Telecom
TD Africa Commits to Empower Over 10 Million Nigerian Women By 2025

TD Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa’s leading distributor of tech, lifestyle and cutting-edge solutions has unveiled plans to engender a mindset shift and contribute to harnessing the latent potential of Nigeria’s burgeoning female population by empowering over 10 million women by 2025.
Disclosing the laudable initiative on Thursday, January 20, 2022 was Chief Executive, TD Africa, Mrs. Chioma Ekeh.
The first group of beneficiaries of the women empowerment initiative were the wives of junior employees drawn from TD Africa and other companies in the Zinox Group. To flag off the project, the women had earlier toured the office facilities in Gbagada followed by another elaborate tour of the state-of-the-art Tech Experience Centre located in Yudala Heights, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Mrs. Ekeh, while receiving the first set of beneficiaries at Yudala Heights, charged them to channel their minds with positive thoughts and be courageous to take firm actions, regardless of the circumstances. She used the peculiar traits of the TD Africa brand symbol – depicted by a lion head known as Simba, as staff of the company are addressed – as an analogy to buttress her point.
“Women must remain strong, courageous and tenacious, just like the Simba. As the bedrock of the society, they should never allow their past experiences, no matter how bad, dictate their future. They must take learnings from the experiences and rise above their challenges.’’
Further, Mrs. Ekeh urged the women to steer clear of unnecessary distractions and unhealthy competition with no one.
“Continually work on improving yourself, all the time. That is enough. The results will show in good time too….
‘‘…It is also important to have the “I can do” mindset. It is only in the DOING that the deeds get done. So, get up and go. Go do it. As important as money is, empowerment is not all about that. Sharing ideas, sharing authentic stories, training, mentoring are some other more enduring ways to empower,’’ she counselled.
Speaking on the objectives and vision of the project, Mrs. Ekeh stated it will positively affect millions of women in the coming years, while urging them to take advantage of the numerous opportunities that abound from the initiative.
Research estimates from premier data platform Knoema indicate that in 2021, the female population for Nigeria stood at about 104 million. Over the last 50 years, the female population in Nigeria grew substantially from 29.3 million to 104 million persons, rising at an increasing annual rate that reached a maximum of 2.98% in 1978 and then decreased to 2.54% in 2021. Women, by virtue of their nature, also play essential care-giving and grooming roles in the society.
Mrs. Ekeh is of the view that the foregoing makes a conscious effort to engage this gender of utmost and critical importance.
‘‘Empowering a woman means empowering the family, the community, the society and the entire country. That one woman will teach many people; from siblings, to offsprings, to in-laws and to all she encounters. Why waste this rich resource we can put to good use?” she queried.
‘‘We hope to impact at least 10 million women in the space of two to three years and these empowered women will empower a whole lot more in the world. It is not all about money,” she concluded.
As part of the session, the management team of TD Africa comprising the Coordinating Managing Director, Mrs. Chioma Chimere; Managing Director, Sales, Mrs. Gozy Ijogun; Head of Tech Experience Centre, Chidalu Ekeh; Mrs. Kelechi Nwamara and Mrs. Foluke Morakinyo of the Human Resource unit had a one-on-one conversation with each of the beneficiaries to understand their means of livelihood and identify the challenges. The exercise was for proper documentation and to proffer customised solutions.
Reactions from participants showed their excitement from the exposure and optimism for a better future. The women, who are mostly petty traders, couldn’t hide their expectations with respect to gaining access to mentorship and other forms of support for their businesses.
A shoe seller, Mrs. Macbeth Stella said the experience was very inspiring and highly motivating.
“I’m very happy to be here. I feel encouraged and hopeful that coming here will boost my spirit to do my business better and be very supportive to my husband. I’m very grateful for the opportunity,” she enthused.
Another respondent expressed delight at the possibility of securing access to seed funds or soft loans to aid her business.
“My name is Chika Lilian Gabriel. I was able to learn so many things and also network with like minds. This is my first time to visit the place my husband works and it’s a good experience.
‘‘I am excited about the prospects of being able to access financial support to grow my business and I want to get higher just like the Yudala Heights,” she said.
Telecom
PAT Taps Osi as CEO

Pan African Towers (PAT), a Nigerian infrastructure provider serving 9mobile and Spectranet, has appointed Echezona Osi as chief executive officer.

Echezona Osi
Adefolarin Ogunsanya, company’s, board chairman, explained in a statement that Osi would succeed Oladipo Badru, whose tenure lasted nine months in acting CEO position. Osi has more than 28 years of experience in the telecommunications sector across various regions of Africa.
Prior to his appointment as CEO, he had served as the head of network deployment at Airtel Nigeria, operations director and chief technical information officer at MIC Tanzania, chief technology officer roles at IPT PowerTech Nigeria, Rhino Niger Networks and Biswal Nigeria.
He obtained a degree in electrical/ electronic engineering from the University of Benin and a postgraduate diploma in data science and business analytics from the University of Texas.
Telecom
NCC Introduces N10m Licence Fee for Bulk SMS Service

Companies sending bulk international text messages, also known as Application-to-Person (A2P) messages, will now have apply for a licence that costs N10 million.
This is part of new rules introduced by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) aimed at cleaning up the system, fighting fraud, blocking spam messages and stopping money from leaving the country unchecked.
These A2P messages are the kind customers get from banks, online stores, hospitals and political campaigns, automated texts sent from apps to their phones.
According to the commission, the bulk international text message system has been poorly regulated, allowing misuse and invasion of privacy.
“The International SMS Service Ecosystem in Nigeria has not been fully brought under regulatory control. It has been observed that the excessive use of the Short Message Service has led to fraud, spam and illegal activities,” the NCC said.
The regulator warned that without action, the problem would worsen as more people use mobile phones and digital services.
To solve this, the NCC is creating a central platform, or gateway, through which all international bulk text messages must pass through.
The agency said this would help to monitor messages in real time, ensure proper fees are paid, and make sure the money stays in Nigeria where it can contribute to the economy.
As part of the incoming change, service providers must follow strict rules, including strong data protection, spam filters, and message encryption.
Also, they must also work with local mobile networks and make sure all messages come from a verified sender
The NCC warned that any message without a proper sender ID will be blocked and not delivered to users.
To protect users from unwanted texts, the new rules say companies must get clear permission before sending any promotional content.
The rule also says people must also be able to choose whether they want to receive such messages or not.
Companies are now required to keep records of all messages for at least six months and must clearly state all charges involved.
The NCC said fees for help requests, cancellations, or service info must be transparent and not include hidden charges.
The commission will issue licences to several providers to encourage healthy competition but may limit new licences if needed.
Only companies that show they can stop fraud and safely deliver messages will be allowed to operate. They must also regularly report their message traffic and finances to the NCC.
It warned that any company that breaks the rules risks getting fined, suspended, or having its licence revoked.
Offences like charging illegal tariffs, ignoring security rules, or avoiding taxes will be punished, the NCC said.
The commission added that the new rules follow the Nigerian Data Protection Act 2023 and support the federal government’s goal of strengthening cybersecurity and controlling Nigeria’s digital space.
The framework will also be reviewed from time to time to keep up with new technology and market trends.
Telecom
MTN Nigeria Targets $1Bn Cloud Market with Largest Modular Data Centre

MTN Nigeria has launched what it claims is the country’s largest prefabricated modular data centre, marking a bold push into the country’s fast-growing cloud market and taking aim at global giants such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

Karl Toriola, CEO, MTN Nigeria.
The shift comes as demand for cloud services in Nigeria soars — driven by the uptake of mobile apps, fintech tools and e-learning platforms — while foreign providers have become costlier in the wake of the naira’s sharp devaluation.
“This is one of the biggest data centres in West Africa and probably one of the biggest in Africa,” said Karl Toriola, CEO, MTN Nigeria.
He described the new Tier III-certified facility, with locally hosted cloud services, as “transformative for the technology ecosystem in Nigeria and very supportive of the federal government’s agenda”.
MTN Nigeria, the country’s largest telecoms provider, has so far invested $120m in the first phase, delivering an IT load of 4.5MW. A second phase, set to double capacity to 9MW, is budgeted at $135m.
“We already have data centres that are running our existing capacities,” Toriola said.
“We will go to 9MW in short order, possibly 14MW, and we can expand even further.”
He said the facility would allow local hosting for tech developers, large enterprises including banks and oil companies, and government agencies — markets long dominated by foreign cloud providers.
“Multinational companies such as Netflix, Facebook and Instagram can also host a lot of their data here. That improves the quality of service and reduces the cost of storage,” he added.
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