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International Women’s Day: Google.org Dangles $1m Grant Funding to Support Women Entrepreneurs

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Google on Tuesday announced that its philanthropic arm, Google.org, is committing $1m in charitable funding to support programs helping women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, as part of a series of new initiatives aimed at supporting women-owned businesses.

“Research shows that 58% of small and medium-sized business (SMB) entrepreneurs in Africa are women,” says Mojolaoluwa Aderemi-Makinde, head Brand and Reputation, Africa – Google. “Despite this, women-run businesses show, on average, 34% lower profits than those run by their male counterparts.

“They are also less likely to receive funding and investment. This is why we are announcing a series of initiatives today, aimed at providing the support women need to grow their businesses.”

In addition to the funding announcement, Google has also announced #LookMeUp, a campaign to showcase women entrepreneurs and tell their stories.

These stories feature women like Vivian Nwakah in Nigeria, who launched Medsaf, a pharma supply chain solution to help Nigerians get access to quality pharmaceutical health care services, Mary Mwange, CEO and founder of Data Integrated who is driving innovation in the mobile payments sector in Nairobi, Kenya, and Mosa Mkhize in South Africa, who launched Origins Publishers to provide her children – and others like them – with books in their home languages.

“Google is also providing free tools to support women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and has launched an intensive program to drive the discovery of women-owned businesses through Google Business Profiles,” Makinde says.

These tools include Google Business Profile, which helps businesses create a free webpage to make them easier to find online, and Primer, an app-based skills building platform, which allows business owners to access a series of free, custom designed, bite-sized lessons on the go.

To help women business owners to develop their skills, Google has also dedicated the March cohort of the Hustle Academy to women-owned SMBs.

The Hustle Academy, launched last month, is a free, week-long bootcamp designed to help SMBs build the expertise they need to expand their businesses.


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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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Hotspot, Clear Blue Consortium Ink MOU for Solar-Powered Mobile Sites

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Hotspot, Nigerian last-mile connectivity and tower operator, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a consortium led by Clear Blue Technologies, solar-power company to deploy 312 solar powered mobile sites across Nigeria.

Hotspot, Clear Blue Consortium Ink MOU for Solar-Powered Mobile Sites

Under the deal signed earlier this week at Mobile World Congress 2025, the sites will feature Clear Blue’s Illumience Smart Power solar solution designed for telecoms infrastructure.

The Clear Blue consortium also includes Empower New Energy, which provides clean energy project financing across Africa, and Netis, which specialises in operating and managing telecom infrastructure and will the installation, operations, and maintenance services for the project.

Miriam Tuerk, CEO, Clear Blue, said the consortium has the expert skills and capabilities to quickly design, build and operate the network, solar power and tower sites.

“As everyone active in the telecom market in Africa is aware, it is a difficult operating environment with challenging TCO targets. And yet, it is probably the largest untapped telecom market in the world with significant growth potential”, said, Morenikeji Aniye, CEO, Hotspot.

“Clear Blue brings an innovative technology and service capability which, together with an innovative business model and structure, enables us to deploy and operate these sites while meeting stringent service and TCO targets.”

Clear Blue noted that the deal is subject to final contract negotiations and signatures.

Assuming everything goes according to plan, Hotspot will roll out the solar-powered sites at the end of this year.

 


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More Clients Turn to Glo’s Bulk Data Service

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Technology company, Globacom, has been experiencing substantial increase in the adoption of its Bulk Data services by enterprise clients. This surge reinforces the appeal of Glo’s innovative data solution among corporate organizations, schools, and tertiary institutions.

Glo’s Bulk Data offering is a user-friendly self-service portal that enables enterprise customers to gift data to other customers. This feature allows sponsors to allocate specific data amounts for free navigation of mobile apps or websites, with the sponsor covering the costs.

The service is particularly beneficial for educational institutions, which can purchase the Schools’ Bucket Data plan for students’ academic usage, valid for 90 days.

The Gifted Data Plan on its part, is available for a 30 days validity and offers flexibility, allowing sponsors to gift data to multiple Glo subscribers in various sizes, ranging from 200MB to 10GB, depending on the Pack the Gifting customer has subscribed to.

Sponsors can also customize SMS notifications to beneficiaries, setting Glo’s product apart from others in the market. Beneficiaries can easily check their balance by dialing *127*0# on their devices.

Glo’s Bulk Data service has become an attractive solution for enterprise clients seeking efficient data management, thanks to its flexibility, customization options, and user-friendly features.

The Bulk Data service is designed specifically for bulk data buyers, including corporate entities, schools, and tertiary institutions.


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MTN Strengthens Local Content Policy with Nord and GAC Partnership

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MTN Nigeria, one of Africa’s leading ICT companies, has partnered with automobile giants, Nord and GAC Motors to reinforce its commitment to its local content policy and support made in Nigeria products.

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MTN

This partnership involved the procurement of a combined total of 33 cars for MTN’s customer-facing teams in Lagos and the North, including 22 locally assembled vehicles from Nord and GAC Motors, highlighting a strong commitment to local manufacturing. The additional purchase of 11 other cars further strengthened this operational initiative. These cars, essential tools of trade, play a key role in MTN’s customer engagement strategy, allowing their teams to commute to the field easily to deliver on targets.

In July 2021, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) established the Nigeria Office for Developing the Indigenous Telecoms Sector (NIDOTS), an office charged with the primary responsibility of ensuring the promotion of indigenous content in the Nigerian telecoms sector, through the enforcement of the Nigerian National Local Content Policy. This national policy serves as the framework for MTN’s local content commitments, supporting the Nigerian Federal Government in developing sustainable local societies, while championing digital and financial inclusion.

At a handover ceremony held at MTN’s Lagos Headquarters, Lynda Saint Nwafor, Chief Enterprise Business Officer at MTN Nigeria, expatiated on MTN’s content policy and the relevance of this partnership. “At MTN, we maintain a stance on promoting local content development in Nigeria by enabling local supply chains through local procurement.”

Saint Nwafor further detailed how this partnership supports MTN’s logistics model: “We had some challenges over the years. The logistics model we initially wanted to adopt didn’t work, so we had to revert to the old model.

“This model allows our sales and client success teams to better commute to customer locations.”

MTN Nigeria remains committed to creating shared value and playing a positive and meaningful role in creating a sustainable and inclusive country.


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