Banking
Nigerian Banks Have Porous Online Banking Security—Hacker
By Dipo Olowookere
A Nigerian hacker arrested by the Lagos State Police Command, Mr Michael Williams, has disclosed that financial institutions operating in the country have porous online banking system.
Mr Williams, a 28-year-old medical doctor turned hacker, made this disclosure on Monday when he was paraded before the media by the Commissioner of Police, Mr Edgal Imohimi.
He was arrested for purchasing a N28 million Porsche car from a dealer with fake bank alert.
“In Nigeria, you can sit and hack any account but abroad, it is only through the Swiss account because the money is much.
“Nigerian bank don’t have professional hackers to secure them online. They are not secured so I can easily hack into their account.
“When you are online, you can do whatever you want to do. I don’t have an account because you can easily be caught so I just do credit cards. You get old credit card,” the suspect told newsmen yesterday.
Speaking on how he got into hacking banks, Mr Williams said, “I was pushed out of work so I got a visa to travel to Canada. I worked at Tolu Medical Centre and EKO hospital.
“It is just that in Nigeria, when they see you are good at something, they just look for a way to push you out.
“I travelled to Canada to get a job to do or something to do. When I got to Canada, I was living with an Israel guy who had an accommodation there. He taught me all I need to know in hacking. It is about software made easy online. So when you are a hacker, you buy the software online, it is very easy.
“I get money online and not from individuals in Nigeria. It is a free world online. I came back to Nigeria because our banks are not secured. You can easily hack accounts online.
“Creating a credit card, you get old credit card online, create them wait for a day monitor your emails and wait for when transactions are coming in on the Swiss code transaction. I don’t have an idea of how much I have made.
“Anybody making $1 million or $2 million transaction or $1 billion, you can divert it online and then secure your securities and thereafter fund it on your credit card.
“After funding it on your credit card, you can use it to buy any kind of powerful software you want and anything buyable online.
“You monitor celebrities, movie producer and actresses in the USA. John Travolta an actor based in USA he does transfers every week. I hacked into his Swiss code account. Banks in Nigeria are not like banks abroad.”
Speaking on how the suspect, who hails from Delta State, was apprehended, the police chief said, his office received complaints from people about Mr Williams.
According to him, the accused person had visited a car dealer known as Abidogun Adewale to buy a Porsche SUV worth N28 million with a fake bank alert.
“After he had bought the vehicle, he thereafter requested for the seller’s bank account number and made it look like he had paid him via the fake alert to his phone using HTTP tunnel. com.
“The suspect drove the car away unknown to the seller that he had been scammed.
“Adewale had only discovered when he went to the bank to obtain his bank statement weeks after. However, based on his complaint, a manhunt was launched on the fleeing suspect. The command availed detectives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad all necessary Intelligence asset which led to the arrest of the suspect in Lekki Lagos.
“This suspect was interrogated and he confessed to committing the crime. He also led detectives to Asaba, Delta State where the stolen Porsche car was recovered. He also led detectives to Owerri, Imo State where two Camry Saloon cars he stole in a similar fashion were recovered. The modus operandi of the suspect who has a good mastery of cyber environment is that he creates a credit card, through cyber ghost 12. When the credit card matures, it is then funded through a hacked Swiss account.
“Any transaction anybody is doing through Swiss account the suspect manipulates such and wires the fund to his contrived credit card. This is possible with the aid of cyber ghost 12 HTTP/tunnel.azinytv4/vpn (virtual private network).
“He further stated that through the credit card, one can buy software he needs to work and protect his job so that he cannot be traced. Such software is known as von and word cyber protector for example Dare Devil. It also enables you to do deductions and transactions per dollar from every individual domiciliary account, shutting of CCTV camera on Dare Devil and break the 256 codes on word CCTV.china.north Korea.code, untouchable.tracker.com. This enables him to shut down any working system of his interest on yt. com an Internet sophistication for example YouTube/Facebook to make them unworkable for 67 minutes. Although he is not a computer scientist, he claimed to be a professional hacker.”
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police said the suspect would be charged to court soon.
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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