More winners emerge in 9mobile Magic Hour promo
If you’ve ever thought that N100 could not make a difference, you’ll definitely think differently after reading this, seeing as 9Mobile is giving its customers millions of reasons to think otherwise. It’s the Magic Hour season and 9Mobile is living up to its word of rewarding its customers with exciting cash prizes and fantastic benefits.
Several customers are already experiencing the magic, just ask the several winners that were announced and presented their prizes during the redemption ceremony in Lagos earlier this month; or the surprise dash winners who got to shop for items worth up to N200,000, I’m sure they’ll have lots to say. Imagine just showing up to support your friend or family who won in the promo, and you are surprised with a shopping spree you never expected. That’s the power of the Magic Hour Promo with 9Mobile, rewards for everyone!
And now the magic continues as more winners emerge and are going to be presented with their prizes at another redemption ceremony set to hold in Abuja on March 22, 2019. With this redemption event, expect even more surprises and bigger announcements, especially as the very first N5 Million winner will be presented their cheque, alongside other cash prize and smartphone winners. Also, family and friends who accompany winners to the ceremony stand a chance to win a shopping dash worth up to N200,000 – shh, it’s a surprise, so don’t say I told you.
Magic hour is now in Abuja! The prize presentation and shopping dash will hold on March 22, 2019, at the Jabi Lake Mall in Abuja. The redemption will commence by 12noon at the Mall Atrium, while the shopping dash will kick off by 2pm at the Shoprite in Jabi Lake Mall.
With this promotion, 9Mobile continues to emphasize its commitment to its customers, rewarding loyalty and spreading happiness and doing so in an interesting and engaging way that testifies to the brand’s character of innovation, excellence and customer satisfaction.
We did say you’ll feel differently about N100 after reading this. The 9Mobile Magic Hour Promo is on till May 2019, and there is still a delightful N20 Million up for grabs in the promo, so don’t be left out. You too can be a winner, simply recharge your line with N100 and above to enjoy airtime bonuses and get a chance to win millions of Naira in cash prizes while enjoying the better and superior services of 9mobile.
Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says it has concluded process for the disbursement of subsidies to the six licensed Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos).
The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, disclosed this when delegates from the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) paid him a courtesy visit at the commission’s headquarters.
Danbatta said that the planned disbursement was part of the commission’s strategies to boost broadband penetration and make it pervasive nationwide.He said that it was part of the digital transformation agenda which NCC had put in place for actualisation, stressing that the subsidy would augment the InfraCos’ Capital Expenditure (CAPEX).
Danbatta said that the InfraCo scheme had a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement, with a subsidy component that was being worked out for the licensees to fast-track deployment in their respective zones.
”The licensees are expected to play some roles and NCC too is to play some roles to encourage broadband infrastructure deployment by the licensees.
”Currently, we have seen the licensees’ CAPEX, we have negotiated the CAPEX and we have arrived at percentage of subsidies based on the negotiation that we have had with them.
”However, the subsidy will be paid to them by the commission upon attainment of reasonable milestones by the licensees in their zones of deployment,” he said in a statement on Sunday.
The chairman said that the six licensed InfraCos included: MainOne Ltd for Lagos Zone; Raeana Nigeria Ltd for South-South Zone, O’dua Infraco Resources Ltd for South-West Zone and Fleek Networks Ltd for North-West Zone.
Others are Brinks Integrated Solutions for North-East Zone and Zinox Technologies Ltd for the South-East Zone while the remaining seventh licence for North Central Zone is being processed.
Danbatta said that the idea of InfraCo was an auspicious initiative of the commission, as it will see licensees deploy their infrastructure for a period spanning five years.
He said that the InfraCos would provide wholesale services to other licensees to drive last-mile connectivity to people in the rural, under-served and unserved areas of the country.
”We are trying to build an intra-city and inter-city networks that will be able to connect citizens all over the country irrespective of where they are and what their circumstances are.
”To that extent, we have decided to provide access points in all the 774 local government areas in the country, trying to provide access to close to 190 million Nigerians, a lot of whom live in rural communities,” he said.
Danbatta said that the commission was adopting fixed and wireless broadband approaches to its broadband infrastructure development.
He, however, said that the InfraCo model was open to the use of combination of terrestrial, sub-terrestrial and aerial fibre optic deployment options and the use of Television White Space (TVWS) spectrum to provide connectivity in rural areas.
The Chairman, Board of NCC, Sen. Olabiyi Durojaiye, called on USTDA to work with the commission towards addressing deployment challenges.
Durojaiye said that some InfraCo licensees in the South-South geo-political zone were faced with challenges due to the riverine, swampy nature of the region.
The Acting Country Director, USTDA, Thomas Hardy, commended NCC for achieving and surpassing the country’s broadband penetration target of 30 per cent in 2018.Hardy said that the agency’s mission was to see areas where it could help to support the digital transformation goals of the country.
He said that USTDA would work with NCC and other organisations to open up opportunity for greater trade, greater economic development and closer bilateral cooperation.”As a small foreign sister agency of US, with a long-standing history in Nigeria, we support economic infrastructure projects.
”We help in the telecommunications, energy and transport sectors, where countries have identified their priority development goals in the area of infrastructure development.”Through US companies, we develop an independent analysis of ways to meet your infrastructure goals,” he said.
Purchase of Airtel Nigeria shares from Ecobank by Bharti Airtel was in violation of court order, judge rules
The Federal High Court in Lagos has ruled that Bharti Airtel’s purchase of Airtel Nigeria shares from Ecobank in 2018 was contemptuous and amounted to a flagrant disobedience of a court order.
The said shares have been the main issue in the protracted dispute between Dr. Oba Otudeko and O & O Networks Limited (a Special Purpose Vehicle owned by Ecobank Transnational Incorporated) and were indeed subject to an order of the court in 2015 that prohibited parties from transferring or selling the shares.
However, in deliberate disregard of the order, Bharti Airtel purchased the shares from O & O and being previously aware of the dispute and court orders on these shares, extracted an indemnity from O & O against exposure to any liability. In the ruling, the Federal High Court also ordered O & O to pay the sum of N22.5Billion, being the proceeds of the wrongful sale of the shares into the Court’s account.
It would be recalled that Dr. Oba Otudeko and Broad Communications Ltd, had instituted a legal action in 2006 challenging Delta State Government’s acquisition of O & O network’s shares in Airtel Networks (formerly Econet Wireless Nigeria). From the facts of the case, Broad Communication’s main contention is that the transaction was unlawful, and a breach of the Shareholders’ Agreement executed by the shareholders of Airtel Networks.
According to the said Shareholder’s Agreement, the shares should have been offered to the existing shareholders first, before they were sold to Delta State Government given the right of “First Refusal” (pre-emptive right). Following the institution of the suit, O & O Networks purportedly bought back the disputed shares from Delta State Government.
Beneficial ownership of the Airtel shares was subsequently transferred to Oceanic Bank, which is now owned by Ecobank Transnational Incorporated.
In 2015, following the receipt of information that the disputed shares were being offered for sale, Broad Communications published a “Buyer Beware” notice on the disputed shares. In February 2015, Justice Tsoho of the Federal High Court, Lagos also gave an order in favour of Broad Communications restraining all parties from dealing or tampering with the shares in the custody of Ecobank.
The recent ruling seeks to return parties to the status quo and underscores the sanctity of court orders which must be obeyed. Indeed, the judge in her ruling stated that “no matter how stupid the order of court is, it must be obeyed until set aside by the court or a superior court…”
The trial now stands adjourned to the 28th of May, 2019.
Reportgov.ng app to rescue businesses in Nigeria’
Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Okey Enelamah.
Policymakers all over the world are now emphasizing innovation as one of the drivers of economic growth in an economy. Innovation as driver of economic growth already proved its credibility in developed countries, and now it’s time for developing countries to follow suit.
Over the past few years, new technological innovations are shifting and transforming countries in Africa. Smart young entrepreneurs, developers and programmers have sprung up in innovation hubs, accelerators and incubators centres around the continent to build information and telecom solutions that exploit the continent’s blend of challenges and opportunities.
Innovative solutions are beginning to define how far businesses, even governments initiatives can and will go in transforming the economy, especially with a feedback mechanism.
Lately, technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning, Fourth Generation (4G) and Fifth Generation (5G) networks are beginning to disrupt the global landscape, and create more developmental opportunities.
Indeed, in Nigeria, business developments have had it rough due to policy inconsistencies, tough environment, poor feedback system, and alleged government insensitivities, among others.These challenges have crippled business development, especially the Small and Medium scale Enterprise (SMEs). But experts have often times stressed the need for innovation and a dedicated feedback mechanism, especially from governments at various levels to bridge the growing gaps.
In yielding to these calls, the Federal Government launched the Reportgov.ng app, an official public service feedback and complaints platform to support business climate reforms implemented by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC).PEBEC was set up in July 2016 to improve the doing-business environment in Nigeria for SMEs by working to remove critical bottlenecks and procedural restrictions to doing business in the country, and move Nigeria upwards in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) Index ranking.
Indeed, in the EoDB, Nigeria is on a steady increase with the target to rank among the top 100 in the 2020 World Bank doing business index.According to PEBEC, the Reportgov.ng app is to ensure government become more sensitive to business plight and guard against unnecessary abuses.
At the launch of the app in Lagos, last week, it was emphasised that the purpose was to further build business confidence in Nigeria and improve the ease of doing it. Unveiled by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Dr. Okey Enelamah, alongside the Chairman of Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, Adedotun Sulaiman, the platform, which is also a website, will facilitate the escalation and resolution of issues encountered with Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) towards ensuring a more business-friendly environment.
In his speech, Enelamah emphasized that it was launched to create better enabling environment for the businesses, citizens, and SMEs operation in Nigeria. Describing the entire process as a means of leveraging technology to improve businesses, Enelamah said: “The important thing about this PEBEC App is that it is a tangible tool for achieving the important objective of better interaction, communication, and feedback mechanism from the users of government services.
“This is basically leveraging technology on the app for a feedback mechanism that people can have on their phone instead of a portal or website. Given the inclusive usage of phones and digital means of communication in Nigeria, I am highly confident that this will make a difference leveraging technology to achieve better services to people,” he added.
On the efficiency of the app, which was developed by the winning team of a hackathon that was organized by the Secretariat in 2017, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, who has been driving the initiative, said complaints lodged with relevant evidence, will be attended to within 72 hours.
Oduwole said the initiative would help to reduce costs and time and to make the processes of setting up and doing business in Nigeria simpler and effective – from starting a business to getting a location to getting finance to dealing with day-to-day operations and ultimately to operating in a secure business environment
To boost use, she said: “Use data to support whatever complaints you are lodging to make it credible. PEBEC has reduced of cost, time and increased transparency since its operation in Nigeria. Also, the issue of multiple taxations will stop because we have one economy.
“We are looking at meeting the local, state, federal governments to form an action plan on that level. Servicom have to be retooled to deepen skills. We started from compliance, training and capacity building. We also encourage private sectors to assist in training government parastatals,” she added.
Furthermore on how the App works, she explained that complaints can be made in simple ways. First, after downloading it or visiting the web portal on www.reportgov.ng, users will be able to selct from a long list of ministries, departments and agencies, click on ‘create complaint’ or ‘send feed back’ fill out the form and submit.
She said given the approved 72-hour response time, complaints immediately go to the PEBEC, which then assigns the complaints to the MDA and follows up to ensure it is treated in line with the Service Level Agreement. After then, the complainant will receive an email that the complaint has been resolved, or with information on the next steps required.
On when the App can be used, Oduwole explained that reports can be made on it or the web portal when information on any of the MDAs is not accessible or is incomplete on the advertised website, when applications filled are taking longer than the specified time, when payment for services are being delayed unfairly, if a civil servant or government official requests for money, which is not in line with the disclosed sum for the service provided by the relevant MDA, and if any right of an entrepreneur or business owner has been violated.
Project Manager, Enabling Business Environment Secretariat (EBES), Ayokunnu Ojeniyi, who was strategic to the development of the App, noted that the local business environment plays a vital role in ability of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to thrive. Ojeniyi added that the MSMEs, which currently make up to 90 per cent of business in Nigeria, can be encouraged to move from informal to the formal sector when a friendly environment is enabled.
MTN gets 16m new subscriber, unveils first feature smartphone
Telecommunications firm, MTN has launched the first feature smartphone in Africa, with a target to increase more mobile connections in the country and Africa as a whole.
Unveiled in Lagos, MTN said it has been on the project since last year before it materialized in 2019.
The South African firm, which operates across its 21 markets, grew subscriber base by 16 million during last year to reach 233 million. In its financial report ending December 31, the firm claimed that its total number of active data users increased by 10 million to reach 79 million, and the active mobile money subscriber base rose to 27 million. Total revenues from data grew by 22 per cent to ZAR28.5 billion ($2 billion) despite an average, group-wide dip of 39 per cent in the effective rate-per-megabyte. Mobile subscribers increased by six million to 58 million in Nigeria.
Speaking at the unveiling of the smart feature phone, MTN’s Chief Marketing Officer, Rahul De, said the firm is happy to say this is a break-through innovation for smartphone penetration in Nigeria.
De said the phone is available nationwide and comes with one-year warranty.
The MTN CFO said the telecommunications firm wants more people to go online, stressing that in the last couple of years Nigerians have demonstrated huge capacity of what they can do online. “But we believe Nigerians can do more if there is more access to cheaper and stronger handsets, which is what we have put in the new smart feature phone. It is 3G enabled and only goes for N8000.”
According to him, cheaper handsets have been a limitation to connectivity, “and connectivity is critical to GDP growth of a country. Studies have shown that with improved connectivity, the economy tends to gain more and vice versa.So, we at MTN are ready to push for more opportunities in that line.”
De said the smart feature phone has been tested to ensure durability, and smartness.
Giving more insight, Senior Manager, Data and Devices Marketing and Startegy Division, Abiodun Ajayi, said the phone comes with exciting features including 2000mAh Battery (2days standby time); App store with customized apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube; six-months free data and compressed data usage, dual sim, front and back camera, App Store, google maps, among others.
Ajayi, who described the phone as compact, stylish and affordable, noted that the device is an initiative of the MTN Group, meaning that other markets where the telecommunications firm has presence would have the device.
Operating on Kai Operating System (KaiOS), Ajayi said the newly launched phone will help Africa’s largest phone network dominate mobile phones in Africa as well as provide rural communities with access to the Internet.
