News
IBM Deploys Mobile, Data Analytics & Cloud Technologies against Ebola

IBM has launched several initiatives to help curb the spread of the viral disease in West African nations, as the human toll of the Ebola epidemic continues to climb up in the critically affected sub-region.
These initiatives include a citizen engagement and analytics system in Sierra Leone that enables communities affected by Ebola to communicate their issues and concerns directly to the government; a donation of IBM Connections technology in Nigeria to reinforce government’s preparedness for future disease outbreaks; and a global platform for sharing Ebola-related data.
The efforts combine expertise from IBM’s global network of research labs with the company’s years of experience in humanitarian disaster response by applying mobile technology, data analytics and cloud computing to help governments and relief agencies as they seek to contain the deadly disease.
The work benefits from contributions from a number of partners including Nigeria’s Federal and Lagos State authorities, Sierra Leone’s Open Government Initiative, Cambridge University’s Africa’s Voices project, Airtel and Kenya’s Echo Mobile.
Technology That Facilitates Coordination
Nigeria has taken a leadership position in the fight against Ebola and has recently been declared free of the disease.
To support the country’s preparedness for future outbreaks, IBM has donated its Connections technology to Nigeria’s Lagos State Government.
Lagos State Government hosts an Ebola Operations Center that coordinates disease containment efforts on behalf of the Nigerian government and other organizations.
IBM’s technology donation will help strengthen the coordination of public health emergency response teams and ensure that the Lagos State Government is able to manage and respond to any new reported cases of Ebola or future epidemics.
“Governments should constantly aim for proactive delivery of social services to citizens and by leveraging on technology, improved governance and better management of resources and assets can be achieved.” said Adebiyi Mabadeje, commissioner for Science and Technology in Lagos State.
“IBM’s SmartCloud grant to the Lagos State Government is a unique contribution that will enhance our capacity to respond to and better manage emergencies with deeper insights and know-how.”
IBM’s Connections technology has a proven track record in humanitarian disaster response situations. It provides health workers and administrators with a reliable and secure digital platform to work together virtually and in person, enabling them to securely share documents, identify experts, exchange video, chat and audio messages, provide updates, tap into information via mobile devices and hold virtual meetings.
Storing information securely and conveniently in the digital cloud means that vital information can be accessed by authorized users anywhere.
IBM has previously provided similar technology in other crisis situations around the world to support collaboration and coordination amongst response agencies.
In 2010, SmartCloud supported a post-Haiti quake effort called Colleagues in Care, which helped doctors in Haiti learn from doctors in the US and elsewhere.
The Chilean Red Cross used the platform to establish a disaster command center following the 2010 Chile earthquake.
The platform was also used by agencies in the US following Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and for flooding recovery activities in Colorado in 2013.
IBM is broadly offering access to its IBM Connections cloud-based platform to all government agencies and non-governmental organizations working to stem the spread of Ebola.
Citizen Engagement in Sierra Leone
IBM’s new Africa research lab, in collaboration with Sierra Leone’s Open Government Initiative, has developed a system that enables citizens to report Ebola-related issues and concerns via SMS or voice calls. It provides actionable insight to the government about the day-to-day experiences of communities directly affected by Ebola to help improve its strategy for containing the disease.
“For us to tackle Ebola, it is crucial to maintain an open dialogue between the government and the people of Sierra Leone,” said Khadija Sesay Director of Sierra Leone’s Open Government Initiative. “IBM has enhanced our work on citizen engagement through the use of innovative technology and opened up an effective communication channel with the general public so that we can learn from their input and create actionable policies in the fight against Ebola.”
Tapping supercomputing power and analytics capabilities via the cloud, the system is able to rapidly identify correlations and highlight emerging issues across the entire data set of messages. As the SMS and voice data are location specific, IBM is able to create opinion-based heat-maps which correlate public sentiment to location information.
For example, it has already brought to light specific regions with growing numbers of suspected Ebola cases which require urgent supplies like soap and electricity, as well as faster response times for body collection and burials. The system has also highlighted issues with the diagnosis of Ebola empowering the government to approach the international community to request more testing facilities and equipment.
“As Africa’s first technology research lab, we are uniquely positioned to use innovation to help tackle some of the continent’s biggest challenges,” said Dr. Uyi Stewart, Chief Scientist, IBM Research – Africa. “We saw the need to quickly develop a system to enable communities directly affected by Ebola to provide valuable insight about how to fight it. Using mobile technology, we have given them a voice and a channel to communicate their experiences directly to the government.”
The system uses radio broadcasts to encourage people to get in touch and express their opinions. Cambridge University’s Africa’s Voices project has helped to develop a radio engagement model, incorporating questions into public service announcements to elicit feedback from citizens in both English and Krio – one of Sierra Leone’s most widely spoken languages.
“Radio is a powerful medium in Africa but its potential to gather and analyse audience feedback has not been fully seized,” said Dr. Sharath Srinivasan, Director of Cambridge University’s Centre of Governance and Human Rights. “We are working with IBM to offer people across Sierra Leone a channel to voice their opinions and, crucially, to ensure that the data is rapidly analyzed and turned into valuable insight about the effectiveness of public service announcements and possible public misconceptions about Ebola.”
Telco operator Airtel has set up the toll-free number via which citizens are able to send SMS messages.
“Mobile technology is Africa’s most powerful communications platform providing an important channel for reaching large numbers of the population,” said Sudipto Chowdhury, managing director, Airtel, Sierra Leone.
“As one of Africa’s leading mobile operators, we will do everything we can to ensure that mobile technology contributes to tackling the spread of Ebola and we are partnering with IBM to ensure the effective flow of information between the government and the citizens of Sierra Leone.”
The SMS data is anonymized by Kenyan start-up Echo mobile which specialises in leveraging basic mobile phones to give voice to underserved communities.
“We’re working to make sure that the stream of messages from patients, health workers and the general public can be used to augment the response effort and provide a direct and near real-time view of the situation on the ground,” said Jeremy Gordon, Product Director, Echo Mobile.
IBM is currently looking to extend the work to analyze mobile phone signal data in order to monitor and track population movement enabling scientists to map and predict the spread of disease.
Ebola Open Data Repository
Globally, IBM volunteers are leading a community effort to help identify, inventory and classify all open data sources related to the Ebola outbreak and are calling on organizations worldwide to contribute data.
The goal is to create an Ebola Open Data Repository which will use IBM’s SoftLayer cloud technology to provide governments, aid agencies and researchers with free and open access to valuable open data related to Ebola.
To support the work, IBM volunteers helped organize a recent Ebola Open Data brainstorming session in New York where members of the local tech community met with health experts and aid organizations to develop Open Data solutions to help tackle Ebola.
“Data can be a powerful resource for managing and mitigating epidemics,” said Jeanne Holm, Evangelist for Data.Gov.
“Governments and other organizations have valuable open data that could help in relief efforts – about roads, airports, schools, medical facilities and populations. Such information can help to drive data-driven decisions during times of uncertainty. IBM is playing a key role in this initiative by helping to identify and gather more open data sources that might inform decisions around Ebola.”
Around the world, cities, states and nations are publishing open data and creating new data supply chains and ecosystems to help tackle national and global challenges.
Many African governments such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania have joined the Open Government Partnership to take advantage of published open data to drive innovation and support better collaboration.
News
CSCS Inaugurates Custodian Portal to Enhance Digital Access, Operational Efficiency

Central Securities Clearing System Plc (CSCS), Nigeria’s capital market infrastructure provider, has launched its Custodian Portal, a user-centric digital solution designed to optimise custodian operations through intuitive, secure and efficient features.
Haruna Jalo-Waziri, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), CSCS, announced this in a statement on Monday.
The CSCS is a Public Limited Company with a diversified shareholder base, which serves as the Central Securities Depository for the Nigerian Capital Market.
It serves as the Central Depository for Equities, Commercial Papers, Corporate Bonds, Sub-National Bonds, certain Sovereign Bonds like the FGN Sukuk and the FGN Savings Bond, Equity-traded Funds, Real Estate Investment Trusts, Mutual funds and Commodities.
Jalo-Waziri said that the custodian portal offered a streamlined experience for market participants with powerful tools that facilitate comprehensive portfolio and trade management, document tracking, share transfer operations, client symbol search, and real-time access to vital data.
He explained that the portal, designed to operate through a flexible subscription-based model, empowered users to manage their records effortlessly and securely through convenient payment channels such as GTPay and Paystack.
According to him, “Digital transformation remains at the core of our strategy to enhance the efficiency, transparency and accessibility of Nigeria’s capital market services.
“The custodian portal is a significant leap in that direction, offering custodians a centralised platform to manage critical processes in real-time.
“We are excited about the value this innovation brings to our stakeholders, and we will continue to evolve the platform in line with users’ needs and industry trends.”
The CEO also explained that the portal was designed with user experience in mind with feature tools like portfolio viewing and downloads in PDF or Excel format.
He further said that it also featured tracking of stock movements across date ranges, inbox messaging and request tracking, as well as robust user management capabilities including role assignment and status tracking.
Similarly, the Divisional Head, Business Technology and Digital Innovation, CSCS Plc, Tobe Nnadozie, said that the portal aligned with CSCS’s drive to automate the market.
“In addition to the normal features, the platform is a part of an omnichannel platform for custodians, and includes API services.
“It also connects to the market-wide workflow, which CSCS has built to ensure secured communication and approvals across all major stakeholders in the market.
“The platform is well secured with best-of-breed cybersecurity solutions and our SOC,” he said.
The Custodian Portal reinforces CSCS’s commitment to leveraging technology to streamline back-office functions and support a more agile, data-driven capital market ecosystem.
All custodians in the Nigerian capital market have now been successfully on-boarded on the Custodian Portal, marking a significant milestone in CSCS’s ongoing drive to enhance collaboration, standardise operational processes, and promote digital adoption across the market.
News
UN Appoints Sa’id, Nigerian to Nuclear Panel

In a historic announcement, António Guterres, United Nations secretary-general has named Professor Rabia Sa’id, a Nigerian physicist, to a newly established global independent scientific panel tasked with assessing the devastating consequences of nuclear war.

Professor Rabia Sa’id,
This appointment positions Nigeria at the forefront of a critical international initiative focused on the future of global peace, health, and security.
The independent panel, comprising 21 world-renowned experts, was constituted following the adoption of General Assembly Resolution 79/238, titled “Nuclear War Effects and Scientific Research.”
The body will deliver the most comprehensive scientific analysis in decades on the potential physical and societal impacts of nuclear war at local, regional, and global levels, including climatic disruptions, environmental contamination, radiological effects, and socioeconomic fallout.
Professor Sa’id, a distinguished researcher in atmospheric and space-weather physics at Bayero University Kano and co-founder of Nigeria’s Association of Women Physicists, will bring unique African and Nigerian perspectives to the critical study.
Her expertise in atmospheric sciences is expected to play a pivotal role in the panel’s examination of post-nuclear climatic and environmental changes.
This marks a significant milestone for Nigeria, highlighting the country’s growing influence in global scientific diplomacy and peacebuilding initiatives.
Professor Sa’id joins a select group of experts from 21 countries spanning fields such as nuclear science, radiation studies, climate and environmental sciences, public health, agriculture, and economics.
The panel has been mandated to produce a comprehensive scientific report by 2027, to be presented at the United Nations General Assembly’s 82nd session.
Their findings will provide crucial guidance to the international community on the long-term risks posed by nuclear conflict, revisiting the issue almost four decades after the UN’s last major scientific report on the subject in 1988.
In keeping with the resolution, the panel was carefully constituted to ensure global geographical representation and gender balance. Professor Sa’id’s inclusion is a testament to Nigeria’s scientific excellence and commitment to global peace.
The Secretary-General underscored that the panel will consult widely with international organisations, civil society groups, and communities worldwide, ensuring local and regional concerns are adequately represented in the final report.
Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has welcomed the appointment, noting it as “an important recognition of Nigeria’s voice in shaping a safer, more secure world.”
Professor Sa’id herself expressed pride in representing her country, stating, “Africa must have a seat at the table when global security and human survival are discussed.”
Other prominent panel members include scientists from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Austria, Australia, South Africa, Japan, Turkey, China, and others, reflecting a broad spectrum of expertise and perspectives.
As global tensions and nuclear risks resurface on the international agenda, Nigeria’s participation in this critical scientific endeavour underscores its continued advocacy for disarmament and a nuclear-free future.
News
GEFAS Launches Tech-Driven Hub to Mobilize Youth for Soludo’s Re-election

Geeks and Founders Alliance for Soludo (GEFAS) on Thursday 17th July, 2025 unveiled its new office space in a significant event that further strengthens the group’s mission to drive Governor Soludo’s “everything technology, technology everywhere” vision across Anambra State.
The unveiling was performed by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Solo Chukwulobelu, who could not contain his excitement and amazement at the level of sophistication of the facility and the vibrancy of the young professionals and tech enthusiasts behind the initiative.
Prof. Chukwulobelu commended the GEFAS team for building such a dynamic platform, uniting diverse sectors under a common goal to support Anambra’s digital transformation and Governor Soludo’s re-election bid at the November 8 Governorship Poll, without requesting a dime from the government.
He noted that their efforts reflect growing youth support for his administration.
“Our goal is to secure victory in the upcoming election and continue delivering good governance to the people of Anambra. Anambra is APGA, and APGA is Anambra
There is no vacancy in Government House come November 2025,” he added.
He urged GEFAS members to remain steadfast and resilient in the face of opposition, adding that the government would collaborate with and complement GEFAS to ensure its vision is further integrated into governance for greater impact.
Also present to lend credence to the movement was the Special Adviser to the Governor on Political Matters, Dr. Alex Obiogbolu, who described GEFAS as a strategic and dynamic angle to the campaigns.
He lauded the initiative, stating that it exemplifies the power of digital tools in modern political campaigning and governance, and expressed optimism that a second term for Governor Soludo would unlock even more innovative solutions for Ndi Anambra.
In her remarks, Ms. Odili Jombo, a coordinator with GEFAS, shared the impressive results of the Alliance’s outreach so far.
She revealed that the GEFAS Call Centre, with its team of 21 dedicated agents, has already reached over 20,000 Ndi Anambra, gathering valuable insights on citizens’ sentiments about Mr. Governor’s performance and their disposition towards the upcoming elections, an experience she described, has recorded more positives than negatives.
She further announced that GEFAS will soon unveil a mobile WiFi bus, among other top-tier initiatives designed to change the campaign landscape and further position Anambra as a leading tech state.
The event was well attended by top government officials, members of the media, tech stakeholders, and other well-meaning Ndi Anambra, many of whom expressed amazement at what GEFAS has created and pledged unwavering support for them and Governor Soludo’s continuity at the November polls.
Explaining the passion behind GEFAS, the Convener and MD/CEO of the Anambra State ICT Agency, Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata, CFA, described the Alliance as a continuity-driven force working to align with Governor Soludo’s vision of moving Anambra from a departure lounge to a destination lounge.
“We believe that together, leveraging technology, we can drive the real change Anambra truly deserves,” he said.
With this milestone, GEFAS remains committed to driving technology-driven engagement that delivers practical impact and amplifies the Solution Government’s transformational strides.
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