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African Software Developers Require Persistence, Perseverance- Seni Sulyman

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Andela staff at a recent event
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The idea of Andela started in Lagos, but has evolved into a global brand with presence in Nigeria and Kenya. It is a global Engineering company, supplying African Developers to international companies.

In 2016, Andela raised $24 million from the Chan/Zuckerberg initiative, set up by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, to train African Engineers. I was with Seni Sulyman, Country Director, Andela recently and we had a very interesting discussion on the impact of empowering African Software Developers.

Seni Sulyman, stated that Andela is really focused on finding some of the best talents in Nigeria, convert them into amazing Software Developers and model them to go ahead and build the future of Nigeria.

He also stated that, it looks for and finds companies in the world that have a lot of problems they are trying to solve, using technology and cannot find people to solve it for them around them.

Andela, then, brings these companies in contact with these trained Software Developers to solve their problems for them.

“We have an application system online, so, right now, every Month, we focus on running an application cycle”, he stressed, when asked on the mode of getting these young men and women, who are trained in Software Development.

Seni, however stated that, some of these enthusiastic young young men and women find Andela by themselves. He stated that the application system online is rigorous and challenging, to the extent that, people who applied, but did not eventually get into the Andela prgram, always said they have learned a lot from the application process alone.

“So, we do a personality test and we also do, essentially, a psycho-metric test, where people are being asked to solve problems, solve challenges, so ee see how quickly they can learn and a big part of the application is that, we give you a study kit, you take it away with you, you spend a few Months working on it and then, you take a test”, he emphasised.

He stated that the entire application process takes about a Month or a Month and a half to complete, but it could take up to six Months, depending on your experience on Software Development, prior to your applying to Andela.

Seni stated that there is no age limit or barrier for anyone that wants to apply to Andela. “We truly belief that anyone can do this. It takes certain personality traits, such as persistence, perseverance and a huge desire to actually learn in corporate feedback”, he stated.

“So far, over 60,000 people have applied to Andela”, he stated, stressing that in Lagos alone, there are about 200 trained Developers and each of them have one or two people they have mentored or mentoring. “Each individual that gets into Andela to work already has a network of people that they have built that is getting value from them”, he opined.

Seni stated that he is ot worried that a lot of younger students are not going for STEM courses currently, which is thought might pose a problem of feeding the tech pipe need in future. “The main ingredient are not necessarily a degree.

The main ingredients for us, are, again, people that can think critically, people that can solve problems, people that can go through challenging circumstances and succeed and overcome”, he emphasised.

He stated that there are people who never had a degree as well as people that never studied any STEM courses at Andela.

He, however, stated that he is worried for Nigeria. “I think that, at a higher level, you do need a large population that has studied STEM because, actually, they can go ahead and build other sectors that are related”, he posited.

 Seni is of the view that, with the right leadership that has a focus of adding value and having the thought of making the next generation better than the last, the issue of getting more young students to embrace STEM courses will ultimately be solved.

On the notion that that Andela is taking our best minds out of the stores of Nigeria, Seni stated that, “if you want to be the best at anything, find the people in the world that are the best at that thing and go and learn from them”, he noted.

He also stated that apprenticeship is the oldest way of learning and that is exactly what Andela is doing. The Andela idea, he emphasised, is to get these Nigerian guys to study and work along side the best tech guys in the word and eventually have some of them come back to Nigeria to start their own companies.

Seni stated that he is excited with progress made, so far, in the Nigerian Startups ecosystem. On a final note, Seni went on to advice young Startups to come into the space with the right reasons, which is adding value and not look for short cuts.


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E-Business

Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

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Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.

Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

 

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”.

 

 

 


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NIMC Warns Nigerians of Fake NIN Website

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National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued a public warning that it is not associated with NINcard.com.

NIMC Warns Nigerians of Fake NIN Website

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.


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NITDA, API Partner Against Harmful Online Content

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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.

NITDA, API Partner Against 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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