YouTube has announced a significant achievement in its digital streaming service, with YouTube Music and Premium surpassing 100 million subscribers worldwide, including trial. This milestone underscores the platform’s enduring appeal and the comprehensive entertainment experience it offers to a global audience, including the vibrant and diverse user base in Nigeria. Speaking on the milestone, Adam Smith, Vice President of Product Management at YouTube said – In 2015, we believed that there was an appetite for a YouTube experience that benefited not only our users but the creator and artist community as well, and we announced a new subscription service alongside…
Author: Elvis Eromosele
Elvis Eromosele The Nigerian telecommunications sector, a dynamic landscape driven by innovation and increasing connectivity, stands out as a high-performing industry within the country. It is, however, not without its share of challenges. The perennial issues around ‘right of way’, multiple taxation and absence of power persist. A new one is emerging in the realm of interconnection agreement settlements. An interconnect agreement, according to Wikipedia, is a business contract between telecommunications organisations to interconnect their networks and exchange telecommunications traffic. It invariably involves settlement fees based on call source and destination, connection times and duration, when these fees do not…
Stanbic IBTC earned N270.6 billion in interest income compared to N152.7 billion a year ago. Net profit at Stanbic IBTC Holdings, the local unit of Africa’s biggest bank, Standard Bank, shot 74 per cent to its peak since inception three decades and a half ago, its unaudited accounts issued Wednesday showed. The jump was recorded on the back of higher interest income. Unstoppable inflation continues to create a boom for Nigerian lenders, prompting the CBN to raise the reference rate by 18.6 per cent last year to slow galloping price levels, enabling banks to charge more for loans. It earned…
The Nigerian government plans to kickstart the commencement of the Light Steel Mill section of the Ajaokuta Steel Plant in Kogi State with an estimated cost of N30 billion. Shuaibu Audu, minister of steel development, disclosed this at a news conference in Abuja on Friday. According to him, a three-year roadmap has been developed to resuscitate the moribund Ajaokuta steel plant in Kogi. Audu noted that when the LSM is completed, it will be able to produce 50,000 metric pounds of iron rods. He said data on technical analysis and evaluation by experts showed that the government requires between $2…
The struggle to control the assets of Nigeria’s oldest bank, FBN Holdings Plc, seems to be over as the bank last week, named billionaire businessman and chairman of Geregu Power Plant, Femi Otedola new Chairman of the Board of Directors. The appointment, effective January 31, 2024, followed a recent meeting of the board where Otedola succeeded Alhaji Ahmad Abdullahi. Otedola is expected to bring his extensive experience and strategic insight to FBN Holdings. His leadership is anticipated to drive growth, innovation, and enhanced performance in the company. In a corporate filing to the Nigerian Exchange Limited, the bank commended the…
The National Broadband Plan targeting 70 per cent broadband penetration in Nigeria by 2025 received a boost with the rollout of 10, 000km fibre optic cable across Nigeria by Global Independent Connect Limited (GICL), a subsidiary of IHS Holding Limited. More broadly, IHS Nigeria said it continues to deploy fibre-to-the-tower (FTTT) to provide increased transmission capacity to help improve the performance of fibre access networks and the introduction of next-generation technologies, such as 5G services. By connecting towers, IHS Nigeria is helping bring fibre infrastructure to core metropolitan areas and support the delivery of digital services to homes, corporates and…
In line with its vision of making sustainable living a commonplace, Unilever Nigeria Plc celebrated its transporters for their unwavering commitment to safety practices at the recently concluded Transporters’ Safety Week. The annual event, the company said, is a testament to its dedication to the safety, security, and wellbeing of its transporters and fleet managers. The event, usually a weeklong programme champions the need for collaborative efforts between transporters and government agencies in charge of transportation. The grand finale of the celebration focuses on the recognition of exemplary drivers and transport companies that have upheld safety standards. Speaking at the…
The United States (U.S.) government said it has contributed $160 million to support the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and expand trade in goods and services between the U.S. and Africa. The United States Mission Commercial Counselor to Nigeria, Julie LeBlanc, stated this in her keynote address at the Business Day Africa Trade and Investment Summit titled, “AGOA, AfCTA, top U.S. programmes and priorities for Africa and Nigeria,” held in Lagos. The theme of the summit was “Reimagining Economic Growth in Africa.” She said this funding supports the development of digital trade and investment protocols, as well as stakeholder…
Tope Awotona is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Calendly, a scheduling software company, worth $3 billion. He was born in Lagos but immigrated to the US in his teenage years, and previously worked as a salesman for tech firms like EMC (now Dell EMC). Forbes disclosed that Awotona started Calendly in response to his frustration with the time-consuming back-and-forth emails needed for meeting scheduling. Having self-funded Calendly for an extended period, Tope Awotona secured a substantial $350 million investment in 2021, propelling the company’s valuation to $3 billion. Before the creation of Calendly, Awotona ventured into other businesses,…
The Nigeria Fintech & Financial Inclusion Roundtable 2024 is set for Friday, April 26, 2024 in Lagos under the theme, “The Role of Fintech & Financial Inclusion in Citizen Empowerment and Economic Growth.” In a statement, Prince Cookey, the convener of the Roundtable, said the event would be a unique convergence of top executives and stakeholder groups from banking, fintech, telecom, insurance, the media community and the general public. Cookey, who is also the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Business Journal, listed the objectives/expectations from the Roundtable to include an evaluation of the growth of fintechs in the Nigerian financial system in the past…