Cassava Fintech, Comviva win 2018 East Africa Com Award

By Adedapo Adesanya Leading global provider of technological solutions YNV Group, through its cybersecurity brand, Cytek, has advocated that stakeholders in the financial services sector prioritise cybersecurity and highlighted key strategies for resilience at a recently hosted webinar for the industry. The session which was held on November 22, was themed Ensuring Cybersecurity Resilience in Financial Services Companies in Nigeria, and served as a pivotal platform for fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange in the sector. Led by cybersecurity experts in the industry, the webinar analysed some of the pressing challenges and emerging threats faced by financial services companies in Nigeria while

By Adedapo Adesanya The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani, has announced a N1 billion partnership between the ministry and IHS Towers, one of the largest independent communications infrastructure firms in the world, to establish the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) Learning Community. The ministry earlier this month released a 31-page policy document titled Accelerating our Collective Prosperity through Technical Efficiency which outlined plans to boost the country’s economy through the use of technology. It said it would collaborate with other ministries and parastatals, including private sector stakeholders to drive opportunities for startups to facilitate the

By Adedapo Adesanya The federal government through the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has opened applications for a tech startup accelerator fellowship program to empower Nigerians with innovative ideas. The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani, said the preparations for the training commenced in August with a meeting of stakeholders in tech to co-create innovative ways to achieve the target. He added that the meeting was the first in a series of ecosystem engagements to ensure that the government gets the best solutions from within. The new initiative from the NITDA is part of the

By Modupe Gbadeyanka An agreement has been signed between Wema Bank Plc and a private institution in Ekiti State, Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, (ABUAD), to finance projects in the school in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and three other local lenders. The projects to be financed by Wema Bank Plc are under the university’s Infrastructure Development Programme Phase II. The projects under consideration include a 400-bed teaching hospital, an industrial research park, a post-graduate school, student hostels, a central library, and a small-scale hydropower plant. “Wema Bank has always supported projects that can improve access to affordable

By Adedapo Adesanya  Oil prices were trading down again Monday despite tensions in the Middle East. The latest market mover is not the tensions surrounding Iran, and it’s not outages in Libya and Venezuela. It’s not even oil production or inventory moves in the United States—it’s China. Specifically, it’s the most recent move by China to allow its currency to devalue that has the markets reacting to the development. The move follows a last-week announcement by President Donald Trump that the US plans to slap tariffs on the remaining $300 billion of goods that come in from China. At the

By Modupe Gbadeyanka One of the leading financial institutions in Africa, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, is planning to introduce a feature aimed to unify customer experience on its mobile app. The Single Sign-on authentication feature will allow customers to access all their active profiles across the group. It is an innovative capability from the end-to-end financial services institution. It was birthed to simplify customers’ access to the Stanbic IBTC Mobile App, also known as the Super App. It enables customers to use single login credentials to access multiple services operated across the group on its Super App. In an announcement,

By Adedapo Adesanya  As part of efforts to curb the trafficking of narcotics and other banned substances, the National Drug Laws Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted 8,381,600 capsules and tablets of tramadol as well as 56,782 bottles of codeine among others in major raids in Lagos. This was contained in a statement by the Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi, on Sunday in Abuja. Mr Babafemi said desperate bids by drug cartels to push out millions of illicit drug tablets across Lagos and other parts of the country for the festive season had been frustrated by the agency.

By Adedapo Adesanya The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Mr Akinwumi Adesina, recipient of the 2017 World Food Prize; and Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz, recipient of the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, have called for a quick and comprehensive plan for debt restructuring in Africa. This call was made at the launch of the bank’s 2021 edition of its annual African Economic Outlook held recently, where the lender sought ways to restructure Africa’s collective debt which now stands at 70 per cent of the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP). At the launch, Mr Adesina urged African

Employees at Renmoney, one of Nigeria’s leading fintech companies, in partnership with Lifebank, recently donated over 65 pints of much needed blood that will be used to treat patients in life-threatening situations. Elizabeth Okonji, Chief People Officer at Renmoney, said the organisers were overwhelmed by the number of staff who wanted to support the initiative. She said “a lot of our people, or their loved ones, have been in serious health situations that required blood transfusions so they were really happy to extend that help to other people across the country”. Renmoney CEO, Oluwatobi Boshoro, said “our core business is

By Adedapo Adesanya The Registrar General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Mr Garba Abubakar, has said the organisation was vigorously reforming its operations in accordance with global best practices. Mr Abubakar said this in Kaduna while declaring open the agency’s 2021 management retreat themed Digital Economy: The Role of Corporate Affairs Commission. In a statement issued on Saturday by the CAC’s Head Media Unit, Mr Rasheed Mahe, further disclosed that the deployment of Limited Partnership (LP) and Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) was nearing completion. The commission’s chief, however, assured that efforts would be made to sustain the digitisation efforts for

By Adedapo Adesanya The Akwa Ibom Government has hinted that construction of the Ibom Deep Seaport will commence in 2022. This followed the approval for the development and the subsequent presentation of the state’s 2022 budgetary outlay of N582.1 billion, christened budget of redefining standards. The Governor of Akwa Ibom, Mr Udom Emmanuel, said that the facility would consolidate on the gains of his administration achievements for sustainable expansion and growth. Mr Emmanuel announced that the specific objectives of the 2022 budget include the increment of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state by expanding and diversifying the state’s