Banking
First Bank Affirms Commitment to Corporate Governance
By Dipo Olowookere
First Bank Nigeria Limited has reiterated its commitment to the promotion and inculcation of sound business ethics in students of Nigerian universities as well as to continuously uphold good corporate governance in all its operations.
This commitment was made last weekend by the company’s Head of Corporate Responsibility, Marketing and Corporate Communications, Mr Ismail Omamegbe, during the National Final of the 2018 Ethics Challenge of CFA Society Nigeria held in Lagos.
At the event sponsored by First Bank, Mr Omamegbe said the financial institution is a responsible organisation that believes in robust corporate governance and sound ethics and that it was desirous of passing this on to the youth and Nigerians generally.
He added that the support for the Ethics Challenge was one of the numerous corporate and social responsibility initiatives by which First Bank promotes orderly society.
“We are going to be 125 sometimes in March 2019, and one of the key things that drive us is ethics; robust corporate governance. Without that, we wouldn’t have gone this far.
“But apart from internally believing in ethics and having an excellent framework for upholding it, we also think of creative ways we can drive this as a programme such that it would endure and build young minds,” he stated.
Mr Omamegbe added that, “Our focus is how to empower youth. Our core areas of CSR are education, health and welfare. There’s also financial inclusion and responsible lending. There are different areas within these categories, and one of them is the endowment of the Samuel Asabia Chair in Business Ethics at the University of Lagos. That shows how much we believe in ethics because it’s an endowment that’s in continuity. That’s why we have this programme and are partnering with CFA Society because their vision aligns with ours.”
Mr Omamegbe assured that the next edition of the competition would be more significant as plans are underway to involve all Nigerian universities.
President of CFA Society Nigeria, Mr Banji Fehintola, commended First Bank for supporting the competition and expanding its scope. He disclosed that the Society spent a long time talking to potential sponsors who turned it down before First Bank came on board.
He commended First Bank for investing in Nigerians saying, “They’ve been great people. This partnership started a little over a year ago when we approached them. I was so pleased when they came back to us and said we buy this mission. We believe in young people; we believe in ethics, so we are going to support this program. They came back to us and said not only are we supporting for one year but many years. Increasingly, they are increasing the impact of the competition. This shows their commitment to ethics.”
Three universities namely; Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the University of Lagos emerged as finalists at the national final.
Four universities had earlier been produced at a regional preliminary held in Lagos on Friday while two had emerged from the Abuja elimination round. While the University of Lagos, Babcock University, University of Benin and Obafemi Awolowo University qualified from the preliminary round in Lagos, UNN and the University of Ilorin emerged from the first round in Abuja. The six universities contested in the national final.
Bowen University, Covenant University, Ekiti State University, Mountain Top University, University of Calabar, University of Ibadan, University of Abuja, University of Maiduguri, and Madonna University were the other participants in the Ethics Challenge that aims to promote the highest standards of ethics, education, and professional excellence in the financial and investment sector.
Winner of the competition will be announced at the CFA Society Nigeria Gala Night on Wednesday, November 7 at the Eko Convention Centre.
For emerging finalists, team members from the three universities will get scholarships for the CFA Level One examination. They will also be part of the CFA Society Nigeria’s investment conference and women in investment management workshop.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Sewa Capital Investment, an investment banking and financial advisory firm focused on supporting high-growth businesses across Africa, has made a strategic investment in Mathesis Analytics, a Nigerian financial technology company providing Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered credit decisioning infrastructure.
The investment is expected to support Mathesis Analytics’ expansion drive for its AI-powered credit infrastructure in Nigeria.
Currently, Nigerian lenders face a critical structural gap: the fragmentation of verifiable consumer data makes it difficult to accurately price risk at scale. Mathesis directly addresses this bottleneck by aggregating disparate transactional and behavioural data into a real-time measure of creditworthiness.
The investment will support product development, institutional integrations, expansion of Mathesis’ lender network, and the strengthening of its data and technology infrastructure, a statement from the fintech firm stated.
By embedding this infrastructure, financial institutions can expand underwriting capacity, support more accurate risk-based lending decisions, and reach new market segments without compromising established risk thresholds.
For Mathesis Analytics, this investment represents an important milestone in its strategy to build Africa’s next-generation credit infrastructure to drive true financial inclusion.
Mathesis has already supported more than 8 million loans for over 2 million unique borrowers in Nigeria, providing a substantial operating base from which to deepen institutional adoption and expand into additional markets.
The company will leverage Sewa Capital’s backing to accelerate the expansion of its institutional footprint.
“At Sewa Capital, we are interested in businesses building the infrastructure that enables African economies to allocate capital more efficiently and inclusively.
“Mathesis Analytics is addressing a fundamental constraint in credit markets: the information gap that limits lenders’ ability to assess risk confidently.
“Its technology has the potential to expand responsible access to credit in Nigeria and, over time, across Africa. We are pleased to support the team through its next phase of growth,” the Managing Director of Sewa Capital, Ms Angela Jide-Jones, commented.
The chief executive of Mathesis Analytics, Mr Winston Osuchukwu, in his reaction, said, “Credit inclusion begins with information visibility.
“Partnering with Sewa Capital accelerates the rollout of our infrastructure; equipping a wider network of lenders with the capabilities required to accurately evaluate risk and ultimately deliver credit services to previously excluded populations across the continent.”
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Eligible innovators, financial institutions, Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), financial technology (fintech) companies, and technology firms have been invited to apply for the second cohort of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Regulatory Sandbox Programme.
A statement signed by the acting Director of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations Department of the apex bank, Mrs Hakama Sidi-Ali, disclosed that entries opened on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, and will close on Monday, August 31, 2026.
Cohort 2 of the initiative introduces two dedicated testing tracks to support emerging technologies with the potential to strengthen Nigeria’s financial system while upholding high standards of consumer protection, financial stability, and market integrity.
According to the central bank, the two tracks are VASP and Data-Enabled Financial Services (Non-VASP).
VASP track is to support innovative virtual asset, stablecoin, payment, settlement, custody, wallet, and related financial infrastructure solutions that require supervised live testing, while the non-VASP track supports innovations that leverage secure digital infrastructure and permission-based data sharing to improve financial inclusion, payments, credit, risk management, operational efficiency, and consumer outcomes.
The CBN Regulatory Sandbox provides a controlled environment in which eligible participants may test innovative financial products, services, business models, and enabling technologies under the supervision of the CBN.
The programme enables the CBN and innovators to engage constructively throughout the testing process, supporting regulatory learning while encouraging responsible innovation that benefits consumers and the wider financial system.
Eligible organisations whose proposed innovations fall within the programme’s scope are encouraged to apply.
Applications will be assessed based on the level of innovation, readiness for controlled live testing, potential consumer or market benefit, governance arrangements, risk management capability, and the suitability of the proposed testing plan.
Successful participants will undertake supervised testing within clearly defined parameters agreed with the CBN, including appropriate safeguards for consumer protection, operational resilience, cybersecurity, and regulatory reporting.
The central bank emphasised that participation in the scheme does not constitute a licence, authorisation, or approval to operate outside the approved testing parameters.
It noted that the Sandbox is intended to facilitate responsible experimentation, strengthen regulatory engagement, and support evidence-based policy development in line with the CBN’s statutory mandate.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The international spending limit on the GTBank Naira card has been increased by the financial institution to $40,000.
This information was revealed by the lender in an email to customers on Tuesday, August 11, 2026.
The banking subsidiary of GTCO Plc disclosed that the new offshore spending limit is for a quarter.
This development comes as the Nigerian foreign exchange (FX) market is witnessing stability against the United States Dollar.
The forex volatility experienced a few years ago has eased, allowing companies and others to plan within a reasonable exchange rate band.
“The Dollar limit on your GTBank Naira Card is now $40,000 quarterly,” the tier-1 commercial bank said in the message sighted by Business Post.
Improvement in forex liquidity in the domestic FX ecosystem has allowed Nigerians to use their local cards to complete financial transactions on foreign platforms, which was not possible a few years ago because of Dollar scarcity and arbitrage.
At the official market on Tuesday, the exchange rate closed at N1,364/$1. It was exchanged at N1,367/$1 at the GTBank FX desk and N1,395/$1 at the parallel market.
