Telecom
Nigerian Developers Get Free AI-Assisted Coding from Gemini Code Assist

Google has unveiled Gemini Code Assist for individuals, a free version of their AI-coding assistant. This development assistant powered by Gemini 2.0 is now available to Nigerian developers and it supports all programming languages in the public domain and more importantly, it is optimised for coding.
Recent DORA research indicates that over 75% of developers now integrate AI into their daily workflows, underscoring its growing importance. At Google, for instance, over 25% of new code is AI-generated, subsequently validated by engineering teams.
While established enterprises readily deploy advanced AI tools to enhance developer productivity, access to these resources has historically been limited for students, independent developers, and emerging startups. Given the projected global developer base expansion to 57.8 million by 2028, democratising AI access is both timely and crucial. Providing these tools, regardless of financial capacity, equips the next generation of developers with the essential digital capabilities required for future innovation.
The Gemini 2.0 model was fine-tuned for developers by analysing and validating a large number of real-world coding use cases. As a result, the quality of AI-generated recommendations in Gemini Code Assist is better than ever before and ready to address the myriad of daily challenges developers face. While other popular free coding assistants have restrictive usage limits, with usually only 2,000 code completions per month, Gemini Code Assist offers practically unlimited capacity with up to 180,000 code compilations per month – a high standard that is seldom reached by even the most dedicated professional developers.
AI is revolutionising coding, not only by accelerating code writing but also by empowering developers to write better code. While a quality and efficient code review process is critical, code reviews are often time-consuming. To address this, the public preview of Gemini Code Assist for GitHub, which provides free, AI-powered code reviews for both public and private repositories.
Developers spend most of their time coding in integrated development environments (IDEs). Now, the free version of Gemini Code Assist in Visual Studio Code and JetBrains IDEs offers developers the same code completion, generation, and chat capabilities that have been available to businesses for over a year, and are already freely available in Firebase and Android Studio. This provides an opportunity for anyone to conveniently learn, create code snippets, debug, and modify their existing applications, all within their IDE, eliminating the need to toggle between windows or copy and paste from disconnected sources.
With the most generous usage limit of 90 times, more code completions per month than other popular free coding assistants, coders have a huge opportunity, whether as a student working on a time-sensitive project, there would be no need to worry about chat limits stopping pair – programming sessions or dealing with stalling because you hit a cap.
Gemini Code Assist for individuals comes with a generous token context window, with up to 128,000 input token support in chat. This large context window lets developers use large files and ground Gemini Code Assist with a broader understanding of their local codebases.
The chat feature also makes it easy for developers to focus on the creative part of development, while leaving the necessary, but repetitive steps – like writing comments or automated tests from requirements – to Gemini.
Caption: Gemini Code Assist provides a summary of a pull request and improvement suggestions. Then, when prompted, Gemini provides code readability suggestions.
Nigerian developers can use natural language in a variety of languages in Gemini Code Assist to generate, explain and improve code. For example, a freelance website developer could quickly get code with a prompt like, “Build me a simple HTML form with fields for name, email, and message, and then add a ‘submit’ button.” Or someone just looking to automate more routine tasks can ask Gemini to “Write a script that sends a daily email with the latest weather forecast,” or “Explain what this Python code snippet does and find any errors.”
Code review is one of the most critical, albeit time consuming, parts of software development. With Gemini Code Assist for GitHub, Nigerian developers get a powerful helping hand that can detect stylistic issues and bugs and automatically suggest code changes and fixes. Offloading basic reviews to an AI agent can help make code repositories more maintainable and improve quality, allowing developers to focus on more complex tasks. It’s available directly in GitHub, where most open-source developers post and review code, via a GitHub app.
Different developer teams may also have different best practices, coding conventions and preferred frameworks and libraries. To address this need, Gemini Code Assist for GitHub supports custom style guides for code reviews. Each team can describe which instructions Gemini should follow when reviewing code in a .gemini/styleguide.md file in their repository. That way, Gemini tailors its code reviews to the needs of the repository.
Whether a student building an interactive data visualization using JavaScript, or a freelance developer testing ideas for an application or game, you can use Gemini Code Assist to help you get your project done faster, with more expertise, at no cost.
Signup is quick and easy, and only requires a personal Gmail account, no credit card needed. Nigerian developers can get started by installing Gemini Code Assist in Visual Studio Code, GitHub or JetBrains IDEs.
With user feedback on this public preview, Google will continue to fine-tune Gemini Code Assist. Users can share feedback right from the “Send feedback” form in the IDE or in GitHub. Nigerian developers interested in advanced functionality such as productivity metrics, customised AI responses based on private source code repositories, or integrations with Google Cloud services like BigQuery can also consider Gemini Code Assist Standard or Enterprise.
Telecom
MTN’s Talent Hunt Returns: A Stage for Nigeria’s Next Creative Stars

MTN Nigeria is set to reignite the dreams of creatives with the launch of its Best of the Streets talent competition for the 2025 edition. This initiative aims to discover and nurture Nigeria’s next generation of creative talent.

L-R: Mobolaji Ogunlende, Honourable Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Lagos State; Dapo “D’Banj” Oyebanjo, Singer and Founder of C.R.E.A.M platform; Dandizzy, Rapper and Singer; A’isha Umar Mumuni, Chief Digital Officer, MTN Nigeria and Obi Asika, Nigerian music executive and Director-General, National Council for Arts and Culture, NCAC., at the Best of the Streets press briefing on Wednesday, April 23 held at the MTN Rooftop Events Centre, Ikoyi, Lagos.
Slated to commence on May 1, 2025, the competition offers unsigned artists a transformative platform to compete for life-changing rewards, including a grand money prize, professional music video production, and an EP recording deal.
At the press briefing on Wednesday April 23, A’isha Umar Mumuni, Chief Digital Officer of MTN Nigeria, emphasized the initiative’s impact.
“The premise of Best of the Streets is that there’s talent in every street in Nigeria, whether it’s acting, singing, dancing, comedy or other performance arts.
“Best of the Streets seeks to bring out that talent, to show Nigerian youths that there are opportunities everywhere; and at MTN, we are very proud to take part in creating these opportunities.”
Best of the Streets is in collaboration with C.R.E.A.M (Creative Reality Entertainment Art and Music), founded by Nigerian rapper, Dapo “D’Banj” Oyebanjo is a platform which provides talent management, publishing, and funding support to grassroots artists.
“The C.R.E.A.M platform provides solutions and services for talents, creatives and entrepreneurs, by granting them convenient access to showcase their skills and monetize their content. With our newly launched distribution arm, we are not just discovering talent, we are giving them the tools to take them global,” D’banj explained.
Chris Anokute, Nigerian-born LA-based American Executive, known for discovering global superstar Katy Perry, commended the efforts of this initiative in pushing local Nigerian music to the international stage. “Best of the Streets is the greatest artiste discovery platform I’ve seen come out of Africa.
“The music industry is, as of last year, a 30-billion-dollar industry. Afrobeats is the fastest growing genre in the entire world, over 1.1 million hours of music streamed out of Nigeria on Spotify this year alone.”
On the importance of empowering the creative capacities of the youth, Mobolaji Ogunlende, Honourable Commissioner for Youth and Social Development in Lagos State. “As a government, we have vowed not to leave anybody behind in Lagos state, irrespective of their background.
“There are about 30 million citizens in Lagos, and 60% of the youth. Not every youth will be able to go to school, but we still have the creatives, digital, fashion icons, among others. This platform is an avenue to encourage them.”
To participate, aspiring contestants can dial *463# on their MTN line, upload original content via the official @creamplatform, and mobilise votes from the public. Over 2584 creatives are set to be showcased and rewarded this year. Entries into this competition continue up until December, with daily, weekly and monthly winners, with a final winner who will secure the grand prize.
The Best of the Streets initiative reinforces MTN’s commitment to youth empowerment and creative innovation, aligning with Nigeria’s growing entertainment industry demands.
Telecom
Meta Challenges Nigerian Tribunal’s $220M Fine over Data Breaches

Meta has announced its intention to appeal the decision of the Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal (CCPT), which upheld a $220 million fine imposed by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) over its data practices.
The penalty follows a 38-month investigation conducted by the FCCPC, in collaboration with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), which ran from 2021 to December 2023.
The investigation found evidence of unauthorised data sharing, insufficient user consent mechanisms, and discriminatory practices that treated Nigerian consumers differently from those in other regions.
In July 2024, the FCCPC imposed the $220 million fine on Meta and WhatsApp, citing violations of Nigeria’s data protection and consumer rights laws. Additionally, the ruling mandated corrective actions to ensure that Meta’s business practices comply with Nigerian regulations.
In a decision delivered on Friday, April 25, the tribunal upheld the fine, reaffirming the FCCPC’s authority and investigative processes. The tribunal also ordered Meta to pay an additional $35,000 to cover the costs incurred during the investigation.
However, Meta expressed disagreement with the tribunal’s ruling, stating in a statement on Saturday, April 26, that it would urgently seek to appeal the decision and apply for a stay of execution.
“We are urgently applying to stay the order and appeal today’s decision to avoid any impact to users,” WhatsApp said.
The company also contested the tribunal’s findings, claiming that the ruling misrepresented how WhatsApp operates and contained inaccuracies regarding its data practices.
Telecom
Tribunal Upholds FCCPC’s $220m Fine against Meta, WhatsApp
Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal has upheld a $220 million fine imposed by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) on Meta Platforms Inc. and WhatsApp LLC for data privacy violations in Nigeria.
The Tribunal also awarded $35,000 in investigative costs to the country’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission .
In a statement issued by the FCCPC, the Tribunal delivered its judgment in the appeal filed by Meta Platforms Incorporated (Facebook) and WhatsApp LLC against the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), affirming the Commission’s authority and ruling in favour of its actions on nearly all contested issues.
According to the statement by the FCCPC, “The Tribunal specifically determined that the Commission adhered to prevailing laws, fulfilled its mandate, and exercised its powers by the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
“It ruled that the multiple actions by WhatsApp and Meta, for which the Commission made findings of violations, were correctly identified, and that the Commission did not err in making those findings.”
The statement revealed that WhatsApp and Meta’s legal team was led by Professor Gbolahan Elias (SAN), while the FCCPC was represented by Babatunde Irukera.
It added that both legal teams presented their final arguments on behalf of their respective clients on January 28, 2025.
“The FCCPC had on July on July 19, 2024, issued a Final Order imposing a $220 million administrative penalty after concluding that the companies engaged in discriminatory and exploitative practices against Nigerian consumers, the investigation started in 2020.
“The case arose from a 38-month joint investigation initiated by the FCCPC and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) into the conduct, privacy practices, and consumer data policies of Meta Platforms and WhatsApp.
“Dissatisfied with the Order last year, Meta and WhatsApp appealed to the Tribunal, challenging both the legal basis and the findings of the Commission,” FCCPC said.
The Tribunal upheld the FCCPC’s authority and investigative procedures in Meta and WhatsApp’s appeal, resolving most of the contested issues in the Commission’s favour.
It confirmed that the FCCPC acted within its constitutional and statutory mandate, particularly regarding fair hearing, data protection, and consumer rights.
While it dismissed the majority of the appellants’ objections, it set aside one specific order (Order 7) for lacking sufficient legal basis.
While expressing satisfaction with the judgment, Tunji Bello, executive vice chairman/CEO, commended the Commission’s legal team for their exceptional diligence and forensic expertise in assembling evidence and presenting their case.
He reaffirmed the FCCPC’s unwavering commitment not only to protecting the rights of Nigerian consumers but also to promoting fair business practices in line with the FCCPA (2018) and the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Nigerian government.
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