Banking
Marshal-Idio Wins Heritage Bank’s N5m at The Next Titan Season-3
By Dipo Olowookere
A winner has emerged in the Heritage Bank’s sponsored entrepreneurial competition show, The Next Titan Season 3.
The contest was won by a budding entrepreneur with unique business idea of turning trashes into beautiful furniture, Mrs Marvis Marshal-Idio.
Mrs Marshal-Idio went home with the star prize of N5 million from Heritage Bank, which is the headline official sponsor of the competition and a brand new car from Coscharis Motors.
At the grand finale held at weekend in Lagos, four finalists: Ronald Ajiboye, a first class graduate of a Russian University who is into drones production, Mrs Marvis Marshal-Idio emerged winner, Victoria Mamza, founder of Wangarau Foods was the 1st runner-up founder and Sunday Ewolabi of Naija Peanuts emerged as the 2nd runner-up.
Impressed by the commitment and tenacity shown by contestants in this year’s edition of The Next Titan, Nigeria’s Entrepreneurial Reality TV Show, Heritage Bank Limited has restated its commitment for the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria.
The bank said the scheme is a veritable platform through which the financial institution is propagating its campaign for youth empowerment programme in the country.
Mr Ife Sekibo, the Managing Director of the bank, who was represented by Mrs Ori Ogba, Divisional Head, SME & Retail, Heritage Bank, said he was satisfied with the degree of commitment shown by each contestant who participated in the competition.
Meanwhile, Mr Sekibo said Heritage Bank instituted The Next Titan with a view to igniting the entrepreneurial spirit in the youth.
His words: “At Heritage Bank, we have discovered that SMEs have a crucial role to play in nation building process anywhere in the world. This is why at Heritage Bank we shall not relent in our support for young entrepreneurs who have a clear projection of their future plans.”
He stated that that the bank’s participation the Next Titan TV Reality Show as lead sponsor is to reinforce the financial institution’s promise of supporting the sector and fighting unemployment in the country.
Meanwhile, Mr Mide Kunle-Akinlaja, the Executive Producer of the Next Titan commended the bank for the support given to the reality show.
“I want to thank the management of Heritage Bank, headed by the indefatigable and visionary entrepreneur, Mr Ifie Sekibo, for sponsoring this innovative Show. Heritage Bank has been greatly visible in the area of making future leaders in Nigeria. We are indeed grateful to Heritage Bank for being the major sponsor of the Show”, he stated.
According to him, the basic objective of the scheme is to demystify entrepreneurship and present it as a viable career options to millions of young talented graduates especially in this era of unemployment ravaging the nation.
The Next Titan TV Reality Show is a 10-week programme designed to ignite the entrepreneurial spirit of Nigerians.
The TV Reality Show gives an opportunity to young talented Nigerians who fall within the age bracket of 18-39 years with great, innovative and unbeatable business ideas, to compete against one another in real-life entrepreneurial challenges in a bid to ultimately win N5 million and a brand new car to start their new business or to support their existing business.
The Season 3 auditions were held in Abuja, Port-Harcourt, and Lagos with over 50,000 contestants participating.
The Next Titan is a global standard television platform aims at practically engineering entrepreneurship among Nigerian youths through identifying the best business minds and supporting their entrepreneurial acumen through financial and logistical assistance, informal training, knowledge and other requisite services needed to propel them into successful business personalities.
Tonye Cole, Co-Founder/MD, Sahara Group; Chris Parkes, Chairman/CEO, CPMS Africa; and Lilian Olubi, CEO, Primera Africa Securities Limited were the judges for the competition.
Iroghama Ogbeifun, a passionate and goal-getting entrepreneur was the winner of the Season One. Iroghama is from Edo State, Nigeria, and auditioned for The Next Titan in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. Similarly, the winner of the Season Two is Davies Okeowo, who holds BSc in Accounting. Davies is from Agege, Lagos Nigeria.
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.
-
Feature/OPED6 years agoDavos was Different this year
-
Travel/Tourism9 years ago
Lagos Seals Western Lodge Hotel In Ikorodu
-
Showbiz3 years agoEstranged Lover Releases Videos of Empress Njamah Bathing
-
Banking7 years agoSort Codes of GTBank Branches in Nigeria
-
Economy3 years agoSubsidy Removal: CNG at N130 Per Litre Cheaper Than Petrol—IPMAN
-
Banking3 years agoFirst Bank Announces Planned Downtime
-
Banking3 years agoSort Codes of UBA Branches in Nigeria
-
Sports3 years agoHighest Paid Nigerian Footballer – How Much Do Nigerian Footballers Earn