Telecom
Banking Services Experiencing Disruptions – Agbaje
Mr Segun Agbaje, Chief Executive Officer, Guarantee Trust Bank on Tuesday said that there was a fundamental shift in the creation and use of financial services in the country.
He said this while presenting the Habari App to the participants at the Social Media Week, in Lagos.
According to him, the shift will enhance the future relationship between banks and customers.
He spoke on the topic, ”“One Africa, One App, Building the Bank of the Future”.
Agbaje noted that Habari is a virtual kingdom made up of communities created by people of similar interests where every activity earns users rewards they can redeem in the real world.
The core functionalities of Habari include; socialising, trading and sharing information.
He also added that Habari was their latest effort to help content creators that are also their customers solve issues around distribution band and payments.
“Banks in Africa have one fundamental challenge which is how to carter for the financial well-being of millions of people on the continent.
“The competition that exists for banks in the new competitive landscape, include anyone who can leverage the power of connectivity.
“Presently, everything disrupts, both telecos and other industries, creating room to enhance financial services in the banking industry,” he said.
He further stated that through the combination of powerful mobile computing devices and wireless connectivity, the digital revolution created an online world for search delivery that was formidable as the physical world most businesses had built and invested in.
He added that organisations now had to rethink their business models to ensure that they are able to take advantage of the opportunity the shift online created.
The GT bank executive said that in responding to new competitive landscape, there was the need to leverage on technology, have a new business model for customer engagement, acquisition and service delivery.
He said that the way the app was designed was that it would evolve constantly, not a complete work because peoples lives keeps evolving.
“Disruption of apps have started and that would make the app do more than one thing, and the Habari app is structured for play, messaging, e-commerce and others.
“The bank has more than 15million customers and we hope that with the introduction of the app, it will give the bank an exponential growth.
“Telecos and other organisations cannot disrupt us because we have an app that will disrupt others,” he said.
He said that the fundamental of the ecosystem was an end-to-end customer experience, embedded digital innovation and going beyond the traditional understanding of financial understanding of financial information to become critical enabler.
He added that for startups, Habari meant not having a structure, no advertising but having a platform to reach more people.
Social Media Week is one of the world’s premiere conferences and industry news platforms for marketers.
It provides brands, agencies and technology providers with the latest insights, trends and best practices, together with access to a global community of marketing decision makers.
Telecom
FG Plans EO to Criminalise Fiber Cable Damage Costing Telcos Billions
Nigeria will criminalize the destruction of broadband fiber cables following repeated complaints by MTN Nigeria Communications Plc and other telecommunications companies that they are losing billions of naira, according to people familiar with the matter.
Federal ministry of works, which supervises federal road constructors, is finalizing the regulation that will be signed as an executive order by President Bola Tinubu, said the people, asking not to be identified as they weren’t authorized to comment.
While there are presently laws against vandalism, the authorities are aiming to regulate construction firms more closely.
The order will enforce stiff penalties on offenders, said the people, declining to provide more details or say when it will be signed.
“Telecom assets are critical backbone that supports the economy across sectors,” said Temitope Ajayi, a senior presidential aide, who noted that the Association of Telecommunications Companies (ATCON) has been demanding the classification for years.
New rules will provide “further assurance that the Nigerian government will protect their investments against vandals and criminal elements.”
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) estimates that the sector will make up more than a fifth of the country’s gross domestic product by the end of 2027, up from 13.5% in the third quarter of last year.
The move will help alleviate pressure on the telecoms sector, which is facing increased operating costs and sales pressures from a sharp depreciation in the currency and a threefold increase in energy prices.
Repairs and revenue losses from damaged cables is estimated to have cost the sector almost 27 billion naira ($23 million) last year alone, documents seen by Bloomberg show.
MTN Nigeria, the biggest wireless operator in Africa’s most-populous nation, and Airtel Africa Plc bore the brunt of the costs, the documents show.
MTN suffered more than 6,000 cuts on its fiber cable last year, the documents show. On Feb. 28, a cut on its network in three different locations by a road construction firm, an oil serving company and someone burning rubbish in a manhole meant customers faced more than five hours of data and voice outages.
The operator relocated 2,500 kilometers (1,553 miles) of vulnerable fiber cables between 2022 and 2023, at a cost of more than 11 billion naira – enough to build 870 kilometers of new fiber lines to areas without coverage.
A presidential order on the matter would be welcomed, said Tony Izuagbe Emoekpere, president, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria.
“When it comes to communication infrastructure, they are destroyed at will, so we are eagerly awaiting the president’s order,” he said. “It would be a great boost to the industry, and it will also encourage investment.”
Telecom
Telegram Eyes 1Bn Users amidst Political Pressures
Telegram, the messaging giant founded by Pavel Durov and headquartered in Dubai, anticipates hitting a remarkable milestone of one billion active monthly users within the next year.
Durov’s departure from Russia in 2014, prompted by governmental pressures to stifle opposition communities on his VK social media platform, underscores Telegram’s commitment to neutrality despite geopolitical challenges.
With 900 million active users currently, Telegram stands as a beacon of free speech in the digital realm, particularly influential in former Soviet Union republics and pivotal during conflicts like the Russia-Ukraine standoff.
Durov’s staunch advocacy for freedom of expression and opposition to censorship by tech giants like Apple and Google reinforces Telegram’s status as a neutral platform.
Opting for the UAE as its base, Durov cites its neutrality and openness as conducive to Telegram’s ethos, serving both opposition groups and governments alike while maintaining impartiality.
In Durov’s vision, the pursuit of freedom eclipses material gain, shaping Telegram’s trajectory as a bastion of digital liberation.
Telecom
NITDA, NIMC Announce Collaboration To Strengthen Digital Economy
To further strengthen Nigeria’s digital economy in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) have announced a collaboration on National Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) to enhance and create synergy between digital identity, payment ecosystem, and secure & seemless data exchange capabilities for Nigeria.
During the meeting between the Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, and Director General of NIMC, Engr. Bisoye Coker-Odusote, with some management staff of both organisations, they discussed various initiatives, which include building DPI stacks for a secured and seamless data exchange and forming partnerships to transform the national identity system.
This collaboration also aims to harness the potential of the innovative ecosystem and emphasise the use of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to drive digital transformation in Nigeria.
To ensure a smooth implementation, a 12-man committee was set up. This committee will play a crucial role in kickstarting and harmonising the initiatives. It is expected to deliver a comprehensive implementation report within the next 4 weeks
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