Nigeria Woos International Investors in Qatar on Broadband

Nigeria told a large gathering of telecoms investors and the global Information and Communications Technology (ICT) community in Doha, Qatar, on Sunday of the investment opportunities that abound in the country, especially in the area of broadband.

Despite attaining active telephone line connectivity of over 134 million and a teledensity of 96 per cent, the federal government, yesterday said there is much to do to achieve an all inclusive penetration of telecommunications to every part of the country, through broadband deployment.

Speaking at the Leaders Lunch at the Qatar National Convention Centre, venue of the ongoing ITU Telecom World 2014 Conference in Qatar, the Minister of Communications Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson said

FBI warns firms of destructive malware use by hackers

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned that cyber-hackers have used malicious software to launch destructive attacks in the US.

A five-page confidential warning was issued to US businesses on Monday, according to Reuters news agency.

The software would make it impossible to recover any lost data, the FBI said.

The warning follows a confirmation from the FBI that it is investigating last week's hack into Sony Pictures Entertainment's network.

Sony Pictures was forced to

Internet penetration to boost entertainment revenue to $8.5bn by 2018

The Internet will be a key driver for the Nigerian economy, where the number of mobile Internet subscribers is expected to surge from 7.7 million in 2013 to 50.4 million in 2018.

Nigeria’s entertainment and media revenues will reach an estimated US $8.5bn in 2018, more than doubling from the 2013 figure of US $4.0bn at a CAGR of 16.1 percent.

“This represents one of the fastest growth rates in the world,” said PwC in a recent report.

The report also predicted that television in the form of advertising and subscriptions and licence fees, will also become a US$1 billion-plus market in 2018, while the market will grow steadily.

According to recent data released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), motion pictures, sound recording and music production represent 1.2 percent of nominal GDP, amounting to just under N1 trillion.

The bureau, in its 2014 second quarter report issued in Abuja, said that motion pictures,

Google responds to News Corp 'platform for piracy' blog

Google has responded to an attack by the chief executive of News Corp, who called it a "platform for piracy".

Robert Thomson's letter had urged the European Commission to take a tougher approach to Google's market dominance.

But in a detailed response on its website, the search company said it "has done more than almost any other company to help tackle online piracy".

Google also defended itself against accusations that it uses its market position to stifle competition.

The Commission is currently in the process of deciding how far to curtail Google's market dominance in Europe.

Google's blog, posted by Rachel Whetstone, senior vice-president for Global Communications, argued that the internet offered more choice than ever.

"Because the competition is just one click away online, barriers to switching are very, very low," it said.

"Google is of course very popular in Europe, but we are not

CBN, operator decry low patronage of e-payment channels

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and operator in the e-payment system have decried low patronage of electronic, e -payment channels in the country, stating that cash continues to be the predominant method used for transactions.

They  also said that cheque system remains the second most important payment medium in the national payment system.

The Director, Banking and Payments System, CBN, Mr. Dipo Fatokun who disclosed this said “The success recorded so far on e-payments has been encouraging considering where the country started.

“Electronic payments channels have been broadened with several options such as online web payments, electronic funds transfer, various forms of cards,  Point of Sale, POS, ATM non-cash transactions etc.

The channels are recording enormous growth. As an instance, the NIBSS Instant Payments (NIP) used for online transfers has grown at an annual growth rate of