By Collins Nweze

Wema Bank Plc has partnered Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board; LASUBEB to fund education for out-of-school children. The initiative which is tagged Project Zero was launched on November 19.

Project Zero is a multi-partner initiative to tackle and cater to out of school children. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, various sectors of the economy have been severely affected and this has led to loss of income and livelihood to numerous parents and guardians of a lot of these children/wards. The initiative aims to provide starter kits to encourage out of school children to get back to school and resume academic activities.

Speaking during the programme, Mr Wole Ajimisinmi, Executive Director, Lagos Bank , Wema Bank; expressed his delight at the initiative, he said; “The Project Zero initiative is in line with one of our Corporate Social Investments (CSI) Pillars; Education.  Undoubtedly, COVID-19 has further widened the gap of the number of Out of School Children in Lagos State. Wema Bank is proud to be associated with this initiative as we believe in the LASUBEB mantra that no child should be left behind.

Hon Sijuade Idowu- Tiamiyu, Board member, Social Mobilisation department, LASUBEB, also expressed her appreciation to all the sponsors, ‘I salute the commitment and good-intent of all stakeholders in the birth of this project and I am confident that together, we can solve the social menace of child illiteracy and put our dear children in Lagos state who are for various reasons despite continuous counter-efforts by the government out-of-school back to school.

She further stated, “I commend every private institution that is with us on this journey and assure that every contribution will be used towards reducing the growing number of our children cheated by social, cultural or economic factors out of school”.

Our Reporter

The Cross River Internal Revenue Service (CRIRS) has won a landmark case instituted against it by Union Bank Plc before the Tax Appeal Tribunal (South South zone) sitting in Benin.

The Tribunal had ruled on November 11th 2020, that the relevant tax authority can request any information it deems fit from a tax payer, and it is not tax player’s place to determine which information is relevant or not.

The Tribunal therefore ruled that the appellant (Union Bank Plc) should pay CRIRS the total sum of N56.672,908.72 (fifty six million, six hundred and seventy two thousand, nine hundred and eighty naira, twenty seven kobo only) as outstanding withholding tax on interest expenses, penalty and interest thereon.

By virtue of relevant provisions of PITA, 2011 (as amended) a tax payer cannot withhold any requested information from the tax authority on the grounds of confidentiality.

Read Also: Maritime: Fed Govt mulls tax holiday

The Appeal Tribunal therefore upheld the additional assessment Notice of Witholding Tax on interest payment served by the Cross River Internal Revenue Service on Union Bank Plc.

Union Bank PLC had on November 4th 2019, filed an appeal before the tribunal, contending among other things, that the assessment is excessive and arbitrary, and that it is ultra vires the powers of the tax authority to demand records and documents, including the nationwide data of the appellants’ customers not within the tax jurisdiction.

In upholding the respondent’s assessment notice, the tribunal held that the law in section 46, 47, 49, 55, and 58 of the Personal Income Tax Act (PITA) (as amended) does not limit the tax authority to call for any particular kind of information, but such documents and information as the relevant tax authority may seem necessary.

The tribunal further held that it is not in the place of the appellant to determine for the tax authority which information is relevant or not unless such demands conflict with statutory rights of the tax payer of the extant provision of the law.

The tribunal also held that the law has mandated tax payers to release information on request by the tax authority and that the tax authority is empowered to call for information as often as possible.

By Collins Nweze

Ingressive For Good, a non-profit organisation dedicated to creating and increasing the earning power of African youth through tech training and resources, has awarded scholarships to undergraduates in two Nigerian universities, providing tuition for the excellent students who met the initiative’s need-based criteria.

The Ingressive for  Good (I4G) Microscholarship programme was established to help students in African tertiary institutions, pursuing computer science and tech degrees excel in technology, become leaders in the field, and successfully complete their academic tenure.

The scholarship seeks to develop youth leaders in technology who are ready to put their learned skills to work in leading organisations, communities, and their local countries. The scholarship grants students the opportunity to complete their education at the ivy-leagues of Africa.

According to Sean Burrowes, the COO of Ingressive For Good “This scholarship pays homage to the ability of Covenant University and Babcock University to develop the technical talent currently at the forefront of Nigeria’s leading indigenous tech companies. We look forward to supporting more universities and expanding our scholarships as a part of our five-year strategy.”

Applauding the company, the President of the Covenant University Alumni, Kemi Onabanjo said, “This scholarship contribution has helped fulfill the dreams of some of our students. We hope to find more collaboration opportunities in the future.”

The Ingressive for Good (I4G) Microscholarship program was established to help students in African tertiary institutions, pursuing computer science and tech degrees excel in technology, become leaders in the field, and successfully complete their academic tenure. As a part of its limited launch, I4G is providing one tuition scholarship along with a laptop for those who are chosen.

In a message to Ingressive For Good, the President and Vice-Chancellor of Babcock University said, “I wish to thank you for this scholarship provision for a deserving student. No doubt, this commendable gesture will encourage excellence.”

Through its activities and investment, Ingressive For Good also intends to drive resources to those with the highest impact potential, strengthen the overall African technical talent development pipeline, and support the monetization of technical skill sets that create local and global opportunities.

The beneficiaries of this year’s scholarships are Orunja Abidemi (Covenant University) and Ebunoluwa Enoch (Babcock University). The I4G micro-scholarship award is planned to be an annual event to fund the tertiary education of brilliant but indigent students of tech courses. Find out more about I4G initiatives here and join the I4G Network to access more opportunities.

By Collins Nweze

Flutterwave, Africa’s fast-rising payments technology company has announced the launch of its payment protection promise, a new policy that protects customers when shopping online and dealing with merchants on its payment platform.

The policy acts as a money-back guarantee to shoppers when an item or service purchased does not arrive, is faulty, damaged on arrival or does not match the item that was listed. The new policy is part of the company’s attempt to alleviate the fears of online shoppers and boost their confidence and sense of security when using Flutterwave’s payment solutions.

The Payment Protection Promise is primarily meant to further strengthen the growing online shopping culture in Africa and displace the scepticism often associated with patronising e-commerce businesses. The policy is being kickstarted in Nigeria and covers only Nigerian transactions with a transaction value starting from N 10,000 and below.

Flutterwave’s Founder & CEO, Olugbenga GB Agboola, while commenting on the new policy, stated that “The goal of the Flutterwave Payments Protection Promise is to ensure that all who shop online and pay with Flutterwave are confident that they can shop safely and get value for their money. We understand that with the rising online shopping culture in Africa, there are bound to be issues of lack of trust in online businesses and we are using this policy to close that gap.

“When anyone sees the Flutterwave logo while shopping online, we want them to feel safe and confident knowing that they are covered. This policy is also beneficial to our merchants as it will boost patronage and sales due to increased customer confidence and assurance of value” he added.

Under the Flutterwave Payments Protection Promise, merchants can file counterclaims when wrongly accused. However, merchants found to be repeatedly fraudulent will be delisted from Flutterwave’s payment platforms.

The company has highlighted various means through which customers can dispute a transaction, they can either self-serve through the Flutterwave dispute page or make use of Flutterwave’s support channels via email, the live chat on the Flutterwave website, or  or their social media platforms.

By Collins Nweze

Access Bank Plc has trained 50 womenprenuers across Africa under  its Womenpreneur pitch-a-ton Africa initiative.

The  bank, which graduated 50 women entrepreneurs across Africa, said the participants were put through a mini Masters in Business Administration (MBA) programme by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group.

During the capacity building,  five womenprenuers were rewarded with cash prizes. RUGSAL Trading, from Sierra Leon came first in with N5 million reward, Babet Agro Enterprise, from Ghana won N2 million while  Readland , a subsidiary of EMIANCIS from Nigeria,  won N1 million.

Others are NICNAX Company Limited which came fourth position and won N750,000 and  eCOBbA Africa Limited, from Zambia won  N500,000.

Launched in 2019, the Womenpreneur pitch-a-ton Africa was the first women-in-business support initiative of its kind in the industry offered by the Access Bank W Initiative.

The programme, in its second edition, had over 40,000 applications which were later pruned down to 50 participants who took part in the free mini Masters in Business Administration (MBA) certification programme.

The Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton Africa 2020 campaign was designed to provide female owned businesses across Africa an opportunity to access to finance and world-class business trainings as well as mentoring opportunities. This programme has been designed to create an enabling environment for female entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.

This year’s programme was extended to six other African countries where Access Bank’s W Initiative has its presence. These countries are Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, Zambia, Sierra Leone and Gambia.

Mr Victor Etuokwu, Executive Director, Retail Banking, Access Bank, while speaking at the virtual event, said the Access Bank has been inspiring women since 2006 and that the Womenpreneur-pitch-a- ton Africa is a demonstration of how highly placed the bank sees women, especially, women in business.

“We created the W Initiative to drive the course of women and the Womenpreneur-pitch-a- ton Africa is a brainchild of the W Initiative. I need to stress here that we saw great qualities in all the 50 participants in this year’s programme and i want to say that they are rare women. We are happy to assist them and we are very sure that they will impact the business world positively”, Etuokwu said.