According to reports, Microsoft is considering shutting its African Development Centre in Lagos State.

This move, if confirmed, would mean that at least 200 staff would be out of a job.

It would also have profound implications for the country’s technological landscape, potentially impacting job opportunities and innovation in the sector.

According to industry insiders who spoke to The Guardian newspaper on Tuesday, May 7, Microsoft informed staff on Monday, May 6, of the closure plans.

Affected employees are slated to receive salary payments up until June and will continue to be covered by health insurance.

Sources suggest Nigeria’s challenging economic conditions likely played a role.

The closure appears to affect only the ADC’s West Africa operations in Nigeria, not its East Africa facility in Nairobi, Kenya.

Microsoft launched its $100 million African Development Centers initiative in 2019, establishing facilities in both Lagos and Nairobi.

The Nigeria centre employed over 120 engineers upon launch in 2022, growing to more than 200 total staff members. 

Uzor Arukwe, the popular Nollywood actor, has made a new claim.

He claimed that there was a time when social media following was one of the prerequisites for thespians to get movie roles from some producers in the Nigerian movie industry.

He said filmmakers cast actors based on social media followers rather than talent.

The ‘A Tribe Called Judah’ star admitted that it was a “big” challenge for him during his days as a struggling thespian.

“I remember all so clearly when I started. It was a big problem for me,” the 40-year-old actor told Pulse in a recent interview.

“There was a time in this industry when it was mostly about Instagram and Twitter followers, and stuff like that. I didn’t understand it but knew it was something I had to be at peace with, because a production house wants to hire you and they’re looking at your numbers. ‘But can he act?’ That is the question I always ask. But there are some people who are blessed who are fantastic actors who have numbers and they’ve been doing well.”

The Edo State Police have recaptured Jacob Alonge, a 58-year-old fugitive who had escaped from the Benin Correctional Centre during the 2020 #EndSARS protests in the state.

Daily Post reports that the Commissioner of Police, CP Funsho Adegboye, disclosed this to newsmen in Benin City.

Adegboye said the inmate was sentenced to 21 years imprisonment by the Edo High Court for raping his own daughter, Gift Alonge.

According to him, “While the case is ongoing in court, he threatened that the case would have no end and true to his threat, his daughter and others who were coming to testify in court died mysteriously but he was convicted.

“After escaping from the prison during the 2020 #EndSARS protest, he was not re-arrested, but nemesis has caught up with him and he has been re-arrested and would be taken to where he belong.”