Tag: Google

  • Foreign Firms Pay Over N1.98tn in Taxes to Nigerian Government

    Foreign Firms Pay Over N1.98tn in Taxes to Nigerian Government

    By Daniel Edu

    Google, Netflix, Facebook, and other foreign companies operating in Nigeria have collectively paid over N1.98 trillion in taxes to the Federal Government over a 15-month period, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

    The taxes include both Company Income Tax (CIT) and Value Added Tax (VAT). CIT is a 30% tax on the profits of companies, while VAT is a 7.5% consumption tax paid on goods and services purchased.

    The former Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, had introduced the Companies Income Tax (Significant Economic Presence) Order, 2020 to impose tax on foreign entities providing digital services to Nigerians and earning revenue in naira. The tax is levied on companies offering services or digital transactions with a significant economic presence in Nigeria.

    The Nigerian government has been working to modernize its tax regulations to capture revenue from foreign digital service providers. This includes introducing turnover taxes on foreign companies providing digital services and imposing VAT on non-resident digital companies.

    Between the first quarter of 2022 and Q1 2023, the government earned N1.32 trillion in CIT and N661.93 billion in VAT from foreign companies.

    This move is part of a global trend where governments are trying to ensure that foreign tech companies contribute their fair share of taxes in the countries where they operate, especially as digital services continue to play a significant role in the global economy.

  • Tinubu Plans Partnership With Google To Create One Million Jobs For Nigerians

    President Bola Tinubu has expressed the willingness of the Federal Government of Nigeria to support global tech giant Google Incorporated to create one million digital jobs in Nigeria.

    Dele Alake, Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communications, and Strategy, disclosed this on Friday during a courtesy visit by Google Global Vice President, Mr Richard Gingras.

    President Tinubu told the visiting Google executive that Nigeria has creative and talented young people who are ready and motivated to learn, especially in this age of Artificial Intelligence, stressing that the tech giant has the capabilities and tools that the young people need to excel.

    “I am glad that Google is ready to partner with us. You have answered our call on digital innovation and to help our youths. You are supporting our efforts to promote digital economy. We are ready to work with you on your commitment to create 1 million digital jobs in Nigeria.

    “We will give you all the support you need to have a beneficial corporate responsibility. We have started our economic reforms, even though tortuous,” the President said.

    On Google’s promotion of free speech, freedom of the press and democracy through its platforms, President Tinubu declared: “It is in public interest to continue to defend free press and free speech. We are committed to supporting a free society.”

    In his address, the Google Vice President had earlier told President Tinubu that he was in Nigeria for the West Africa Journalism Innovation Conference.

    He said he had been inspired by the creativity and talent of young people in Nigeria who are embracing technology and digital tools to expand access to information and promote democracy.

    Mr Gingras told President Tinubu that his organisation has deep interest in Nigeria and stands ready to support the Federal Government.

    He said that Google would help secure Nigeria in the age of disinformation and fake news, saying that his organisation seeks to continue its partnership with the Nigerian government.

  • Google Unveils $2bn Data Hub in Poland

    Google Unveils $2bn Data Hub in Poland

    US tech giant Google on Wednesday launched a new cloud data hub in Warsaw — its first in Central and Eastern Europe — with an investment of nearly $2.0 billion (1.7 billion euros).

    Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki hailed the new hub saying it would ensure “better service from private and public entities” and strengthen security because the data would be stored in Poland.

    “We hope that the new Google Cloud region will… help in recovery from the pandemic and will contribute to a thriving digital economy in Poland and the neighbouring countries,” Magdalena Dziewguc, Google Cloud’s country manager, said in a statement.

    US embassy charge d’affaires Bix Aliu said US companies have invested around $60 billion in Poland and Google “is adding close to $2 billion to that number by expanding cloud services”.

    Poland’s economy last year went into recession for the first time since the fall of communism three decades ago because of the coronavirus crisis but it is expected to bounce back this year.

    The government has put an emphasis on developing the tech sector.

    Microsoft announced last year that it would invest one billion dollars in Poland to expand its operations, including the creation of a new regional cloud-computing data hub.

    Google and Microsoft are among the global leaders in providing cloud services — an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

    As well as charging for the service, cloud operators are able to harvest huge amounts of data and open up many other revenue streams.

  • BREAKING: YouTube, Google, Gmail crashes leaving thousands of users frustrated

    BREAKING: YouTube, Google, Gmail crashes leaving thousands of users frustrated

    The Google-owned family of apps has crashed for thousands of users worldwide.

    This includes Gmail, Google Drive, Google Sheets and YouTube as well as the main search engine.

    Outage tracker site DownDetecter clocked tens of thousands of users reporting issues with the sites around 11:40am.

    Problems were reported mainly in Europe but also in Australia, the east coast of the USA and parts of Africa, South America and Asia.

    Google’s websites are some of the most popular in the world, with its video-streaming site YouTube frequented by more than two billion people every month.

    Unlike other tech firms like Facebook, outages are rare at Google, .

    By 11:54am, there was more than 50,000 complaints for YouTube alone. with half (49 per cent) regarding issues with the website and 43 per cent pertaining to problems watching videos.

    Gmail had 23,000 complaints before midday and Google’s main site had a reported 19,000 complaints.

    Eighty-one and 91 per cent of the issues with these sites, respectively, was to do with logging in, according to DownDetector.

    MailOnline has approached Google for comment.

    Other affected sites includes Google Meet, Hangouts and the Play Store as well as the Pokemon Go game, which is made by Niantic, another Google-owned company.

    It appears the outage is not uniform, with some users reporting a ‘400 error message’ while it is working fine for others.

    However, a quick test at the London office of MailOnline reveals, Sheets, Gmail and YouTube are offline.

  • Google opens up its Fuchsia OS to the public

    Google opens up its Fuchsia OS to the public

    Almost half a decade since news first leaked about Google’s Fuchsia OS, the company has announced that it is expanding the Fuchsia open source community and opening it up to contributions from the public.

    Google’s Fuchsia OS is a bit of an enigma, and the company rarely talks about it, despite its code living on GitHub since 2016. 

    It’s an open secret that Fuchsia is Google’s long-term project to create a general-purpose operating system, built from the kernel up, but this is the first time the company is engaging with it in the public.

    • We’ve compiled a list of the best Linux apps
    • And, these are the the best Linux distros
    • Here are some of the best Linux laptops for running Linux

    Proper open source

    Google has been sharing its work on Fuchsia in the public repositories for several years now.

    With the new announcement, it has added in all the missing ingredients to turn the project into a full-fledged open source effort. 

    “Starting today, we are expanding Fuchsia‘s open source model to make it easier for the public to engage with the project,” shares Google in a blog post.

    Specifically, Google has now made the operating system’s bug tracker available to the public and there are mailing lists through which developers can receive alerts about various updates. The company has also outlined the process to become a member to submit patches or a committer with full write access. 

    For developers only

    Fuchsia also now has a governance model through which Google explains how strategic decisions in the project are made. 

    Importantly, the project now has a publicly accessible technical roadmap for anyone to track its progress.

    The OS is far from being in a usable state, though if you are interested in working on it, Google has also put out a detailed guide to help you setup a Fuchsia emulator on your Mac or Linux computer.
    Now that Google is willing to engage with the public on Fuchsia, we’re hoping the company also shares more details about where the OS fits in its portfolio and how it plans to use it going forward.

  • #EndSARS: Google joins the #EndSARS campaign

    #EndSARS: Google joins the #EndSARS campaign

    The Global Organization of Oriented Group Language of Earth, GOOGLE, has joined the End SARS campaign.

    Google in a tweet via its Twitter account on Thursday strongly opposed the oppression, brutality and intimidation carried out on Innocent protesters by the Nigerian Government.

    The organization also called for a speedy response and resolution to the unfortunate situation.

    “We strongly oppose oppression, brutality & intimidation.

    “We believe a fair and impartial police force is a critical element of a stable society, & that abuse of power infringes on people’s democratic & human rights.

    “We urge a speedy resolution to the current situation,” the tweet read.

    Recall that Reno Omokri, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, had urged Sundar Pichai, the Chief Executive Officer of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary, Google LLC to change her doodle to reflect the end of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Nigeria over their recent activities in the country.

  • Google to invest $10bn in India, as it becomes investment destination in pandemic

    Google to invest $10bn in India, as it becomes investment destination in pandemic

    Technology Company, “Google” has said it plans to invest 10 billion dollars in India in the coming years, as reports revealed that the country is most favourable destination amid the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

    This was made known in a report made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) by the Indian High Commission on Friday in Abuja.

    According to the report, Google will be investing the 10 billion dollars in infrastructure and equity investments, as Silicon Valley companies jostle for a position in one of the world’s fastest-growing internet markets.

    It said that Sundar Pichai, the Chief Executive at Google and its parent company, Alphabet, announced the scheme after speaking with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi .

    It notedd that Modi described the conversation with the technology giant as “extremely fruitful”, discussing new working practices during the Coronavirus pandemic as well as security and safety online.

    Pichai at an online event said: “this is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India and its digital economy.”

    The promise from Google which did not include specific details to apply to the next “five to seven years”, marks the latest attempt by a big U.S. internet company to woo the leadership of a country,” the report states.

    According to the report, the increased interest in India from Google and other U.S, – based investors come as tension on the Indian-Chinese border closes avenues for investors from China.

    “Chinese internet giants such as Tencent and Alibaba, along with Chinese venture capital companies, have become among the largest investors in Indian tech.

    “But India in April changed its foreign investment rules to require government approval for all would-be Chinese investors.

    “A sharp escalation in tensions following a deadly clash on the Himalayan border in June prompted the authorities to ban 59 Chinese apps, including ByteDance-owned TikTok.

    “Access to India, now the world’s second-largest mobile market, is particularly important for Google as it is shut out of China.

    “It faces the prospect of greater difficulty in operating in Hong Kong following the passage of the new security law there in June.

    “India, with its 1.3 billion population, represents one of the biggest opportunities for tech companies globally after hundreds of millions of Indians started using smart phones and accessing the internet in recent years.

    “Google Pay, the company’s digital payments service, has grown rapidly since inauguration in the country in 2017,” the report said.

    According to the report, Google described its vague spending promise as an India Digitisation Fund, and say it will cover affordable internet access, and new product development.

    It said the investment would also be tailored to Indian market needs and accelerating digital transformation, as well as healthcare, education and agriculture.

    The report noted that India had insisted that government surveillance took precedence over the kind of encryption that was becoming standard in U.S. internet services, and had sought to limit the local power of the Big Tech oligopoly.

    “Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s Chief Executive, travelled to the country earlier this year to promise one billion dollars in investment, and to support 10 billion dollars Indian export sales over the next five years, as his company faces a local antitrust investigation.

    “Google’s pledge also comes three months after rival Facebook invested 5.7 billion dollars in Jio Platforms, the fast-growing Indian telecoms company that has launched a series of digital services.

    “Jio, part of Mukesh Ambani’s oil-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries, has also sold stakes to 11 other foreign investors including the investment arms of U.S. chipmakers Intel and Qualcomm.

    “As well as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, KKR and Silver Lake.

    “Google has also explored investments with Jio and rival telecoms operator Vodafone Idea in recent months. Apple has also stepped up its iPhone manufacturing in the country through its supplier Foxconn.”

    According to the report, Google is rising to the occasion by trying to invest a fairly substantial amount in India’s digital transformation.

    Mr Ravi Prasad, India’s Minister of Electronics and Information Technology expressed the appreciation of their country to Goggle, saying, “I am very happy that Google is recognising India’s digital innovation and the need to create further opportunity.” (NAN)

  • Google says it is developing a nationwide coronavirus website

    Google says it is developing a nationwide coronavirus website

    Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O) said on Saturday that it was working with the U.S. government to develop a nationwide website that would help Americans with questions about coronavirus symptoms, risk factors and testing.

    “We are fully aligned and continue to work with the U.S. government to contain the spread of COVID-19, inform citizens, and protect the health of our communities,” Google said in a statement on Twitter.

    President Donald Trump had thanked Google on Friday for developing a website that he said would help people determine whether they needed a coronavirus test, saying that 1,700 engineers were working on it.

    That prompted the search and advertising giant to respond that, in fact, a life sciences division, Verily, was in the early stages of developing a tool to help triage Americans who may need testing for the coronavirus and that it would be tested in the Bay Area and expanded over time.

    Alphabet’s shares closed up more than 9% after the Friday announcement by the president.

    Pressure has been rising on U.S. officials to increase and improve testing for the fast-spreading virus, which has reached almost every U.S. state, closed schools and forced the cancellation of thousands of sporting events, conferences and concerts amid efforts to stop its spread by keeping Americans out of big crowds.

    Like Google, Verily is a subsidiary of Alphabet, which is based in Mountain View, California.

    The cooperation with the Trump administration comes as Alphabet faces antitrust investigations by federal and state agencies over its search and digital advertising businesses, among others.

    Additionally, Trump has accused Google of skewing its search results to portray him negatively. The company has also attracted the administration’s ire for not renewing a contract to provide its artificial intelligence technologies for a military drone program. (reuters)

  • Google launches own Developers Space in Lagos

    Google launches own Developers Space in Lagos

    Google on Tuesday launched its first Google Developers Space in Lagos, previously referred to as the Google Launchpad Space.

    Google launched the Google Developers Space to provide that home and a space where entrepreneurs, developers and investors could connect and collaborate with each other.

    Google Developers Space is a hub for African developers, entrepreneurs and startups.

    Juliet Ehimuan, Country Director, Google Nigeria, said that the space was the next step to Google support for developers across the continent.

    Ehimuan said that from Google’s commitment to train 100,000 developers across Africa over 50 per cent had been met.

    She said that the commitment had prompted the launch of developer merchant support in the Google Play store making it possible for developers to earn money through apps they build.

    “We are excited to continue our journey with the African startup and developer communities.

    “Through Google Developer Groups and Women Techmakers, Google provides training aligned with real-life job competency requirements.

    “There are 173 active Google Developer Groups (GDGs) in Africa, providing an opportunity for developers to meet other developers with similar interests at GDG meetup events,’’ she said.

    According to her, these include talks on a wide range of technical topics and hands-on workshops. GDGs also host DevFests – community-led developer events focused on community building and learning about Google’s technologies.

    Ehimuan said that in 2019, more than 100 DevFest events were held across Africa and Launchpad Accelerator Africa had worked with 47 startups since the first class began in early 2018.

    She said the companies had raised millions of dollars in investments and created over 900 jobs across the continent.

    Launchpad Africa has accelerated startups from 17 African countries so far: Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Côte D’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

    The next class will start at the Google Developer Space in May 2020.

    Accelerator Africa head of Operations, Onajite Emerhor, said at the launch that Google was
    strengthening its commitment to supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Africa by opening the Google Developers Space.

    Emerhor said that Google had partnered Impact Hub to bring the Space to life and worked with a local company called Spacefinish, which designed it specifically to create an environment that fosters collaboration and innovation.

    According to her, Google was looking forward to working with startups and other players in the ecosystem from across the continent at the Space.

    She said Google would not charge for use of the space, which, in addition to housing Google Launchpad Accelerator Africa, will support developer meetups, training, experts office hours.

    She said the organization would also not charge for Women in tech events, startup programs outside of Launchpad, partner events that support the wider entrepreneur and developer ecosystem, Google initiatives for empowering people through digital skills training.

    Earlier Google CEO Sundar Pichai made a commitment to African entrepreneurs in July 2017, to start the Launchpad Accelerator Africa programme and launch a space to house the efforts in Nigeria. (NAN)