E-Business
Galaxy Backbone Seeks Partner with States Local Governments
Gerald Ilukwe, managing director, Galaxy Backbone, has stressed the need for the Federal and State Governments to seek alternative ways of leapfrogging the country in to the 21st century knowledge economy. According to him, “Nigeria can strategically position to compete in the knowledge economy by acquiring the right infrastructure and implementing human capacity development strategies relevant in the new millennium”. He therefore proposed a partnership framework through which the 36 State Governments can extend the reach of NICEP services to cover all State Capitals and Local Governments in the country.
He stated this in a presentation on the developmental opportunities presented by the National Information Communication and Education Programme (NICEP), he made at a meeting of National Economic Council.
NICEP is an ICT policy intervention programme approved by the Federal Government in 2007 to provide accelerated connectivity for broadband internet, data, voice and video communications to rural and underserved communities including educational institutions in the country. The network could be leveraged to bring many sustainable developmental initiatives to all Nigerians. Specifically, the network would assist government to facilitate the digital inclusion of underserved communities, assist in the area of human capacity development and deliver beneficial e-services to citizens. Already, more than 1000 locations across the country have been connected to this network.
Ilukwe explained that in addition to providing internet access, the network is capable of supporting ICT based solutions targeted at universal access, health, education, poverty alleviation, wealth creation, as well as those focused on enhancing public sector efficiency. With so many public services going online e.g. JAMB, NECO registration and recruitment into some government agencies, the need to provide access to people in rural areas can never be overemphasized.
He urged State Governments to take advantage of the fact that the Federal Government had already funded the purchase of NICEP equipment to reap the benefits as they only incur recurrent bandwidth and support charges. “This proposition is superior to any other that will include hidden or visible equipment costs”.
The benefits of digital inclusion that can be leveraged through the NICEP infrastructure at the Federal, State and Local Government levels include providing digital access to citizens in all locations; improve quality of education and healthcare; support growth of internally generated revenue; enhance government to citizen interaction; cost control and management as well as employment generation and poverty alleviation.
Transcorp Hotels Plc has delivered a stellar performance in the first half of 2025, recording a 60% year-on-year surge in revenue to ₦47.57 billion, up from ₦29.72 billion in H1 2024. Gross profit climbed 71% to ₦36.21 billion, maintaining a strong 76% margin despite inflation and operational headwinds.
The hospitality giant, a subsidiary of Transnational Corporation Plc, also announced an interim dividend payout of ₦1.024 billion — offering ₦0.10 per 50 kobo ordinary share to shareholders.
In a bold move, the company unveiled Nigeria’s largest corporate venue — the 5,000-seat Transcorp Centre — staking its claim as the new leader in event hospitality. Chairman Emmanuel Nnorom described the results as proof of Transcorp Hotels’ transformative strategies and unwavering investor commitment. MD/CEO Uzo Oshogwe attributed the success to relentless execution and a resilient business model.
Transcorp Hotels, renowned for iconic assets like Transcorp Hilton Abuja and its digital platform Aura, says it isn’t just leading Nigeria’s hospitality sector — it’s redefining excellence across Africa.
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.
NIBBS: Banks Close 29.4m Accounts, Dormant Accounts Hit 33.39m
NDPC Hides MultiChoice Privacy Violation Details Despite FOI Request- FIJ
Cardoso, CBN Boss Risks Arrest over Alleged N5.2 Trillion Unremitted Funds
UK Businesses Look to Africa As Strategic Growth Partners
FG Plans N50m STEEM Grant to Support Student Innovation in August
E-Business1 day agoTranscorp Hotels Delivers Stellar H1 Results, Declares Over ₦1Bn Dividend
Telecom2 days agoAirtel Africa Grew Customer Base to 169m as Q1 Revenue Hits $1.4 Billion
General News2 days agoFintechNGR Rejigs Nigeria Fintech Week with Multi-location Model
Broadcasting2 days agoParadigm Initiative Applauds Malawi’s Judiciary for Outlawing Criminal Defamation
General News2 days agoGuinness Nigeria Sustains Growth Momentum in Q4 Amid Market Headwinds
E-Financial2 days agoMoody’s Upgrades Ecobank’s Outlook to Stable
E-Financial2 days agoSEC Grants “No objection” to N323Bn First Holdco Shares Deal
Telecom2 days agoNITRA-ALTON CNII & Sustainability Conference Rescheduled for August 7 in Lagos