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#AfriTECH2021: Galaxy Backbone Determined to Boost Cloud Infrastructure – Abukakar

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Timi Fadeyi, head DataCentre at Galaxy Backbone
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Prof. Muhammed Abukakar, managing Director and CEO, Galaxy Backbone Limited, has expressed the company’s preparedness to provide ICT infrastructure and services to public institutions and the underserved communities in Nigeria.

Timi Fadeyi, head DataCentre at Galaxy Backbone

Galaxy Backbone is a public enterprise of the Federal Government of Nigeria incorporated in 2006 with the primary mandate of setting up and operating a unified Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure platform that addresses the connectivity, transversal and other technology imperatives for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government.

Abukakar was speaking on ‘Boosting Cloud Infrastructure for Digital Economy via Partnerships’ through a representative, Mr. Timi Fadeyi, head DataCentre at Galaxy Backbone Limited, at the (hybrid) Africa Tech Alliance Forum (AfriTECH2021) organised by TechEconomy.ng in Lagos (Nigeria) recently.

The Managing Director while streamline digitisation aligned with Bill Mcdermott SAP CEO who said: “Complexity is an obstacle to digitisation. To get the most out of the new world of digital business, you have to run SIMPLE.”

The trend of the new world

He said that the trends of the new world include hyper-connectivity, cloud computing, a smarter world and cybersecurity. These can be considered as four pillars necessary to drive digitalisation using infrastructure which will be used to service the community.

The realities of the digital economy as outlined by Abukakar the undeniable facts that digital economy is real and here to stay; “you have to embrace, innovate and thrive through it”.

He told the participants that reimagining your organisation cannot be overemphasised in this era.

“We need to work smarter, faster and simpler – a combination of a hybrid mode of working and harnessing relationships; virtual, physical, both.

“Artificial Intelligence is reshaping value chains, industries, communities, countries and the works entirely. You also need to secure your data; secure your entire digital experience, a combination of technology and you

Accelerators of the digital economy

Continuing, the Galaxy Backbone boss said, “To every action, there’s indeed a reaction. The digital economy keeps growing and transforming”.

Several components influence this growth and Abukakar summarised these thus: “The customer experiment which is driving the changes visible on different platforms; the core business processes on platforms that are smarter, faster and simple; smarter and engaged workforce to prevent different levels of possible disconnections; supplier-partner collaboration has never been this critical for an enhanced digital economy; and cloud harnessed Internet of Things and assets to drive real-time insights and new business initiatives.

He also said that cloud investments must be channeled right to enable an increase in revenue

The cloud and the digital economy

“The cloud is the preferred ‘currency’ for digital transformation and for reducing the initial cost of ICT infrastructure acquisition.

“Cloud computing is gradually reducing the downtime in public service delivery, increasing government and citizen engagement. It enables agility, flexibility, connectedness and the opportunity to scale your business”, he added.

Abubakar noted that with the help of the Ministry of Communities and the Digital Economy led by Prof. Isa Pantami and support from the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the National Communications Commission (NCC), Galaxy Backbone is well-positioned to provide ICT infrastructure in a way that both parties — governments, institutions, NDAs among others can benefit.

Meanwhile, he said that the pillars that drive the mission of Galaxy Backbone include; to becoming the leading enabler of digital inclusion in Africa: Provides state of the art digital infrastructure and services for a digital Nigeria; to align its operations with government priorities; promote data sovereignty and security of government data, amongst others.

“Galaxy Backbone improves long-term financial sustainability, customer satisfaction, improve satisfaction, adoption and confidence in digital services

“Enhancing the digital economy through partnership, GBB provides its data services from two major locations including Abuja and Enugu. Data lost at one centre can be recovered at the other. This can be described as a data continuity solution”, he said.

According to Abukakar, data sensitivity determines which data centre to be used. This can be a virtual data centre, computing pool, resource pool; storage resource pool, elastic cloud server, among others.

“Economies of scale is an important factor to be considered that allows you to save a lot while running your own infrastructure,” he concluded.


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Ugo Onwuaso is an ICT enthusiast. He believes technology should be used for general good. He holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the Lagos state University. Dear Reader, Your support matters. But we believe that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. That is why, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and finance and how they affect lives. Our incisive and analytical view of how technology news affects the daily life help individuals and organizations make up their minds. Quality journalism costs money. Today, we're asking that you support us to do more. Kindly support our effort to deliver technology and finance journalism to everyone in the world. Donate as little as N1,000. Bank transfers can be made to: UBA Plc 1017156876 Communication Week Media Ltd

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MTN Nigeria Wins Award for Best Use of Data @MarkHack 4.0 Awards Night

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L-R: Akinbulejo Onabolu, Head, Enterprise Segment, MTN Nigeria; Eneyi Obi, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Rise; Tobi Olanisimi, Marketing Manager, AB InBev; Martha Kayode, Marketing Head, PZ Cussonz; Sulaiman Shaibu, CEO, BFT Consulting Service and Daniel Adeyemi, Managing Editor, Condia Business at the MarkHack 4.0 Conference held at the Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos on Friday, May 23, 2025.
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MTN Nigeria’s commitment to digital innovation took center stage at MarkHack 4.0, the annual marketing and technology conference held at Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Friday, May 23, 2025, with the theme ‘Experience Ignited: Fueling the Customer’s Journey’.

L-R: Akinbulejo Onabolu, Head, Enterprise Segment, MTN Nigeria; Eneyi Obi, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Rise; Tobi Olanisimi, Marketing Manager, AB InBev; Martha Kayode, Marketing Head, PZ Cussonz; Sulaiman Shaibu, CEO, BFT Consulting Service and Daniel Adeyemi, Managing Editor, Condia Business at the MarkHack 4.0 Conference held at the Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos on Friday, May 23, 2025.

In a celebration of innovation, technology, and storytelling, the company also took home the award for Best Use of Data in a Marketing Campaign at the Nigeria MarTech (MarkHack 4.0) Awards Night. This award recognizes brands that have successfully transformed data into compelling narratives and actionable insights to meaningfully engage their audiences.

Akinbulejo Onabolu, Senior Manager, Segment Management, Enterprise Business at MTN, joined a panel to discuss the power of immersive technologies on consumer behaviour. Drawing from MTN’s launch of its 5G Digital Experience Centre in Abuja last year, Onabolu highlighted the rapid evolution of immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) stating “Our 5G centre is a sandbox for our customers to come and see how technology can shape things. At the launch event, we unveiled a smart city to customers, clients and dignitaries in attendance, with gaming and other tech experiences.”

On the intersection of data, AR and VR, he added: “Co-creating with MTN takes our minds to a platform where different partners, companies and creators can bring their buildings, products and businesses for people to see via augmented reality and connectivity, just swiping through and following through that journey.

“As a part of impacting our customer’s lives, a few years ago, we also played around with the Metaverse and we ended up creating some of our back-office processes with some of our customer journeys on augmented reality and virtual reality such that a customer somewhere can engage with a virtual agent to solve real life problems and integrating that back into our operating systems. As an organization, at a lot of our events, you will find a lot of AR and VR experiences.”

Speaking on how MTN is embedding immersive technology into its day-to-day operations, he explained that the company is prioritizing both internal capability development and external engagement. “85% of our organization has undergone extensive training on AI and that already is a great addition to our daily lives. We’re using it to do things differently, developing user journeys and brainstorming different things. In terms of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, we are working with organizations to develop training programs which we use internally.”

He described the bases for this tech as stable connectivity, high bandwidth, high speed and low latency. “Over the past year, we’ve doubled our 5G capacity across the entire country. Wherever you are, you’ll probably start to pick up 5G. With our FibreX service, we’re going way beyond connectivity to create the systems and platforms to support the ecosystem, AR and VR. In addition to this, we’re also engaging regulatory systems to start to tease this out and build the proper governance.”

The session, moderated by Daniel Adeyemi, Managing Editor at Condia Business, also featured insights from leaders in FMCG, consulting, and global marketing, all underscoring the transformative potential of immersive technologies for Africa’s future.


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MTN Nigeria Invests ₦900Bn in 2025 to Boost Network Quality in Lagos & Abuja

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MTN Nigeria has announced a massive capital expenditure (CAPEX) drive for 2025, nearly doubling its investment to almost 900 billion Naira, as it seeks to significantly enhance network service quality in major cities like Lagos and Abuja and extend improvements to other areas.

 

Karl Toriola

Karl Toriola

This financial commitment, up from a combined total of approximately 440 billion Naira spent in 2023 and 2024, was detailed by MTN Nigeria CEO, Dr. Karl Toriola, during a recent interview on Arise TV.

Toriola highlighted that a key focus of the increased CAPEX will be on “putting additional capacity in a city like Lagos, particularly in Abuja, where you have a lot of buildings coming up, you need additional sites because there are coverage issues.”

Beyond these critical urban centres, the investment aims to bolster network resilience and ensure power stability for its infrastructure nationwide. This includes proactively addressing site outages by ensuring timely payment for operational necessities such as diesel for generators, a persistent challenge in the Nigerian operating environment

The CEO outlined the comprehensive nature of the upgrade process, which involves “placing orders formally, opening letters of credit, and then the equipment gets shipped in and installed.” He added that where necessary, MTN will be “acquiring new sites” and “laying fiber to the base station to create better stability.”

While the immediate CAPEX is geared towards improving existing service quality and capacity, this investment aligns with MTN’s broader goals, which include enhancing financial inclusion in underserved rural areas, suggesting a long-term vision for network expansion and service improvement that extends beyond metropolitan areas.

Customers are expected to begin experiencing the positive impact of these investments with a “significant improvement in quality of service” anticipated by the end of the second quarter or early in the third quarter of 2025, according to Toriola.


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Airtel’s AI Spam Alert Flags 9.6m Spam Attempts

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Airtel Nigeria, telecom service provider, has announced that its AI-powered Spam Alert Service issued over 9.6 million spam alerts between March 13 and May 20, 2025.

Airtel’s AI Spam Alert Flags 9.6m Spam Attempts

As part of its ongoing commitment to protecting customers from unwanted and potentially fraudulent communications, Airtel designed the AI Spam Alert service to analyze traffic patterns and detect anomalies.

In the period since launch the AI pinpointed a total of 9,667,008 SMS as potential spam messages in the two months after its launch.

Of these, the system identified 528,080 on-net (Airtel-to-Airtel) and 9,138,928 off-net (from other networks) numbers as suspected spam messages, demonstrating the scale of the threat and Airtel’s advanced processing capability.

Airtel Nigeria is a subsidiary of Airtel Africa.

Commenting on this development, Dinesh Balsingh, CEO, Airtel Nigeria, restated Airtel`s commitment to protecting its customers.

“This milestone demonstrates the strength of our AI-driven infrastructure in combating the growing menace of spam and scam calls. At Airtel Nigeria, we are focused on connecting Nigerians and ensuring their safety and confidence while using our network.

“We understand that trust is the cornerstone of digital communication. That’s why we’ve invested heavily in intelligent systems that not only detect potential threats but also learn and evolve with data. As threats become more sophisticated, so will our solutions. As a company, we remain focused on leading the industry in innovation and customer satisfaction, ensuring that every Nigerian can enjoy a safer and smarter digital experience,” Mr. Balsingh said.

The Spam Alert Service is part of Airtel Nigeria’s broader strategy to integrate artificial intelligence into its core offerings to deliver smarter and safer experiences for its customers across the country.

Recall that the Spam Alert Service was launched on March 13, 2025. A groundbreaking and free solution from Airtel, it notifies users in real-time of suspected spam SMS messages by analyzing over 250 parameters.

The Airtel AI Spam Alert Service is available to all Airtel subscribers on smartphones and feature phones.

 

 


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