Banking
DHL Express Named Top Employer in Africa
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
World’s leading international express services provider, DHL Express, has been certified as a Top Employer in Africa by the Top Employers Institute at the prestigious Top Employer 2017 ceremony on Thursday, October 13, 2016 at the Sandton Convention Centre.
The company was certified as a Top Employer in twelve markets, including Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda.
Speaking on the feat, CEO of DHL Express Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), Mr Hennie Heymans, stated that, “We are extremely proud of this achievement. This is testament to how much we value our employees and reaffirms that DHL Express is a rewarding place to work at.”
He further said that, “Having motivated people is the first pillar of our global internal Focus strategy and being an Employer of Choice is one of our three bottom lines. This demonstrates how seriously we take employee engagement and development at a global level and on the ground in SSA.
“We’re committed to having a team of high performers who operate in a high performance culture and in a region that promotes and drives diversity of leadership.”
According to him, “I believe that DHL Express has something very unique. You don’t often find a company that can maintain the same culture across the world.
“The fact that you can walk into any one of our offices around the world and feel that same drive towards customer centricity from the minute you walk in the door is truly amazing. Our Focus pillars lay the foundation for this success and the abundance of employee engagement and recognition programs are perfectly positioned to support this.
Mr Heymans added that, “These initiatives and programs include our Certified International Specialist (CIS) program, which is a cultural change program that all our employees across SSA have gone through.
“An extension of CIS is our Certified International Manager (CIM) program, which focuses primarily on ensuring that our leaders are equipped with the knowledge and skills to meet the demands of today’s complex working environment and promote effective and quality leadership among managers.”
He explained that, “We also run an annual Employee Opinion Survey which is 100 percent anonymous. This gives us great insight into areas that require improvement, as well as reaffirms areas that we are doing well in.
“Much like how we rely on customer feedback to improve our customer service quality, direct feedback from employees is imperative to our success. From an employee recognition point of view, we run Employee Appreciation Weeks and functional focus weeks which celebrate and recognize our employees’ achievements in each country. In addition, we present quarterly and annual awards to our star performers, based on employee nominations.”
To be certified as a Top Employer in Africa, a company needs to operate in four or more countries and have exceptional employee conditions. The Top Employers Institute conducts comprehensive and independent research by getting employees in the relevant companies to complete a HR best practice survey.
The survey assesses the company’s HR strategy, policy implementation, practices and employee offerings, to reveal whether the company provides exceptional employee conditions, develops talent on all levels and demonstrates leadership through optimizing the development of its employees and employee practices.
Each completed survey is reviewed by the Top Employer Institute and subsequently audited by a third party. Only organizations that qualify from the selection process receive the Top Employers title and Certification Seal but all participants receive a comprehensive Feedback Report.
“We are delighted to have been certified as a Top Employer in Africa for the third consecutive year and strive to ensure that we continue to achieve this prestigious certification every year,” concludes Heymans.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The six edition of the Hackaholics of Wema Bank Plc has produced 20 top finalists shared equally between two streams, Ideathon and Hackathon.
The Hackathon finalists are Rapid DEV, Secure IT, Neurafeed, Trust Lock Babcock, Pulse Track, IlluminiTrust, Trust Lock FUTA, Fix Fraud AI, KASH Flow and VOC AI.
The Ideathon finalists include PLOY, Fertitude, VarsityScape, Mama ALERT, StockMed, Chao, All Arbitrate, FarmSlate, Sane AI and Cycle X.
They emerged after a two-day pre-pitch held on December 16 and 17, 2025, for the grand finale slated for Friday, December 19, 2025.
They grand finale of Hackaholics 6.0 will convene the top players in Africa’s tech and innovation ecosystem, creating an avenue for these finalists to not only put their creativity to the ultimate test but also give their solutions visibility to potential investors for additional funding opportunities beyond the prizes to be won.
The prizes to be won for the Ideathon include N25 million for the winner, N20 million for the first runner-up, N15 million for the second runner-up and N5 million each for two women-led teams.
In the Hackathon category, the first to fourth-place winners will receive N20 million, N15 million, N10 million and N5 million, respectively.
The pre-pitch saw the top 43 contenders battle in a game of innovation and problem solving, presenting compelling pitches for a chance to make it to top 10 in their respective streams.
After a rigorous stretch of pitches and presentations, the top 20 emerged, securing their spot in the grand finale of Hackaholics 6.0.
“Hackaholics started off as a hackathon and morphed into an ideation. For Hackaholics 6.0, the sixth edition, we decided to give both the builders of new solutions and the refiners of existing ones, an opportunity to make meaningful impact.
“For us at Wema Bank, we understand that innovation isn’t just building from scratch. Sometimes, it’s looking at what exists and developing new ways to optimise that and create more efficiency. This is the idea behind our two-stream Ideathon-Hackathon structure.
“Every year, Hackaholics shows us just how eager and motivated Nigerian youth are when it comes to exploring creativity and innovation, and we are honoured to be the institution that provides them with the platform and resources to put this drive to good use.
“We toured seven cities, indulged 1,460 participants and discovered hundreds of remarkable ideas; some of which needed some refining and some of which deserved to move to the next stage.
“For those who needed to go back to the drawing board, we provided useful guidance and for the top contenders, we were able to shortlist to the top 43, who proceeded to the pre-pitch. To every participant, Wema Bank is proud of you. This is just the beginning,” the chief executive of Wema Bank, Mr Moruf Oseni, said.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) says it will enforce penalties against designated banks that delay the remittance of customs revenue, in a move aimed at strengthening transparency and safeguarding government earnings.
This was disclosed in a statement on the NCS official account on X, formerly known as Twitter and signed by its spokesman, Mr Abdullahi Maiwada, who said the delays undermine the efficiency, transparency, and integrity of government revenue administration.
“The Nigeria Customs Service has noted instances of delayed remittance of customs revenue by some designated banks following reconciliation of collections processed through the B’odogwu platform,” the statement read.
“Such delays constitute a breach of remittance obligations and negatively impact the efficiency, transparency, and integrity of government revenue administration.
“In line with the provisions of the Service Level Agreement executed between the Nigeria Customs Service and designated banks, the Service hereby notifies stakeholders of the commencement of enforcement actions against banks found to be in default of agreed remittance timelines.”
Mr Maiwada disclosed that any bank that fails to remit collected Customs revenue within the prescribed timeline will be liable to penalty interest calculated at three per cent above the prevailing Nigerian Interbank Offered Rate for the period of the delay.
He added that affected banks would be formally notified of the delayed amounts, the applicable penalty, and the deadline for settlement.
“Accordingly, any designated bank that fails to remit collected Customs revenue within the prescribed period shall be liable to penalty interest calculated at three per cent above the prevailing Nigerian Interbank Offered Rate for the duration of the delay.
“Affected banks will receive formal notifications indicating the delayed amount, applicable penalty, and the timeline for settlement,” the statement read.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The deputy managing director of First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Limited, Mr Ini Ebong, has offloaded some shares of FBN Holdings Plc, the parent firm of the banking institution.
A regulatory notice from the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited confirmed the development on Thursday.
It was disclosed that the transaction occurred on Friday, December 12, 2025, on the floor of the stock exchange.
The sale involved about 11.8 million shares, precisely 11,783,333 units traded at N31.14 per share, amounting to about N366.9 million.
Mr Ebong, who studied Architecture from University of Ife and obtained Bachelor and Master of Science degrees, became the DMD of First Bank in June 2024. Prior to this appointment, he was Executive Director, Treasury and International Banking since January 2022.
He was previously the Group Executive, Treasury and International Banking, a position he held since 2016 after serving as the bank’s Treasurer from 2011 to 2016.
Before joining First Bank, he was the Head of African Fixed Income and Local Markets Trading, Renaissance Securities Nigeria Limited, the Nigerian registered subsidiary of Renaissance Capital. He also worked with Citigroup for 14 years as Country Treasurer and Sales and Trading Business Head.
He has a passion for market development and has worked actively to drive change and internationalisation of the Nigerian financial markets: foreign exchange, fixed income and securities.
He has worked closely with regulatory bodies such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Debt Management Office (DMO) in assisting with the development of fresh monetary and foreign exchange policies, to broaden and deepen markets and open them up to international practices.
At various times he has facilitated and delivered courses and seminars on a wide variety of subjects covering Money Markets, Securities and Foreign exchange trading and market risk management subjects to regulators, corporate customers, banks and market participants.
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