Telecom
Vintage Confluence, CWG, Medallion Join NITRA Technology Forum Train On Cloud/Data Services

The Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA) has announced more partnerships for its upcoming event, tagged NITRA TECHNOLOGY FORUM 2021.
The event, which will hold on Thursday, May 27, 2021, at CitiHeight Hotel and Virtually on Zoom now has web-based cryptocurrency trading platform, Vintage Confluence LLC, Nigeria’s CWG Plc, Medallion, Layer3Limited and ATCON joining other leading stakeholders to set issues around the growth of data hosting, preservation and utilisation in the country.
Vintage Confluence LLC is a leading global organization that offers solutions to Cryptocurrency Investors who need to sell their bulk Bitcoins in exchange for cash in Nigeria & South Africa.
The company’s mission is to provide traders with the most comprehensive Web-based trading platform available with no hassle or verification.
Vintage Confluence LLC is the most reliable, fastest and cheap e-currency exchanger with collective experience dating back to the origin of Bitcoin, providing thousands of satisfied customers with the right rates, at the right place, and at the right time.
As an active leader and certified vendor in the cryptocurrency industry since 2019, Vintage Confluence has been able to provide amazing exchange rates and quick execution of payment from small orders to large orders. This platform provides a seamless interface between the trader and Vintage Confluence as its Vendor.
CWG Plc, is a leading provider of Information, and Communication Technology solutions services across West, Central, and Eastern Africa. CWG is also a leading cloud services provider, enabling Africa’s SMEs to exploit cloud services for commerce and management.
Medallion Communications has entrenched its services in the establishment of interconnect exchange clearinghouses; carrier hotels and data hosting facilities; Telecommunications infrastructure development and Value added services – Mobile Banking, Number Portability, Emergency Communications Services, among others.
Layer3’s core solution, Layer3Cloud is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution that allows businesses and organizations of all types to remotely and virtually build, manage, store and instantly deploy servers and data in our secure data centre based in Nigeria.
The company’s solutions cut across all sectors and include the innovation of the data center, software, server & storage systems, mobile device management, security & network infrastructure solutions and access solutions including broadband and VPN services.
The Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) is a professional, non-profit, non-political umbrella organization of telecommunications companies of Nigeria, which channels its resources to the growth and development of telecom services in the country, especially through mediations between operators, government and the cinsumers.
With the theme: Achieving 30% Growth In Local Cloud Hosting By 2024, NITRA TECHNOLOGY FORUM 2021 will seek to bring stakeholders together in a panel session to discuss current challenges affecting Cloud businesses, policies that should facilitate growth and solutions to the challenges identified.
The forum will also dwell extensively on challenges and proffer solutions to factors mitigating against effective domiciliation of our locally-generated data.
Speaking on the relevance of the forum, Mr. ChikeOnwuegbuchi, chairman of NITRA, noted that over the years, Nigeria has been contending with the need to secure the country’s data and further boost local content in all sectors of the economy.
He acknowledged that the Covid-19 pandemic presented an eye-opener to many companies on the need to secure their data and cloud architecture. “Specifically, the Forum will offer Cloud service companies, data infrastructure companies and other stakeholders, opportunities to reach out to their target market with solutions that addresses their challenges and needs.”
The event, which will be steered under the chairmanship of the Chief Executive Officer, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), Muhammed Rudman, now have NITDA, Cloudflex, Rackcenter, Vintage Confluence LLC, CWG and Layer3 as sponsorship partners.
Also speaking on the event, the Association’s National Secretary, Mr. Chidiebere Nwankwo assured that the array of speakers at the event will not only chart a way for data and cloud growth in Nigeria, but will also present options in data/cloud services that will offer micro, small, medium organisations opportunities to digitise at very minimal cost.
He further stated that the event will be streamed live online via social media and Zoom platform.
It would be recalled that the federal government has set things in place towards achieving local content development in the industry.
This quest was captured when the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) was instituted. The 8th pillar of NDEPS highlights the mission towards Indigenous Content Development & Adoption.
Other Pillars are: Developmental Regulation; Digital Literacy & Skills; Solid Infrastructure; Service Infrastructure; Digital Services Development & Promotion; Soft Infrastructure; Digital Society & Emerging Technologies; and Indigenous Content Development & Adoption.
Telecom
MTN Nigeria Wins Award for Best Use of Data @MarkHack 4.0 Awards Night

MTN Nigeria’s commitment to digital innovation took center stage at MarkHack 4.0, the annual marketing and technology conference held at Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Friday, May 23, 2025, with the theme ‘Experience Ignited: Fueling the Customer’s Journey’.

L-R: Akinbulejo Onabolu, Head, Enterprise Segment, MTN Nigeria; Eneyi Obi, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Rise; Tobi Olanisimi, Marketing Manager, AB InBev; Martha Kayode, Marketing Head, PZ Cussonz; Sulaiman Shaibu, CEO, BFT Consulting Service and Daniel Adeyemi, Managing Editor, Condia Business at the MarkHack 4.0 Conference held at the Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos on Friday, May 23, 2025.
In a celebration of innovation, technology, and storytelling, the company also took home the award for Best Use of Data in a Marketing Campaign at the Nigeria MarTech (MarkHack 4.0) Awards Night. This award recognizes brands that have successfully transformed data into compelling narratives and actionable insights to meaningfully engage their audiences.
Akinbulejo Onabolu, Senior Manager, Segment Management, Enterprise Business at MTN, joined a panel to discuss the power of immersive technologies on consumer behaviour. Drawing from MTN’s launch of its 5G Digital Experience Centre in Abuja last year, Onabolu highlighted the rapid evolution of immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) stating “Our 5G centre is a sandbox for our customers to come and see how technology can shape things. At the launch event, we unveiled a smart city to customers, clients and dignitaries in attendance, with gaming and other tech experiences.”
On the intersection of data, AR and VR, he added: “Co-creating with MTN takes our minds to a platform where different partners, companies and creators can bring their buildings, products and businesses for people to see via augmented reality and connectivity, just swiping through and following through that journey.
“As a part of impacting our customer’s lives, a few years ago, we also played around with the Metaverse and we ended up creating some of our back-office processes with some of our customer journeys on augmented reality and virtual reality such that a customer somewhere can engage with a virtual agent to solve real life problems and integrating that back into our operating systems. As an organization, at a lot of our events, you will find a lot of AR and VR experiences.”
Speaking on how MTN is embedding immersive technology into its day-to-day operations, he explained that the company is prioritizing both internal capability development and external engagement. “85% of our organization has undergone extensive training on AI and that already is a great addition to our daily lives. We’re using it to do things differently, developing user journeys and brainstorming different things. In terms of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, we are working with organizations to develop training programs which we use internally.”
He described the bases for this tech as stable connectivity, high bandwidth, high speed and low latency. “Over the past year, we’ve doubled our 5G capacity across the entire country. Wherever you are, you’ll probably start to pick up 5G. With our FibreX service, we’re going way beyond connectivity to create the systems and platforms to support the ecosystem, AR and VR. In addition to this, we’re also engaging regulatory systems to start to tease this out and build the proper governance.”
The session, moderated by Daniel Adeyemi, Managing Editor at Condia Business, also featured insights from leaders in FMCG, consulting, and global marketing, all underscoring the transformative potential of immersive technologies for Africa’s future.
Telecom
MTN Nigeria Invests ₦900Bn in 2025 to Boost Network Quality in Lagos & Abuja

MTN Nigeria has announced a massive capital expenditure (CAPEX) drive for 2025, nearly doubling its investment to almost 900 billion Naira, as it seeks to significantly enhance network service quality in major cities like Lagos and Abuja and extend improvements to other areas.

Karl Toriola
This financial commitment, up from a combined total of approximately 440 billion Naira spent in 2023 and 2024, was detailed by MTN Nigeria CEO, Dr. Karl Toriola, during a recent interview on Arise TV.
Toriola highlighted that a key focus of the increased CAPEX will be on “putting additional capacity in a city like Lagos, particularly in Abuja, where you have a lot of buildings coming up, you need additional sites because there are coverage issues.”
Beyond these critical urban centres, the investment aims to bolster network resilience and ensure power stability for its infrastructure nationwide. This includes proactively addressing site outages by ensuring timely payment for operational necessities such as diesel for generators, a persistent challenge in the Nigerian operating environment
The CEO outlined the comprehensive nature of the upgrade process, which involves “placing orders formally, opening letters of credit, and then the equipment gets shipped in and installed.” He added that where necessary, MTN will be “acquiring new sites” and “laying fiber to the base station to create better stability.”
While the immediate CAPEX is geared towards improving existing service quality and capacity, this investment aligns with MTN’s broader goals, which include enhancing financial inclusion in underserved rural areas, suggesting a long-term vision for network expansion and service improvement that extends beyond metropolitan areas.
Customers are expected to begin experiencing the positive impact of these investments with a “significant improvement in quality of service” anticipated by the end of the second quarter or early in the third quarter of 2025, according to Toriola.
Telecom
Airtel’s AI Spam Alert Flags 9.6m Spam Attempts

Airtel Nigeria, telecom service provider, has announced that its AI-powered Spam Alert Service issued over 9.6 million spam alerts between March 13 and May 20, 2025.
As part of its ongoing commitment to protecting customers from unwanted and potentially fraudulent communications, Airtel designed the AI Spam Alert service to analyze traffic patterns and detect anomalies.
In the period since launch the AI pinpointed a total of 9,667,008 SMS as potential spam messages in the two months after its launch.
Of these, the system identified 528,080 on-net (Airtel-to-Airtel) and 9,138,928 off-net (from other networks) numbers as suspected spam messages, demonstrating the scale of the threat and Airtel’s advanced processing capability.
Airtel Nigeria is a subsidiary of Airtel Africa.
Commenting on this development, Dinesh Balsingh, CEO, Airtel Nigeria, restated Airtel`s commitment to protecting its customers.
“This milestone demonstrates the strength of our AI-driven infrastructure in combating the growing menace of spam and scam calls. At Airtel Nigeria, we are focused on connecting Nigerians and ensuring their safety and confidence while using our network.
“We understand that trust is the cornerstone of digital communication. That’s why we’ve invested heavily in intelligent systems that not only detect potential threats but also learn and evolve with data. As threats become more sophisticated, so will our solutions. As a company, we remain focused on leading the industry in innovation and customer satisfaction, ensuring that every Nigerian can enjoy a safer and smarter digital experience,” Mr. Balsingh said.
The Spam Alert Service is part of Airtel Nigeria’s broader strategy to integrate artificial intelligence into its core offerings to deliver smarter and safer experiences for its customers across the country.
Recall that the Spam Alert Service was launched on March 13, 2025. A groundbreaking and free solution from Airtel, it notifies users in real-time of suspected spam SMS messages by analyzing over 250 parameters.
The Airtel AI Spam Alert Service is available to all Airtel subscribers on smartphones and feature phones.
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