Anchor, a banking-as-a-service platform joins Y Combinator’s Summer 2022 (S22) Batch, announces the launch of public beta

Anchor, a banking-as-a-service platform joins Y Combinator’s Summer 2022 (S22) Batch, announces the launch of public beta

Anchor (https://getAnchor.co/), a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform making it possible to seamlessly build financial products in Africa announces its public beta launch. The startup was also accepted into Y Combinator Summer 2022 Batch as the first African BaaS and embedded finance platform.

 

 

In recent years, there have been several reports about the size of the Africa financial inclusion opportunity (https://bit.ly/3pXguv2), particularly in reference to the provision of digital financial services.

 

These reports have brought about a spike in the number of companies and amount of investment activities in the fintech space in Africa. Yet, two things stand out; the minimal impact on financial inclusion, and the persisting difficulty in building and launching a fintech company on the continent.

 

For context, financial exclusion in Nigeria decreased by only one percent, from 37% in 2018 to 36% in 2020. Also, today, across Africa it takes an average of $500,000 and 18 months to build and go-to market with  financial products. This is because companies need to go through the hurdles of rigorous licensing and compliance processes, multiple integration layers, complex banking and third-party relationships, and invest in complicated core-banking infrastructure.

 

Anchor (https://getAnchor.co/) is launching its public beta API infrastructure to make it easier for African businesses to build, embed and launch financial products, starting in its first market, Nigeria.

 

Founded by Segun Adeyemi, ex-CEO of Amplifypay, Olamide Sobowale and Gbekeloluwa Olufotebi, Anchor provides API for offering accounts, money movement, savings and card products.

 

“We built Anchor to abstract away the complexities in building financial products, so businesses can get started in five minutes with a few lines of code”, says Anchor’s CEO, Segun Adeyemi.

We built Anchor to abstract away the complexities in building financial products, so businesses can get started in five minutes with a few lines of code

 

In May, Anchor released its private beta working with innovative start-ups like Outpost Health, Dillali, and Pivo. The BaaS platform has transacted millions, growing over 200% MoM, and is now set to launch its public beta (https://getAnchor.co/) for African businesses to embed finance into their offerings and for fintechs to build banking products. Already, the company has more than 40 other startups on its waitlist.

 

Anchor has raised over $1 million in pre-seed funding from Byld Ventures, Y Combinator, Luno Expeditions, Niche Capital, Mountain Peak Capital, and a host of angel investors including Emmanuel Okeleji (CEO, SeamlessHR), Ado Oseragbaje, Yinka Odeleye, and Sanmi Famuyide.

 

According to Ashutosh Desai, a Partner at Y Combinator, “Anchor’s embedded finance platform enables technology companies in Africa to build products that can rapidly expand access and improve quality of financial services. We’re excited to back Segun, Olamide, and Gbeke – a highly technical and experienced team – in building financial infrastructure that’s essential for Africa’s economic growth.”

 

“I believe BaaS will play a prominent role in the distribution of financial services in Africa. As a full stack baas provider, Anchor demarcates customer engagement from infrastructure – enabling its customers to focus on building differentiation as opposed to commodity infrastructure. We are really excited to be working with this determined and experienced team”, Founder of Byld Ventures, Youcef Oudjidane.

 

Anchor is a solution birthed by the insights garnered from the founders’ experience building and working with fintechs across Africa. The CEO, Segun Adeyemi founded Amplifypay; a payments company which he exited to Carbon (FKA OneFi/Paylater) in 2019. Segun proceeded to work with JUMO—a company that offers credit infrastructure to large mobile money operators across Africa.

 

Olamide, the CTO and co-founder, has worked at AppZone, TeamApt, Kuda, & Carbon. While at TeamApt he functioned as a Fullstack Engineer in the team that built the first virtual payments product in Nigeria. Gbeke, the Engineering Lead and co-founder, has been an IT Consultant and entrepreneur in Nigeria for over 10 years before joining Booking.com where he built financial operations software.

 

“We have seen first-hand the painful process of closing banking partnerships, negotiating third-party contracts, and obtaining regulatory approvals. And more generally, the extensive time and effort required to launch financial products,” Segun said.

 

He added that “considering the similarity in the underlying infrastructure, irrespective of the unique value propositions, companies should not have to wait for years and spend millions to go-to-market. That’s why we are excited to get Anchor into the hands of many more businesses via our public beta launch.”

Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) and MainData Nigeria Limited (MDXi), an Equinix Company, Sign Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to Launch Neutral Internet Exchange Services in Lagos, Nigeria

Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) and MainData Nigeria Limited (MDXi), an Equinix Company, Sign Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to Launch Neutral Internet Exchange Services in Lagos, Nigeria

AMS-IX (www.AMS-IX.net), one of the largest Internet Exchange operators in the world, and MainData Nigeria Limited (MDXi) (www.MDX-i.com), an Equinix (www.EQUINIX.com) company, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to operate and grow Internet Exchange services in Africa.

 

AMS-IX will be setting up an internet exchange at MDXi, the carrier-neutral Data Center of MainOne (www.MainOne.net) in Lagos Nigeria. MDXi will act as AMS-IX strategic partner and reseller for AMS-IX in West Africa.

Lagos is the ideal location to serve as a content hub for West and Central Africa as it is strategically located in a fast-developing region

This strategic partnership between AMS-IX and MDXi will deliver improved interconnection capabilities for existing and new customers on the exchange, further facilitating the distribution of content into the West African region. With this partnership, content delivery networks, application providers, and hosting companies will now be able to exchange internet traffic locally through the rich interconnected ecosystem of networks, large enterprises, and cloud service providers, and network operators available at MDXi.

International Partnership Director Onno Bos of AMS-IX: “Lagos is the ideal location to serve as a content hub for West and Central Africa as it is strategically located in a fast-developing region with landing sites for international subsea cables connecting Africa to EMEA and beyond. We’re thrilled to work with such a strong partner as MainOne to expand this vibrant connectivity community.”

Oluwasayo Oshadami, GM, Technical Solutions, MainOne, “We’re excited to work with AMS-IX. AMS-IX has over 25 years of experience building, operating and growing Internet Exchanges all over the world. This partnership is an important step in realizing our long-term strategy to become a leading carrier-neutral digital infrastructure company by bringing a full range of transformative technologies to Africa.”

MDXi and AMS-IX are committed to developing Lagos into a regional content hub that services users all over West and Central Africa. The partners intend to seek alliances to connect with local telecom operators and IX’s to help develop and support local ecosystems.

PalmPay Hits 10 Million User Milestone in Nigeria

PalmPay Hits 10 Million User Milestone in Nigeria

PalmPay (https://PalmPay.com/), a fintech innovator aiming to make digital payment more accessible and flexible, announced that it has reached 10 million users in Nigeria. This represents a doubling in its user base within just six months and puts its customer numbers in the same league as major institutions only 3 years after the company launched in the market.

 

The fintech, which operates under a Mobile Money Operator license from the Central Bank of Nigeria, has gained significant traction with its payment’s app and nationwide agency banking network. Its proposition of instant financial account creation, fee-free bank transfers and cashback rewards on airtime and bill payments has appealed to Millennial and Gen-Z consumers, who are looking for more affordable banking options and prefer the convenience of a digital-first service.

Nowadays PalmPay is processing millions of transactions a day. And around 20% of the company’s customer base report that the PalmPay app was their first financial account, demonstrating that the Mobile Money Operator is contributing to driving progress towards financial inclusion targets in Nigeria, where 36% of the population remains unbanked.

Nigerians without smartphones can visit one of PalmPay’s 200,000 mobile money agents across the country, who can transact on their behalf or issue an innovative QR card that can be used to hold a balance. Consumers can also use PalmPay agents to deposit cash to their PalmPay accounts and to withdraw money using their debit cards through PalmPay-branded POS machines.

“We are delighted to be able to celebrate this growth milestone and are proud of PalmPay’s track record of making cutting-edge financial services accessible to every Nigerian – including the unbanked.”, said Mr Chika Nwosu, Managing Director, PalmPay Nigeria, “The pandemic has accelerated the shift from cash to digital payments and we are looking forward to continuing to work together with regulators and our partners to innovate to meet the financial needs of consumers.”

“Our significant growth in Nigeria demonstrates PalmPay’s ability to innovate to meet the financial needs of consumers, and we are looking forward to replicating this success as we scale in more markets across Africa.” said Sofia Zab, PalmPay Global CMO.

FINTRAK EASES FINANCIAL REPORTING WITH AN ADVANCED SOFTWARE

FINTRAK EASES FINANCIAL REPORTING WITH AN ADVANCED SOFTWARE

 

 

Covid 19 pandemic last year made a lot of disruptions in the global financial space, Nigeria included. The technique companies report their operations, financial condition, and cash flows during this crisis and after will be a little bit altered or rejigged. Having this in mind, Fintrak Software Limited, an indigenous financial technology (fintech) company is bringing to the knowledge of financial players like banks, insurance, mortgage institutions and other key players in the ecosystem their product known as FINSTAT. An innovative solution designed to ease the burden of financial reporting for the key players in the industry.

The use of technology in the automation of financial reporting eases consolidation and preparation of full set of annual financial statements according to the international financial reporting standards (IFRS). FINSTAT reporting solution is designed to be bespoke and fluid, this means that it is built to the specification of clients that desire a robust financial reporting tool. The solution has been described to meet and exceeds standard IFRS system requirements, as it is in compliance with the recent IFRS 9 s standard

The FinTrak Enterprise Performance Management consolidates finance processes using technology to resolve challenges faced by businesses in relation to Data integrity, delayed reporting, Relationship management, Back Office operations and Support, Cost allocation, External domiciled accounts and Transfer pricing. This solution has made it possible for organizations such as banks, insurance and mortgage houses to successfully reduce risks, increase efficiency, decrease cost of operations and free resources for more value-adding activities by business units. The solution presents the report such as Management Performance Reporting Solution, which is an analytical tool created for organizations’ supervisory, examination, and management purposes in a summarizing format making it easier to understand.

Speaking on the importance of the solution, The Group Managing Director, Bimbo Abioye said “FinTrak Enterprise Performance Management solution is a valuable tool for the business to empower Management with the right information to make critical business decision and inherently deliver business value (Revenue and profitability, customer retention and acquisition, operational efficiency), resource productivity, and IT effectiveness. Profitability based measurement can serve as a more robust and inclusive means to measure the performance by gauging the extent of operational efficiency as well as capturing the nuances of an organization’s diversifying earnings through non-interest income activities and management of their costs. Profitability-oriented performance management is necessary, both to know what a business can do to affect profits and to benchmark the effect of any such moves.”

He added that; The solution monitors the performance of the whole Organization as well as Individuals, Teams, Branches, Business units, and further compares actual with budgets, to evaluate productivity and profitability based on key standard performance metrics. Our solution communicates with your core business application, spools and analyzes all the required data, so you can have a holistic presentation of your business performance in one Executive dashboard. You are empowered with the ability to render full MPR reports on daily basis as the month progresses. The system presents a Multi-dimensional view of performance across Teams, Branch, Products and Individual’s income and Balance sheet statements. and also, all reports respond to changes in reporting lines, both current and past performance.

Having deployed in many countries of Africa such as Gambia, Ghana, Congo etc, the Fintech giant incorporated English and French in the solution making is easily untestable to French and English-speaking countries.  Loaded with features such as flexibility, the solution can handle complex transfer pricing based on your organization’s policy. The solution can also be customized to suit your unique business needs and sector. For executive on the go, the software has mobile versions that can be easily deployed in mobile devices. Other features such as Single and Multiple rate pool pricing, Risk based multiple pool pricing, Penal charges based on policy violations, Ability to handle relationship management tree, Cost breakdown showing details and sources of costs at all levels. With these features, the software has the ability to reduce significantly or remove human errors associated with reporting and at a reduced cost for the organizations

“Our software has the ability to empower users to control cost elements without sacrificing revenue. The ability to see how cost elements like depreciation, OPEX, CAPEX, Human Resource impact and can improve revenue potentials. Key users are able to understand what drives cost and value within their business segment. FinTrak Software will set up bespoke reports peculiar to the business to track profitability and performance of their Business Units and Segments. The system can extract codes from transaction description to allocate the expenses, drill down details available on all reporting lines both income and balance sheet items on click and get basis”, Ladi Ipaye, Executive Director, Business Development and Marketing Strategy concluded.

 

ANTHONY EMEKA NWOSU

The solution monitors the performance of the whole Organization as well as Individuals, Teams, Branches, Business units, and further compares actual with budgets, to evaluate productivity and profitability based on key standard performance metrics. Our solution communicates with your core business application, spools and analyzes all the required data, so you can have a holistic presentation of your business performance in one Executive dashboard. You are empowered with the ability to render full MPR reports on daily basis as the month progresses. The system presents a Multi-dimensional view of performance across Teams, Branch, Products and Individual’s income and Balance sheet statements. and also, all reports respond to changes in reporting lines, both current and past performance.

 

HARNIX TECH BRINGS INNOVATIVE WEB AND ONLINE SOLUTIONS TO NIGERIAN SMEs

HARNIX TECH BRINGS INNOVATIVE WEB AND ONLINE SOLUTIONS TO NIGERIAN SMEs

 

 

In a very competitive business world today, Nigeria inclusive. The need for brands to be constantly present in the eyes of customers and prospective buyers becomes very important for any business. The importance of online presence has been described as the new way to drive revenue and profit for any organisation. Unfortunately for many Nigerian businesses especially those in the Small and Medium, Enterprises known as the SMEs have refused to understand the critical importance of internet and the immense value it has to every business with less than ten percent of SMEs having a functional website in Nigeria. Harnix Tech, an indigenous web development and online presence firm located in Lagos talks about the need for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to invest in online presence,

Speaking to the media on the importance of digital marketing and virtual presence for Nigerian firms, Harrison Okafor, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Harnix Tech Limited said, “Firstly, I would say we need to educate small business owners on why it is very important to have their business online. The reason I am saying this is because, we have dealt with clients who are clueless about the digital space, and when we present them with results of how their website was performing, they simply don’t get it. We have to break it down, so that they could truly understand what we are doing and what the next step is, when it comes to positioning their brand online.”

He added that “Secondly, I will say making use of affordable resources. I say affordable because, we are talking about SMEs here, if they find the price of a website too expensive, then what happens when we start pitching SEO to them? They would take to their hills, because SEO is very costly. SEO costs ranges from 100k – 300k monthly, and an SEO campaign could take up to 6 months or more. You don’t want to pitch SEO to an SME brand, rather you want to draft out affordable marketing strategies, which they can use to scale their business.”

On the jobs that they have executed and their go-to-market approach, Harrison opined that” At Harnix Tech, one of the things, we do is create and optimize our clients Google MyBusiness account, one of our clients, Parkview Astoria Hotel is on their top game, when it comes to ranking on Google MyBusiness, when you search for keywords like luxurious hotels in Ikoyi, 4 star hotels in Ikoyi, or hotels in Ikoyi, Parkview Hotel is with in position 1 or 2. This has helped their business generate over a million in 4-5 months. So, when dealing with SMEs, think of Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Influential Marketing, Google MyBusiness or Apple Map listing. Then once they start generating that revenue, they would have more confident in the online business, and then you could pitch SEO to them.”

On the Nigerian SMEs attitude to online presence, the tech guru said “Now when we look at the analysis of how many small businesses there are, you will notice there are over 80% small businesses and more are still going to come up. Now if we decide to check the rate of how many small businesses own a website, they are very few. We could say around 5-8%. But again, sometimes it is not about the price, it’s actually about small business owners lacking knowledge about the digital space and how the digital space could help scale their business. Businesses that do not key into the vast opportunities that internet offer is basically missing it big time.”

He said that At Harnix Tech, we make use of Influencial Marketing, social media, SEO, and Content Marketing currently. Now when it comes to Influencial Marketing, it has helped our brand generate visibility in the online space. While social media has helped us communicate more with our audience, our posts, our designs, everything communicates and we have used that to generate revenues for the brand. Content Marketing helps us build trust with our clients and create a bonding relationship with them, one of the things we do at Harnix Tech is study our client’s industry, and provide our clients information that can help them scale and stand a chance to compete in that industry. SEO has helped us generate online traffic and even sales for the brand. We are currently looking at using a new strategy, which involves turning our customers to our ambassadors, and creating a referral system.

Harnix Tech is a creative digital agency, located in Lagos. They are a team of IT professionals combining the knowledge of our skills to provide outstanding digital solutions to our business clients. With a team of professional graphic designers, web developers, content writers, marketers and IT specialists.

 

Tranos Opens the Largest Cable Management system and Gasket Manufacturing Facility in Nigeria

Tranos Opens the Largest Cable Management system and Gasket Manufacturing Facility in Nigeria

Tranos, an indigenous engineering, and manufacturing company with a focus on providing innovative solutions that add value to lives established about 14 years ago and located in the industrial hub of Ogba, Ikeja has recently announced the addition of new product lines in the year 2021. With the opening of their cable manufacturing facility in the country, touted as one of the largest in the country and being one of the foremost firms in the country locally producing Gaskets to serve the needs of various sectors within and outside the country.

Speaking to the media, the Managing Director of Tranos Nigeria Limited, Jude Abalaka said “As an organization, we are essentially an engineering and technology-driven company. Our focus is primarily on using our products and services to influence and make lives better.
We have solutions for various sectors that span through the Oil and Gas, Telecommunications, Information Technology, Real Estate, Power & Energy sectors, etc.”

“Through, our numerous design and fabrication processes we have set a world-class standard in safety, quality, and efficiency. As a highly innovative company, our services include the manufacturing of high-quality products in power generation, energy distribution, control, and automation as well as manufacturing of enclosures.”

On the strides, the organization has made in 2021 and how they have been able to adapt and align with the pandemic-induced economic realities, the Managing Director added that “on the strides that we have made this year; we launched our production facility. As of today, we have the largest cable manufacturing facility in Nigeria and possibly in West Africa. What this means is that products that people struggle to import into the country, we have the capacity to manufacture. In addition to the cable management systems, we also manufacture gaskets for various industries, and this is a landmark achievement because we are the only company doing this in Nigeria. Even though the pandemic has slowed things down, we have been able to maintain our consistency and conclude on projects that we have started pre-pandemic. We strongly believe in improvement; we always have something that we are doing to improve either through partnerships or introducing new products and services.”

On the expansion and diversification to other countries, Tranos made it known to the media that they are yet to consider having a physical presence in other African countries but admitted that they have clients in other countries, and they have been exporting to these countries and will consider setting up a physical plant when the times comes, the organization reiterated that they are very open to any form of partnership.

“We do not have plants in other West African countries for now, but we have active customers who are constantly ordering products from there. Whether we might set up a physical facility there or not is a decision we are yet to make but our goal is to ensure that we have customers spread around Africa”.

Tranos has a hybrid power solution that has been developed especially for the telecom base stations. ”We have been in that industry for many years. We have a generator system that works with solar power and diesel. We integrated this technology where if there is enough sunlight, there is no need to have the generator run on diesel but if there isn’t, then the generator switches automatically to diesel”.

”We also came up with a solution that runs on gas, not on diesel. The advantage of this generator is that it doesn’t run on natural gas because there is no need to start building gas pipelines to all base stations. We do not use compressed natural gas (CNG) we developed a generator that runs on cooking gas (LPG)”.

Speaking on the various innovative power solutions that Tranos offer to the Telecoms industry since its inception, The Managing Director of Tranos said ”we have been actively proffering innovative solutions for various industries in the past 14 years, we have over the years partnered with world-class firms to bring globally acknowledged products into the country”

With the production of superior enclosures in Nigeria, Tranos has serviced clients like Schnieder, Biswal, Cummins, Shell BP, Chevron, Total and so many others. Tranos has undertaken many projects such as the design and fabrication of 48 inches pipe repair clamp for Hydrodive and Shell BP

Tranos Limited has designed Warehouse racks for MTN Nigeria, fire water remediation design projects for Chevron, and other projects across the country. These projects are a testament to Tranos’ capability to deliver world-class solutions in the various sectors across the country and beyond.

CHRIST EMBASSY’S PARALLEX MICRO-FINANCE BANK TRANSFORMS TO FULL BLOWN COMMERCIAL BANK

CHRIST EMBASSY’S PARALLEX MICRO-FINANCE BANK TRANSFORMS TO FULL BLOWN COMMERCIAL BANK

The latest entrant into the commercial banking industry in Nigeria, Parallex Bank has officially launched on Friday, January 14, 2022, with the promise to redefine the banking landscape in Nigeria and Africa at large. According to Church Gist sources, the bank launch was graced by several dignitaries from both the private and public sector. Also in attendance were several celebrities who witnessed the unveiling of the bank’s logo.

Introducing the bank to the gathering at the bank’s headquarters in Victoria Island Lagos, the chairman of the bank, Dr. Pastor Adeola Phillips, CEO of Loveworld Nation said Parallex Bank is here to make a unique statement about what innovation can do in an industry that is constantly reinventing. She further stated that the bank will operate broadly with a competitive mindset, to disrupt the market and delight customers with very attractive offers. The goal is to empower the banking public and to drive convenient and efficient commerce through the bank digital platforms.

She added that the Parallex mobile app offers customers the freedom to do much more. The app will eliminate inconveniencies and hardships often faced by customers while carrying out transactions.

Corroborating the Chairman’s claims, the Managing Director of Parallex Bank, Mr. Olufemi Bakre, popularly known as Mayor, said the bank’s promise to its customers is to be an enabler of limitless banking. He established that Parallex Bank is the first bank in Nigeria to migrate from a microfinance bank to a commercial bank. He is convinced that Parallex Bank limited will achieve more as the bank partners with customers to explore more business opportunities.


Mr Olufemi said the vision of Parallex Bank is to be the preferred financial solution provider redefining customer experience through innovation. He assured customers of excellent banking products and services stating that the bank offerings are designed to address the yearnings of Nigerians. With a strong ecosystem anchored around the customer, Mr Femi informed the guests that the bank has a robust product portfolio that is customer focused, innovative and simple.


According to him, the Parallex mobile app has unique features and benefits that are quite rare in this market. On the app, customers can choose to create their unique account numbers, increase their transfer limits, make five free transfers per day to any bank in Nigeria. They can request for free debit cards, which will be delivered to them for free. They will receive prompt responses to enquiries.
Beyond the app, Mayor added that customers will enjoy zero maintenance fees while current account holders will further enjoy up to 5% interest rate provided, they maintain a minimum average balance of N100,000 ($200).

The bank which began as a micro-finance bank is now a full blown commercial bank.

Sunday Ọbasi

Facebook announces its New Office in Lagos, Nigeria

Facebook announces its New Office in Lagos, Nigeria
Aimed at supporting the entire Sub-Saharan Africa region, the office is expected to become operational in H2 2021
As part of its continued commitment and ongoing investment in Africa, Facebook (www.Facebook.com) today announced it will be opening an office in Lagos, Nigeria – its second office on the African continent. Aimed at supporting the entire Sub-Saharan Africa region, the office is expected to become operational in H2 2021 and will be the first on the continent to house a team of expert engineers building for the future of Africa and beyond.

Facebook’s office will be home to various teams servicing the continent from across the business, including Sales, Partnerships, Policy, Communications as well as Engineers.

Commenting, Ime Archibong, Facebook’s Head of New Product Experimentation said: “The opening of our new office in Lagos, Nigeria presents new and exciting opportunities in digital innovations to be developed from the continent and taken to the rest of the world. All across Africa we’re seeing immense talent in the tech ecosystem, and I’m proud that with the upcoming opening of our new office, we’ll be building products for the future of Africa, and the rest of the world, with Africans at the helm. We look forward to contributing further to the African tech ecosystem.”

The investment of the new Facebook office follows the 2018 opening of NG_Hub, its first flagship community hub space in Africa in partnership with CcHub, and the 2019 opening of a Small Business Group (SBG) Operations Centre in Lagos, in partnership with Teleperformance. Providing outsourced support to all English-speaking advertisers across Sub-Saharan Africa, the SBG office supports Small Medium Businesses (SMBs) through its Advocacy, Community & Education (ACE) programme, as well as its Marketing Expert sales programmes – all aimed at enabling SMBs to accelerate the growth and development of their businesses.

“Our new office in Nigeria presents an important milestone which further reinforces our ongoing commitment to the region”, commented Kojo Boakye, Facebook’s Director of Public Policy, Africa. “Our mission in Africa is no different to elsewhere in the world – to build community and bring the world closer together, and I’m excited about the possibilities that this will create, not just in Nigeria, but across Africa.”

Since the opening of its first office in 2015, Facebook has made a number of investments across the continent, aimed at supporting and growing the tech ecosystem, expanding and providing reliable connectivity infrastructures and helping businesses to grow locally, regionally and globally. This includes the recent rollout of its SMB Grants programme in Nigeria and South Africa, aimed at supporting over 900 businesses by providing a combination of cash and ad credits to help small businesses as they rebuild from COVID. The development of 2Africa, the world’s largest subsea cable project that will deliver much needed internet capacity and reliability across large parts of Africa, as well as its ongoing training programmes across the continent which support various communities including students, SMBs, digital creatives, female entrepreneurs, start-up’s and developers.​

Nunu Ntshingila, Regional Director, Facebook Africa,said: “We’re delighted to be announcing our new office in Nigeria. Five years on from opening our first office on the continent in Johannesburg, South Africa, we’re continuing to invest in and support local talent, as well as the various communities that use our platforms. The office in Lagos will also be key in helping to expand how we service our clients across the continent.”Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Facebook.

OBINNA APPOINTED BY RWANDA TO PILOT THE BANK OF KIGALI’S FINTECH DEVELOPMENT

OBINNA APPOINTED BY RWANDA TO PILOT THE BANK OF KIGALI’S FINTECH DEVELOPMENT

Rwanda, one of the major Sub Saharan Africa’s reference point and a country that has demonstrated that it can rise out war seamlessly and building a resilient economy appoints a Nigerian , Obinna Ukwuani to pilot critical portfolio in their apex bank, Bank of Kigali. A testament of a nation putting square pegs in square holes which is rare in sub Saharan African nations riddled with tribalism and nepotism. No wonder Rwanda is making tremendous strides more than nations that have access to sea.

Obinna Ukwuani’s appointments would be the Chief Digital Officer of the Bank of Kigali. According to the announcement, he is replacing Regis Rugemanshuro at the new role.

This can be described as the Digital Factory division for product innovation and development in digital banking at the country’s apex bank. A core financial technology (fintech) space he would be in charge of churning and developing world class digital products and also upgrading their digital wallet called Ikofi.

Through Ikofi, the Bank of Kigali offers financial services that farmers, agro-dealers, Agri-businesses and other stakeholders in the country’s agricultural space and Obinna would be making (in)direct impacts on these sets of people and also deepening the good security of the Central African Nation.

With a degree in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and fantastic interest in Robotics. Obi is the founder of Exposure Robotics Academy where STEM programs were taught to secondary school pupils.

Anthony Emeka Nwosu

EFCC Docks Woman For Alleged N2.7m Oil Fraud

EFCC Docks Woman For Alleged N2.7m Oil Fraud

The Lagos Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday, July 29, 2020 arraigned a suspected fraudster, Ikujemisi Modupe Naomi before Justice Sherifat Solebo of the Special Offences Court, Ikeja, Lagos on two-count charges of obtaining by false pretence to the tune of N2, 790,000.00( Two Million, Seven Hundred and Ninety Thousand Naira only).
The sum is the value of 18,000 litres of Automotive Gas Oil (diesel), she fraudulently obtained from her victim, Miss Faith Meribe.

One of the charge read, “That you, Ikujemisi Modupe Naomi, sometime in 2017 in Lagos, within the Ikeja judicial division, by false pretence and with intent to defraud, induced Miss Faith Meribe of Merit Integrated Service to confer a benefit of 18,000 litres of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) valued at N2,790. 000. 00 (Two Million, Seven Hundred and Ninety Thousand Naira) on you by permitting the 18,000 litres of Automotive Gas Oil to be delivered to you on the understanding that the Automotive Gas Oil would be paid for, which pretext you knew to be false and committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1)(b)(2) and (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act No. 14 of 2006.”

She pleaded not guilty to the charges upon which
prosecution counsel, Chikezie Edozie, prayed the court for a trial date and for the defendant to be remanded in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service, NSC.

The defence counsel, however, informed the court of her client’s pending bail application and sought a short adjournment date.

Justice Solebo ordered for her remand in the custody of the EFCC and adjourned the matter to August 4,2020 for hearing of bail application.

EFCC