PAFON 3.0: Nigeria’s premier payments forum set to shape digital commerce and AI - ITREALMS

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Payments Forum Nigeria (PAFON), the nation’s preeminent industry platform for digital finance stakeholders, has officially announced the third edition of its flagship summit, PAFON 3.0, reports ITREALMS.

The high-level gathering is scheduled for Friday, April 24, 2026, at the Oriental Hotel, Lagos, bringing together the brightest minds in banking, fintech, and telecommunications to chart a new course for the regional financial landscape.

NITDA DG: Nigeria sets bold agenda to shape future of AI - ITREALMS

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Nigeria is positioning itself to play a defining role in the global artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, according to the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, reports ITREALMS.

Speaking at the Stakeholders’ Interactive Engagement with the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance in Abuja, Inuwa reaffirmed that the country’s AI vision is anchored on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which prioritizes industrialization, digitalization, creative industries, manufacturing, and innovation.

NITRA, ALTON partner to shape telecom infrastructure security - ITREALMS.

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The Nigeria Information Technology Reporters Association (NITRA) and the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) are partnering to host a joint-industry forum to discuss the Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) Bill and its implications for the telecom industry, reports ITREALMS.

The forum, scheduled for July 30, 2025, at CitiHeight Hotel, Ikeja, will bring together industry stakeholders to address key issues and questions surrounding the Bill. 

QEDNG unveils summit to shape Nigeria's creative economy - ITREALMS

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QEDNG, the renowned online newspaper published by Mighty Media Plus Network Limited, has launched the QEDNG Creative Powerhouse Summit, reports ITREALMS.

This groundbreaking event will be held on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, at 10:00 a.m., at the prestigious Radisson Blu Hotel, Isaac John Street, Ikeja GRA, Lagos.

PwC’s Economic Outlook: Seven trends to shape Nigeria’s economy in 2024 - ITREALMS

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Leading professional services firm, PwC Nigeria, has released its latest Nigeria Economic Outlook, highlighting the seven key trends that will shape the nation's economic trajectory in 2024, reports ITREALMS.

PwC’s report projected a marginal decline in inflation and 3.1% rise in GDP, and notes that achieving sustainable growth in 2024 requires balancing ambitious fiscal reforms with effective budget implementation. It also stresses the importance of aligning fiscal and monetary policy to stabilise prices and reach target goals.

2023: Top 7 trends to shape Nigeria’s ICT sector - ITREALMS

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The information and communication technology (ICT) sector in Nigeria has seen significant growth and development in recent years. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that the sector contributed 18.44 per cent to the nation's GDP in the second quarter of 2022. Experts argue that the country's youth-dominated 210 million-strong population is driving demand for ICT products and services.

The government has made significant efforts to promote the development of the ICT sector and increase access to ICT infrastructure and services. This has included initiatives such as the National Broadband Plan, which aims to increase broadband penetration in the country, and the National eGovernment Master Plan, which aims to increase the use of ICT in government operations and services.

Study: Autonomous vehicles to shape future urban tourism - ITREALMS

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The Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) have been discovered with the capabilities to shape future urban tourism, reports ITREALMS.

In the first study of its kind, published in the Annals of Tourism Research, academics from the University of Surrey and the University of Oxford have examined how Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) may have a substantial impact on the future of urban tourism.

When we think of automated vehicles it seems to be a topic that sits firmly in science fiction, from cars with character in The Love Bug (1969) and Knight Rider (1982) to more recent practical representations in Minority Report (2002). However, according to the new research by Professor Scott Cohen (University of Surrey) and Dr Debbie Hopkins(University of Oxford), CAVs may be spotted on our roads as soon 2025 and could lead to far-reaching impacts on urban tourism.

The conceptual paper entitled Autonomous vehicles and the future of urban tourism imagined the impact of AVs in future urban tourism and focuses on the pros and cons of these impacts with regards to the transformation of urban space, the rise of autonomous taxis, and changes to city sightseeing and hospitality in the urban night.

Potential benefits include reduced traffic congestion and emissions, improved foreign car hire processes, reduced parking requirements and cheaper taxi fares. AVs may impact other industries in radical ways too, such as Amsterdam’s Red Light District, which could become operated out of moving AVs, and restaurants and hotels may encounter new competition in the form of AV dining cars and passengers sleeping in their moving vehicles.

AVs are also the subject of many concerns. More time spent in cars on longer journeys could facilitate greater urban sprawl and increase car dependency. AVs may reduce demand for train travel, coach tours, public transport and driven taxis - all resulting in future job losses. The potential for terrorism facilitated by AVs also raises genuine security fears.

Professor Cohen, Head of Tourism and Transport at Surrey’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, said: “This groundbreaking study will benefit urban planners, policy makers and the tourism and hospitality industries, who will face a range of threats and opportunities as AVs begin to reach the mass market in the coming decade.

“The visitor economy will be gradually transformed if AVs become fully automated and mainstream, leading to a future where hordes of small AVs could congest urban attractions, hop-on hop-off city bus tours may go out of business altogether, motorways between cities could fill at night with slow-moving AVs carrying sleeping occupants and commercial sex in moving AVs becomes a growing phenomenon.”

The paper calls for future work that provides context-specific analyses that may reveal alternative ways of thinking about AVs for urban tourism. Its release coincides this week with the World Travel Market and European Tourism Day on 7 November and acts as a timely reminder of the rising importance and significance of AVs in tourism to industry and policy makers.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Tips to shape future workforce by Accenture

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To help leaders, especially those at the decision levels like the chief executive officers (CEOs) to shape the future workforce in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Accenture has offered some tips on how to scale through, reports ITRealms.

Accenture Strategy  led by the group chief executive, Mark Knickrehm, made this tips known in its latest study, underscoring three of these tips to include reimagine of work, pivoting for the workforce and scaling up new skills.

He explained that to reimagine work entails reconfiguring work from the bottom up.

As said by Accenture, “Assess tasks, not jobs; then allocate tasks to machines and people, balancing the need to automate work and to elevate people’s capabilities. Nearly half (46 per cent) of business leaders agree that job descriptions are already obsolete; 29 percent say they have redesigned jobs extensively.”

In addition, to ‘Pivot the Workforce’ Accenture underlines areas that unlock new forms of value, stressing that going beyond process efficiencies and prepare the workforce to create new customer experiences.

“Fuel new growth models by reinvesting the savings derived from automation into the future workforce. Foster a new leadership DNA that underpins the mindset, acumen and agility required to seize longer-term, transformational opportunities,” Accenture advised.

On the third place, Accenture said, is the ‘Scale up new skilling’ which measures the workforce’s level of skills and willingness to learn to work with AI.

“Using digital platforms, target programmes at these different segments of the workforce and personalize them to improve new skills adoption. Accenture has developed a ‘new skilling’ framework based on a progression of skill level and using a suite of innovative digital learning methods that maximizes training investment at speed and scale,” Accenture advocated.

Nonye Dom/GEE

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pix: group chief executive, Mark Knickrehm,