As demand continues to surge, the telecommunications company is enhancing its network capacity nationwide. As part of its rapid expansion, Starlink has increased bandwidth capacity in Rivers, Delta, and Edo states, opening up access for more new users.

Active service is currently available nationwide except in Lagos State, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and parts of Ogun, where capacity has temporarily reached its limit.

However, network upgrades are ongoing, with more slots becoming available in these high-demand areas soon.

Starlink is also offering a 1-month free subscription on the purchase of any Starlink Standard or Mini Kit from authorized resellers.

This offer is available to customers who activate a new Residential service plan. This limited-time promotion runs until June 16, 2025.

Konga, Nigeria’s composite e-commerce giant and authorized reseller of Starlink equipment, is further sweetening the deal by offering free nationwide delivery on all Starlink kits.

Shoppers who purchase their Starlink kits or at any Konga retail outlet nationwide are eligible for this deal.

In addition, customers who purchase their Starlink kit on Konga.com will also enjoy an exclusive 50% discount on select products from the world’s number one beauty and cosmetics brand L’Oréal.

The partnership between due has led to better internet accessibility. In just two years, this strategic partnership has grown rapidly, with Starlink now ranking among Nigeria’s top three Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Nigeria.

This milestone reflects the increasing adoption of satellite internet as a viable alternative to traditional broadband services.

The Starlink Mini Kit is a more compact and affordable option designed for customers in need of portable, high-speed internet.

Its lightweight build, portability and easy setup make it ideal for small households, businesses, travellers, and remote areas where traditional internet infrastructure is limited.

With limited bandwidth slots opening up daily and demand surging, Nigerians are encouraged to secure their kits early before demand increases further.

Whether for home, business, or travel, this promo is your chance to enjoy free high-speed internet for one month, guaranteed reliability, and seamless setup, all with nationwide support from Konga.

To take advantage of these limited-time benefits, visit here or walk into any Konga store nationwide and experience the Starlink difference.

This projected expansion underscores the ever-increasing popularity of video games as a form of entertainment across the world.

The global video games market is expected to increase to nearly 390BN US dollars by 2028.

A global Kaspersky study also shows that gamers are just as passionate about shopping as everybody else.

Gamers are voracious shoppers at sales events, a recent Kaspersky study has revealed. Research shows that most games fans won’t miss a chance to improve their gaming setup during big sales events.

After preparing their wish lists beforehand, 71% of gamers buy as many of these listed items as possible during the sales events.

Many of them do their best not to miss out: 65% set alerts for the release of new items such as games, upgrades, or equipment, enabling them to make immediate purchases.

The study underscores the importance of sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday for gaming enthusiasts, with 74% rating these events as very or even extremely important to obtain games, upgrades, and equipment. Interestingly, the appeal of sales often leads to spontaneous purchases.

Regardless of the initial solution, 53% of gamers buy something for their system. Even with careful planning of expenditures, most gamers can’t resist buying something else during the general rush.

To achieve their perfect setup, gamers are open to using diverse payment methods, including cryptocurrency. A remarkable 57% of gamers are comfortable using cryptocurrency for online purchases, and 56% for transactions in physical stores.

Among committed gamers (those playing over 21 hours per week), this preference for digital currency transactions jumps to two-thirds.

“To ensure that people can do what they love without losing personal data or money, we are constantly improving our comprehensive security solutions. For example, Kaspersky Premium provides online payment and identity protection, data leaks checker and a superfast reliable VPN – a combo to beat cybercriminals in reality and to help gamers have an inspiring gaming and shopping experience”, comments Marina Titova, Vice-President, Consumer Product Marketing at Kaspersky.

To ensure secure online shopping, Kaspersky shares some helpful tips:

 1. Type the URL into the address bar

Opening links from online store emails can have serious consequences for online security. Fraudsters may use phishing links that lead to fake websites that look similar to the original store website.

On such sites, attackers may ask users to enter personal information or bank card numbers. So, whenever there is a need to open a web site of an online store, it is always better to type its URL into the address bar avoiding any links in emails.

2. Use a temporary credit card

Some banks provide their clients with the opportunity by issuing temporary credit cards. A tool like this will help you take advantage of the seasonal sales without fear of further data loss. Sometimes banks also offer what is known as a virtual credit card.

This is similar to a regular card, but a random account number is generated for each purchase, preventing hackers from reusing the number.

3. Manage and protect your online passwords

It is well known that cybersecurity requires customers to have a unique and strong password for each of their accounts. But it is also obvious that coming up with and remembering dozens of complex passwords is a very difficult task.

Therefore, to ensure the security of online shopping, password handling can be entrusted to a reliable password manager.

What lies ahead for retail in a world that smells faintly of recession with whiffs of economic depression but is driven by the overwhelming scent of innovation and emergent technology? The answer is…people.

The cost of living, the nervous twitches of the global economy and the lingering recession are all having an ongoing impact on the retail sector and its outlook for 2024.

What lies ahead? What lessons learned in 2023 will shape decision-making, investment and innovation so the sector can thrive and pivot regardless of what economies and consumers throw its way?

It is, RIYAAT PHILLIPS, Senior Presales Manager at Altron Systems Integration, key for the retail sector to prioritise key efficiencies within the business leveraging technology and analytics to streamline decision-making.

“One of the key issues that has affected the sector in the past and will remain a priority going forward is workforce management,” he continues. “It’s key that retailers can solve for demand, building staffing efficiencies to ensure stores deliver customer service and manage demand effectively. A commitment to optimising the workforce and its efficiencies result in measurable growth and this can be seen in the current South African retail landscape with some chains showing steady growth and expansion while others are cautious.”

Another trend, particularly in the local retail environment, is the move to technology. Companies are increasingly recognising the return on investment that comes with investing into technology tools that allow them to optimise their approaches and operations.

Overtime, management, employee attendance, and scheduling – these can all be tracked with software that can then provide retailers with visibility into their overall staffing performance.

“Tools with built-in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and analytics are improving reporting versatility and allowing for retailers to better recognise problems and implement preventative measures before they happen, or in time to mitigate the damage,” says Riyaat. “It is very likely that 2024 will see this conversation continue to change as retailers leverage AI, ML and digital to improve productivity and gain much-needed business clarity.”

The next year is also set to become the age of change for the retail sector. Traditionally regimented in approaches, retailers are not as locked into how they have done things in the past.

They are more inclined to embrace technology and use it to their advantage. This is largely due to the fact that technology has proven a point.

“There are tools available to retailers that allow them to get better returns on an extremely granular level,” says Riyaat. “Consider this – what if an AI-driven solution could assess which cashiers are good at customer communication and upsell well? These individuals can be identified and motivated to sell an extra item or meal or bag during peak times and this then delivers increased sales and customer engagement. It is a proven concept that has been rolled out in stores already and retailers are seeing tangible results.”

This is also paving the way for another key trend in 2024 – the employee as a leader. Happy, engaged employees can determine a retailer’s destiny.

Shoppers will return to a space where the people who greet and help them are passionate about their jobs and making a difference.

The impact of apathy and antipathy on a customer’s experience cannot be understated. In fact, the fifth South African Customer Experience Report found that apathy is on both sides of the South African fence as customers expect less and less from their shopping experiences and brand engagements.

In fact, only 14% of brands cited customer retention as an important metric. Why? When retention is the least expensive route to growth it seems odd that grabbing the next customer has become more important than holding onto existing ones.

The country, says the Report, needs the next YuppieChef with such a startling commitment to customer service that it makes people come back time and again.

“We need to invest in our people, and we are getting there,” concludes Riyaat. “The local sector’s resistance to change will crumble over the next year to two years and slowly start using technology to clamber over these barriers and dive deeper into serving people – within the business and without. People are the biggest trend and the biggest lesson. When employees feel seen and their work recognised – a reality powered by AI and relevant technology – they will pass this value on to the customer who will feel as if they have found service and visibility at a time when both are sorely lacking.”

This year, in addition to this active campaign of banking credentials theft, cybercriminals did not stand still and developed new scam schemes.

Ahead of Black Friday in particular, fraudsters used a new type of phishing scheme for the first time exploiting Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services.

These are some of the findings from Kaspersky’s ‘How customers got scammed amid the Black Friday season in 2022’ report aimed at educating users on staying safe during the sales season.

Banking Trojans are widely used tools in the arsenal of cybercriminals profiting from the sales season. Once the user browses in an online store, the Trojan saves all the data the user enters into the website’s forms.

This means cybercriminals get access to a credit or debit card number, expiration date and CVV, and the victim’s site login credentials. Having obtained this information, the attackers may use it to empty the user’s bank account, use their card details for purchases or sell the data in the Dark web stores.

After a rapid drop in the number of attacks with banking Trojans in 2021, cybercriminals have returned to this type of threat with renewed strength. In 2022, the number of attacks doubled compared to the same time period in 2021.

From January to October, Kaspersky products detected and prevented almost 20 million attacks, meaning that the overall growth in the number of detections is 92%.

The sales season inevitably attracts the attention of shoppers and retailers. However, it is also a favorite time for cybercriminals, who do not hesitate to cash in on online customers.

Cybercriminals create juicy offers that are fake and expire quickly, so the user must hurry to get the goods for free or at the lowest price.

This is where cybercriminals catch customers, who are hungry for freebies and don’t look carefully at the site they are entering their data into: the phishing or the original one.

In 2022, Kaspersky experts also found numerous examples of phishing pages for the first time abusing BNPL services.

These tools allow customers to split the cost of the purchase into several interest-free installments. Therefore, these services appeal to consumers, especially youngsters, and have proven to be particularly popular during shopping periods such as Black Friday.

An example of this scam is the misuse of a popular service named Afterpay (Clearpay in the U.K. and Italy), with 20 million active users across the world. Perpetrators set up a page mimicking the official website, tricking unsuspecting victims into entering their credit card numbers and CVVs into a fake form.

After the user has entered their details, cybercriminals will try to steal as much money as possible from this card, emptying the victim’s wallet.

“The shopping event of the year – Black Friday – is a hot time not only for sellers and their buyers, but also for scammers who want to steal as much money as possible from hurried customers. The new scheme exploiting Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services only proves that cybercriminals do not stop in their desire to attack victims and come up with new methods to do so. On ordinary days the customer can easily understand: if the product is too cheap, it’s most likely a scam, but during the Black Friday sales period this fact isn’t so clear. Shoppers become less vigilant and are therefore an easy target for cybercriminals. That’s why it’s so important to pay attention to which site you buy from, be careful with unfamiliar companies and use a reliable security solution,” comments Olga Svistunova, security expert at Kaspersky.