The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has unfolded policies to reduce hardship of Nigerians and the current economic recession.

CBN’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okoroafor said at a fair organised for small and medium scale enterprises that N220 billion funds made available for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) could be easily accessed.

Mr Okoroafor explained, “If you are a serving corps member and you want to get into business, you can get as much as N3 million to start as an entrepreneur. What happens is that you are not required to provide any collateral because we discovered that collateral is the problem. Your degree or HND certificate will serve, as your collateral because we know it is an asset in which you have made investment. So, just surrender it, and that is all.”

This means that if the entrepreneur cannot pay, government keeps the certificate. We wish things are as simple as that in Nigeria.

If you check the website of EchoVC , a VC firm founded by a Nigerian in the U.S, you will notice that the U.S. office location has gone. Right there you see only the Lagos address which is ECHOVC PARTNERS, 256A IKORODU CRESCENT, DOLPHIN ESTATE, IKOYI, LAGOS, NIGERIA.

As stage-agnostic investors with a combined network of local and global connections, we bring a disruptive approach to investing at the technology intersection of consumer, media, data, & devices and leverage knowledge transfer from Silicon Valley as a driver to seed growth across borders.

This could be an indication that the firm is doubling down on focusing on African startups. Presently it has three African start-ups in its portfolios and they include Hotels.ng, Printivio and S&T Media.

Yet, it may simply be that it wants to list only the Nigerian office while it keeps the U.S. one private. It is not likely that some of the partners will move to Nigeria if the firm decides to close the U.S. office. Also, it may be harder to its investors to understand the rationale of moving the tax base in the middle of the game since it probably raised capital as a U.S. fund.

But who knows – things happen in this world especially in the VC fund. The company can simply decide to be an Africa-only fund and moving to Lagos may be a good strategy. Though that is unlikely as nearly all of such firms incorporate in Mauritius to reduce tax burdens. Nigeria does not offer any significant competitive advantage for them with all the multiple taxes unleashed on companies.

The harsh economic climate in the country is having its toll on the telecommunications sector. The earnings of telecommunications operators dipped significantly as over 60 million telephone lines became inactive at the end of the second quarter.

The Guardian learnt that the fall in the industry’s Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), among other factors, might have contributed to the slide in service providers’ earnings within the period.

ARPU is a measure used primarily by consumer communications and networking companies. It is defined as the total revenue divided by the number of subscribers.

The index, according to a source in the Ministry of Communications, who spoke to The Guardian anonymously, dropped sharply from N3,000 in 2001 to N500 in 2016, due mainly to the dwindling disposable income of subscribers amid the harsh economic climate.

This figure was corroborated yesterday by an official of a leading telecommunications company, who disclosed that ARPU has been on the decline in the last one year.

The official said: “For instance, in January and July 2015 it fell by 21.7 per cent and 15.7 per cent, a pattern that repeated itself in 2016.”

As a result, the about 62 million lines, which went dead, due to current economic challenges, might have cost the quartet of MTN, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat a revenue of about N31 billion within the period under review.

This is a statement from Nokia after NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission) closed its office over non renewal of its license in Nigeria.

LAGOS, Nigeria, 08 September 2016 -/African Media Agency (AMA)/-  Following the closure of the Nokia office office lin Lekki, Lagos, Nokia will like to assure all stakeholders that  “The temporary closing of our administrative office in Lagos is an important matter to us. We continue to closely collaborate with NCC and are accelerating our efforts to quickly regularize our licence. We remain fully committed to delivering world-class connectivity solutions to the Nigerian market and positively contributing to the country socio-economic development.” According to a Nokia Regional official .

IBM Tuesday announced the appointment of Ernest Oladipo Faulkner as Country General Manager, IBM Nigeria.

He succeeds Taiwo Otiti who served as Country General Manager, West Africa, since 2010.

Faulkner will be responsible for IBM’s overall business in Nigeria with a focus on deploying IBM’s advanced technology capabilities in Cognitive, Cloud Computing, Big Data and Analytics, Mobile and Security to solve current and future needs of institutions in key economic sectors across the country.

He will also provide leadership for IBM’s relationships and Corporate Social initiatives in the Civil Society, ICT and Academic communities. With over 25 years of regional experience, Dipo has been leading IBM’s Global Business Services for Central & West Africa and helped develop strong client relationships in the region.

Faulkner holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Lagos, Nigeria and an Advanced Management Program Certificate from Institute de Empressa (ie), Madrid Spain.