Safaricom Gets Approval to Launch M-Pesa in Ethiopia

By Adedapo Adesanya The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani, has revealed that plans to onboard three million tech talents in Nigeria will be done in phases, starting with the training of 30,000 persons in the next three months. Appearing as one of the lead guests at Moonshoot by TechCabal, a two-day event organised by the tech publication in Lagos on Wednesday, he said his ministry would apply a 1-10-100 model, which by definition is a three-phase model. “We are using a 1-10-100-model. We are starting with 1 per cent of our 3 million target, and

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The Managing Director of Payment Processing & Switching at Interswitch Purepay, Mr Akeem Lawal, has said the company will always throw its full weight behind conversations aimed at improving the payments industry. Mr Lawal said this ahead of the 2023 annual conference of the Committee of e-Business Industry Heads (CeBIH) scheduled to take place from Tuesday, December 5, 2023, to Wednesday, December 6, 2023, in Lagos. He is one of the speakers slated to attend the event with the Managing Director of Verve International, Vincent Ogbunude; and the Managing Director of Digital Infrastructure and Managed Services at

By Adedapo Adesanya The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani, has announced a plan to help Nigerian tech startups raise a total of $5 billion yearly in funding rounds by 2027. He disclosed the plan in the ministry’s 31-page Strategic Blueprint document titled Accelerating our Collective Prosperity through Technical Efficiency, released and seen by Business Post on Monday. Mr Tijani said the ministry’s primary objective is to stimulate the growth and sustainability of startups, with a specific focus on developing innovative solutions for critical sectors of the economy. “Recognising the critical role of patient capital in the

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The unveiling of Digital Innovation & Creative Excellence (DICE) on Wednesday, November 8, 2023, will be witnessed by critical stakeholders in the technology industry. DICE is an initiative of Beyond Limits in partnership with key stakeholders in the tech, business, and creative ecosystem. The company, established by an expert in the field, Ms Juliet Ehimuan, has themed the launching of the initiative as Solve for Africa: Co-Creating a Tech-Enabled Future. Those expected to grace the occasion include the Minister of Communications and the Digital Economy, Nigeria, Mr Bosun Tijani; the founder of MainStreet Technologies, Ms Funke Opeke;

By Dipo Olowookere Last week, a total of 980.5 million shares worth N7.0 billion in the financial services sector on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) were traded by investors in 11,634 deals. These transactions contributed 79.99 per cent and 64.44 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively, data from the exchange disclosed. It was observed that the conglomerates industry followed with 59.8 million shares worth N72.5 million in 550 deals, while the third place was the consumer goods sector with a turnover of 58.9 million shares valued at N1.4 billion in 2,862 deals. Business Post reports

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Capital market regulator in Nigeria, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has launched a full investigation into financial statements of Oando Nigeria. It was gathered that SEC has observed alleged malpractices in the company’s financial statements and it has formally written to the oil firm to provide sufficient explanations on the mater. According to Channels TV, competent sources divulged to it that SEC commenced the investigations following petitions filed by some foreign investors in Oando Nigeria Plc in relation shareholding structure following the $1.65 billion cash the firm paid in June 2014 to acquire the oil production assets

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Customers of Dangote Cement have been cautioned to be very careful of some scammers trying to defraud them of their funds, claiming that the company was running a sales promo. Some days ago, one of the rivals of Dangote Cement, BUA Cement, announced a slash in the ex-factory price of its product to N3,500. After this announcement, some Nigerians mounted pressure on Dangote Cement to cut down the price of its product and after waiting for days without any action, some fraudsters took advantage, claiming that Dangote Cement was running a promotion, with the price now N2,700.

By Adedapo Adesanya The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) failed to sustain the growth for the fourth consecutive session on Friday as it depreciated by 0.11 per cent on the back of poor performance by four companies on the platform. This weakened the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) by 0.82 points to wrap the session at 742.70 points compared with 743.52 points recorded at the previous session. It also dragged the market capitalisation of the exchange downwards by N700 million to N645.54 billion from N646.24 billion of the preceding trading day. Business Post reports that the four declining stocks of yesterday were

By Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi Friday, August 12, 2022, is a very important date in the global calendar. It is a day that the global community sets aside to celebrate this year’s International Youth Day. The important purpose of this annual celebration, going to information from the United Nations (UN), is to among other things raise voices against any injustice or discrimination happening in the world against the youth. Again, going by available records, International Youth Day was recognized by the United Nations when they passed a resolution towards creating it in 1999 at the United Nations General Assembly. This day

By Dipo Olowookere Some aggrieved customers descended on Managing Director of a bank in Enugu after facing several difficulties in withdrawing their money in the financial institution. If not for the prompt intervention of the police, the bank boss would have been lynched by the angry customers, who were ready for a showdown. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the incident happened at about 5pm on Wednesday at the De-Dome Event Centre in New Haven, Enugu, where Mr Kingsley Ubenyi, who is the MD of Kesley Mega Micro-Finance Bank, tried to explain why the customers have not been

By Dipo Olowookere Truecaller has launched its instant messaging (IM) platform called Truecaller Chat aimed to make communication safer to prevent fake news from circulating. The IM platform will allow users to report links, ensuring that fake news is not circulated unchecked by users. With social media’s rapid adoption globally, the menace of fake news has been on the rise. Even the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, in his Independence Day speech, advised that information spread via social media should be scrutinized. Truecaller has helped erode spam calls faced by users through Caller ID and also strengthened SMS inboxes by

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The Excess Crude Account (ECA) of Nigeria has been described as the “worst-governed funds” in the world. A report released yesterday by released today by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) disclosed that the index assessed the governance and transparency of sovereign wealth funds in 33 countries, where Nigeria was the least. “Colombia’s Savings and Stabilization Fund is the best-governed of the assessed funds, followed by the Ghana Stabilization Fund. “The Qatar Investment Authority, with $330 billion in assets, and Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account were found to be the worst-governed funds. “At least $1.5 trillion is currently