E-Business
Smile Harps on Professionalism, Partners 10 Bloggers

Smile Communications Nigeria Limited, the 4G LTE broadband provider renowned for superfast and reliable Internet service, has identified professionalism, passion and content creation as critical in enhancing capacity of bloggers in the West African region.
Mrs. Alero Ladipo, chief marketing officer, Smile Communications Nigeria Limited, made the remark during a presentation titled, ‘How to Promote Your Blog’, at West Africa Blogger Conference (WABC) 2015, held in Lagos at the weekend.
Ladipo said that in as much as bloggers must ensure explicit, informative and clearly defined content delivered with passion and fun, they should not relent in professionalizing in order to attract right businesses to monetize the enterprise.
Essentially, she listed qualities that distinguish bloggers from others to including sticking to their already created niches built on professionalism, unique, responding quickly to trends, invest on the content design, while building loyal audience, relationships and reaching out to experts.
The Company is already preparing grounds to partner with ten (10) bloggers to support them in lifting the platforms to greater heights.
The Smile Communications CMO said, “People think that blogging is habit that anybody can just pick up and start practicing it. However, as we get more people entrenched in consistent growth, it becomes important we make it professional. Essentially, readers visit bloggers for a particular reason. By implication, a blog is not a dumping ground. Stick to the core reason you started the blog and adhere to your principles.
“There is a philosophy that you stick to certain principles even when many people are deviating; it is the same thing with blogs. When you maintain the professional competencies, people will come to partner with you. For instance, on the course of my presentation I randomly asked participants ‘sell me your blog’, which is simply to market the platform, but people fell-flat on their faces. It is important you know what your blog is all about and can sell it. Present it appropriately”.
Ladipo added that for bloggers to attain their expected heights, “they should improve on the marketing and how to communicate. A lot of people do not know how to use the available tools. For instance, everybody talks about social media, but nobody talks about how they can grasp onto the social media.
“People need to understand about target audience, segmentations, and how to retain people’s interest that they continue to visit your blog; keeping people interested and understand that you are one amongst many.
“That’s the strength you need to have; the tools of marketing and communication and it does not require long sessions of learning. It can be an hour session of going through the principles of marketing and communication at a 101 (introductory) level, because you are not trying to go deeper on the subject, but how to use the tools. Truly, content is king, but you needed to be smart about it. That is where marketing and communication aspect comes in”.
Meanwhile, the CMO speaking on why Smile Communications chose to support the conference, said, “We chose to support the Conference due to the link between our service offering and what the bloggers do. During my presentation, I asked how many people had internet connection in order to monitor what is happening now or what has happened in the last hour that could inspire your writing. How are they going to know if not with internet connectivity”.
According to her, internet connectivity is a utility that soon will be in the range of demands like water supply, electricity, etc. I will take it further to say blogging, internet provision and lifestyle are all connected. So, we partnered with the organizers as a way of bridging the gap between life style and communication”.
On the drive to partner with some bloggers, Ladipo said, “the organizers will help in screening ten bloggers that Smile Communications will partner with from our perspective”.
Earlier, Mr. Ayodele Oyebade, managing director, Advert Strikers Limited, and convener of the Conference, thanked Smile Communications magnanimity in supporting the conference where a new chain of professional bloggers will emerge.
Speaking specifically on the motivation behind the conference, he said, “We help bloggers to monetize their contents. We realized that majority of the exiting bloggers in the region need to learn a lot. Some of our clients in Nigeria, Asia, even Israel do complain that they are not getting the kind of mirage they expect.
“Meanwhile, premium bloggers in the category of Linda Ikeji, Bellanaija, etc, they have fixed rates. Clients know them and so talk to them directly. But we want every blogger to rise to the expectations. We want to say, regardless of the niche, you are an authority in your area, we want you to understand what the brands are looking for and you can relate with the audience.
“It goes beyond writing good articles, writing for fun, getting little AdSense and/or doing copy and paste from premium blogs. We are trying to expose the bloggers to the nitty-gritty of the profession. That’s why we partnered some corporate bodies like Smile Communications, Jumia, Google, MTN, etc. They have done very well in supporting this conference.
“In blogging you need to understand the dynamics and the ecosystem of how the platforms operate. For instance, you are writing about automobile. You have to be sure on what the audience want; you need to know the psychology, the general spare that will affect monetization and audience engagement.
“Smile Communications has informed us of their decision to partner with bloggers. I am particularly happy with Smile Communications because they are going to show them how to make money with their blogs with their content. Jumia is doing similar thing with it affiliate platform”.
Oyebade urged the participants to utilize the opportunity created at the conference to reach out to influencers and engage on self-assessment questions, adding that the future of bloggers have become even brighter in the present technology driven age.
Smile Communications Nigeria Limited is justly famous for its transformative objective of using the best and most innovative technologies to provide its customers with high quality, easy to use and affordable communication services. Smile’s vision and mission, remains the quest to be the broadband provider of choice in Nigeria and to enable its customers to fully benefit from the Internet world.
E-Business
Gov. Mbah Tasks Youths to Embrace Technology as Enugu Tech Festival Opens

The 2025 Enugu Tech Festival being organised by the Enugu State Government kicked off yesterday with the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, describing it as the biggest technology conference that has ever happened in Nigeria.
Tijani said the Tech Festival, which attracted thousands of youths from within and outside the state, was a major leap for Nigeria’s determination to build a robust digital economy, noting that Enugu State under Governor Peter Mbah, had moved from policy to progress to lead the tech revolution in Nigeria.
This was even as Governor Peter Mbah urged the youths to embrace technology, insisting that the future is technology.
Speaking, the Minister said that the Tech Festival, tagged Coal to Code, fitted into the agenda and activities of the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, having recognised that the future of digital economy in Nigeria would not only be built in Abuja, but would instead be co-created across all states.
“Enugu is showing how this should and will be done. I have never, never been to a conference on technology in Nigeria that is this big. I founded the first technology hub in Nigeria, the very first in Nigeria. So, I know a thing or two when technology people gather. I can assure you that today, you are part of history because we have never seen anything this big in Nigeria before.
“There is something powerful about your state: the energy, the ambition, the possibilities. Just two years ago, only a few people could imagine this kind of tech momentum. But today, Enugu has not just imagined, Enugu is building it. Under two years, we have seen investment in digital infrastructure, and the innovation ecosystem of the state.
“What is happening today in Enugu is part of something bigger. We are now witnessing a generational rise, not one where people complain and protest, but one where creativity is used to shape the future. Not just with passion, but with precision,” he stated.
While commending the participants for rising to “create the kind of Nigeria the world will pay attention to,” Tijani called for collaboration, commitment, and hard work by all stakeholders to make it happen.
“Progress is not automatic, but needs all of us. It needs the government to continue to be brave. It needs the private sector to invest deeper. It needs mentors, builders, teachers, and it needs leaders,” he concluded.
Speaking, Governor Mbah, while highlighting how his administration had invested in technology to dramatically revolutionise security, land administration, education, among others, noted that the Enugu Tech Festival was part of his government’s wider efforts to build the youth of the state into wealth creators and highly sought-after workforce of tomorrow’s workplace.
“The power of technology and innovation and what we can accomplish is something that I want the youths to be mindful of. If you look at the way things are being done in the world today, we are now talking about an era where people just sit down with great ideas, create platforms where they begin to essentially benefit from that platform.
“An example is the Uber that came and disrupted the city taxi without owning a key. Today, they provide by far the largest traffic just by creating a platform. You can extend that to Airbnb.
Without owning a key, these guys have disrupted the business of those who own several brick and mortar houses. You can also extend that to Tesla. That is the power of technology. This shows essentially that technology is where the future is,” he emphasised.
In his remark, the Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Technology, Dr. Lawrence Ezeh, said the Enugu Tech Festival, which would now become an annual event, underscored a paradigm shift from the old Enugu known for coal to one that has become a rising force in Nigeria’s tech-driven future, a beacon of innovation, intellectual capital, digital enterprise, and endless possibilities.
“For decades, our identity was built on coal, a resource that powered Nigeria’s industrial rise. But today, we stand in a different kind of power—the power of knowledge, innovation, and technology,” he stated.
Also at the event were the Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande; Speaker, Enugu State House of Assembly, Hon. Uchenna Ugwu; former Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Barth Nnaji; Chairman of Zinox Technical, Leo Stan Ejeh; and the Group Managing Director, Afrinvest, Dr. Ike Chioke, among a host of others.
E-Business
Firm Finds Leaked Netflix, Roblox and Discord Accounts Registered on Corporate emails

Employees may also use corporate emails to register for personal accounts on marketplaces and social media, increasing the risk of account theft and corporate security breaches, according to a study by Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence.
Kaspersky shares these findings and suggests key cybersecurity practices to mitigate the risks of credential leaks.
Kaspersky experts analysed compromised credentials leaked on the dark web between 2019 and 2024 for three popular entertainment platforms: Roblox, Discord and Netflix. The analysis revealed that, on average, 7% of users whose accounts were leaked had registered on these platforms using a corporate email address.
“Registering on various services for personal use with a work email is not best practice. First, you may lose access to these accounts if you change jobs. Second, it can pose security risks for both you and your company.
“If your passwords follow a predictable pattern across different services – for example, ‘Word2025!’, where ‘2025’ is a recurring part – it increases the likelihood of other accounts being compromised, including your work account, should your corporate email be exposed in a dark web leak,” explains Sergey Shcherbel, expert at Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence.
Kaspersky experts also found that bank employees most commonly registered their work email addresses on streaming services, marketplaces and social networks. In a few cases, corporate emails were also used as logins on gaming platforms and adult content websites.
Corporate email usage on entertainment platforms: statistics from a sample of 50 banking sector companies.
To conduct this study, experts compiled a sample of 50 banking sector companies and examined compromised credentials leaked on the dark web, identifying those linked to the corporate domains of these companies across five categories of popular platforms.
Learn more in the report. In light of this growing infostealer threat, Kaspersky has launched a dedicated landing page to raise awareness of the issue and provide strategies for mitigating associated risks.
If you encounter a data leak through infostealers, the following steps should be taken immediately:
- Change compromised account passwords and monitor for suspicious activity associated with those accounts.
- Run full security scans on all devices, removing any detected malware.
- Companies are recommended to monitor dark web markets proactively to detect compromised accounts before they pose risks to customers or employees. A detailed guide on setting up monitoring can be found here. Leverage Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence to track what cybercriminals know about your company’s assets, identify potential attack vectors, and implement protective measures in a timely manner.
- As an enterprise, implement a security awareness program for employees, including regular training and performance assessments. Enforce a strict password policy for all corporate resources to reduce the risks of encountering credential-related cyber threats.
E-Business
NDPC, Mastercard Partner to Strengthen Data Protection

Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mastercard to enhance data protection in Nigeria.

Dr. Vincent Olatunji, commissioner, NDPC and Derek Ho,deputy chief privacy officer, Mastercard
The agreement was sealed during a workshop where 150 Data Protection Officers (DPOs) were trained on Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs).
Dr. Vincent Olatunji, commissioner, NDPC, said the event kicks off activities for the 8th NADPA conference, highlighting government efforts to train more certified DPOs.
Olatunji also disclosed the Federal Government’s commitment to increasing the number of certified DPOs with the required skills to manage data protection.
He noted that Nigeria’s digital-savvy youth are key to driving this agenda.
“Human capital is really key to us, and the ecosystem we are regulating is very special. It is still new, still emerging, and we need all we can to build the capacity of officers.
“We want to build the capacity of our people so we can be able to deliver on our mandate and fully deepen privacy in Nigeria.
“We are targeting to build the capacity of 250,000 DPOs annually, and we are working with partners like Mastercard to achieve that,” he said.
Derek Ho,deputy chief privacy officer, Mastercard, also stressed the need for collaboration to build trust in the digital economy and urged participants to embrace training as data protection keeps evolving.
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