Economy
Adebola Sanni Suggests Solution to Africa’s Financial Inclusion Problems
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The co-founder of Infibranches Technologies, Ms Adebola Sanni, has disclosed that if Africa is to overcome financial inclusion and sustainability challenges in the area of affordable and reliable power supply needed to drive the growth of local economies, it must embrace financial technology (Fintech).
Ms Sanni, who is also the Group Head, Business Development & Partnerships at Swifta Systems and Services, stated that, “Fintech has increasingly provided innovative ways to address existing gaps in the availability, accessibility and use of finance particularly among the unbanked population.”
“By leveraging the proliferation of technology, agent banking and mobile money solutions now offer affordable, instant, and reliable transactions, savings, credit across rural communities where no bank had ever established a branch,” she added.
“Similarly, about 75 million Nigerians who mostly fall within the financially underserved or excluded demography live without reliable electricity access as the existing electrical grid serves largely the country’s urban population,” the energy expert also said.
Financial inclusion and provision of sustainable energy is at a turning point in Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria. With a population of over 200 million, about 50 per cent of the total population live in rural areas, and only 39 per cent of those living in rural communities have access to electricity. This is in addition to over 40 per cent of the entire population who are financially excluded or underserved.
However, the proliferation of digital financial services in Nigeria – powered largely by growth in fintech companies – has catalysed an unparalleled increase in the current number of people with access to formal financial services, while further opening up opportunities to address power supply challenges across rural communities; a major feat instrumental towards achieving the broad Sustainable Development Goal 7. With over 200 fin-tech companies in operation within its borders, Africa’s largest economy has found a way to target and capture over 40 per cent of its financially excluded or underserved population.
“We understand how pivotal the provision of sustainable power is to driving growth of local economies in rural communities and by extension the need to boost financial services penetration across these communities.
“These are both enablers for catalysing positive transformation and driving sustainable economic progress across the country,” Ms Sanni, a leading business strategist and technology consultant, stated, stressing that, “To address these challenges, we believe distributed energy solutions that leverage digital payments will open up opportunities to reach the underserved market at low cost.”
Speaking further, she said, “We partnered NGOs, including Shell Foundation, USAID, to extend agent networks together with off-grid energy providers in 2019 where we set up about 200 agent locations across Nigeria, identifying communities across the rural and peri-urban regions with needs for both power and financial services.
“We also partnered with renewable energy companies such as Green Light Planet (Sun King), D.Light Solar, Sosai, PAS BBoxx, Konexa to set up payment points necessary to expand access to highly subsidized power for such communities.
“This solution provides affordable home solar systems to rural communities with an affordable and convenient payment structure where beneficiaries pay as low as N500 (less than $2 dollar a month) which allows for people to pay off the cost in a year to fully own the solar equipment.”
To date, over 400,000 people have been impacted across 22 States and 108 local government areas in Nigeria through various initiatives supporting energy access, especially in rural areas.
The addition of the Solar Power Naija project by the Federal government initiative under the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) and managed by REA, for off-grid communities, will further expand energy access to 25 million individuals through the provision of Solar Home Systems (SHS) or connection to a mini-grid. This is a good initiative to help expand energy access faster.
One of the success stories underpinning how providing innovative energy solutions can transform communities is the Havenhills mini-grid project in Kigbe community located in Kwali Local Government Area Council, Abuja.
Before executing the project, the Kigbe community with geographical limitations had no electricity as they were completely off-grid. The project upon completion delivered a 20KW solar enabled mini-grid through 3km 3-phases and 1-phase grid lines to 145 homes, enabling them to power basic electrical appliances such as light bulbs, fans and TVs. The project also supports 5 local businesses including a barbing salon, grocery store and viewing centre.
As part of creating sustainable economic empowerment, Ms Sanni, who has a strong passion for financial inclusion and energy access, has facilitated the implementation of a pioneer digital infrastructure that supports micro insurance, pension and savings providers and the first API infrastructure that aggregates renewable energy products and services making them accessible to any payment service providers, banks and other financial and non-financial institutions.
She is vastly experienced in driving growth, creating market-focused products and providing innovative solutions to businesses in fintech, e-commerce, telco and private/public sectors as well as creating partnership opportunities for growth.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira extended its positive run against the US Dollar on Wednesday, January 7, in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) as its value firmed up by 81 Kobo or 0.06 per cent to N1,418.26/$1, in contrast to the preceding session’s N1,419.07/$1.
It was not a different story for the domestic currency against the Pound Sterling in the official market as it improved by N3.63 to trade at N1,913.66/£1 compared with the previous day’s N1,917.20/£1 and chalked up N3.09 on the Euro to close at N1,657.52/€1 versus Tuesday’s N1,660.31/€1.
At the GTBank forex desk, the Nigerian Naira gained N10 against the greenback yesterday to settle at N1,425/$1 versus the previous day’s N1,435/$1 and closed flat at the black market at N1,470/$1.
The Nigerian currency has continued to perform better at the spot market amid more supportive environment, though analysts have cautioned that global oil market weakness and rising domestic insecurity could hamper the trajectory.
Recent reforms in Nigeria’s foreign exchange market are beginning to yield results with CardinalStone pointing to improved price discovery, better transparency, and stronger FX liquidity as factors that are helping to stabilize the currency.
“We expect Naira to appreciate to a range of N1,350.00/$ – N1,450.00/$ in 2026, supported by improving fundamentals,” according to CardinalStone in a January forecast.
On his part, the Senior Economist at Africa Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Mr Yemi Kale, pointed out that the Naira could trade between N1,313/$1 to a worst level of N1,650/$1 reflecting varying assumptions around oil prices, foreign-exchange (FX) inflows, inflation trends, and policy consistency.
He warned policymakers against weak oil prices or production disruptions reducing FX inflows, deepening FX liquidity crisis and forced currency devaluation.
“We expect the Naira to continue trading in line with prevailing market demand and supply conditions, supported by improving external reserves position,” Anchoria Securities Limited said in a note.
Meanwhile, foreign reserves climbed to $45.623 billion following fresh inflows from investors that participated at the OMO bills auction organised by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday.
In the cryptocurrency market, there was cooling in the early-January crypto rebound even as broader risk backdrop stayed supportive with a rally in global government bonds and growing bets on Federal Reserve rate cuts, with Ripple (XRP) further down by 6.4 per cent to $2.11.
Further, Ethereum (ETH) slipped by 4.2 per cent to trade at $3,111.31, Cardano (ADA) shrank by 4.1 per cent to $0.3935, Binance Coin (BNB) depreciated by 3.6 per cent to $881.38, and Dogecoin (DOGE) depleted by 3.1 per cent to finish at $0.1432.
In addition, Bitcoin (BTC) went down by 2.8 per cent to finish at $90,015.06, Litecoin (LTC) decreased by 2.7 per cent to close at $80.72, and Solana (SOL) lost 2.6 per cent to sell $135.12, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.
By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited further appreciated by 0.40 per cent on Wednesday amid signs that investors are slowing down on their appetite for local equities.
Data from Customs Street showed that traders are rebalancing their portfolios and are selling off some stocks in a profit-taking move.
A total 35 shares ended on the gainers chart, while 38 shares finished on the losers’ log, indicating a negative market breadth index and weak investor sentiment.
Union Dicon gained 10.00 per cent to trade at N8.80, Okomu Oil appreciated by 10.00 per cent to N1,204.50, Seplat also rose by 10.00 per cent to N6,171.00, NCR Nigeria improved by 9.97 per cent to N79.95, and McNichols advanced by 9.93 per cent to N4.76.
On the flip side, Cadbury Nigeria lost 10.00 per cent to sell for N63.00, Austin Laz retreated by 9.93 per cent to N5.08, Aluminium Extrusion shrank by 9.91 per cent to N19.55, Haldane McCall crashed by 9.85 per cent to N4.21, and FTN Cocoa slipped by 9.62 per cent to N6.01.
At midweek, investors transacted 1.4 billion stocks valued at N20.7 billion in 49,286 deals compared with the 759.0 million stocks worth N19.9 billion in 54,212 deals on Tuesday, representing a drop in the number of deals by 9.09 per cent, and a surge in the trading volume and value by 84.45 per cent apiece.
Universal Insurance was the busiest equity with 804.1 million units sold for N410.4 million, Linkage Assurance traded 54.9 million units worth N98.9 million, Access Holdings exchanged 29.7 million units valued at N691.5 million, Ellah Lakes exchanged 24.5 million units valued at N446.4 million, and Mutual Benefits transacted 24.5 million units worth N100.2 million.
At the close of business, the All-Share Index (ASI) was up by 640.68 points to 160,591.76 points from 159,951.08 points and the market capitalisation rose by N410 billion to N102.685 trillion from N102.275 trillion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Oil prices settled lower for a second straight session on Wednesday as investors digested US President Donald Trump’s deal to import up to $2 billion worth of Venezuelan crude, a move that would lift supplies to the world’s largest oil consumer.
Brent crude futures lost 74 cents or 1.2 per cent to close at $59.96 a barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell by $1.14 or 2 per cent to $55.99 a barrel.
Venezuela will be “turning over” between 30 million and 50 million barrels of “sanctioned oil” to the US, President Trump wrote in a social media post on Tuesday.
Reuters said the deal between US and Venezuela initially could require the rerouting of cargoes that were bound for China.
Venezuela has millions of barrels of oil loaded on tankers and in storage tanks that it has been unable to ship since mid-December due to a blockade on exports imposed by President Trump.
The blockade was part of a US pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government that culminated in American forces capturing him over the weekend.
The US also seized an empty Russian-flagged, Venezuela-linked oil tanker in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday.
The M/V Bella 1 vessel was seized for sanctions violations “pursuant to a warrant issued by a U.S. federal court” after being tracked by a US Coast Guard cutter. The operation concludes a weeks-long chase that began in late December when the tanker abruptly turned away from Venezuela and headed into the open Atlantic to evade a US quarantine.
Crude oil inventories in the US posted a sharp draw last week, even as gasoline (petrol) and distillate stockpiles recorded sizable builds, according to new data released Wednesday by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The EIA reported that US crude stocks dropped by 3.8 million barrels to 419.1 million barrels in the week ended January 2.
US gasoline (petrol) stocks increased by 7.7 million barrels in the week, the EIA said, while distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, climbed by 5.6 million barrels in the week versus expectations for a rise of 2.1 million barrels.
Morgan Stanley analysts estimated the oil market could reach a surplus of as many as 3 million barrels per day in the first half of 2026, based on weak growth in demand last year and rising supply.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) reiterated earlier this month to pause the planned unwinding of its voluntary cuts totaling 2.9 million barrels per day, keeping that volume off the market through the first half of the year.
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