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AfDB Enrols 130,000 Africans in Digital Skills Coding Programme

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, SiliconNigeria

The African Development Bank has announced the enrolment of 130,000 users in its Coding for Employment digital skills programme to mark the International Youth Day.

The milestone comes as Coding for Employment works to equip African youth with information and communication technology, entrepreneurship and soft-skills training to compete in a digital economy. The program’s online platforms offer in-demand technical courses such as web development, design, data science and digital marketing – for free.

With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in lockdowns and school closures across the continent, the Coding for Employment platforms experienced dramatic increases in the number of users. During a one-week period in September 2020, registrations skyrocketed by 38.5%. Through the Bank’s partnership with the Government of Nigeria to launch the Digital Nigeria eLearning platform during the pandemic, Coding for Employment has hit a combined total of 130,000 students. Registered students are achieving a course completion rate of more than 80%.

“To win the battle against poverty in Africa, we must equip our youth with digital skills that empower them for the jobs of the future,” said Martha Phiri, Director of the Bank’s Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development Department.

Students who took the online courses in the wake of Covid-19 in Africa said learning or honing digital skills helped them advance their careers.

“During the lockdown period, I taught myself MS Excel, using the Coding for Employment platform. Participating in the training not only smoothed my rough Excel skills but also gave me the platform to network and push myself,” said program graduate Hajara Ayuba in Nigeria.

“Thanks to the Coding for Employment program, I met one of the major criteria – data fluency and MS Excel skills – at my present NYSC place of primary assignment in Borno State Board of Internal Revenue Service. I was later retained in the job,” Ayuba added.

The Coding for Employment main digital training platform was launched in December 2019 in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation and Microsoft. It is accessible on mobile devices, even in low internet connectivity settings and has an affordable, easy-to-navigate, secured and private interface.

“The online training program started in tandem with the opening planned upgrade of physical Coding for Employment-branded Centers of Excellence piloted in Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire. The Bank aims to scale up to 130 centers across the continent in a decade.”

“The pandemic accelerated the adoption of online learning as a necessity. Coding for Employment swiftly leveraged its online digital skills platform to continue to offer a gateway for African youth to become more digitally capable,” said Hendrina Chalwe Doroba, the Bank’s Division Manager for Education and Skills Development.

Following the pilot program, Coding for Employment online courses are now available in 45 countries. Some 300 beneficiaries, like Shaawanatu Shuaibu, linked Coding for Employment to getting jobs. Shuaibu a Coding for Employment program graduate from the Gombe State Center of Excellence in Nigeria, said the course had broadened her understanding of content writing.

“I was able to organize the content of my CV, which secured me a call for an interview at Jaiz Bank Plc. My performance at the interview and fluency in communication got me posted to the Customer Service Unit of the Bank,” she added.

Coding for Employment aims to create over 9 million jobs and reach 32 million youth and women across Africa. The Coding for Employment Program is part of the Bank’s Jobs for Youth in Africa Initiative.

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Apps

AppsFlyer Unveils Measurement, Analytics and Data Clean Room Support for ChatGPT Plugins

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AppsFlyer has announced the launch of its new measurement and Data Clean Room support for ChatGPT plugins. Brands and marketers can now measure the customer journeys and performance of their ChatGPT plugins across all platforms – including mobile app, CTV and web, as well as across all paid, social and organic traffic sources such as Meta, Google, and Apple.

In March 2023, OpenAI announced ChatGPT plugins, allowing its users to interact with other services through ChatGPT’s interface. With the plugins, ChatGPT users can query services like Expedia, FiscalNote, Instacart, KAYAK, Klarna, and Shopify to get real-time, actionable answers from these data sources without leaving OpenAI’s platform. 

ChatGPT plugins have opened up a new world of consumer interactions and revenue opportunities. However, without cookies and device identifiers, analytics and measurement are impossible with current tools. AppsFlyer’s privacy-preserving measurement and analytics support for ChatGPT solves this challenge by providing brands and marketers with analytics and actionable insights into their customers’ interactions and performance of their plugins, together with their marketing activity across all traditional digital platforms and traffic sources. 


“ChatGPT plugins present a revolutionary opportunity for brands and consumers to connect, in addition to interactions on web and mobile apps,” said Oren Kaniel, CEO and Co-founder, AppsFlyer. “As an industry, we have an opportunity to architect this new world in a responsible way, by maximizing both customer value, experience and privacy. This new world is not bound to the status quo and building blocks like cookies and device identifiers. I am thrilled to take part in this revolution, not only because we have been building privacy-preserving tech for a cookieless environment for the last 10 years, but mainly because it is perfectly aligned with our vision for a better and safer digital experience.”

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IT and Telecomms

NCC-CSIRT Issues Advisories to protect Nigerians against Threat Actors  

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The Nigerian Communications Commission’s Computer Security Incident Response Team (NCC-CSIRT), in line with its mandate, has rolled out some advisories in the first few weeks of the year 2023 as cyber threat actors continue to devise means of compromising their targets.

The latest of such advisories urged users to be mindful after attackers use Microsoft OneNote attachments in phishing emails that infect victims with remote access malware, which may allow hackers to remotely access vital information on victims’ devices.

The Team advised users not open files from people they do not know, not to click ‘OK’ and immediately exit the application if they receive a warning that opening an attachment or link can damage their computer or files and to promptly share an unknown email they believe to be genuine with a security or Windows administrator to assist in determining whether the file is secure.

It had recently advised people not to open attachments in suspicious emails and to only purchase or download applications from official websites in response to the discovery of phishing malware that can gain unauthorized access to sensitive user data and download further malware.

The team reported that cybersecurity analysts at ASEC (South Korea’s cybersecurity emergency response centre), discovered a NetSupport RAT malware being distributed by threat actors from a phishing website disguised as a popular Pokemon card game.  

The malware is a remote access tool that easily controls its victims’ Personal Computers and may allow the attackers to remotely control the compromised computer’s mouse and keyboard, access the system’s file management and history and even execute commands allowing them to install additional malware.  

According to the researcher, the CRAFTED website that spread the malware is still online. It claims to be home to a new NFT card game built around the Pokemon franchise, offering users strategic fun together with NFT investment profits.  

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Software

NCC Advises Zoom Users to Update Software After Vulnerabilities Found

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The Nigerian Communications Commission’s Computer Security Incident Response Team (NCC-CSIRT) has advised users of videotelephony platform, Zoom, to install the latest update of the software from its publisher’s official website following the discovery of vulnerabilities that allows a remote attacker to exploit the app. 

In advisory issued on Wednesday, NCC-CSIRT reported that the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) found several flaws in Zoom product. The videotelephony platform became popular for virtual meetings in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic with more than 300 million daily users. 

According to the NCC-CSIRT advisory, “A remote attacker could exploit the vulnerabilities to circumvent implemented security measures and cause a denial of service on the targeted machine.”  

It noted that “These vulnerabilities exist owing to incorrect access control implementation in Zoom On-Premises Meeting Connector MMR prior to version 4.8.20220815.130. A remote attacker could exploit these flaws to join a meeting they were not permitted to attend without being seen by the other attendees. They can also access audio and video feeds from meetings they were not permitted to attend, as well as interrupt other sessions.” 

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