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5G: Exciting Opportunities Await Firms, Digitally-inclined Nigerians – NCC

Published

4 years ago

March 4, 2022

Strong indications have emerged that businesses and corporations in Nigeria are warming up to leverage the high-speed, capacity and low latency features of the forthcoming Fifth Generation (5G) network rollout in Nigeria.

“The intense anticipation and enthusiasm take life from the desire of digitally-literate Nigerians ready to harness the benefits of the new technology.

This notion of the bright prospects of 5G reverberated at various panel sessions on Tuesday at the ongoing 2022 edition of the AfricaNXT conference co-sponsored by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), held at the Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Discussants at panel sessions from different organisations and thematic areas of AfricaNXT expressed optimism that 5G services will drastically reduce unemployment in Nigeria if stakeholders partner with willing internet-compliant Nigerians on various projects ahead of 5G deployment.

The NCC as the regulator of the telecoms sector in Nigeria is the main facilitator of the launch of the 5G network.

At a panel session titled “Built to Last: Hardcoding Resilience into the DNA of your Business”, discussants revealed that financial institutions have created digital work tools and employment opportunities by partnering with result-oriented individuals on various financially-rewarding tech projects, products and solutions based on 5G.

On the backdrop of numerous opportunities for free global education through the Internet which will be enhanced by 5G, discussants opined that individuals must identify themselves as a business, continuously improve their knowledge base in order to partner with numerous corporations in the country that have created work solutions and tools that make work easier than being full-time employees.

Participants reasoned that organisations that wish to retain talents who no longer want to be full-time employees can be engaged to work remotely and deliver results by leveraging the world of possibilities that will be unleashed by next-gen technologies such as 5G.

Objectively, panellists and participants believe that these smart contracts enabled by robust connectivity that comes with 5G, will reduce unemployment and ensure continuous socio-economic development in Nigeria.

At another panel session on “Disruptive Public Relations in the Imminent Metaverse Era”, discussants agreed that though not completely developed and not yet fully deployed, the Metaverse is expected to allow its users to engage in a shared world of unique experiences. A metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection. It is a digital world with its own economy that will connect huge forms of social interactions.

Indeed, the 5G services in Nigeria which will bring about a new generation of internet services through its high speed and ultra-low latency capability will provide the resilient technology and platforms to make Nigeria an early adopter of Materverse, which is expected to birth a renaissance in industrial and social relations.

The NCC had recently issued 3.5 spectrum licences to Mafab Communications Limited and MTN Nigeria, and the two companies are scheduled to launch 5G services soon, having emerged winners during the 3.5GHz spectrum auction which took place in Abuja in December 2021.

The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta has asked Nigerians to look forward to amazing opportunities with the deployment of 5G services in Nigeria.

In the weeklong AfricaNXT conference 2022, the NCC will host a panel discourse on the topic, “Moving Forward Steadily: Socio-Economic Significance of Deployment of 5G Services”. The discussion will take place on March 3, 2022, by 2:00pm, at the FutureNow Stage, Innovation Pavilion, Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The discussion will bring together key stakeholders to discuss the significance of deploying 5G services in Nigeria and across Africa, focusing on the derivable benefits of 5G services to individuals, businesses and the national economy.

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Welcome Home, Israel Confirms Return Of 20 Hostages From Gaza

Published

1 day ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Israel said that the last 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday had arrived in the country.

“Welcome home,” the foreign ministry wrote in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Yosef Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.

AFP

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20 Members Of Gang Blacklisted By US Escape Guatemala Prison

Published

1 day ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.

The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.

He received “an intelligence report” on Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.

Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.

Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.

The US embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”

“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.

It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”

According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.

The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Centre for National Economic Research.

According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.

The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

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South Africa Bus Crash Kills 40 Including Malawi, Zimbabwe Nationals

Published

1 day ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

At least 40 people, including nationals of Malawi and Zimbabwe, were killed when a passenger bus rolled down an embankment in South Africa, a provincial transport minister said Monday.

The bus travelling to Zimbabwe crashed around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the border on Sunday after the driver apparently lost control, Limpopo province transport minister Violet Mathye said.

“They are still working on the scene, but 40 bodies have already been confirmed to date,” Mathye told the Newzroom Afrika channel. The dead included a 10-month-old girl, she said.

Thirty-eight people were in hospital and rescuers were searching for other victims, she told eNCA media.

The bus was travelling from the southern city of Gqeberha, around 1,500 kilometres away, and its passengers included Malawians and Zimbabweans who were working in South Africa. The crash may have been caused by driver fatigue or a mechanical fault, the minister said.

South Africa has a sophisticated and busy road network with a high rate of road deaths, blamed mostly on speeding, reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles.

AFP