UN encourages Africa to invest on digital transformation
The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has encouraged African countries to make right investments toward developing a digitally transformed economy. Mr Jean-Paul Adam, Director, Technology, Climate Change and Natural Resources at UNECA, made the call on Tuesday during a webinar monitored in Abuja. The webinar was organised by Africa Information and Communication Technology Alliance (AfICTA) in collaboration with UNECA with the theme “Unlocking Africa’s Digital Potential Amid COVID-19”. Adam said that the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic had caused a disruption in activities, hence the need for a paradigm shift. “Africa needs to address issues that have limited their digital growth. There are issues of gender imbalance, speed of bandwidth, poor internet access. “When we get some of the...
6 Tech Companies Make Remote Working a Permanent Option
The world has been changed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Almost all points of what we used to know are in some ways now different. These changes will no doubt last as long as the pandemic, and many will last even longer. In the world of work, the transition from offices to home has been a worldwide reality. Now, six of the world’s largest tech companies have revealed that these advents of working-from-home may be a permanent fixture. At least for the foreseeable future. These tech companies include: Facebook Mark Zuckerberg says that as many as 50% of Facebook employees could be working remotely within the next five to 10 years. Facebook’s CEO pitched the idea as both of a matter of satisfying employee desires and also in an effort to establish a “more broad-based economic prosperit...
Minister: 69 Nigerians nationals stranded in Lebanon evacuated back home
Fifty female victims of trafficking and 19 other persons who were stranded in Lebanon have been evacuated to Nigeria. Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of foreign affairs, who made the announcement, said they arrived in the country on Sunday. He acknowledged the support of the Lebanese government and the Lebanese community in Nigeria in ensuring safe evacuation of the affected persons. “With the financial and logistic support of the Lebanese Government and Lebanese community in Nigeria, 50 trafficked Nigerian girls and 19 stranded Nigerians were successfully evacuated from #Lebanon and arrived Nigeria today,” he tweeted. “Profound gratitude to Ambassador Houssam Diad, Lebanese Ambassador in Nigeria and Ambassador Goni Zannabura, Nigerian Ambassador in Lebanon.” No further details were given on th...
Facebook Unveils Shops – its New eCommerce Feature
Facebook has launched its latest eCommerce feature – Shops – which will enable businesses to set up an online store for customers to access across Facebook and Instagram. The company says that it is investing in features that inspire people to shop and make buying and selling online easier. This comes at a time when many businesses are struggling to keep their doors open due to the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social and economic activity. One way that they’re able to survive is by taking their stock online – something that Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg says they’re seeing a lot more. “If you can’t physically open your store or restaurant, you can still take orders online and ship them to people,” he says. “We’re seeing a lot of small businesses that never had online bu...
Facebook chief ‘worried’ about China’s influence on internet regulation
Agence France-Presse Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Monday he is “worried” that other countries may be trying to imitate China’s approach to regulating the internet. “Just to be blunt about it, I think there is a model coming out of countries like China that tend to have very different values than Western countries that are more democratic,” Zuckerberg said during an hourlong video conversation Monday with European Union Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton. The Facebook CEO added that it was up to Western democratic countries to have a clear framework for data privacy. “We have a joint responsibility to help develop this,” he said. It was the latest instance of Zuckerberg citing the risks of a Chinese model of the internet spreading around the world. He made similar comments last year,...
Journalist suspended for requesting salary on social media
A journalist with the Imo State government has been suspended indefinitely from her job for taking to Facebook to request her three months unpaid salary and the wages of her co-workers. Officials said the Facebook post was an “embarrassment” to the Imo State government. The suspended journalist, Vivian Ottih, is a lawyer and a senior editor with the government-owned IBC Orient FM radio station. She is the chairperson of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), in Imo State. Mrs Ottih, on May 4, posted a message on Facebook, appealing to Governor Hope Uzodinma’s media aide, Modestus Nwamkpa, to make a case to the governor on behalf of the workers in the government-owned radio and television stations who were yet to get their February, March, and April salaries. Ottih described ...
Facebook is buying Giphy for $400 million
Facebook is buying the popular GIF-making and sharing website Giphy for $400 million, with plans to integrate the massive GIF library into Instagram and other Facebook apps. News of the deal was first reported by Axios, which revealed the $400 million value of the deal. Giphy is already one of the largest GIF sites on the internet, offering tools for creating, sharing, and remixing GIFs. Get more stories like this on Twitter
Doyin Okupe, wife recover from coronavirus
YouTube A former Senior Special Assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, says he and his wife, Aduralere, have just been discharged after spending about two weeks in an isolation ward in Sagamu, Ogun State, for Covid-19 treatment. Okupe said this in a Facebook post on Tuesday. He wrote, “On April 23, my wife Aduralere and I tested positive for the Covid-19 virus. That same day we were moved to the isolation ward facilities in Sagamu. Glory be to God Almighty Jehovah and His Son Jesus Christ through whose blood that was shed for us at Calvary and by whose stripes we became healed and tested negative twice for the Covid-19 Virus. We were discharged from the isolation centre, in the early hours of today.” The former Presidential aide thanked Ogun state ...
NITDA chief advocates for a ‘digital first’ strategy in coronavirus recovery plan
Commonwealth of Nations On April 30, 2020, the Director-General of NITDA, Mr Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, delivered a presentation on the role of digital technology in limiting the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in a webinar organized by Nile University of Nigeria. The webinar themed “Dealing with Coronavirus: Digital First Perspective,” was another in a series of virtual seminars held by the Nile University of Nigeria in its quest to ensure that its non-classroom educational activities (similar to its regular lectures) are not disrupted by COVID-19. This sentiment was echoed in the program’s opening address by the Vice-Chancellor of Nile University of Nigeria, Prof. Osman Nuri Aras, who stated the University’s commitment to continuing its educational activities (both classroom and non...
