The Nation Newspaper

Category: e-Business

  • SystemSpecs to discuss openings for fintech investors at US summit

    SystemSpecs – owners of Remita, software infrastructure for Treasury Single Account (TSA) would join the Federal Government and host of other Nigerian business delegates for the 2018 edition of US-Nigeria Investment Summit.

    The two-day summit, organised by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the United States of America, will commence on Friday, April 20, 2018 in Washington, DC.

    The theme for this year’s Summit is “Nigeria is Open for Business”.

    Hosted by Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States, H.E. Sylvanus Adiewere Nsofor, the Summit attendees will include senior Nigerian government officials and business leaders, who will provide U.S. investors with the necessary assistance and guidance on investment, establishment, and operation of enterprises in Nigeria. Vice President of Nigeria, His Excellency, Yemi Osinbajo (SAN, GCON) is expected to deliver the Summit’s keynote speech.

    The Summit will be held on the sidelines of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meeting in Washington, DC, U.S.A. Attendees will include ministers and governors of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, captains of Nigeria’s industry, and their counterparts from the United States, including: The U.S. Department of Commerce, The U.S. Department of State, The U.S. Import-Export Bank, The U.S. Trade and Development Agency, among others.

    According to the organisers, “US-Nigeria Investment Summit 2018 will be an opportunity to capture Nigeria’s share of foreign direct investment (FDI) into an African market where household consumption will total $2.1 trillion; business spending will increase to $3.5 trillion; and, Africa’s manufacturing output will nearly double to $930 billion by the year 2025. The US-Nigeria Investment Summit 2018 (UNIS) is also the bridge to commercial engagement with Nigeria, Africa’s gateway country and largest economy”.

    Nigerian business delegates will include top executives of Dangote Group, Honeywell Group, MTN Nigeria, Forte Oil, Transcorp Hilton, Oriental Energy Resources Ltd, among others. Participating agencies and government officials include Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works & Housing; Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture; Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transportation; Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State Petroleum; Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance; Minister of Health Minister of Science and Technology; Minister of Trade and Investment; Governor of Central Bank and Minister of Education.

    SystemSpecs’ participation in the event is highly significant, considering the increasing global focus in innovative technology in various sectors and more recently in the financial service sector. Nigeria has a lot of home-grown world-class products and initiatives to promote to the international community.

  • New cyber espionage campaign targets Africa

    Kaspersky Lab has uncovered a new cyberespionage campaign that is targeting high-profile organisations from around the world with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa.

    Dubbed Operation Parliament, the attacks have been active since last year and have focused on government entities, political figures, military and intelligence agencies, media outlets, research centres, Olympic foundations and large private companies.

    Victims were detected in 27 countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Djibouti and Somalia.

    According to the company, the campaign represents a new geopolitically motivated attacker that is both extremely active and highly skilled.

    Kaspersky believes the threat actors behind the campaign have access to an elaborate database of contacts for sensitive organisations and personnel worldwide, particularly of non-trained staff.

    The company’s researchers, say that based on their findings, the criminals invaded their victims using malware that provides them with a remote PowerShell terminal that enables them to execute any scripts or commands and receive the result through HTTP requests.

    “The attacks have taken great care to stay under the radar and have used techniques to verify the victims’ devices before infiltrating them,” they said.

    Mohamad Amin Hasbini, senior security researcher, Global Research & Analysis Team at Kaspersky Lab, says the campaign is another sign of ongoing tensions in the Middle East and North Africa.

    “We are witnessing higher sophistication and smarter techniques used by attackers and it doesn’t look like they will stop or slow down anytime soon. The type of people and organisations targeted in this attack campaign should elevate their levels of cyber maturity in order to mitigate such attacks in the future,” he added.

    To prevent attacks of this nature, Kaspersky Lab researchers advises organisations to exert special attention and extra measures, including training employees to distinguish spearphishing emails or a phishing link from legitimate emails and links.

    It also advises businesses to use not only proven corporate-grade endpoint security solution but also a combination of specialised protection against advanced threats, which can catch attacks by analysing network anomalies.

  • ‘Technology key to Nigeria’s security challenges’

    The Chief Executive Officer, Hamgad Security Services, Hammed Ibrahim has said the deployment of technology would help address the country’s security challenges.

    He said in modern warfare, technology does the ground work which human beings complete.

    Speaking on the sideline of inaugurating the firm’s new outlet in The Palms, Lekki, Lagos, he said technology has helped to prevent the commission of crimes and  helped to identify and unknot serious security challenge.

    “If we look at the advanced countries right now, they don’t use manpower to fight security challenges, rather they invest a lot in electronic security. So that is what we are now introducing to Nigeria because a lot of people go and get a recruit security guards and things like that to secure their homes and businesses when we have electronic devices that can do the job better. We have security equipment with battery power, because of our peculiar electricity challenges. These are battery-powered equipment that when you are not at home you know what is going on in your house. If you even want to open the door of your house, you can do that from your phone. There are other different gadgets which are battery-powered that can be used to secure yourself, your home and your business,” he said.

    He said the public sector has realised the place of technology in fighting crimes and putting in place, a secured environment for businesses to thrive.

    “To be honest, the government is increasingly realising the place of technology. We have a lot of partners in different agencies and they are adopting the culture because they have realised that if anything happens, they don’t necessarily have to go there before they can get the information they need because there are equipment that they can put in strategic places and will get collate all the information they need that will facilitate the delivery of their jobs,” he said.

    According to him, contrary to the believe that funding is the major challenge of businesses in the country, the major problem is identifying the customers. He said identifying the customers is the most important thing because going to a place where they don’t need what is sold could be frustrating.

    He commended the Federal Government for taking steps that have led to relative stability in the foreign exchange (forex) space. He said: “Like every other business that operates at the international space, forex affected us two years ago but the thing about Nigerians is we always adapt. We started bringing in product that customers actually need, that they request for so that means we don’t go and buy things that they don’t need and just keep them in the shop for display. So that’s why with the exchange rate we let them know what the challenges are and when they are willing to get it, we get it for them.’’

    He said the vision of Hamgad is to be the destination for security, safety equipment in the country. “With Hamgad, we are diversifying security to make sure that we capture the entire market space in Nigeria. We all understand that security is a huge challenge in Nigeria and that created a vacuum for us to come in and basically focus on the sale aspect which is an immediate solution to people whereby they can use the likes of security safety cameras and others,” he added.

  • Oradian sees 30% growth in financial institution

    Microfinance institutions, microfinance banks and cooperative societies in West Africa that use cloud-based toolset can grow by more than 30 per cent yearly through more efficient delivery of services, a tech firm, Oradian has said.

    Speaking during a networking dinner organised by Oradian at the Four Points by Sheraton, Victoria Island, Lagos at the weekend, its  Chief Executive Officer (CEO) highlighted the importance of technology for digital transformation and efficient delivery of services.

    He said tools for digital transformation, such as Instafin Messaging, Automatic Updates, Maximum Data Security, Training and Implementation – including data migration from previous CBS or from spreadsheets – are also crucial to optimise result.

    Co-founder and Programme Director for Africa, Oradian Mr. Onyeka Adibeli said financial institutions on the Instafin platform can offer time-based loans on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis. He added that the system is not customised but parameterised in a bid to ensure that every entity can configure their products to suit their clients.

    He said: “Providing loans is the main service for many microfinance institutions and microfinance banks in West Africa. Clients don’t just come to the institution because they want to save; they are saving because they need a loan. And in anticipation and understanding this demand, we create the tools that financial institutions need to service their clients in the most efficient way.”

    The event brought together leaders of financial institutions, regulatory groups, financial inclusion experts and Fintech providers to form strategic partnerships that will boost financial inclusion in Nigeria and West Africa at large. The event connected the private sector, public sector and financial services regulator.

    Attesting to the positive impact of the use of Instafin in rural microfinance institutions, the Head, LAPO Rural Development Initiative, Mrs. Florence Omofonmwam said LAPO, through Oradian and its CBS Instafin, has been enabled to  open new branches, reach new clients and boost financial inclusion in the country.

    She said: “Oradian has helped us eradicate the cumbersome process of monitoring packs and client data management is simpler and less stressful. With digitisation, my team has less administrative work to do and they can spend more time in the field out of the office, finding new clients.”

    Another speaker, Antonio Separovic said the CBS Instafin enables financial institutions to eliminate manual, pen and paper processes and move to digitised operations.

    By reducing the time spent on administration through digitisation, financial institutions have more time to focus on their core competency: delivering financial services to clients in their communities.

    He added that as part of the process to minimise inefficiencies, Instafin reduces high-operational costs through automatic reporting that replaces time-consuming month end reporting processes.

    Other stakeholders at the event include Association of Non-Bank Micro Finance Institution of Nigeria President, Alhaji M. A. Oyelekan; Oradian’s Business Development Manager, Mr. Eric Elango;  Intermarc Managing Partner, Mr. Adeyinka Adeyemi; Chief Business Development Manager Africa, ProtectPipe, Mr. Henrik Mattila-Kuusniemi and a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) official, Mrs.Temitope Akin-Fadeyi, among others.

  • NIBSS: Nigeria’s payment system most secured

    Nigeria’s payment system is the best in the world in terms of security, provider of shared platforms for financial transactions in the country, the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) has said.

    Its Business Development, Niyi Ajao, who spoke on the sideline of the launch of Tech Fest by Diamond Bank in Lagos, said the growth in mobile transaction in the financial sector in the country has been phenomenal.

    According to him, this development is largely due to the security of the transactions, adding that globally, Nigeria’s payment system is the best because of the different of layers security.

    He said: “Today, everybody is moving towards the mobile phone for payment and with emphasis on USSD and the reason is very clear, with USSD you don’t need to pay for data on the phone. So, the issue of not having internet connection is not an inhibiting factor. With mobile banking application, you need the internet but with USSD, you do not. You just do * a number and $ and the transaction is done. Everybody, even with a feature phone, the simplest phone that costs as little as N2,000, you can do a USSD and that is where we see a lot of transactions in banking moving into now.

    “Payment is moving into that and it’s understanding-people want convenience, everybody wants convenience and that is why we are challenging innovators, we are challenging everybody in the system to continually look for ways to release services on the USSD on the mobile phone because experience has shown that that is where the people prefer to really don their transactions.”

    He said one thing that needed to be admitted and agreed on is that no matter the means of payment chosen, there is always the risk of losing cash if care is not taken.

    “Even if you go by cash, the risk of losing money is always there if you don’t apply by the basic security principles. If I put my cash inside my purse and I don’t keep my purse well, pick-pockets will pick it.  So, for all these other new channels, including the mobile phone, it has its own risk but the beauty of it is that every customer, everyone that abides by the basic principles, would not lose money.

    “For instance, with the mobile phone payment, even if you steal my phone, to complete a payment process you need my PIN (personal identification number). So, I can’t lose money, if I don’t release my PIN except some fraudsters are just coming to trick me to give them my PIN because under the guise that they want to maintain my account. I should be intelligent and I should know that I shouldn’t release my PIN to anybody. Even if somebody calls me on the phone and says he’s my banker, I shouldn’t release my PIN, I would not. If you abide by all these things, you will not lose money. At NIBSS, we see exactly what is going on in the industry.

    “Check all over the world, Nigeria has one of the most secured payment platforms because we have many layers of protection. Apart from the PIN, we have protection on the network, on the application layer and then we now have the BVN (bank verification number). Even if somebody steals your money, the system is there for us to know who stole your money because you can’t do any transaction without your BVN. So people should be free to imbibe all these new payment systems,” Ajao said.

  • Mobile will boost Nigeria’s, others’ economies by $51b

    OVER the next five years, the mobile industry will boost the economies of Nigeria and  other West African  countries with $51 billion, the Global System for Mobile Communication Association (GSMA) has said.

    The group said the sub-region’s mobile ecosystem contributed $37 billion last year, equivalent to 6.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and will grow to $51 billion (7.7 per cent of GDP) within five years.

    According to a report titled: Mobile West Africa 2018 released by GSMA at the Mobile 360 – West Africa forum in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire at the weekend, the economic contribution over this period will be spurred by strong subscriber growth and the move to mobile broadband networks and services, the company says in a statement.

    GSMA Chief Regulatory Officer, John Giusti, said the report shows how important the mobile ecosystem is to the economy of the sub-region.

    He said: “Today’s report demonstrates the vital role West Africa’s mobile ecosystem is playing in driving economic growth and empowering citizens across the region, as well as in delivering against many of the targets of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. However, further work is required as more than half of West Africa’s citizens are not yet connected to a mobile service, excluding them from the socio-economic benefits that mobile delivers.”

    According to the report, written by GSMA Intelligence, at the end of last year, there were 176 million unique mobile subscribers across the West African sub-region, which comprises the 15 members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). This is equivalent to a penetration rate of 47 per cent of the region’s population, up from just 28 per cent at the start of the decade.

    The ECOWAS region comprises Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. Strong subscriber growth is forecast to continue over the coming years; 72 million additional mobile subscribers are expected to be added in West Africa by 2025, lifting subscriber penetration to 54 per cent.

    Much of this growth is attributable to the demographic situation across the region, as large youth populations are expected to take out mobile subscriptions as they reach adulthood.

    According to the report, more than 40 per cent of the population in many countries across sub-Saharan Africa is below 16.

    Meanwhile, the transition to mobile broadband in the sub-region is being driven by the expansion of 3G and 4G networks, lower data tariffs and the increasing affordability of smartphones. 3G networks cover two-thirds of the regional population and 4G adoption is also rising rapidly.

    The GSMA said as of last month, there were 29 live 4G long-term evolution (LTE) networks in nine countries across West Africa, six of which have launched in the last year, adding that 3G and 4G together accounted for 36 per cent of West African mobile connections in 2017 and are forecast to rise to 94 per cent of the total by 2025.

    Local operators are expected to spend $8 billion (capex) over the next two years building out and upgrading their networks.

  • Rack Centre emerges finalist in UK data centre awards

    Africa’s premium data centre, Rack Centre, has for the second year, been announced as a finalist in two categories in this year’s Data Centre Solutions (DCS) Awards in the United Kingdom (UK).

    The finalist categories are ‘Excellence in Data Centre Services Award’ and ‘Data Centre Hosting/co-location Supplier of the Year’.

    These are global recognition of Rack Centre’s leadership and innovation in the data centre industry and ground breaking local cloud hosting ecosystem known as CloundonGround.

    The DCS awards are designed to reward the product designers, manufacturers, suppliers and providers of data centre arena.

    Speaking on the feat, the Managing Director of Rack Centre, Ayotunde Coker, said: “It is great news that Rack Centre’s dedication to significantly raise the quality threshold for the African data centre industry and our innovation in the local cloud ecosystem through our cloudonground cloud exchange has been acknowledged by the data centre industry. We are delighted to have been recognised; reaching the finalist shortlist is a great achievement, and we now hope to be voted as winner in at least one of the categories, surpassing our unprecedented runners up last year which was a first for any data centre colocation and cloud company in Africa.”

    Voting has started and will close on May 11. Voting is open for all using a business email, address, but email domains, such as Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo are not accepted and will be annulled for voting.

  • Expert to Facebook users: Avoid data leakage on platform

    An IT expert, Mr Charles Douglas, says the safest and most efficient way of stopping Facebook and other social network sites from tracking ones browsing history is by installing DNT+ in the web browser.

    DNT+ or “Do Not Track Plus’’, is a free-of-charge browser extension for blocking trackers on the internet.

    Douglas, who works with Phoenix Hubs, gave the advice in an interview on Monday in Abuja.

    He gave a few tips on how to avoid losing Facebook information (contacts, messages and locations) to third party users in view of the recent Facebook data leakage of over 87 million users worldwide.

    The Founder of Facebook, Mr Mark Zuckberberg, who was interrogated by the U.S. Senate, admitted that the organisation needed to have a more secure platform to forestall further exposure of data to the public.

    Douglas said “DNT+, when installed as an extension of ones browser, can expand each section and see exactly which of these social sites have been blocked.

    “For example, when visiting CNN.com, you can use DNT+ to automatically block Facebook, twitter and more. If your main concern is blocking social networks and advertisers, DNT+ is a great way of doing that.

    “In order to stop sharing of your location information with third parties on Facebook, it is better to turn off your location history on the app,” he said.

    He said it was very vital to keep Facebook data private as it might be leaked out just like what happened recently on the platform, where data of over 50 million profiles were leaked to a consulting firm.

    Douglas said that when people voluntarily release their information to Facebook and install it onto your mobile phone device, “it has gone public.’’

    “When you install Facebook onto your mobile device, it automatically grants permissions across your mobile device to access your SMS, MMS, camera, microphone, location, and other data.

    “By installing the app, you have given Facebook permission to use any of these settings at any time. You can change these permissions,’’ he said.

    “Just the way your browsing activity is monitored by browsers like Google, Mozilla and social media; Twitter, Facebook also monitors this information and stores them in the form of cookies on their servers, which they in turn sell to advertisers  to have a targeted audience.’’

    Douglas noted that Facebook users could go to app settings on their Facebook account from their device, and clear all browsing data from websites you visited while using Facebook app.

     

  • PAYDAY LOAN: THE GIFT OF HOPE

    “What are we going to do?” Sola, his fiancé, asked. Edwin had no idea. But he felt a bit relieved in the evening when he was driving to her house – he imagined finally getting married and waking up to her beautiful face every day. He had to make her happy

    Before he got his first job, Edwin had always wanted to have a big wedding ceremony. He had hesitated for 3 years after getting a job, saving up for the right time but now that the time had come he felt like he had the weight of the world on his shoulder.

    Edwin and Sola had started planning six months ahead, ensuring they ticked everything off their long list of needs and wants and now it was just 2 weeks to the wedding. He had purchased a very expensive ring because he knew his wife deserved the best, and now he somehow managed to lose the ring. Edwin had searched every corner of his house for the ring, buy could not seem to remember where he hid it.

    Now everything was ready for the big day but no ring. It had been very hard breaking the news to Sola, but he had reassured her that he will purchase a make shift ring for the big day until he could afford a better ring, the only problem was – he had spent all the money in his account for the wedding preparation and was down to his last N3,000.

    In order to save the day, he needed N30,000 urgently for the ring he wanted. There was no hope of getting that money till he gets his next salary. He thought of calling his friend, Yakub for a loan till month end, but he knew it’s most likely he’s out of cash too.

    Edwin drifted back to reality and noticed there was so much traffic in town that evening.

    He watched a 10-second trailer for a movie on the LED advertising display and noticed how impressive, sophisticated and eye-catching these LED displays were.

    The next ad read:

    “I’m Low, I’m Red, I’m Rich, I’m Down, I’m Not Buoyant, Owu Na Sam, Ba Ku di, Owo Po Lowo Mi… However you say it, we understand, Dail *901*11# to get payday loan Now”.

    “There’s no harm in trying,” he thought to himself. He picked up his phone and dialed *901*11# and followed the prompt. In a matter of seconds he received a N30,000 credit alert on his phone, and he knew in his heart it was going to be a good evening.

    With joy in his heart, Edwin smiled as he turned the bend heading for a jewelry store.

  • 2018: Mobile consumers trends possible with 5G network – Ericsson

    In the next five years, mobile phone consumers behaviours with the use of their digital technology would improve beyond the use of ordinary voice.

    Consumers now want more of body interface that would impact through body gesture and more real-time interactions with their digital devices.

     

    A world leader in Communications technology and services, Ericsson, on Thursday, had made this known in Lagos.

    Ericsson Country Manager, Mr. Olivier Vandermoten, who spoke with newsmen on  “10 Hot Consumer Trends for 2018” and beyond said that there are new consumers trends discovered from a survey

    And these trends also include are what can be made possible with the continuous adoption of digital lifestyle and 5G network.

     

    According to Vandermoten, “The first trend is that two out of three persons think the use of technology will impact more through gestures and thereby make voice assistants to operate on human terms,” he said.

    The official said that the second trend had to do with augmented hearing.

    “It is an expectation that explains the consumer need for a wireless earphone that can translate languages in real time.

    “Sixty-three“ per cent of consumers will like earphones that translate languages in real time, while 52 per cent want to block out a family member’s snoring.

    “The third survey on “Eternal Newbies” shows that 30 per cent of new technologies makes it hard to keep stories up to date since there is too many information to contend with,” he said.

    Vandermoten said that other survey included those on social networking, uncanny communications, intelligent ads, robotic expressions, photo room, a street in the air and long-lasting batteries.

    According to him, “the fourth trend is that 42 per cent of consumers believe companies will use artificial intelligence to produce persuasive advertising.

    ”The fifth survey talks about the use of a more social media broadcasting against the traditional method of transmitting news content.

    “”The sixth trend is consumers want uncanny communications of the technology provider, which means more simplified technology languages,” he said.

    Vandermoten said that “ one out of five students and working-class people believed that robots would replace them in their jobs, while 40 per cent wanted more robotic contributions.

    “The eighth survey showed that consumers will prefer their photos in a room to relieve a virtual memory, bringing back old timeline.

    “The ninth survey says consumers want a solution to chaotic traffic congestion with preference to drones and flying cars,” the official said.

    “He said that the tenth trend was that more than 80 per  cent believed that in five years, there would have been long-lasting batteries to put an end to charging concerns.

    According to Vandermoten, all the consumer expectations can be met through the use of 5G network and political will from all parties concerned to bring them to reality.