lost…

…In Other Words, The Solutions Guarantee Optimal Time?
They offer zero downtime, faster throughput, low latency, which are the important factors to keep organization’s network up and running.
If you are allowed to know the numbers, you will be amazed how inefficient data centres are, especially, how much it costs organizations.
So, Mellanox is one of the organizations we partner with because of the range of products. We have others with great deed of products and load-balancing applications that allow you move traffic across your network, while optimizing the bandwidth.
So, we are specifically targeting this kind of technology to deliver value added capability within a data centre or cloud-based environment to unleash better quality service delivery.

Data Security & Trust: Mellanox’s Promise
You only need to look at their existing clients’ list such as e-Bay, Facebook, Twitter, Alibaba. The volumes of traffic on those e-commerce spaces are phenomenal.
Security is critical to them. Therefore, if this is their product of choice, we don’t need to say more.
Out other partner’s product is used by the FBI in US; Cisco has now adopted and integrated it into their platform. So, we did our homework.

Value Proportion for Nigerian Enterprises
Obviously, we need to create awareness for the development of domestic companies that can compete globally.
However, we already have multi-national players investing in organizations in the country. The likes of Konga, Jumia, Yudala, PayPorte, Kaymu, OLX, etc; they are offering seamless services like e-Bay, Amazon. So, the products will be critical to them too.
Apart from the back end of logistics and delivery, when the customers go on their websites to buy products, they would want to ensure there is throughput, no cyber security lapses.
The oil industry will embrace the products too, due to the nature of the industry that requires protection and seamless operations.

Bandwidth
While we are hoping for improved broadband penetration, we can optimize what we have now for better throughput. I think that should be the approach in every industry.

ConSol’s Unique Services
What differentiate us from others are the quality and efficient service deliveries. Our customers remain with u s for year, because they trust our processes.
So, the better value added service implies we are not just there to make money from them, rather to deliver cost-saving services.  

          


Kindly share this post

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek believes that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. So since 2007, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and how they affect lives.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Comments

General News

EFCC Says Corrupt Politicians are Using Crypto Wallets to Launder Money

Published

on

Kindly share this post

Ola Olukoyede, chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has raised the alarm that some corrupt Nigerian politicians are now hiding their illicit wealth in cryptocurrencies to evade scrutiny and detection by anti-graft agencies.

EFCC Says Corrupt Politicians are Using Crypto Wallets to Launder Money

Ola Olukoyede, chairman, EFCC

The EFCC boss said the agency had uncovered a growing trend where fraudulent public officials now used cryptocurrency wallets to stash stolen public funds and conduct illicit transactions.

Olukoyede made the revelation at  an event commemorating Africa Anti-Corruption Day.

The event was held simultaneously in Abuja, Lagos and Ibadan, Oyo State.

Other speakers at the event lamented that Nigerians usually fell victim to crypto fraud, including the recent CBEX scam, where Nigerians lost over N1.3tn.

Olukoyede said, “Virtual asset fraud is on the rise. Our findings show that fraudulent politicians are already perfecting schemes and hiding their loot in cryptocurrencies to beat the investigative blackness of anti-corruption agencies.

“Stolen funds and unexplained wealth are being warehoused in wallets and payment for services are being done through this window,” he said.

Olukoyede warned that while the rise of virtual assets had transformed financial transactions globally, it had also created new avenues for money laundering and financial crimes.

He said, “Technology is moving at a supersonic speed around the world.

“The advent of virtual assets is a response to one of the qualities of money as a store of value like it is known in our elementary economies.”

“However, as with every progressive innovation, fraud starts to usually evolve, evolve ways of perverting their genuine purposes,” he said.

He added that the EFCC was not helpless in the face of the sophisticated schemes, noting that proactive training and intelligence sharing had enabled the commission to identify and investigate such cases.


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

General News

Airtel Nigeria Drives BFSI and Utility Sector Innovation with Industry-wide Workshop

Published

on

L-r: Oladeji Ilesanmi, Head, Enterprise Sales, Airtel Africa; Abhishek Biswal, Chief Business Officer, Digital Services, Airtel India; Dinesh Balsingh, Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director, Airtel Nigeria; Ogo Ofomata, Airtel Business Director, Airtel Nigeria; and Luc Serviant, Enterprise Business Director, Airtel Africa, during the first day of the two-day workshop, themed “Powering Financial Services with Connectivity”, hosted by Airtel Business for the benefit of the Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI) sector in Lagos this week.
Kindly share this post

Airtel Nigeria, telecommunications and digital solutions provider, has reemphasised its commitment to national development with a two-day workshop for companies in Nigeria’s Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI) and utility sectors.

Held from July 8 to 9, 2025 at the Lagos Continental, the exclusive event brought together C-suite executives and industry thought leaders to co-create transformative and tech-driven solutions for these critical industries.

Themed “Banking on Innovation: Powering Financial Services with Connectivity” on 1 and “Accelerating Nigeria’s Digital Leap: Smarter Networks, Smarter Business” on Day 2, the sessions were designed to identify critical pain points, unlock business potential, and drive smarter, more connected operations across two of the nation’s most essential sectors.

Delivering the keynote address, Dinesh Balsingh, Managing Director/CEO of Airtel Nigeria, reaffirmed Airtel’s dedication to enabling and driving Nigeria’s digital transformation across the finance and energy sectors.

Speaking on the timeliness of the workshop, Airtel Nigeria’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dinesh Balsingh said, “From power and water to finance, transportation, and logistics, this is a defining moment for every sector. The real question isn’t whether to adopt digital solutions, but how quickly and intelligently we can do so. At Airtel Nigeria, we’re moving beyond basic connectivity and becoming a true digital partner to the industries we serve.”

He highlighted Airtel’s categories of enterprise solutions that has been created to improve quality of life. These groupings include Internet of Things (IoT) for such services as smart metering, leak detection, energy optimisation, and real-time asset tracking; Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS), which enables secure, multi-channel customer engagement via SMS, WhatsApp, Voice, and USSD; as well asl Network as a Service (NaaS), which delivers flexible, secure connectivity with cloud-ready agility.

Mr. Balsingh added that, “Nigeria’s power and energy industries are under growing pressure to modernise. Legacy infrastructure, fragmented systems, and lack of real-time visibility are major obstacles. Airtel is stepping in with the right tools, not just to connect, but to transform. With IoT, CPaaS, and NaaS, we’re laying the groundwork for smarter operations, improved service delivery, and better outcomes for businesses and consumers alike.”

Abhishek Biswal, Chief Business Officer, Digital Services at Airtel India, brought substantial insight to the discourse with a demonstration of Airtel’s IoT Hub and its transformative impact on energy distribution.

Biswal said, “The future of finance and energy is digital, and that future must be secure, scalable, and seamless. When financial players and utility providers partner with telcos like Airtel, we’re not just connecting systems; we’re building a smarter digital ecosystem for everyone.”

Reinforcing the CEO’s position, Ogo Ofomata, Director, Airtel Business, called for collaboration among the participating sector and their stakeholders.

“We don’t take lightly the trust you have put in us. Airtel operates in what we call the enabler industry. Sometimes we don’t even know there’s a problem until we come together like this. This workshop is about understanding your needs and working side by side to design solutions that truly fit,” she said.

In his remarks, Luc Serviant, Group Enterprise Business Director at Airtel Africa, highlighted the company’s role in driving digital transformation through sustained investments in 5G and LEO satellite connectivity, aimed at boosting remote operations and expanding access in underserved regions across the finance and energy sectors.

He said, “At Airtel, we understand that the future of is going digital, and reliable connectivity is the backbone of that future. From 5G to LEO satellite integration, we are investing in intelligent infrastructure that empowers service providers to operate more efficiently, respond in real-time, and deliver uninterrupted services to millions of Nigerians. This isn’t just about innovation; it’s about building the digital foundation that will power the nation’s next chapter.”

This workshop, which continues the series of sectoral engagements within Nigeria’s growing economy, concluded with feedback from stakeholders who called for the inclusion of regulatory bodies such as the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in future editions.

 


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

General News

AfCFTA Credit Fund Makes First Investment With $10m Loan

Published

on

Kindly share this post

The Credit Fund of the AfCFTA Adjustment Fund has successfully closed its first investment, committing $10 million to Telecel Global Services Ltd, through a senior secured amortising loan.

The transaction marks a significant milestone in the operationalisation of the Fund. The Credit Fund is one of three Funds under the AfCFTA Adjustment Fund, established by the AfCFTA Secretariat and African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to provide targeted transitional support to AfCFTA State Parties and private sector entities as they adjust to the requirements and opportunities presented by the AfCFTA Agreement.

Telecel Global Services, a subsidiary of the Mauritius based Telecel Group, provides wholesale voice and SMS services and enterprise connectivity solutions to more than 250 telecoms operators across Africa and globally.

With digital connectivity being at the heart of the trade and economic integration and success of the AfCFTA, this facility will support Telecel’s expansion in Ghana and Liberia, strengthen its infrastructure, and contribute to bridging Africa’s digital divide through enhanced connectivity and digital inclusion.

By investing in digital infrastructure in underserved markets, the Fund is helping reduce trade barriers, foster cross-boarder productivity and accelerate inclusive industrialization. Mr. Jean-Louis Ekra, Chairman of the Board of the AfCFTA Adjustment Fund Corporation, stated: “

The closing of our first deal marks a historic milestone for the Credit Fund and the broader vision of the AfCFTA.

This US$10 million investment in Telecel Global Services is a clear demonstration of how targeted capital can drive meaningful impact—accelerating digital connectivity, enabling intraAfrican trade, and supporting private sector-led development in priority sectors.

It is our commitment to ensure that such investments continue to bridge critical gaps, stimulate economic resilience, and unlock Africa’s vast potential.”

H.E. Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, noted: “This transaction demonstrates how the AfCFTA Adjustment Fund is beginning to serve its intended purpose – supporting State Parties and the private sector as we work to make this Agreement commercially meaningful.

By investing in digital infrastructure, we are addressing some of the most critical enablers of trade facilitation, industrialisation, and regional value chain development.”

Prof. Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, added: “Today, we make another bold statement of our unwavering intent to ensure that Africans reap the benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.

We are proud to have commenced the operationalisation of the Credit Fund. With this Fund, we will provide vital support to African corporates, helping them retool and expand their operations necessary to capitalise on the AfCFTA opportunities.

The investment strengthens a critical enabler, the digital economy and regional connectivity, while reinforcing our long-term commitment to transforming the structure of the African economy.”

Marlene Ngoyi, CEO, FEDA, the Fund Manager of the AfCFTA Adjustment Fund, said: “This investment exemplifies the strategic intent of the Credit Fund – to catalyse growth and resilience in sectors that are vital for Africa’s structural transformation.

We are proud to partner with Telecel, whose operations directly advance intra-African connectivity and digital trade.”

The Credit Fund will continue to prioritise commercially viable investments that enable trade, support diversification, and promote inclusive growth in line with the broader AfCFTA implementation agenda.


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

Trending