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General News

ZoomMobile Brand is Provocative – Aigbinode

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Ken Aigbinode, executive vice chairman, ZoomMobile has one passion and that is to sell his brand. This veteran banker turned telecommunications executive is also experienced in corporate governance, corporate re-structuring, marketing, and brand re-positioning. Aigbinode is focused on establishing ZoomMobile as the pre-eminent telecom operator in Nigeria. He spoke to chike onwuegbuchi and hilary okeke on a wide range of issues.

Idea about ZoomMobile

ZoomMobile is the product of the evolution of Reliance Telecom (Reltel). By this, I mean we have customers that we survey from time to time; we have shareholders (new and old) whom we also interface with and of course, our staff and the reaction they get from the market as they push our products. A combination of these factors led to our taking a strategic step towards repositioning our brand. Repositioning the brand requires that we take into cognizance the effect of the name on our label in the pack, particularly when you consider that we have just obtained our Unified License and have become fully mobile throughout the country. We said that it was time for us to re-evaluate our brand, vis-à-vis this positive development. I must say that it was timely because the impact has been very positive. We felt it was the right thing to do to response to our stakeholders who requested this change.

Chinese Company Investing in ZoomMobile

We do not have any direct foreign equity investors in the company today. That does not mean that we do not have that possibility as we keep searching for the best value for existing owners and our customers. There is Chinese involvement in our company in the form of supply of equipment (core network equipment) in the way of management through managed service contract, to oversee our core network elements and ensure that we maintain our quality. Beyond that, there is not a direct equity investment as I already mentioned, from any external party. ZoomMobile is wholly Nigerian owned operator and indeed, effectively wholly Nigerian managed at the most senior level.

Managing New 0707 Series

Those are good questions. You would recall that when GSM was licensed in Nigeria, the Nigerian Communications Commission introduced the eleven-digit numbering plan for GSM operators until unified licensing came into being recently. The erstwhile so called PTOs did not have the eleven-digit numbering plan but with the introduction of Unified Licensing and full mobility for qualified PTOs, the NCC released the 0702 to this unified operators. However, the 0702 string is fairly anonymous. Sometimes it is difficult to tell which network it is coming from. That is quite confusing. It is also in our opinion, perpetuated in the belief that the CDMA operators are opposed to the small operators. We were given the 07023 and other PTOs, who perhaps I am not permitted to mention in this interview, also had an extra digit to the same system. Whereas GSM could be differentiated with 4 digits, CDMA operators, largely the PTOs had to identify themselves with an extra digit, giving us a five prefix numbering plan. For our size today and for the size of our ambitions and aspirations, we thought that we should not be limited to just a million lines; so we applied for a block of 10 million lines. It was the first time that a CDMA operator will be applying for a complete block of line. Perhaps, fortuitously 0707 was available. We applied for it, did not have to pay any premium and I think perhaps, it is the most unique number in Nigeria today. It is easy therefore, to identify us looking at the first four digits: 0707. No longer will any subscriber or caller be confused about the identity of 0707 as no other network in Nigeria will have the 0707 prefix. The 0707 platform signifies our arrival on the scene to play as a full mobility telecom operator throughout Nigeria.

Youth Image of ZoomMobile Brand

As you know, our new name is ZoomMobile; the short form is Zoom and it is registered with the Trademark Commission. The name itself is descriptive and if you like, provocative. It connotes movement, dynamism, desire to move towards an aspiration and in our opinion, the people who exhibit some of these attributes generally are the youths and our definition of the youth is anywhere between 1 year and about 120 years, depending on how your mind works and the goals you set out to achieve and the drive for you to achieve them. Just like our company has been refreshed by this renaming ceremony; just like our profile has been reinvigorated; just like our scope has enlarged; we want to also carry our subscribers (both existing and potential) along on this journey and ensure that we provide the facilitation that will enable those who still have aspirations to whatever it is in life and achieve them expeditiously. As we say in this new era, "full speed ahead." We want to be that ‘wind beneath the wings’ of our subscribers as they all move towards their aspirations and goals.

Building Capacity and Expansion

Today, I can tell you that we have an installed capacity that is upgradeable to 5 million lines. We are in discussion with our vendors to further enhance that capacity to well over 15 million. That implies that we are planning ahead for the envisaged rush for these special numbers. We are very conscious of the quality of service and are not in a hurry to add more subscribers when the capacity is not there to accommodate them and service quality indices that we have internally are great which even the regulator has testified to. Accordingly, these new numbers will be rolled out in batches; we are not going to push out the whole 10 million into circulation; we will match them to the capacity of the network as each city is ready and as capacity improves from city to city. Right now there is rush for the special numbers, very soon we are going to be broadcasting to existing and potential subscribers, the way to get the special numbers. These are numbers that people would like to keep forever but they are limited. There will be the Platinum range, Extra Special, Gold range and the Silver category. But believe me, whether you possess the Platinum, Gold or Silver range or not; the prefix 0707 marks you out as somebody who is serious about what he is out for and it is a unique mark of identity. Interestingly in our religious conscious society and the traditional African religion, 7 is a very important number. People have ascribed perfection to that number and I do not think that we are so far from that. It is spiritually relevant and we will ensure that we live up to expectations of those people who come on the network.

Manpower Development

On the manpower side, we are constantly hiring hands and training as well as retraining. We are making our contributions to various institutions that support ICT. You probably would know that the founding chairman of this company, Senator Anni Okonkwo, has a foundation that is targeted at helping ICT students go through their programmes effortlessly. We have also established a pipeline as well as introduced a conveyor belt that is constantly open to people to come here and do their internship with our engineers. We are working closely with the owners of the CDMA technology, a company called Qualcomm to further develop not only our staff but some bright and upcoming IT students that we have identified. Incidentally, soon there will be a training programme to which we have subscribed and we are sponsoring about 12 candidates to help them boost their skills and capacity on ICT generally but particularly on CDMA which is our chosen technology.

Customer Care Department

We just prepared 15 engagement letters for call centre operators. They will be joining another 40 that we have already hired. We have just established a new call centre in Mainland Lagos and it has the capacity to sit about 120 operators. Our objective is to minimize resort to the call centre; it is to migrate people to where they can interact with our technology using their devices. But occasionally, they are unable to have such interactions and they need to reach a human being. So, we have created that capacity to begin to meet those needs. If we discover that we are becoming more of a call centre than a telecommunication operator, we might then begin to outsource it to people who do it as their primary business. The logic should remain that you should render your services so smoothly that people would rarely have any need to begin to call you and the way to achieve that is to be in constant dialogue with your customers, find out what they need, provide good services and products that are tailored to meet their desires and aspirations. Once that is done, you have created capacity. You address coverage issues; you put into the market devices that are easily understood and are available. I think you will find that the number of people calling into your customer care centre will thin-out over time. I have studied the data coming into the call centre – we have a couple of people calling in to check if it was real and they were pleasantly surprised at the speed of connection and the response from well trained staff handling this area of our business. Like I said, you should actually work towards upgrading the skills of your people and also that of your subscribers to the point where they can easily interact with your systems and get transactions done. We need to save time for every person because ‘time is money’ and Zoom is all about saving time; it is about speed so that people can achieve what they set out to achieve.

New Offering to Subscribers

When we looked at re-branding, one of the considerations that drove that decision was the bouquet of services and products that we are about to introduce and we thought that the kinds of products we want to introduce in the market will be better sold under a stronger brand – a brand that will be suggestive of the attributes and qualities of those products. We are coming to the market with our push e-mail service. It is not entirely new in this market but it has been packaged and sold as something for high net worth individuals; it had been packaged and sold as something that most Nigerians cannot have access to unless they have certain devices. We want to break that and make push e-mail a mass market product and very soon, you will be hearing a lot about that. Our name is ZoomMobile and our tagline is "Full Speed Ahead." We want to enhance voice connection – you should not wait for more than 2 seconds to get connected. You want to have access to the Internet; you should have almost instantaneous connection. When you have made that connection itself, you should have the same experience while surfing because nobody wants to go on the Internet and begin to stare at his screen, waiting for pages to open. Now we are installing EVDO across the country. EVDO is the broadband Internet service on the wireless CDMA technology. It is also not a first, I must say because some other networks have deployed it. However, they have deployed EVDO in just some particular areas. This is why we are taking our time to ensure that when we make the announcement that broadband services are available, every Nigerian in all the major cities where we operate should have access to this service. We are looking at how we can leverage on our technology to assist in the Micro-finance Banking area. Technology is an enabler. Telecommunication, especially in this information age is an enabler of economic transactions. We think that we can bring in our technology – CDMA – which is very data friendly further into ridding Nigeria of cash; pushing us closer to the cashless society like most of the developed and developing countries have done. So, you will be seeing products in that area very soon, which will enable people move cash around, complete transactions without necessarily having to either take risky trips carrying cash across long distances or having to go to banks when they do not need to. You can actually carry out these transactions from your handsets. These are things that are coming to the market and we want to be on the cutting edge of the introduction of services that add real value. If you follow the evolution of telecommunication, it started first with voice. We need to reach the unreached in Nigeria especially the rural areas; every person should have a right to become part of the information age. W have added SMS; we have added some amount of Internet and I think we are getting to that stage where we need to pole-vault ourselves to greater deployment of these technologies, devices and applications that add a lot more value to our lifestyle and businesses.

Expansion Plan

We are hoping to connect about 51 cities and towns, that is, up from the present 36 cities and towns before the end of the year. We would be launching Calabar, Ikot-Ekpene, Ikot-Abasi, Eket and Uyo very soon. Benin, Sapele, Warri would be joining the family in a couple of weeks from now.

 


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NITDA Makes Case for Inclusive Tech for Special Needs

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National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has emphasized the importance of developing policies that intentionally include approximately 35 million persons with special needs in digital literacy and technology empowerment initiatives.

NITDA Makes Case for Inclusive Tech for Special Needs

Ms. Grace Jerry, executive director,  Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) and  Malam Kashifu Inuwa, director-general, NITDA.

This was stated by Malam Kashifu Inuwa, director-general, NITDA, in Abuja during a meeting with a delegation from the Inclusive Friends Association (IFA), a disability advocacy organization led by Ms. Grace Jerry, its executive director.

Inuwa noted that integrating persons with special needs into these programmes supports President Bola Tinubu’s agenda of economic reform and inclusive growth.

“This has brought to my attention the need to be more intentional in the way we design our programmes because there is no way we can achieve 95 per cent digital inclusion if we exclude 35 million Nigerians.”

“The agency has always been conducting targeted training for people with special needs in various parts of the country in the past.

“We will ensure that we expand our initiatives to all parts of country and our office facility have that in consideration but our programmes going forward will reflect this inclusion,” he said.

The Director General recommended including representatives from the disability community in national ICT committees tasked with setting standards, designing training curricula, and shaping policy frameworks.

He emphasized that their participation would ensure adequate representation and facilitate implementation beyond bureaucratic constraints.

He further advocated for the integration of disability-focused initiatives into national programmes such as the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) tech schemes, women’s training cohorts, and other major technology-driven activities. According to him, these platforms offer vital opportunities for networking, skills development, and enterprise support.

“For us, it’s beyond just training. The real goal is empowerment, how we can train people to use IT to expand their businesses and improve their lives,” Inuwa said.

He reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to strategic collaboration and invited disability-focused organisations to partner with NITDA in shaping an inclusive digital economy.

Earlier, Jerry expressed appreciation to the agency for the engagement and highlighted the digital gap within the disability community.

She said the government’s goal of achieving 95 per cent digital literacy by 2030 would only be realistic if it was truly inclusive.

“Digital literacy is fast becoming a foundational skill for employment, and without deliberate inclusion, millions will be left behind,” Jerry said.

The meeting highlighted NITDA’s growing commitment to inclusive policy development, aligned with the nation’s economic reform agenda.

 

 


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Interswitch, Bank of Sierra Leone Champion Financial Inclusion @ Sierra Leone Fintech Forum 2.0

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As part of its sustained efforts to accelerate Sierra Leone’s digital finance transformation, Interswitch, one of Africa’s leading integrated payments and digital commerce companies, in collaboration with the Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL) has successfully hosted the second edition of the Sierra Leone Fintech Forum, bringing together key stakeholders across the financial ecosystem to chart a course toward broader access, inclusion, and growth through digital payments.

The event, which held at the New Brookfields Hotel in Freetown, convened senior representatives from both the public and private sectors, including regulators, banks, fintechs, mobile money operators, and development organisations, for a day of high-level dialogue and engagement.

Building on the success of the inaugural edition, this year’s theme, “Access, Inclusion and Growth – Deepening Digital Payments in Sierra Leone,” reflected a shared commitment to building a more inclusive and resilient financial system through collaboration and innovation.

Delivering the keynote address titled “Building on Progress: Expanding Access, Driving Inclusion, and Fueling Growth for National Prosperity,” Akeem Lawal, Managing Director, Payment Processing and Switching (Interswitch Purepay), reinforced the company’s commitment to co-creating value in the markets it serves.

“Financial inclusion goes beyond launching more apps or issuing more cards, it’s about solving real problems with solutions that are scalable, secure, and grounded in local realities. Since the first edition of the Fintech Forum, Sierra Leone has made clear progress, with strong mobile penetration and a forward-looking Central Bank. What’s needed now is execution that is sustained, coordinated, and responsive to the realities on the ground.

“By applying lessons from multiple African markets and tailoring them to local needs, Interswitch is committed to supporting Sierra Leone’s digital transformation. That means enabling agency networks that function effectively, driving merchant acceptance to reduce cash reliance, and working closely with regulators to co-create policy that drives real progress and inclusive growth.”

In his remarks, Dr. Ibrahim Stevens, Governor, Bank of Sierra Leone, commended Interswitch’s continued investment in the country’s digital transformation journey. He highlighted the Central Bank’s commitment to driving regulatory innovation and building an inclusive ecosystem. He said,

“The Bank of Sierra Leone recognises the critical role of digital financial services in building a more inclusive and resilient economy. Events like the Sierra Leone Fintech Forum, in collaboration with innovators like Interswitch, help accelerate the adoption of technologies that bring more Sierra Leoneans into the formal financial system. We remain committed to creating an enabling regulatory environment that fosters innovation while ensuring consumer protection and financial stability.”

A key highlight of the forum was the live demonstration of Interswitch’s Agency Banking solutions, designed to bridge the gap between traditional banking infrastructure and underserved and remote communities. Attendees experienced firsthand how the platform supports secure, efficient, and accessible financial transactions across Sierra Leone through a decentralised network of agents.

The event featured a series of insightful panel discussions, interactive Question & Answer sessions, and networking opportunities, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange across the ecosystem. As mobile connectivity expands and Sierra Leone’s digital agenda accelerates, the forum provided a timely platform to align actors, surface practical solutions, and build collective momentum toward a more inclusive financial system.

The Sierra Leone Fintech Forum reaffirmed Interswitch’s role as a catalyst for digital finance transformation in the region and across the continent. As the financial landscape continues to evolve, the company remains committed to supporting the country’s financial inclusion goals through innovation, shared infrastructure, and strategic partnerships that power a more inclusive, digital and future-ready economy.


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AFC Proffers Action Plans for Nigeria, Africa to Unlock $4trn from Investors to Grow Economy

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Nigeria and other African nations can tap up to $4 trillion in capital from institutional investors, an amount that could be used to fund the continent’s infrastructural gaps and engineer much-needed economic growth, according to the Africa Finance Corporation.

While there are as investable domestic capital across banking assets, institutional funds, and reserves, the multilateral lender revealed on Thursday that funds are still being channeled into “low-risk and short-term instruments instead of being channelled into the real economy.”

“Redirecting more savings into the real economy is critical,” said Rita Babihuga-Nsanze, AFC chief economist and director of strategy, speaking during the AFC’s 2025 State of Africa’s Infrastructure briefing. “Africa must build its intermediation infrastructure to match its development needs.”

Nigeria is however demonstrating how Africa can unlock domestic capital for infrastructure, with its pension fund investments in the sector rising from just $6 million in 2015 to more than $155 million in less than a decade.

This milestone, driven largely by reforms and credit enhancement mechanisms like InfraCredit, underscores the growing role of pensions in financing long-term development on the continent.

Data from the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) shows that as of February 2025, Nigeria’s infrastructure-related pension assets had grown to N250.87 billion, representing 1 percent of total assets under management (AUM).

This is a sharp increase from the N1.19 billion recorded in 2015, which stood at just 0.02 percent of AUM.

A turning point came in 2017, with the launch of InfraCredit and Nigeria’s maiden corporate infrastructure bond. The credit guarantee initiative helped de-risk infrastructure projects, attracting conservative institutional investors like pension fund administrators (PFAs).

Chinua Azubike, managing director of InfraCredit said the credit-guarantee institution has helped facilitated bonds to build critical infrastructure, citing the bond raised for the construction of the Lagos Free Zone.

Azubike noted that while perception of risks persists, the company has “zero default rate” despite being involved in well over 12 sectors.

But while Nigeria’s growth is notable, pension allocations across Africa remain largely skewed toward low-risk, short-term instruments such as government securities and money market funds.

In countries like Ghana and Uganda, over 75 percent of pension assets are held in government bonds. Nigeria itself still holds 63 percent of its pension assets in these instruments.

This conservative stance, analysts say, reflects both regulatory caution and the underdevelopment of local capital markets.

In contrast, economies like India and OECD countries show a more balanced allocation, with significant exposure to corporate debt, real estate, and alternative investments. For example, OECD pension funds allocate nearly 20 percent to alternatives, according to AFC data.

To replicate Nigeria’s model, experts are calling for a coordinated effort to deepen capital markets, build risk assessment capacity, and create vehicles that can intermediate long-term finance effectively.

Beyond returns, pension investments in infrastructure have the added benefit of creating jobs, boosting productivity, and supporting economic resilience, critical needs in a post-pandemic, climate-vulnerable Africa.

 


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