Fidelity Bank Offers Private Schools N180m Loans for Funding Needs

By Adedapo Adesanya The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has unveiled a digital platform for the submission of Microfinance Bank (MFB) licence applications with effect from Monday, September 25. The apex bank made this known in a statement signed by its Director of Corporate Communications, Mr Isa AbdulMumin. “The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is pleased to announce the unveiling of a new online platform for submission of microfinance bank (MFB) licence applications,” the statement released on Wednesday said. According to the statement, the new online platform is called the CBN Licensing, Approval and Other Requests Portal (CBN LARP) and

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Africa’s leading payment cards and digital tokens brand, Verve, has joined forces with a fast-rising digital bank, Moniepoint Microfinance Bank, to provide customers with cutting-edge financial solutions. Recall that recently, Moniepoint announced its foray into the retail banking segment, issuing debt cards to its customers. The financial technology (fintech) firm boasts over 1.5 million businesses using its terminals across Nigeria to serve 30 million banked Nigerians. To pave the way for enhanced access to financial services for Nigerians and bridge the gap between traditional banking and modern fintech innovations, both parties are collaborating. The partnership will give

By Dipo Olowookere Schools have been urged to choose Ecobank Nigeria Limited as their preferred financial institution for fee payments and collections because of the exciting advantages the lender offers. The Head of Consumer Banking at Ecobank, Mrs Korede Demola-Adeniyi, made this appeal while rolling out the special loan packages designed by the bank for its back-to-school initiatives. Mrs Demola-Adeniyi said the financial institution created some packages for parents, guardians and schools in line with its overall strategy to support the development of the nation’s education sector. According to her, there is a Banking-for-School pack for educational institutions to access

By Modupe Gbadeyanka A partnership will enable customers to receive remittances from anywhere in the world, directly into their Smartcash Payment Service Bank (PSB) has been entered into with Simba Pay Limited, a subsidiary of MFS Africa. A statement from the firm explained that Smartcash customers can instantly receive international funds directly into the account by simply sharing their phone numbers, which also serve as their account numbers. Smartcash PSB, a subsidiary of Airtel Networks Nigeria, was launched in 2022, after obtaining an operating licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to provide financial services to unbanked persons in

By Adedapo Adesanya The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has disclosed that 20 million Nigerians across the 36 states of the country and the Federal Capital Territory will benefit from its Generation Unlimited Initiative by 2030. This was disclosed by the Fund’s Representative in Nigeria, Mr Peter Hawkins. Mr Hawkins said the initiative, which is powered by UNICEF and the government of Nigeria, would also target girls and persons living with disabilities. He said that the scheme aims to connect the youth to entrepreneurship and employment opportunities, thereby supporting them to change the world for themselves and their communities. “Nigeria,

By Dipo Olowookere Ghana’s 400 megawatts Bridge Power plant project in Tema has received a boost with the supply of the power generation equipment for the project by GE. The equipment, which will be used in the first phase of the project, will collectively generate 200 MW of power, while an additional 200 MW of power would be deployed in stage two of the project. The equipment scope includes GE’s TM2500 gas turbine generator sets and GE’s steam turbines in a combined cycle (CC) configuration. This will be the first time the TM2500 gas turbines will be used in a

By Dipo Olowookere Canadian firm, Smartcool Systems, has announced the release of a new product, the ECOhome, which will focus on the lucrative residential air conditioning market. Smartcool’s proprietary control algorithm technology has delivered proven energy efficiencies and savings to some of the world’s best known brands over many years including McDonalds, Burger King, Dell Computers, Tesco, General Electric, Hilton, Radisson, Mercedes Benz, Jaguar Motorcars, United Utilities, Telefonica, Emcor, and SSE. Commenting on the new product, CEO of Smartcool, Mr Ted Konyi, disclosed that, “The company has built a pedigree of delivering meaningful energy savings at over 30,000 installations around

By Dipo Olowookere On Tuesday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sold 202-day bills worth N26 billion via the open market operations (OMO). The apex bank had offered to sell N20 billion worth of 86-day bills, but ended with no sale. Also, N50 billion of the 202-day bills were put for auctioning, but only N26 billion was sold at a stop rate of 17.8 percent, according to data obtained by Business Post on the website of the central bank. The overnight rate closed depreciated yesterday to 19.25 percent from 20 percent on Monday, while the Open Buy Back rate slumped

By Olubori Oduntan As part of its commitment to safer cloud security, Gemalto has announced a next-generation key management solution called SafeNet Virtual KeySecure, for simpler and stronger cloud security. Companies can extend their data protection policies to private and public clouds and centralize encryption and key management operations across multiple cloud environments. SafeNet Virtual KeySecure integrates with leading cloud service providers and virtual platforms such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud, VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V and OpenStack, to provide companies with a single key management solution spanning multiple private or public cloud environments. As a result of

By Kayode Awojobi I was privileged to be amidst some people recently and in my typical way of introducing myself, I mentioned my name and added that I hail from Okeho, an integral part of Oke-Ogun. To my chagrin,  one of those present asked me if the town I just mentioned is part of Nigeria, but I made it known to him that Oke-Ogun is part of the present day Oyo State and he eventually made it known that he has never heard of my very own town and the region. Is Oke-Ogun really a part of the current government

By Dipo Olowookere In south-eastern Niger, the hepatitis E outbreak declared two months ago is particularly affecting pregnant women. Of the 186 women admitted to the main maternal and paediatric health centre in the town of Diffa, 34 died of severe complications related to the disease. Of the 876 cases of hepatitis E reported on June 11, the majority are displaced people and refugees, 247,900 according to the authorities. As the disease spreads mainly through contaminated water, the current outbreak highlights poor water and sanitation conditions and the lack of adequate sanitation facilities among these people, already affected by the