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HP, Cambridge Turn to Africa for EdTech Innovations to Transform Learning
This September, 25 of Africa’s most influential education technology (EdTech) leaders will head to Cambridge on a new fellowship programme from Cambridge Partnership for Education and HP.
The HP Cambridge Partnership for Education EdTech Fellowship is a seven-month programme that aims to grow participants’ knowledge and skills to lead impactful EdTech transformations in their education systems.
The first cohort of EdTech fellows will work to increase the quality and equity of learning through digital transformation in education systems across Sub-Saharan Africa. Learning with technology has the potential to create societies that are not only more inclusive and prosperous, but also ensure that young people are equipped with the skills they need for their careers.
Cambridge and HP selected the group from 400 applications. The first cohort of their HP Cambridge Partnership for Education EdTech Fellowship includes government officials working in education and leaders from private and not-for-profit EdTech organisations.
The Cambridge HP fellowship programme will encompass inclusive EdTech for disadvantaged groups, the role of AI, and digital strategy, policy and governance. The fellows will also develop an equitable solution to an education system challenge using user-centred design while developing their leadership skills.
With Africa experiencing rapid population growth, the first fellows’ influence on global education is set to have a significant impact.
The first fellows include senior government officials responsible for national digital education initiatives, with the goal to improve learning for more than 120 million children across Botswana, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.
The programme, which starts with online study next week, will include a residential course in September 2023, held at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge in the UK, as well as one-to-one coaching over the course of seven months.
Fellows joining the programme on scholarship include Dr Frances Alimigbe, Assistant Chief Education Officer at the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria. Dr Frances works with more than two million teachers across 36 states, including on teacher selection, standards and policy.
Some of the key challenges she plans to focus on during the fellowship are infrastructure and tools and teachers’ digital skills and capacity in schools, especially in rural areas.
“The wealth of contacts and ideas that will be acquired by being a member of the fellowship will form an immense database and viable resource for us to fall back to. With the fellowship, we form a community of practice where best practices are shared across borders and generate quality research ideas for improving EdTech transformation in teaching and learning globally.” said Dr Alimigbe.
Other fellows include Mrs. Catherine Agyapomaa Appiah-Pinkrah, Director of General Administration at the Ministry of Education in Ghana.
She said: “There is the need to put in place reliable and credible fidelity of implementation strategies for quality assurance in all our programmes and policy implementation. I believe the fellowship will expose me to new ideas, exchange of ideas and experiences and best practices from other participants.”
Jane Mann, Managing Director of Cambridge Partnership for Education, said: “Our first EdTech fellows have huge remits, and huge strengths. They are responsible for turning policy into action.
Supported by one another, tutors and coaches, the fellows will build healthier EdTech ecosystems where grassroots innovations are promoted, effectively evaluated and successfully scaled to help combat learning crises today and increase education system resilience for the future.”
Mayank Dhingra, Senior Education Business Leader at HP, said: “The next breakthroughs in EdTech will come from emerging visionary leaders in unique national contexts. This programme will enable cross-border discussions and development to help overcome barriers, from infrastructure to curriculum content.”
Cambridge Partnership for Education developed the inaugural EdTech fellowship programme with HP during the AfricanBrains Summit in Lusaka, Zambia in 2022.
The programme is led by Cambridge Partnership for Education Head of Education Technology Solutions Julia Citron. It is supported by the Digital Education Futures Initiative (DEFI) at Hughes Hall at the University of Cambridge and Dr Bjoern Hassler’s team at EdTech specialist NGO, OpenDevEd.
HP Cambridge Partnership for Education EdTech fellows:
Botswana
- Nicodemus Merafhe, Chief Education Officer, Government of Botswana, Ministry of Education & Skills Development, the Department of ICT and Media Services, Botswana
Eswatini
- Martha Shongwe, Chief Inspector for Secondary Education, Ministry of Education and Training, Eswatini
Ethiopia
- Dr Zelalem Assefa Azene, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), ICT and Digital Education, Ministry of Education, Ethiopia
Ghana
- Catherine Agyapomaa Appiah-Pinkrah, Director, General Administration, Ministry of Education, Ghana
- Akwasi Addae-Boahene, Advisor to former Minister, Transforming Teaching, Education and Learning, T-Tel, Ghana
- Miracule Daniel Gavor, Executive Director of Ghana Society for Education Technology, Ghana
- Gyamfi Adwabour, Executive Director, Centre for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling, Ghana
Kenya
- John Masika, Assistant Director – TVET Digital Transformation, Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority, Kenya
Malawi
- Dr Joshua Valeta, Director of Open, Distance and e-Learning, Ministry of Education
Nigeria
- Dr Frances Alimigbe, Assistant Chief Education Officer, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria
- Ayodele Odeogbola, Co-Founder, Hybrid Learning Specialist, TedPrime Support Initiative, Nigeria
- Dr Adetola Salau, Political Aide to the Executive Governor of Lagos State on Education, Nigeria
- Soji Megbowon, Principal Education Officer/Lead Researcher, Lagos State Ministry of Education
Rwanda
- Bella Rwigamba, Chief Digital Officer, Ministry of Education, Rwanda
Sierra Leone
- Victor Abu Sesay, Director of Technology and Innovation, Ministry of Technical and Higher Education, Government of Sierra Leone
South Africa
- Dr Neo Mothobi, Chief Education Specialist, Ministry of Education, South Africa
- Roche Mogorosi, Chief Director – Schools Technology Support Services, Gauteng Department of Education, South Africa
- Shunmugam Padayachee, Deputy Director General: Teachers, Education Human Resource and Institutional Development, Department of Basic Education, Pretoria, Republic of South Africa
- Emmanuel Pillay, CEO, iTMaster (PTY) Ltd, South Africa
- Michael Mavimbela, Senior Education Specialist – eLearning, Mpumalanga Department of Education, South Africa
- Jana Du Plooy, CEO, Acorn Education NPC / into space NPC, South Africa
Uganda
- Kenneth Bagarukayo, Commissioner Research and Development, Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, Uganda
Zambia
- George Mutale, Assistant Director for ICT, Ministry of Education, Zambia
Zimbabwe
- Addi Mavengere, CEO, Learning Factory, Zimbabwe
Pan-Africa NGO
- Hakeem Subair, Chief Executive Officer, 1 Million Teachers:
Senator David Umahi, the Minister of Works, has announced that a section of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway will be tolled starting in December.
Umahi disclosed this during an interview for a forthcoming State House documentary marking the second anniversary of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
He said: “By December, we will toll Section 1 of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway. We project a 10-year return on investment.
“The road has solar-powered lighting and CCTV infrastructure, and offers carbon credit advantages.
“It is more than a road; it is an economic corridor and a catalyst for regional growth.”
According to the minister, 30 kilometres of Section 1 have already been completed, with an additional 10 kilometres in Section 2 nearing delivery. Both segments feature six-lane concrete-paved carriageways, designed to meet modern standards for safety and durability.
Umahi further revealed that construction had commenced on Sections 3 and 3B of the highway, spanning a total of 65 kilometres, covering 38 kilometres in Cross River State and 27 kilometres in Akwa Ibom.
He described the positive response from local communities as a clear indication of the project’s wide-reaching socioeconomic benefits.
“Just days ago, we flagged off Sections 3 and 3B—65 kilometres in total, covering 38 kilometres in Cross River State and 27 kilometres in Akwa Ibom. The host communities’ excitement speaks to these projects’ transformative impact,” he said.
Umahi also highlighted the administration’s renewed focus on the Sokoto-Badagry superhighway, which he noted was part of a broader vision dating back to colonial-era trade plans.
“The Trans-Saharan trade route dates back to colonial-era planning. President Tinubu is now bringing these long-abandoned visions to life,” the minister explained.
Kaspersky Security Services experts have identified a sophisticated cyberattack campaign targeting containerized environments to deploy a miner for the Dero cryptocurrency.
The attackers abuse exposed Docker APIs — parts of Docker, an open-source container development platform. In 2025, there are a significant number of Docker API default ports that are insecurely published, accounting for almost 500 occurrences worldwide on average each month.
In the discovered campaign, cybercriminals inject two types of malwares into the compromised systems: one is the miner itself and the other is a propagation malware that can spread the campaign to other insecure container networks.
Kaspersky experts discovered this malicious campaign as part of a compromise assessment project. According to expert estimates, any organisation that operates containerized infrastructure — while exposing Docker APIs without robust security controls — can be a potential target. These may include technology companies, software development firms, hosting providers, cloud service providers and more enterprises.
According to Shodan, in 2025, there are 485 published Docker API default ports¹ worldwide each month on average. This figure illustrates the campaign’s potential attack surface by tallying the “entry points” — or insecurely exposed ports that attackers might target.
Once attackers identify an insecurely published Docker API, they either compromise existing containers or create new malicious ones based on a legitimate standard Ubuntu image. They then inject two malware types into the compromised containers: “nginx” and “cloud”.
The latter is a Dero cryptocurrency miner, while “nginx” is a malicious software that maintains persistence, ensures execution of the miner and scans for other exposed environments. This malware allows attackers to operate without traditional Command-and-Control (C2) servers; instead, each infected container independently scans the Internet and can spread the miner to new targets.
“The campaign has the potential for exponential growth of infections, with each compromised container acting as a new source of attack, if security measures are not immediately put in place in the potentially targeted networks,” explains Amged Wageh, an incident response and a compromise assessment expert at Kaspersky Security Services.
“Сontainers are foundational to software development, deployment, and scalability. Their widespread use across cloud-native environments, DevOps, and microservices architectures makes them an attractive target for cyber attackers. This growing reliance demands organisations adopt a 360-degree approach to security — combining robust security solutions with proactive threat hunting and regular compromise assessments”.
The attackers embedded the names “nginx” and “cloud” directly in the binary — an inflexible executable file composed of instructions and data for the processor, not for humans. This is a classic masquerading tactic that lets the payload pose as a legitimate tool, trying to deceive both analysts and automated defenses.
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Tuesday, charged five defendants before a Federal High Court in Lagos for allegedly hacking into the server of Premium Trust Bank.
The defendants are listed as the bank’s e-payment service manager, Matthew Adeniyi; Kehinde Odeyemi, a nursing mother; Samson Latshin, Bolaji Omotosho and Sunday Okunnola.
They were charged before Justice Alexander Owoeye, on a six-count charge bordering on conspiracy, cybercrime and unlawful access to the bank’s database.
They, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Mrs. Zeenat Atiku, prosecutor, alleged that they committed the offence between April and May this year, in collaboration with three others, now at large.
Those still at large are Isa Ismaila, Victor Joshua, also known as ‘Oracle’ as well as one other, simply identified as Humble.
According to the charge, the first defendant unlawfully disclosed sensitive credentials, including the bank’s server IP and domain details, to these parties.
She said this enabled an unauthorised access to the bank’s database and the consequent data breach allegedly resulted in financial gains of $10,000.
The prosecutor also alleged that the defendants attempted to intercept the bank’s network and procured a Hewlett-Packard ProBook 440 G9 laptop (serial No. SN#5CD2473N6G) configured to bypass the bank’s security systems.
The anti-graft agency said the alleged offences contravened the provisions of sections 12(1)(b), 27, 28(1)(b)(c) and 28(3) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition Act, 2015 (as amended in 2024).
Following their pleas, the prosecutor, requested for a trial date and sought an order to remand the defendants in custody.
Meanwhile, the court declined an oral bail by the defence counsel and directed that a formal bail application be filed.
He adjourned the case until June 30, for trial and ordered that the defendants be remanded at the Nigerian correctional centre, pending bail.
The court, however, added that the defence may apply for an earlier trial date, upon filing their bail applications.
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